Jose

Miranda

The Twins retained a bunch of mediocrities on the position player side of their 40-man roster after the season, but one guy they gave up on was Miranda, who was rather productive in hitting .284/.322/.441 in 429 major league plate appearances in 2024. The 27-year-old went on to clear outright waivers and is now a free agent. He’ll probably have to settle for a minor league deal, but an impressive showing in Puerto Rico might lead to greater interest.

One of the biggest names to become a minor league free agent earlier this week, Miranda appeared in just 12 games for Minnesota this past season after tumbling down the depth chart after a pedestrian 2024 campaign where he batted .284/.322/.441 with nine homers and 49 RBI across 429 plate appearances in 121 games. At just 27 years old there’s probably another organization out there willing to gamble on the former prospect making swing adjustments and catching lightning in a bottle.

No real surprises as Minnesota cleans up its 40-man roster heading into the offseason. Miranda is a notable name considering his former prospect status, but he hasn’t made an impact at the highest level since the 2024 season when he appeared in a career-high 121 games.

Miranda missed four weeks after his demotion last month due to a left-hand injury suffered off the field. He’s played every other day since returning last week and gone 1-for-14 with five strikeouts so far. Clearly, it’s going to be a little while longer before he’s a candidate to rejoin the Twins.

The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reports Miranda hurt his hand earlier this week when he dropped a case of water while shopping at Target. It’s one of the more bizarre injuries you’re going to see all season. The problem here is that the Twins are dealing with several injuries at the big-league level and Miranda won’t be an option to replace them.

It’s official. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli is attempting to shake things up after the club’s disastrous 4-11 start to the season. It’s a bit unfair to label Miranda as a scapegoat here since he’s batting .167 with one homers in 12 games and committed a calamitous baserunning error during Saturday’s loss. It’ll be Brooks Lee (back) coming off the injured list to take Miranda’s spot on Minnesota’s roster.

The Twins are apparently ready to make a change at the hot corner after Miranda committed a costly mistake on the basepaths during Saturday’s loss to the Tigers, which dropped Minnesota to 4-11 overall on the young season. Miranda was hitting .167 with one homer and five RBI through 12 games. It’ll be Brooks Lee (back) coming off the injured list to take his roster spot ahead of Sunday’s game.

As much as the Twins are struggling at the moment, the blunder will likely be remembered. After Miranda’s single, Christian Vázquez hit an easy grounder to first that Spencer Torkelson handled and threw to second on. Miranda should have been retired easily, except that Colt Keith was in front of the bag and failed to find it with his back foot. The umpire correctly called Miranda safe, but Miranda assumed he was out and started to return to the dugout, allowing Keith to tag him. It probably didn’t decide the outcome in a 4-0 loss, but it was a bad look from a player hitting just .167/.167/.250 in 36 plate appearances. Miranda, who has started only one of the last four games, is a candidate to be sent down when Brooks Lee returns.

Julien, who didn’t start any of the Twins’ first four games, went 3-for-14 with a double and a walk in the last five contests. Jose Miranda is getting the nod over Julien today, with Willi Castro sliding from third base to second.

Miranda is sitting even though Ty France is getting his first day off of the year, opening up first base. Mickey Gasper was chosen to start there, though. Edouard Julien is making his fifth straight start, so it seems like he’s overtaken Miranda in the Twins’ eyes, even as it very obviously was tilted the other way a week ago. Miranda is off to a 4-for-24 start at the plate, while Julien is 2-for-14.