Twins troll Yankees after Luis Arráez batting title win, prove Aaron Judge screw job

OK, now it’s war, Minnesota Twins fans. We tried to keep it light. We tried not to be too harsh about beating you up and down the field each and every time you face the New York Yankees in the postseason — or in general, really.

But the antics the Twins’ social media account pulled after second baseman Luis Arráez won the AL batting title on Wednesday were the final straw. Did Carlos Correa ask for the Twitter username and password. Is that what happened?

At the end of the day, it’s whatever. The Twins aren’t in the playoffs. They’re probably going to lose their finest Dior product in Correa. They tried, though. That counts.

Anyway, the battle between Arráez and Aaron Judge has been widely documented because if Judge won the batting title he would’ve captured the Triple Crown — a feat only seven players in history have accomplished. Pretty cool!

But what was first a question has now become a near certainty, regardless of what comes out of anybody’s mouth in Minnesota. Did the Twins intentionally work to keep the Triple Crown out of Judge’s reach? Yes, it really seems they did.

Twins trolling Yankees after Luis Arráez wins battle title proves they intentionally screwed Aaron Judge

As Judge chased home run No. 62 for the single-season American League record, he saw fewer and fewer pitches in the zone. In fact, at one point between his 61st and 62nd home runs, barely 1/3 of what was thrown to him was inside the strike zone.

As a result, he didn’t get many hits. Over his final 13 games, Judge saw his batting average drop from .317 to .311 after an 8-for-37 stretch (.216 average) in which he was walked 19 times. Was he attacked by certain pitchers? Absolutely. Was he mostly pitched around, though? Definitely, yes.

And all the Twins and Arráez did was sit back. Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli left Arráez out of the lineup four times out of the final 10 games and claimed the issue was a balky hamstring the second baseman was dealing with. Funny thing about that, though? He suffered the “injury” on Sept. 14, was used in a game the very next day after not starting, and then played the next 10 consecutive games.

It wasn’t until Judge lost grip on the AL batting title on Sept. 29 that Baldelli decided to “rest” his All-Star consistently. Meanwhile, Judge was forced to gut out every last at-bat for the sake of baseball history, with everyone watching every single time he stepped into the batter’s box from Sept. 21 until Oct. 4.

Then, of course, Judge, who hit No. 62 in the second leg of a doubleheader on Tuesday, was taken out of the game after his second at-bat and then rested on Wednesday (the final day of the regular season since he had played in 157 games). Arráez, already leading by five batting average points, then played the final two games of the year when it was essentially impossible for him to lose.

Just to think: if the Twins hadn’t tweeted a direct shot at the Yankees (who won 99 games) and Aaron Judge (who made baseball history with 62 home runs in the regular season), this probably would’ve been nothing. But like a childish narcissist trying to post cryptic messages online only to fail miserably with their prose and instead reveal every intention, the Twins fully dropped the can of worms and spilled them all over the floor.

Are Twins benching Luis Arráez to keep Yankees’ Aaron Judge from Triple Crown?

Why are the Minnesota Twins benching one of their best hitters in Luis Arráez? Only one explanation! To hurt New York Yankees' Aaron Judge.