TwinsCentric: What will Twins' identity be going forward?

On Friday, the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals will kick off the American League Championship Series. Both teams had successful seasons and have had extremely successful postseasons thus far.

They've reached a stage that the Twins, obviously, would like to return to, so it makes sense to examine these two clubs for inspiration as the rebuild pushes onward.

You can draw some similarities between the Orioles and Royals, but in many ways they are polar opposites.

Baltimore is built around power. They led the majors with 211 homers and ranked last with 44 steals. Not one player on the O's roster swiped more than eight bases this season. This is a plodding, station-to-station club whose strategy is very much built around producing runs with base-clearing hits and homers.

Conversely, the Royals are all speed and no power. They ranked last in the majors in home runs (95) but first in steals (153). They barely sneaked into the playoffs but were able to shockingly sweep a 98-win Angels team with a small-ball offensive attack characterized by aggressive base-running and lots (I mean LOTS) of sacrifice bunting.

I have little doubt that the Twins, at least under Ron Gardenhire, would have very much aspired to tailor themselves after the Royals. That's a brand of baseball that this organization has constantly held up as the golden standard over the years. However, when you look at the composition of this roster -- and the way it figures to evolve going forward -- there's no denying that the Twins are much more likely to assume Baltimore's profile.

By the end of next season, the middle of Minnesota's lineup will likely be anchored by Oswaldo Arcia, Kennys Vargas and Miguel Sano -- slow-footed sluggers. Elsewhere you've got guys like Joe Mauer, Kurt Suzuki and Trevor Plouffe, who also aren't threats with their legs.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing.

On the pitching side, there's good news. Neither the Orioles nor Royals have particularly strikeout-heavy staffs. Baltimore ranked 10th in the AL in K/9 rate this year, and Kansas City ranked 12th. The Twins, of course, ranked last with a miserable 6.5 K/9 rate, but the ground they need to make up to reach that level is obviously much smaller than the top tier.

Therein lies the rub. The key that allowed these staffs to excel without tons of strikeouts is found in one one clear commonality between the two teams: outstanding defense. Baltimore has several high-end fielders and KC has been hailed by some as the best defensive unit to come along in years.

Here's where the Twins are far, far behind. The path to returning to defensive excellence -- a longtime philosophical foundation and clearly a critical component in succeeding as a team -- is murky. As I wrote a month ago, the presence of so many slow power-hitters within the offensive core makes it highly difficult to field a defense with great speed and range.

To me, this overarching paradox represents the greatest roadblock in a return to contention. The Twins have the offensive pieces to score runs -- albeit more in Baltimore's style than Kansas City's -- but can they create a dynamic with their pitching staff and defense that allows them to prevent scoring in the same way as the Orioles (third-fewest runs allowed in AL) and Royals (fourth-fewest)?