The Twins won their final two series, taking two games from the Rangers and playing spoiler in the AL West race. Their 77-85 record left them third in the AL Central, seven games behind the final wild-card spot and with the majors’ 11th-worst record.
The Twins also announced a staff shake-up, parting ways with pitching coaches Pete Maki and Luis Ramirez and athletic trainer Jason Kirkman. A lengthy offseason brings collective bargaining negotiations between players and owners, which the roundup says could get messy.
Among other MLB developments, Tampa Bay and Cleveland earned AL byes to the Division Series; Yankees-Red Sox is on Tampa’s side of the bracket and White Sox-Astros on Cleveland’s. Milwaukee and Los Angeles earned NL byes, awaiting the Padres-Cubs and Phillies-Atlanta winners, respectively. Yordan Alvarez won the AL batting title but finished behind Pete Alonso in homers and RBIs; Gabriel Moreno led the NL in batting average by one point over Luis Arraez. PCA led the NL in home runs, Alec Burleson in RBIs, and Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski topped the majors in ERA, strikeouts and opponent batting average.
