Twins, in need of offense, face roster conundrum

If the assumption going into this Twins season was that the offense would be decent-to-good while the pitching would be suspect, the opposite has held true through the first 13 games of the season.

After a solid offensive start fueled by walks and timely hits — the Twins still lead the majors with 61 walks taken, a huge factor in whatever modest success they’ve had at the plate — Minnesota has gone 2-5 in its last seven games, scoring just seven runs combined in those five losses. Four of those losses were either by 2-1 or 3-1 margins, including the last two against Chicago and then Cleveland.

So the conundrum becomes this: do the Twins stop carrying 13 pitchers at some point and add another potentially potent bat to the lineup? There are some obvious candidates in the minors, including three different first basemen: Kennys Vargas, Ben Paulsen and Byungho Park (once he’s off the disabled list).

They would look good in a lineup that has several hitters struggling, including Joe Mauer — the primary first baseman and often-times cleanup hitter this season who has the most plate appearances in MLB (50) without an extra-base hit this year.

But a simple one-for-one swap for Mauer probably wouldn’t do a ton for the lineup, particularly since Joe figures to get at least a little better as the days wear on. The real deficiency in the outfield, where Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario are both struggling at the plate. The easy swap there is to move Robbie Grossman to the field instead of having him at DH — a move Paul Molitor has made a couple of times recently — and have a Rochester call-up serve as the DH. The only problem there is that you break up what has been a dynamite defensive outfield with Buxton, Rosario and Kepler and insert Grossman, a lesser fielder.

Outfield defense has been a major component of helping the Twins’ pitchers post a 2.50 ERA — the best in the majors.

There’s also the pesky notion of trying to drop down to 12 pitchers at a time when the Twins don’t have an off-day until next Thursday. Starters have been doing their share for the most part, meaning the bulked-up staff really hasn’t been needed. But the Twins are always one or two starts away from needing those extra arms as a way to avoid burning out their remaining relievers.

So adding another bat right now would potentially come at the expense of pitching depth and defensive prowess. It seems more likely the Twins stay the course in the short-term and hope their current lineup can scratch together enough runs to support a pitching staff and defense doing more than their share.

Once off-days become more plentiful in a little more than a week, though, another bat would make a lot of sense.