Can Minnesota Continue Dominant Play Against Yankees?

The New York Yankees will travel to Minnesota during the week to take on the Twins in a three-game series. The Yankees are one of the best teams in baseball, holding a 27-15 record. However, the Twins aren’t far behind; they’re 24-16 on the season.

The Twins can move up the MLB power rankings and standings with a series win against New York. That said, it won’t be easy.

In Game 1 of the series, the Yankees are already favorites on the road, sitting at -136. Meanwhile, the total is at 8.5, but the Under has been juiced to -125.

We’ve got a lot to cover for this three-game series. Therefore, we’ll get right to our Yankees vs Twins preview.

How Can The Yankees Improve?

Despite being 27-15, there’s always room to get better.

The Yankees will likely already get Gerrit Cole back in the starting rotation in the second half of the season. That’ll be an insane addition to the starting rotation. However, they probably still need one of the more powerful sluggers for the starting lineup.

Recently, the Yankees have been linked to Paul Goldschmidt, who has struggled throughout this season with the Cardinals. He’s been a major topic within the MLB rumors lately. In his previous two seasons, Goldschmidt batted over .300. However, this season, he looks lost at the plate.

Typically, at the Trade Deadline, teams trade for players performing at a high level on bad teams. While the Cardinals are bad, so is Goldschmidt. However, it would probably require less in a trade for Goldschmidt with the way he’s played. That’s the real benefit of going after Goldschmidt at the trade deadline.

Ultimately, the Yankees schedule won’t get any easier down the stretch in the AL East. They’ll need all the help they can get.

Byron Buxton’s Potential Return

The Minnesota Twins are cautiously optimistic that Byron Buxton could get back into the starting lineup for the Twins this week. He will be eligible to return today after spending most of early May on the injured list.

Hopefully, he’ll fit right in with this Twins roster that has been red-hot over the last few weeks.

Yankees vs Twins Preview & Odds For Game 1:

ML: Yankees -136, O/U 8.5 +105/-125

New York will send out left-hander Carlos Rodon for tonight’s opening game of the series. Rodon has a 3.56 ERA, but he’s still allowed a .212 ISO and wOBA of .348 to his first 150 righties faced this season. Rodon has done well against lefties, but as a lefty, he’s faced plenty more righties this season.

On the other hand, the Twins haven’t seen a ton of lefties this season. With a small sample size, Edouard Julien, Max Kepler, Willi Castro, Carlos Santana, and Ryan Jeffers stand out as high-power bats against lefties.

Meanwhile, Minnesota will throw Chris Paddack. Paddack has limited walks well and has kept an ISO of .140. However, he’s still only struck out 22.2% of batters and has allowed a .346 wOBA to 167 batters this year.

Against righties, the Yankees have five batters hitting a high ISO and wOBA against other righties. However, the bottom of the order has been really poor. The five to watch are Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Anthony Rizzo. Alex Verdugo has somewhat good numbers, but not excellent.

Therefore, it makes sense the Yankees are favorites. At -136, back the Yankees in Game 1 of the series.

In Game 2 of the series, it’ll be Marcus Stroman for the Yankees. Stroman has added 56.1% of ground balls but has still struggled to add strikeouts and limit walks against lefties to begin the year. Still, he’s been terrific against righties, adding 23.9% of strikeouts with only a .119 ISO and wOBA of .304.

Against righties this season, the Twins have hit a .171 ISO and wOBA of .318 with their projected lineup against righties. Minnesota should also have at least five left-handed bats, which isn’t great for Stroman.

Stroman also doesn’t have a great matchup, going against Pablo Lopez. Lopez is a righty with a 3.89 ERA on the season. While he’s allowed a .166 ISO, he’s kept his wOBA down to .278. In addition, Lopez has struck out nearly 32% of batters and has kept walks below 5%.

The Yankees have potential against righties, but against Lopez, that potential will shrink with Lopez’s MLB results. We’d grab the Twins in Game 2 of this series.

In the finale, Clarke Schmidt will get the ball. The right-hander has a 2.95 ERA on the season but has still given up a .157 ISO and wOBA of .330 to his first 174 batters faced this year.

Schmidt has high strikeouts and low walks. However, he’s allowed 30.6% of line drives while inducing just 37% of ground balls. Eventually, Schmidt will struggle if he continues to put up these numbers.

Schmidt will battle it out with Joe Ryan of the Twins. Ryan is a righty who has struck out 28% of batters. Like Lopez, he’s allowed a higher ISO and low wOBA but has walked only 3.2% of batters this MLB season.

While Schmidt has had more success throughout the season, Ryan has put up the better stats. Therefore, in our Yankees vs Twins preview, we’d back the Twins to win the potential rubber match of the three-game series.

Yankees vs Twins Odds

For MLB news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.

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