Rocco Baldelli isn’t sure what the Twins are capable of if Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Royce Lewis are all healthy, but he knows at least two things: One, it’s a lot. And two, he doesn’t mind thinking about it.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – OCTOBER 11: Royce Lewis #23 of the Minnesota Twins celebrates his home run against the Houston Astros during the first inning in Game Four of the Division Series at Target Field on October 11, 2023 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)

“It feels like the possibilities are almost endless,” the Twins manager said this spring.

Last year, Correa played through pain almost all season after developing plantar fasciitis. Buxton played just 85 games, slowed again by a knee that he had surgically repaired in the offseason for the second time. And Lewis showed glimpses of stardom in between injured list stints that held him to 58 games.

Even though the talented trio was not at 100%, the Twins won the American League Central division, finishing 87-75, nine games ahead of the second-place Detroit Tigers. They then went on to win their first playoff game since 2004 and swept the Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card Series before falling to the Houston Astros in the American League Division Series.

As the season kicks off — first pitch will be at 3:10 p.m. Thursday at Kauffman Stadium against the Kansas City Royals — the Twins are favorites to win the division once more. And with that trio healthy, it’s easy for the Twins to dream of more.

“All our goals are to be healthy. We know how good we are and we know what we can do,” Buxton said. “ … We want to go out there and make sure that we can play every day and contribute to the team the way we know we can.”

In the 2022 season, Buxton was an all-star for the first time in his career, hitting a career-high 28 home runs in 92 games and posting a 133 OPS+, a mark that is 33 percent better than the league-average hitter. Buxton, a Gold Glove Award winner in 2017, was limited last year to just hitting, something he has readily admitted was a challenge mentally. He will take his position in center field once again on Thursday for the first time since August 2022.

Correa, a 2021 Gold Glover, was hampered by his foot pain, which limited his defensive range and affected him at the plate. But the shortstop has a long track record of productivity and spent the offseason trying to get his swing back to how it felt in 2021, when he finished fifth in Most Valuable Player voting.

And Lewis, the youngest of the trio, has just scratched the surface of his potential. But last year, he hit a home run every 15.9 at-bats, with four grand slams. He settled in defensively at third, right next to Correa.

Of course, the Twins will need contributions from much more than those three players.

Their rotation is led by Pablo López, a legitimate Cy Young Award candidate, who will take the ball Thursday for his second straight Opening Day. The Twins will look for steps forward from Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober. Louie Varland will slide into a rotation spot to begin the year and the Twins have high hopes for Chris Paddack, who is returning after spending much of last season rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

Their bullpen, which has been hit recently by a spate of injuries, has the potential to be among the best in baseball when healthy. In the coming month, they hope to be able to add closer Jhoan Duran (oblique), lefty Caleb Thielbar (hamstring) and right-hander Justin Topa (knee) back to the group. While Duran is out, the Twins will rely on Griffin Jax and Brock Stewart to cover some of their most important innings.

Second baseman Edouard Julien and left fielder Matt Wallner joined Lewis last year as part of one of the Twins’ best rookie classes in recent memory, catcher Ryan Jeffers emerged as one of the most productive hitting catchers in the game, and down the stretch, veteran right fielder Max Kepler played some of the best baseball in his career.

“Between the influx of young guys that we have and Carlos and Buck being MVP candidates when they’re healthy, I think that this lineup is very dangerous,” Lewis said. “I think that people kind of sleep on our team a little bit more just because we’re Minnesota and not the Yankees or Dodgers.”

Within the confines of the Twins’ clubhouse, the expectations are high. And higher still if their $200-million man Correa and homegrown stars Buxton and Lewis can maintain their good health.

How good could they be? What are they capable of?

“I don’t want to talk about it — I want to show you,” Correa said. “That’s our goal this year.”

Their chance to do that begins on Thursday.

“These guys matter so much to where we’re going,” Baldelli said. “It doesn’t mean we can’t succeed. We succeeded last year without these guys out there on a full-time basis. But I mean, my God. These are three of the better players you’re going to find anywhere and to get everyone back and healthy at the same time, I try to stay within my shoes here, but it’s very encouraging.”

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A teen was sentenced to four years in prison Wednesday for being an accomplice after the fact in the 2022 murder of Otis Elder in St. Paul, a killing that prompted Minneapolis police to carry out a “no-knock” search warrant in which Amir Locke was fatally shot by an officer.

Feysal Jama Ali, 18, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty to the added charge in December in connection with the killing of Elder, a 38-year-old who was shot during a suspected marijuana robbery or attempted robbery on Jan. 10, 2022. Elder, a father of two sons, died a half-hour later at Regions Hospital of a gunshot wound to the back.

Feysal Jama Ali (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

In exchange for the plea, two counts of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and two other charges in the case were dismissed and he also was given a concurrent three-year prison term for a second-degree assault conviction stemming from a carjacking in South Minneapolis in November 2021.

Also part of the plea deal were the lengths of the two prison terms. Ali received credit for the two years and six days he already served in custody.

Ali confirmed that his cousin, Mekhi Camden Speed, then 17, shot Elder as he sat in his Chevrolet Tahoe in the 500 block of North Prior Avenue, between University Avenue and Interstate 94. Ali, who was 16, also gave an account of his actions after the murder, including spraying a fire extinguisher inside in a stolen getaway car in an attempt to conceal evidence.

In July, Speed was sentenced to 16 years and three months in prison after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder while committing an armed robbery. Speed said at his plea hearing that he went to the location to buy marijuana from Elder and that the plan changed to taking it.

Mekhi Camden Speed (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Speed lived in the apartment building in downtown Minneapolis where police served search warrants on Feb. 2, 2022. Locke, 22, was not named in the search warrants and was staying on a couch in Speed’s brother’s girlfriend’s apartment when police carried out a no-knock warrant and a Minneapolis officer shot him.

Speed lived in a different unit with his mother, but had access to the other apartment, according to the criminal complaint.

Minneapolis police requested a no-knock warrant to apprehend Speed for the officers’ safety and preservation of evidence. The request for the warrant demonstrated that Speed had a history of violence and that Elder was killed with a .223-caliber firearm, which could pierce body armor.

Police body camera video showed that when police entered the apartment, announcing their presence, Locke, who was not a suspect, was stirred from the couch and emerged from under a blanket with a handgun that his family said he legally owned.

Prosecutors did not charge the officer, saying body camera video showed Locke pointing a gun, but his family has said the footage suggests he was startled awake.

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A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used, but company founder and prominent election denier Mike Lindell said that it’s just a formality because the landlord wants to take the property back.

Lindell denied in an interview with the Associated Press that the eviction was another sign of his money woes. He said his financial picture is actually improving after a credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after the company lost one of its major advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers.

“We’re fine,” he said.

Lindell faced a setback last month when a federal judge affirmed a $5 million arbitration award in favor of a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proves China interfered in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and tipped the outcome to Joe Biden. Lindell acknowledged in January that Fox News stopped running MyPillow commercials amid a billing dispute.

Lindell confirmed Wednesday that MyPillow owes around $217,000 to Delaware-based First Industrial LP for rent for the facility in Shakopee. He said MyPillow no longer needed the space and removed its remaining property from the warehouse last June before subleasing the space to another company through December.

Another company was going to start subleasing the space in January but backed out and “left us all stranded,” he said. MyPillow offered to find another tenant, he said, but the landlord just wanted to take back control of the warehouse instead. The $217,000 is for unpaid rent for January and February, he said. He also said MyPillow continues to lease space elsewhere.

The Star Tribune reported that a Scott County judge held a hearing Tuesday on the warehouse owner’s request to formally evict MyPillow, which did not contest the landlord’s request.

“MyPillow has more or less vacated but we’d like to do this by the book,” attorney Sara Filo, representing First Industrial, said during the hearing, the newspaper reported. “At this point there’s a representation that no further payment is going to be made under this lease, so we’d like to go ahead with finding a new tenant.”

Judge Caroline Lennon filed the eviction order Wednesday.

Lindell, who continues to propagate former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, in part by rigged voting machine systems, still faces defamation lawsuits by two voting machine companies. Lawyers who were originally defending him in those cases quit over unpaid bills.

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