1st: Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins, unfortunately, are good. They won the AL Central last year with their 101-61 record. They were only one of three teams (Houston Astros, New York Yankees) to hit the century mark of wins for the season. It was a great year for them and they stand in the way of the White Sox finally winning the division again. They really don’t scare anyone in the long term but for now, we need to be worried about what this team can do.
If the season goes as planned, the White Sox might make the playoffs but it is going to be very difficult to defeat the Twins in the race to the top of the AL Central. If they do, that would mean they had a phenomenal year and they were perhaps even better than we thought. Baseball fans are mostly expecting the Twins to be at a minimum, in the playoffs.
This is the team the Sox are looking up to. Full team breakdowns are coming to Southside Showdown later but they have a lot of great players coming back from the 2019 season that was so successful for them. There is always a team that needs to be dethroned when a talented young team is coming up and that is the Twins for the White Sox.