Twins SS Carlos Correa at Spring Training: ‘I just want to win’
Twins motivated at Spring Training by 2024 collapse
The Minnesota Twins are a week into Spring Training in Florida and have a chip on their shoulder after the 2024 season ended in a collapse to miss the American League Playoffs.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The message has been pretty clear since the Minnesota Twins reported to Spring Training: They’re using last year’s late-season collapse as motivation for 2025.
The Twins were in the American League playoff picture for more than four months last season, until they weren’t. They couldn’t stay healthy, and lacked clutch hitting as they went 12-27 over their last 39 games to fall out of the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
Nobody is more aware of that than Carlos Correa, who is entering his fourth season with the Twins. He played in just 86 games last year due to a foot injury, but is healthy now. He knows the standard, winning a World Series in 2017.
"I’m at a point in my career where I just want to win. I want to win, and the reason why I work so hard to perform good is because that helps the team," Correa said.
How can we turn expectations into standards?
What we know:
Pablo Lopez will get the Opening Day start for the Twins for the third straight season. He’s the anchor of the starting rotation, expected to give the Twins a chance to win every five days. That’s the goal for the entire staff, give the team a chance to win every game.
"How can we turn expectations into standards? We know we have a really good pitching staff, a lot of depth, a lot of flame throwers. How can we make that be our identity?" Lopez said. "When people face the Minnesota Twins, that’s a team that can really pitch."
‘It shattered our hearts’
What they're saying:
Last year’s collapse couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Twins had just come off ending an 18-game playoff losing streak, and winning their first series in two decades. Royce Lewis got hurt Opening Day, and the Twins just couldn’t hang on in August and September.
He says he’ll be as motivated as anybody by how last year ended.
"We let it out of our hands. We had it in our hands and we let it go. We let it drop, and it broke and it shattered. It shattered our hearts, you keep that in your head. You memorize it to this day," Lewis said. "I remember what that feels like, I remember how I feel like I let the team down. That’s the best way to grow."
‘Everybody’s got a different mindset’
Why you should care:
Nobody might be more ready for a reset than outfielder Byron Buxton. He played in 102 games last season, starting 87 in center field. Buxton appeared in 100 games for the first time since 2017, when he played 140.
He’s healthy, and says the whole team has a different mindset in Spring Training. Lewis, Buxton and Correa played a combined 22 games together last season, and that has to change.
"Obviously last year didn’t go the way we wanted it to, so we’ve got to be better. Everybody understands what the job is, and that’s to win," Buxton said.
The 2025 regular season opens March 27 at the St. Louis Cardinals. The home opener is set for Thursday, April 3.