Your worst (and realistic) offseason nightmare

[kab21]

Mike Pelfrey (matching Milone) has been the Twins best starter this season with a 3.69 ERA.  A lot has been made of Hughes, Santana, Nolasco and Milone blocking young pitchers but my worst nightmare is that the Twins bring back Pelfrey to go with them.  I cannot imagine the reaction on this board if that happened. 

 

So what is your worst Twins offseason nightmare?  I know resigning Hunter will be a popular choice.

 

And pick realistic options.  Trading Sano for Jose Reyes is truly a nightmare but not one that is going to happen.

[drock2190]

Resigning Hunter and Pelfrey. Trading Arcia for relief help. I can accept if they bring Hunter back on a 3-4 million backup role though. Pelfrey no.

 

If they avoid these scenarios, I just might be optimistic about them next year.

[Rosterman]

Pelfrey is pitching for his next contract. He may not get the multi-year offer. If he is reasonable, you can't oputright say no (yes you can). Same with Milone. The Twins have to weigh heavily if he is worth x-amount in arbitration. 

 

Like Hunter, who WON'T get a $10 million offer for sure. And will he play for how much less. Will he play for a Thome-like contract, where he is basically a bench player with the better option that you CAN put him in the field if someone is injured, and you don't need to pinch-run for him on base.

 

September and Arcia and Vargas will have something to say.

 

A decision on May and Meyer as future starters is also a big "If" for the Twins. Right now, they have enough. But it is nice to have 7-9 arms...right? Left?

[sane]

"But it is nice to have 7-9 arms...right? Left?"

 

If we are lucky, each pitcher will have two, so he can field come-backers.

[Mike Sixel]

Doing nothing about catcher.

[Jerr]

Geesh after this series? No thoughts off nightmares or off season...WE ARE STILL PLAYING     

[jorgenswest]

Team friendly contracts for mediocre players.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Doing nothing about catcher.

This. I think the Hunter/Pelfrey stuff is kinda laughable.

[jorgenswest]

Minor league contracts to veterans in their thirties.

[curt1965]

The Twins bring back the same 8-9-10 relievers next year with no new faces.

[Halsey Hall]

Not letting Poof go in one form or another would just ruin any further Twins baseball for me. 

[goulik]

Oliveros gets a chance with another team and keeps his ERA below 3.00 all year.

Vargas or Arcia traded for peanuts and they light it up next year.

Signing another #3 free agent pitcher for 3-4 years

Entering next Spring without addressing the bullpen, catcher or Shortstop

[USAFChief]

Oliveros gets a chance with another team and keeps his ERA below 3.00 all year.

Vargas or Arcia traded for peanuts and they light it up next year.

Signing another #3 free agent pitcher for 3-4 years

Entering next Spring without addressing the bullpen, catcher or Shortstop

That you go four for four.

[Champuckett]

Worst: We sign/trade for zero new starting pitchers.  It seems like they improved over last year, at least for the first half of the season, but we are seeing them average back out.  Something has to be done.  Would be nice to see 1 or 2 solid signings and I can't think of anything worse with our starters than holding onto Pelfrey, despite his decent first half.

 

Best: We obtain a good shortstop and move someone to first that actually has power.  We use Joe Mauer somehow in a deal for a shortstop, even if it means paying a partial amount of his salary for the rest of his contract.

 

If even 1 thing related to any of the above happens, I will be happy.

[PseudoSABR]

Ricky Nolasco extension.

[twinsnorth49]

Not addressing catcher, no brainer.

[howeda7]

I was going to say Pelfrey coming back. But Sazuki's resurgence makes 'doing nothing at catcher' all too likely. Torii coming back is also a big no, but at least Mollie's already showing he won't play him every day if he plays like this.

[Thegrin]

they rehire Molitor 

[Blackjack]

You guys are setting yourself up for a lot of disapointment if you think that the Twins are going to get a catcher. They like Suzuki and the pitchers like throwing to him, barring a major injury, in my opinion he'll be the starting catcher next year.  The Twins aren't known for making major trades, and especially won't do it for a position that they think they have filled.

 

They might trade for a better backup or sign a marginal free agent catcher but I think a more likely scenario is Turner or Garver playing themselves into a 50-50% playing time ratio with Suzuki by this time next year. 

[HitInAPinch]

Off-seaon nightmare scenario?  That's an easy one:  The Twins actually squeaking into the playoffs.

Shortly after the Twins are kicked out of the playoffs, you'll hear this from management and ownership:

 

We had a successful year and made it to the playoffs.  No need to make changes......

[nicksaviking]

 

Worst: We sign/trade for zero new starting pitchers.  It seems like they improved over last year, at least for the first half of the season, but we are seeing them average back out.  Something has to be done.  Would be nice to see 1 or 2 solid signings and I can't think of anything worse with our starters than holding onto Pelfrey, despite his decent first half.

 

 

Signing more starters would be my worst case scenario.  Where would 1-2 new starters fit in? What happens to May, Berrios and Duffey?  I'd rather see them than the vets that they already have under contract.

[Platoon]

Off-seaon nightmare scenario?  That's an easy one:  The Twins actually squeaking into the playoffs.

Shortly after the Twins are kicked out of the playoffs, you'll hear this from management and ownership:

 

We had a successful year and made it to the playoffs.  No need to make changes......

To a point I concur. And the reason is, the only thing that drives TR to movement is abject failure. It took 4 90 lose seasons to move a manager, a bullpen that was ludicrous (and some injuries) to force change, and in all likelihood an injury to bring Buxton back. The only flaw in your argument is that we are already considered successful by management as the bar was pretty low. As for the Suzuki and Hunter fans, fear not! Your jerseys will still be in vogue next year!

[dbminn]

Suzuki will be back but that's not a nightmare. Resigning Hunter would be close to the nightmare bar. Pelfrey would be a nightmare because it would clog up the path for the younger pitchers. The Santana signing was a nightmare from the beginning for me, even if he'd been available the entire season.

 

But... Buxton or Sano getting hurt would be the definition of a horrible nightmare!

 

My best dreams are a crafty trade for a young catcher, a somewhat resurgent Mauer and at least one of the RP prospects stepping up next year.

 

One more nightmare - and this one will be become true: all of the second guessing that will occur whenever the FO makes a trade!

[Shane Wahl]

Major injury to Buxton, Sano, or Berrios tops all for me, even more than this catching debacle.

 

1. Such an injury

2. Not trading for a young good catcher

3. Re-signing Hunter

4. Re-signing Pelfrey

5. Re-signing Milone

6. Not trading Plouffe (probably related to 2).

[Mike Sixel]

Suzuki being back =/= doing nothing about catcher......

[RaymondLuxuryYacht]

My nightmare is that the Twins finish off an exciting series sweep and the usual suspects can't find anything to talk about but to complain about hypothetical situations.

 

Oh . . .  wait . . .

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

You guys are setting yourself up for a lot of disapointment if you think that the Twins are going to get a catcher. They like Suzuki and the pitchers like throwing to him, barring a major injury, in my opinion he'll be the starting catcher next year.  The Twins aren't known for making major trades, and especially won't do it for a position that they think they have filled.

I don't know about that.  It's kinda like the Nick Punto situation.  Punto was great in 2006/2008, was given the starting job in 2007/2009 and struggled, and we went out and acquired new starting options at his position(s) for the following seasons.  They liked Punto a lot, liked giving him a role on the team, even paid him close to what they are paying Suzuki now with inflation -- but they also had no problem bringing in another option to start when he struggled like Suzuki has in 2015.

 

You're right that it won't necessarily be a young guy or major acquisition, maybe the catching equivalent of the Lamb/Harris/Hudson/Hardy types who replaced Punto, but I'd kinda be surprised if the Twins do nothing at the position -- the internal options are just way too far away right now.  And Suzuki was a backup and paid accordingly when we acquired him a year and half ago, so it's not like the Twins should feel obligated to keep running him out there as primary starter after a year like 2015.

[Squirrel]

 

My nightmare is that the Twins finish off an exciting series sweep and the usual suspects can't find anything to talk about but to complain about hypothetical situations.

 

Oh . . .  wait . . .

Please keep to topic. If you don't like a topic, no one is compelling you to read it. I think the OP made it pretty clear he/she was asking for realistic, off-season hypotheticals. I don't think that is an unreasonable discussion, as long as it stays to that.

 

For others: Please keep to topic and stop making sarcastic posts that are nothing but trolling or baiting.

[Otto von Ballpark]

My worst nightmare is Rob Manfred, in his role as MLB commissioner/moderator, bans the Twins from the postseason despite their qualifying record, for "baiting and trolling" the MLB regular season.  

[theJemmer]

Reusse announced last night on Sports Show that Hunter will not be back -  his  decision not Twins.  He wants to play another year, every day, and doesn't want to block Rosario, Buxton, Hicks