Twins fans from 2011 to the present have become accustomed to the AL Central race being decided long before the season was over — while simultaneously wishing they could speed up time to a new beginning for the hometown team.

That sentiment, however, has taken on a new shape in 2019. It's early June, and the Twins already find themselves with an absurd 11.5-game division lead over both presumed favorite Cleveland and surprisingly close-to-average Chicago.

While nobody would declare the division race officially over — particularly since the Twins and Indians will face each other 16 more times this season, including a three-game series in Cleveland starting Tuesday — the Twins are in rare company.

As noted recently by Aaron Gleeman at Baseball Prospectus, the Twins are just the 10th team since 1969 to build a double-digit division lead at any point during the first third of a season. Of the previous nine teams? All of them won their division, five of them went to the World Series and three of them won championships.

So you can forgive some Twins fans if they are already strangely disinterested in the regular season and want to skip past some months — in this case, just to October instead of to next spring, as has been their custom.

Two thoughts, however, come to mind: After four terrible years (2011-14) and four years of fringe playoff contention mixed with disappointment (2015-18), all this winning is something to be savored — not taken for granted or wished along speedily. The Twins might win their 41st game of the season June 4 in Cleveland. They didn't win their 41st game in 2016 until Aug. 1 in Cleveland!

And for any fans bracing for some sort of postseason disappointment … relax. This year feels special regardless of what happens in October — but there's no reason to think it will all end abruptly, either.

• Miguel Sano, by the way, has a 1.036 OPS in 12 games played since the late start to his season, and the Twins are 10-2 in games he's started. That's a very good way to silence critics and squash any talk about how his return could jeopardize the good thing the Twins have going.

• Good luck trying to pick a team MVP for the Twins right now. That's what happens when you have a double-digit division lead in early June and might have reached double digits in legitimate All-Star candidates, as well.

• OK, Charlie Coyle. We get it. You love playing in Boston and are thriving there. Do you have to prove the point so emphatically and give Minnesota fans traumatic flashbacks to David Ortiz and Kevin Garnett winning championships in Boston in the process?

• If you're in the seemingly small minority of Wild fans (and hockey followers in general) who think it's a good idea for Minnesota to trade Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh for Phil Kessel, you might still be in luck. Kessel reportedly vetoed the deal, but TSN's Bob McKenzie said on his podcast Friday, "I wouldn't be surprised if, at some point, it gets done."

That just leaves a large majority to sweat it out this month.