Minnesota Twins DVOA, Stats, & MLB Rankings

Minnesota Twins outfielder Alex Kirilloff hit his third home run of the season in Friday's 3-2 loss to the Guardians. The solo shot was his only hit in the contest and he also walked once. After a strong start to the season, it seemed Kirilloff might finally live up to his first-round draft pick pedigree, however, since April 29 the left-handed hitter is 3-for-37 (.081) which has resulted in a drop in batting average from .266 to .207. His Contact% is not good at 69.9%, but he does have a decent Barrel% of 8.0% and HardHit% of 42.0%, so maybe there's a chance he can still salvage his season.

Minnesota Twins closer Jhoan Duran was saddled with his first loss of the campaign in Friday's defeat to the division-rival Cleveland Guardians, surrendering his first run of the season. Summoned in the eighth inning to try and keep the game tied, Duran served up a go-ahead home run to Jose Ramirez before striking out Josh Naylor. Although the 26-year-old fire-balling right-hander has converted each of his three save opportunities while striking out nine and walking just one across his first eight innings of the year, his usage has been questionable from a fantasy perspective also with three holds for the Twins. Duran should still be viewed as the favorite for saves in Minnesota's bullpen, but manager Rocco Baldelli has shown a tendency to use him in the highest-leverage situations at times so far this year.

Minnesota Twins outfielder Emmanuel Rodriguez broke out of a 19-game home run drought on Thursday evening. Through his first 28 games at Double-A this season, the 21-year-old has posted a strong .271/.466/.563 slash line with five home runs, nine stolen bases, and a 34:39 BB:K ratio. Last season, Rodriguez posted a pedestrian .240/.400/.463 line with 16 home runs. This is a great sign, as the number three prospect in the Minnesota system has been performing better against tougher competition. MLB Pipeline projects him to reach the major leagues sometime next season. However, as the 33rd-best prospect in all of baseball, he is worth paying close attention to and could even be worth stashing once he is prompted to Triple-A later this summer.

Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton (knee) will play another minor-league rehab game with Triple-A St. Paul on Thursday, and if all goes well, he'll be back from the injured list to rejoin the Twins on Saturday against the Cleveland Guardians. Buxton went 0-for-3 while playing seven innings in center field on Wednesday in his first rehab game with St. Paul and should be cleared to return to the big leagues if he gets through one more game with the Saints on Thursday. The 30-year-old oft-injured outfielder has already had surgery on the same knee twice and has been sidelined with right-knee inflammation since early May. Fantasy managers should expect the Twins to ease Buxton back into the fold when he returns, but if his knee cooperates, he'll eventually return to starting duties in center field.

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Pablo Lopez did his part to keep his team in the game during Wednesday's defeat to the visiting New York Yankees, registering a quality start with 6 1/3 innings of three-run ball on a season-high 10 hits and no walks while fanning a season-low three batters. Lopez only threw two clean innings on Wednesday, but he did a great job of limiting the damage for his third straight quality start to begin the month of May. The 28-year-old fantasy stalwart takes a solid 3.93 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and 58:8 K:BB over 50 1/3 innings (nine starts) for the Twins into his next scheduled appearance during Monday's series opener against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Although it's a favorable matchup on paper, Lopez yielded five runs across four innings in one start against Washington a year ago.