The History of the Minnesota Twins: Every Era, from the First Season to Today
The Twins franchise from the 1901 Washington Senators and Walter Johnson through the 1961 move to Minnesota, the 1987 and 1991 titles, the Metrodome years and Target Field, told in eras with season numbers.
The Minnesota Twins have won three World Series, and the first of them came in Washington. The franchise began in 1901 as the Washington Senators, one of the American League's eight original clubs, and it won its first title in 1924 behind Walter Johnson, who would end his career as the club's all-time leader in wins (417), strikeouts (3,509) and shutouts (110). Moving to Minnesota ahead of the 1961 season did not change the franchise's record books, and the historical record carries all 125 seasons from 1901 through 2025 as one continuous run: 9,329 wins, 10,047 losses and a .481 winning percentage.
The story that runs through it is feast and famine. The franchise has six league pennants and three championships, 1924, 1987 and 1991, but its best stretches have been separated by decades in which the club was merely adequate or worse. This history follows it through those cycles: the Johnson years, the long slide, the early Minnesota contenders, the two Metrodome champions and the run of division titles that came with a long postseason losing streak attached.
The Senators arrive and lose, 1901 to 1911
The Washington club opened in 1901 and went 61-72 that first year, then 61-75 in 1902. It then lost often enough to establish a pattern that held for decades. The 1904 club went 38-113, the worst record in franchise history by winning percentage in the historical record, and the 1909 club went 42-110. In 1903 the team finished 43-94 and in 1907 it went 49-102. Four of the five worst seasons on the franchise's list came before 1910.
It is against that background that Walter Johnson arrived. He made his debut on August 2, 1907, as a 19-year-old right-hander born in Kansas, and in his first full seasons he pitched for a club that could rarely score. In 1909 he went 13-25 with a 2.22 earned run average for the 42-110 Senators, a line that shows how much a pitcher's win-loss record can mislead. By 1910 he had a 25-17 record, 313 strikeouts and a 1.36 ERA, but the Senators still finished 66-85.
Johnson and Griffith, 1912 to 1923
Clark Griffith, a former pitcher, managed the club from 1912 to 1920 and was its principal owner for decades, and finished 693-646 in his nine seasons in the dugout. The Senators finished second in 1912 at 91-61 and second again in 1913 at 90-64, led by Johnson, who went 33-12 in 1912 and 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA in 1913. The 1913 season won him the Most Valuable Player award and the pitching Triple Crown, and it stands as one of the best single seasons any pitcher has ever had. He accounted for 36 of the club's 90 wins.
The pennants went elsewhere, including to Philadelphia's 96-57 Athletics in 1913. The Senators were competitive through 1915, finishing 85-68 in fourth place, and then dropped into the middle and back of the standings for most of a decade. In the early 1920s the club was never better than fourth, with Johnson's ERA rising and his strikeout totals falling as he aged. The club's home through this period was Griffith Stadium, in use from 1911.
The Washington pennants, 1924 to 1933
The next era remains the franchise's best by one measure: three pennants in ten seasons. In 1924, under 27-year-old player-manager Bucky Harris, the Senators went 92-62, won the pennant and met the New York Giants in the World Series. The Series went seven games, with Washington winning four to three. Johnson, who had gone 23-7 with a 2.72 ERA that year and won the MVP award, lost two starts in the Series and then came out of the bullpen in Game 7 and pitched four scoreless innings in a 12-inning win. It was the only championship the franchise would win in Washington.
They won again in 1925, with a 96-55 record, but lost the World Series to Pittsburgh in seven games. Roger Peckinpaugh won the MVP award that year. A third pennant came in 1933, when the club went 99-53 under Joe Cronin and then lost to the Giants in five games, 4-1. The Senators of that era were deep: Sam Rice collected 2,889 hits as a Senator and still leads the franchise, with Goose Goslin, Joe Judge, Heinie Manush and Buddy Myer in the lineup.
A long slide in Washington, 1934 to 1960
After 1933 the club went into a long decline. The Senators finished seventh in 1934 at 66-86 and spent most of the following 26 years in the lower half of the American League, with only two finishes higher than third (second place in both 1943 and 1945). The worst of it came in 1949, when they lost 104 games and went 50-104, and in 1955, when they went 53-101. Bucky Harris came back for another turn as manager, and the club's record in his 2,776 games over three decades was 1,336-1,416, the most games of any manager in franchise history.
One of the few bright spots was a slugger who arrived as a teenager. Harmon Killebrew joined the club in 1954 and eventually became its greatest power hitter, with 559 home runs over 21 seasons, still the franchise record. But he had to wait for stability: Washington drew just 425,238 fans in 1955 and spent the second half of the 1950s near the bottom. A new Senators club was created as an American League expansion team for 1961, which is why Washington had a "second" Senators franchise. Calvin Griffith moved the original club to Minnesota that same year, and the history that follows belongs to the Twins.
Metropolitan Stadium and the first Minnesota contenders, 1961 to 1970
The Twins played at Metropolitan Stadium in suburban Bloomington, and Minnesotans turned out: the club drew 1,256,723 fans in 1961, more than any Washington team had ever managed (the Senators' best was 1,027,216 in 1946). The team went 70-90 in 1961 and 91-71 in 1962, a second-place finish, and it was a contender in most years for the rest of the decade. Camilo Pascual won 145 games and struck out 1,885 over his years with the club, and Jim Kaat won 190 games, second only to Johnson on the franchise list.
In 1965, with Sam Mele managing, the Twins went 102-60 and won the pennant, with shortstop Zoilo Versalles named MVP. They lost the World Series in seven games to the Dodgers, and Sandy Koufax shut them out twice. The 1967 club, which Cal Ermer took over from Mele in June, finished 91-71 and lost the pennant in a tight race, a game behind Boston, which had Carl Yastrzemski's Triple Crown season. Rod Carew was Rookie of the Year that year, and Tony Oliva had won the honor in 1964.
The best years came afterward. In 1969, the first season of divisional play, Killebrew hit 49 home runs and was named MVP, and the Twins won the West at 97-65. In 1970 they won 98 games and took the division again. They lost both American League Championship Series to the Baltimore Orioles in three-game sweeps, which is how the Orioles' golden era looked from the other dugout. Jim Perry won the Cy Young Award in 1970.
The lean middle, 1971 to 1981
The club was not very good in the following decade. It finished above .500 in only four of its 11 seasons between 1971 and 1981, and its best finish was third place. Attendance dropped from 1,483,547 in 1967 to a low of 662,401 in 1974. Rod Carew was the reason to watch: in 1977 he hit .388 with 239 hits and won the MVP award. His .334 career average with the club (minimum 3,000 at-bats) is the best in franchise history.
The Metropolitan Stadium era came to an end in 1981, a strike-shortened year in which the Twins went 41-68 and drew just 469,090 fans. The club moved indoors for 1982.
The Metrodome champions, 1982 to 1992
The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, a white dome held up by air pressure, had a first season that went badly: the 1982 club lost 102 games and went 60-102. But the front office was assembling the core of two championship teams: Kent Hrbek (293 home runs for the franchise), Gary Gaetti, Kirby Puckett (who debuted in 1984), Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven. By 1987, under Tom Kelly, who managed from 1986 to 2001, the Twins went 85-77 and won the West. They beat Detroit 4-1 in the ALCS and then beat St. Louis in the World Series, four games to three, and the home team won every game of the Series. It was the franchise's first title in 63 years.
The 1988 Twins won 91 games and drew 3,030,672 fans, the highest total the Metrodome ever saw. But the best was the next championship. The 1990 club had gone 74-88 and finished last in the West; in 1991 it went 95-67 and won the division, beat Toronto 4-1 in the ALCS and beat Atlanta in a seven-game World Series in which, again, the home team won every game. The Series is remembered for Puckett's game-winning home run in the 11th inning of Game 6 and for Jack Morris pitching 10 scoreless innings in a 1-0 Game 7 victory. Chuck Knoblauch was Rookie of the Year in 1991.
The wilderness and the contraction threat, 1993 to 2001
After a 90-72 finish in 1992 the club went into a long drought. The Twins lost 91 games in 1993 and went 56-88 in 1995, and from 1993 through 2000 they had eight consecutive losing seasons. Puckett, who is second on the franchise list with 2,304 hits, was forced to retire by an eye condition. Attendance sank to just over a million in 2000.
In the winter after the 2001 season, when the club had gone 85-77 and finished second, the owners voted to eliminate two franchises, and the Twins were widely reported to be one of them. A court order required the club to honor its lease and play the 2002 season at the Metrodome, and the plan for contraction did not go ahead. Attendance rose from 1,782,929 in 2001 to 1,924,473 in 2002.
Gardenhire and the division titles, 2002 to 2010
Ron Gardenhire, who managed from 2002 to 2014 and finished 1,068-1,039, took over a club with a good young pitching staff and, within two seasons, a catcher named Joe Mauer. The Twins won the division in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and again in 2006, 2009 and 2010, six times in nine seasons. Johan Santana won the Cy Young Award in 2004 and 2006, and Justin Morneau was MVP in 2006. Joe Mauer won the MVP in 2009 after hitting .365, the highest average in the majors that year. The 2009 division race ended in an extra-inning tiebreaker game against Detroit.
The postseason, though, was a problem. The 2002 team beat Oakland 3-2 in the division series and lost the ALCS to Anaheim, 4-1. After that the Twins lost division series to the Yankees in 2003, 2004, 2009 and 2010 and to Oakland in 2006. Counting the games, they won Game 1 of the 2004 series and then lost every postseason game they played through 2020. The table lists the full run.
| Year | Round | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | ALDS | Lost to Yankees 1-3 (Game 1 win) |
| 2006 | ALDS | Lost to Athletics 0-3 |
| 2009 | ALDS | Lost to Yankees 0-3 |
| 2010 | ALDS | Lost to Yankees 0-3 |
| 2017 | Wild card | Lost to Yankees 0-1 |
| 2019 | ALDS | Lost to Yankees 0-3 |
| 2020 | Wild card | Lost to Astros 0-2 |
That adds up to 18 straight postseason losses, which the franchise stopped in 2023 with a 2-0 sweep of Toronto in the wild-card round. The Twins then lost the division series to Houston, three games to one.
Target Field and the modern club, 2010 to 2025
Target Field opened in 2010, an open-air park in downtown Minneapolis, and the Twins drew 3,223,640 fans, the largest season total in franchise history. The product on the field fell away quickly. The club went 63-99 in 2011, 66-96 in 2012 and 2013, 70-92 in 2014 and 59-103 in 2016. Paul Molitor, who managed from 2015 to 2018 with a 305-343 record, led the team to the 2017 wild card, an 85-77 season that ended with a one-game loss to the Yankees.
In 2019 the club won 101 games under Rocco Baldelli and the division, only to be swept by New York in the division series. In 2020 it won the division again in a 60-game season and lost two games to Houston. In 2023 it won the division at 87-75. Then came 82 wins in 2024 and a 70-92 season in 2025 that left the club fourth in the American League Central. Mauer played 15 seasons and finished with 2,123 hits, 939 walks and a .306 average as a Twin; Joe Nathan's 260 saves and Rick Aguilera's 254 are the club's best, and Baldelli's 527-505 record (he was fired after the 2025 season) makes him fifth on the club's list of managers by games.
Common questions
Are the Twins and the old Senators the same team? Yes. The franchise moved from Washington to Minnesota after 1960. The Washington team that began in 1961 was an expansion club, which moved on to become the Texas Rangers.
Who is the best Twin? The case is between Johnson, Killebrew and Mauer, with Puckett and Carew close behind, and it is laid out in the all-time greats list.
Why is Johnson still on the Twins record lists? Because the record books treat the franchise as one entity, and Johnson's totals with the Washington club count toward it. His 3,509 strikeouts are more than any Minnesota-era pitcher has recorded by a wide margin.
Where to go next
For the best seasons by record, see the Twins' best seasons and postseason runs, and for the home park, the Target Field guide and the Target Field page. For the division, read the histories of the White Sox, the Guardians and the Tigers, and for how the October formats evolved, see the history of the World Series. The latest coverage is on the Twins team page and the Twins topic page.