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The Twins might be selling and the White Sox are weird as hell

A roundup of where the Twins sit at the end of June, a second look at Thursday’s slog, and other baseball stuff

By RandBall's Stu
Minnesota Twins v Chicago White Sox Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

The Twins things you need to know as you head into the weekend:

  • CAN I INTEREST YOU IN A DELIBERATELY PACED VETERAN ARM? With the team struggling, the “sell” whispers are transitioning to non-inside voices. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi says the Twins are expected to listen to offers for Brian Dozier (good luck), Lance Lynn (ummmm), and Eduardo Escobar (NO GODDAMMIT NONONONONO NO) unless they, you know, start playing a hell of a lot better.
  • ABOUT THAT LAST PART. It’s very hard to play a hell of a lot better when you field a lineup like yesterday’s, which was The Two Eds, two struggling veterans (Dozier, Logan Morrison), and five guys who are just guys (Ehire Adrianza, Brian Wilson, Robbie Grossman, Jake Cave, Taylor Motter). As it happens, they didn’t, but won a war of attrition versus a bad team that still took 2-of-3 from them. You can say it was a getaway day, but swap out Joe Mauer and Max Kepler for two of those guys and you mildly improve your on-base percentage and German language skills and that’s not good enough.
  • ABOUT THAT GAME. If you were working or distracted by yet another mass shooting, I can’t say you missed a good game, or even an interesting one. But was it goofy? Yes. The Twins offensive struggles were in full bloom, going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, loading the bases four times, and plating the game-winning run on a walk. It also featured the reappearance of Bad Fernando Rodney, after two months of excellent behavior. But give credit to the Chicago White Sox, who were just as bad but also weird as shit. White Sox manager Rick Renteria finagled four challenges in this game AND LOST ALL FOUR. They lost their DH because Tim Anderson spiked his helmet after the White Sox lost one of those challenges, even though THE CALL WAS OBVIOUSLY RIGHT. They RELIED ON HECTOR SANTIAGO, which DID NOT WORK. It was a thoroughly baffling baseball-adjacent product on display that I can’t recommend to anyone, but it is probably going to be the game I remember most from this season.
  • INJURY UPDATE: Motter and his beautiful hair went ribcage first into the fence on Thursday and left the game after the inning ended. He told LaVelle he’ll be fine.
  • POLANCO UPDATE:

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