FORT MYERS, Fla. -- As baseball's busiest post-lockout club, the Twins overhauled a chunk of their lineup, signed the top free agent on the market and made it clear that they very much intend to push out of the cellar in the American League Central following an unexpected last-place finish in 2021.

Carlos Correa stunned the baseball world by choosing to sign the Twins, in part because he saw talent and the makings of a winning club in Minnesota.

"It was not long ago that I was playing for an organization that was last in the big leagues the year before I got there," Correa said after his signing. "I know what it takes to build a championship culture within the clubhouse. ... I see that here with the talent that we have, and I see that we can get so much better in order for us to accomplish that goal to ultimately win a championship."

Despite that flurry of activity that brought in Correa, Sonny Gray, Gary Sánchez, Gio Urshela, Joe Smith and Chris Archer, this is still a team with major question marks on the pitching staff. Do the Twins have enough pitching to take advantage of their talented and deep offense?

What needs to go right?
It's pretty clear-cut for this team: Everything comes down to pitching and health.

While this pitching staff carries some upside, there's a ton of inherent risk and uncertainty that the Twins will need to overcome to make a true push in the division. They got one front-line starter in Gray and would have preferred to swing another substantial trade to land a second. Instead, they'll have to rely heavily on younger arms -- perhaps earlier than expected -- while hoping for bouncebacks from Dylan Bundy and Archer.

The direction of the season might ultimately all come down to how quickly Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Josh Winder, Jordan Balazovic, Drew Strotman, Cole Sands, Simeon Woods Richardson and the other pitching prospects adjust to regular MLB action, whenever it comes. There's definitely plenty of upside there -- but also a low floor.

It also goes without saying that this lineup looks quite different without Buxton and/or Correa in it, and those two are no strangers to injury concerns. Is this finally the season in which a fully healthy Buxton is unleashed? If he's on the field, the center fielder is capable of carrying the club to victory in any game.

Great unknown
It's certainly strange to think of the team's Opening Day starter as something of an "unknown," but it's also tough to get around the fact that the 25-year-old Ryan is only five starts into his Major League career. Sure, returns to form by Bundy and Archer will help the Twins, but they're short-term acquisitions and there should be younger, high-end prospects ready to step in if needed.

Ryan, on the other hand, isn't a short-term acquisition; he's an integral part of this team's future, and the stability of the rotation will have an outsized dependence on his ability to step up as a reliable anchor and perhaps the surest rotation piece behind (or initially ahead of) Gray.

So far, Ryan has given Minnesota every reason to believe he can be that guy. He has a track record of Minor League success, was dominant for massive swaths of his September cameo. Still, considering that he relies heavily on a fastball that isn't all too overpowering, he'll need to continue demonstrating that he can get MLB hitters out over a larger sample size.

Team MVP will be ...
It feels like Buxton is the prediction here every year, and that's because it almost has to be him. Even with Correa in the fold, Buxton still has the highest ceiling on the squad, and he maintained that elite production whenever he was on the field in 2021. Despite the injury-prone label that Buxton simply can't shed, it's also not his fault that he sustained a broken hand after being hit by a pitch last June.

If this is the year that kind of bad luck finally passes him by, this could really be a special campaign. He's been seeing the ball exceptionally well this spring, a continuation of his .306/.358/.647 performance in 61 games last season. He's been working with a nutritionist to modify his diet with the goal of lessening inflammation and soreness to ease the wear on his body and facilitate recovery.

He's doing everything he can. One of these years, the injury luck has to break his way -- and perhaps 2022 is finally his time.

Team Cy Young will be ...
The Twins wouldn't have traded away 2021 first-round Draft pick Chase Petty if they didn't feel strongly about Gray's ability to lead their pitching staff. Following a tough stint in the Bronx, Gray had a career renaissance in Cincinnati, where he posted a 3.49 ERA with 432 strikeouts in 366 2/3 innings across three seasons -- the right-hander's highest strikeout rate in any of his three big league stops.

Gray has been consistent and durable while proving adept at avoiding hard contact. Though his counting stats took a step back to a 4.19 ERA last season, he ranked in at least MLB's 88th percentile in average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, barrel rate and expected slugging percentage against -- a fancy way of saying that opponents don't square up the ball or do much damage when they make contact. There's no reason to believe that will change now.

Bold prediction
This might seem a bit far-fetched, but it's well within Buxton's skillset to join Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Alfonso Soriano as the only hitters in AL/NL history to log 40 homers and 40 stolen bases in a season.

Had Buxton stayed healthy in 2021, he was on pace for 50 homers and 24 steals, and manager Rocco Baldelli's Twins could be more aggressive on the basepaths this season than they have in years past. If so, Buxton will be right in the middle of it. The only issue: If Buxton posts another .647 slugging percentage, he might not be standing on first base often enough to put up such gaudy steal numbers.