Offense hasn’t always been easy to come by for the Minnesota Twins this season, but a few excellent hitters, most notably Ryan Jeffers, have taken them to league-average status.
This is our way to say that the Twins, who won on Thursday and are now 31-25, would probably be much worse if it wasn’t for the catcher/designated hitter.
In fact, Jeffers alone represented the difference between the Twins and the Kansas City Royals on Thursday.
Minnesota won, 7-6, despite a late charge by the Royals, and Jeffers led the charge with not one, but two home runs.
“Two homers today for Ryan Jeffers!” Talkin’ Baseball tweeted.
Two homers today for Ryan Jeffers! pic.twitter.com/l9Udc7rsAp
The slugger hit his 11th and 12th homers of the year in the afternoon victory, and reached an impressive 36 RBI.
He is now hitting .254/.342/.544 for the year.
As long as Jeffers is healthy and producing like this, the Twins will be there, lurking, in the AL Central race.
They are six games behind the division leaders, the Cleveland Guardians, and three games behind the Royals in the Central.
They are the reigning divisional champions, and while they might not be as strong as last year, they remain dangerous.
As for Jeffers, not only does he lead his team in home runs, but no other Twins hitter has even reached 10.
He also comfortably leads the organization in RBI: only Carlos Santana has more than 20.
If it wasn’t for Jeffers, Minnesota would probably be at .500 or even worse.
He has been the team MVP in the first couple of months, without a doubt.