We come to the last week of the season, and the Twins have officially been eliminated from playoff contention and will not be able to finish the season with a winning record. On the bright side, Walker Jenkins figured out major league pitching! The Twins wrap up the season with a series in San Francisco and finish at home against the Rangers. If you want something to root for, the Twins are tied for third with the Tigers, so maybe we can root for being right in the middle of the division.
The Past Week on Twinkie Town:
- Check out The Feed, where you can add your discussions about the Twins!
- We’re starting a new segment called Daily Questions! Provide your opinion on the Twins and debate with the community!
- Game threads and recaps are back! Commiserate with your fellow fans as we experience the season together.
- While this season has (maybe) not gone as expected, at least we’re not the 2016 team, as Zach Koenig reminds us.
- We’ve seen one week of Emmanuel Rodriguez, and Aidan O’Brien writes about why he has the makings of a star.
Elsewhere in Twins Territory:
- It’s been an up-and-down year for Bailey Ober, but Bobby Nightengale at the Star Tribune looks at whether there’s still a place for a sub-90 pitcher in today’s MLB.
- Aaron Gleeman analyzes five breakout prospects from the 2026 season.
- Matthew Taylor at Twins Daily dives into two bullpen arms, Cole Sands and Kody Funderburk, and their prospects for 2027.
- Aaron Sabato will finally have an opportunity to play in the majors after getting promoted for the final week of the season.
In the World of Baseball:
- The Yankees and the Red Sox joined the Rays as teams to clinch their spot in the playoffs. Due to a quirk in MLB playoff format, only one of these teams is going to make it to the ALCS. The Rays have not exactly clinched the #1 spot in the AL, but with seven games left in the season, they only need to win two of those games to finish in the top spot. The Guardians and White Sox are battling it out for the AL Central lead, after another classic September charge from the Guardians to go from a distant second in the division to now having the lead. However, neither team has clinched a playoff spot, as the Blue Jays, Astros, and Orioles still have an outside chance for the final wild-card spot. In the AL West, the Rangers hold a slim 1.0-game lead over the Astros, so it’s still anyone’s game there.
- In the NL, the Dodgers and Braves have joined the Brewers as division champs, while the Cubs, Padres, and Phillies are all virtual locks to make it to the wild card round. Only the Diamondbacks can take a spot, but it’s going to be tough, as they are four games behind the Phillies for the last spot.
- Boston started out the season 10-17, with the playoffs a distant hope. Tim Keown at ESPN looks at how the team pulled itself together and could potentially finish with the third-best record in the American League.
- While it might seem that the season is all but over, Brent Maguire at MLB.com looks at the top nine things at stake in the final week.
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