An unexpectedly abrupt end to the 2020 season on Wednesday led to a sleepless night for Derek Falvey. The Twins' president of baseball operations believed his roster was built for a lengthier playoff run.
And he anticipates more sleepless nights to come as he and the rest of the organization try to identify how a club that was one of five to win at least 36 games during the regular season could fail to get out of the first round of the American League playoffs — and look so feeble at the plate while doing so.
"Candidly, as I was driving in this morning thinking about it a little bit, I didn't expect to be having this conversation today," Falvey said a day after the Twins' 18th consecutive playoff loss. "No one did. It hit us pretty hard yesterday. There was a lot of emotion around it."
There will be reflection, discussions and deep dives into data over the coming weeks as the Twins develop a plan of attack for 2021. But one thing Falvey indicated was that a remodeling of the offense is quite possible.
R.I.P., Bomba Squad?
"Yes, we scored a lot of runs by home run," Falvey said. "We have that as a tool on this team, but I feel like our guys … hitting with runners in scoring position and things like that, before we got to the playoffs certainly it didn't go well the last couple of days. But we had a pretty good run at that this year, the overall performance. I think our guys have found ways to adapt there.
"But it's something we're thinking about, definitely over the last couple of days, that we have been power-reliant. There are other teams who are power-reliant and winning as well in the playoffs. We just need to think through what didn't allow us to get things going as best we could over the last couple days."
Falvey gave credit to the Houston Astros, who beat the Twins twice at Target Field in the best-of-three wild-card series, for scouting hitters well and attacking their weaknesses. But the warning signs about the lack of a consistent offense were there for weeks. Injuries definitely played a role, as the Twins had their best lineup together only twice in 60 games. But the results speak for themselves. Of the Twins' 91 home runs, 62 were solo shots, or 68%. The league average was 58%.