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Derek Falvey caught his share of champagne spray on Wednesday night, after the Twins defeated Toronto for their first postseason series victory since 2002.
The previous occasion that called for champagne might not have been so festive for him.
On New Year's Day 2023, the Twins president of baseball operations was running a 78-win, third-place team that seemingly had lost its star shortstop, lacked a long-term staff ace, and was without veteran roster depth. He didn't know how much he was going to get from current star Byron Buxton, because of his recurring knee pain, or rising star Royce Lewis, who was recovering from a second major knee surgery.
With two high-profile moves and a flurry of unheralded acquisitions, Falvey spent the early part of 2023 building the team that would break the Twins' record 18-game postseason losing streak and advance to play the defending champion Astros.
Having seemingly lost Carlos Correa to the Giants, then the Mets, Falvey capitalized on those teams' unwillingness to finalize a deal with Correa because of concerns about a longstanding leg injury and signed him to a six-year contract worth $200 million.
Correa produced first-year dividends by playing through a plantar fasciitis injury in the regular season, then, in the playoffs, making a brilliant play in throwing out a runner at home, orchestrating a key pickoff in Game 2 and driving in a run as the Twins swept the Blue Jays.
After signing Correa, Falvey traded one of his most popular and accomplished players, reigning batting champ Luis Arraez, to Miami for pitcher Pablo López and two prospects. Arraez won another batting title; the Twins found their long-term staff ace, and López earned the victory in Game 1 against Toronto.
In late January, Falvey traded two prospects to Kansas City for center fielder Michael A. Taylor, a Gold Glove winner who made dramatic catches throughout the season and this week against the Blue Jays.
In late February, Falvey signed infielder Donovan Solano, who finished both playoff games at first base.
The Correa signing smelled of risk because two other teams balked at his injury history. The López deal smelled of risk because Arraez was productive and popular, and López would have to improve to justify the price. The depth moves — including signing Willi Castro in late December — felt like the routine offseason moves every team makes to look at players in spring training.
The Twins probably wouldn't have won this playoff series without Correa. Without López, they may have had trouble winning their division, much less the series. Without Taylor, Castro and Solano, the 2023 season may have resembled the 2022 season, during which the Twins ran out of quality healthy players.
Add in Royce Lewis, the first draft pick made by the Falvey regime, and closer Jhoan Duran, acquired in a previous trade, and the 2023 Twins are a testament to resourceful roster building and risk-taking.
"I think the reality is: In pro sports now, and certainly in baseball, you're always trying to find a way to get better. You've got to make some tough decisions," Falvey said Thursday. "You've got to keep iterating, you've got to keep looking at what worked and what didn't work and evaluate that. There have been times where we looked at our roster and said, 'Ok, This doesn't fit perfectly, or work perfectly,' and we've got to take another run at it.
"The only thing we can commit to is trying to continue and learn how we can make it better as a group. That's our staff, our coaches, our scouting personnel, our development people. What I'm proud of right now, organizationally, is that the roster, when you break it down, has almost every facet of our organization touching it. That's unique."
Lewis remembers hearing that the Twins had re-signed Correa and thinking, "We're going to be winning here for a lot of years." Catcher Ryan Jeffers said the Correa and Lopez acquisitions signified that the Twins' brain trust was "committed. It felt committed. Every player, every team wants to have an ownership and front office that is just as committed to winning as the players are."
Two stunning moves and a few that went almost unnoticed brought the Twins their first playoff series victory in 21 years.
