Article: Sho Time: Could The Twins Really Land Ohtani?

[laloesch]

Look at the teams he is eliminating, in favor of San Diego and the Angels

He wants to play on the west coast, likely either the Mariners or Giants. "Ohtani also added that he would be excited if he were on a team on the West Coast in a smaller market." according to Ben Weinrib / MLB.com

 

Yankees definitely out as his representatives informed Yankees execs. that they will not be invited to make a presentation.

 

"A source told MLB.com executive reporter Mark Feinsand that the Twins also had been eliminated from contention to sign Ohtani." according to Ben Weinrib / MLB.com

 

damn...

Edited December 3, 2017 by laloesch

[Mill1634]

 

He wants to play on the west coast, likely either the Mariners or Giants. "Ohtani also added that he would be excited if he were a team on the West Coast in a smaller market." according to Ben Weinrib / MLB.com

Yankees definitely out as his representatives informed Yankees execs. that they will not be invited to make a presentation.

"A source told MLB.com executive reporter Mark Feinsand that the Twins also had been eliminated from contention to sign Ohtani." according to Ben Weinrib / MLB.com

The Giants may have Stanton and Ohtani, and I still don't think they make the playoffs. Also, him playing in the NL doesn't make a ton of sense to me. 

[jimmer]

The Giants may have Stanton and Ohtani, and I still don't think they make the playoffs. Also, him playing in the NL doesn't make a ton of sense to me.

why NL? He gets to bat and could very well be a PH.

[Mill1634]

 

why NL? He gets to bat and could very well be a PH.

AL makes much more sense. Start, off-day, DH, DH, Start. on the start days you just play without a DH

[Twins33]

This seems to bring truth to the rumor that he already has a top five since he's eliminating teams so quickly. Still many teams to drop, but that was the speculation out of Japan (though the Yankees were on that list so that part was wrong).

Edited December 4, 2017 by Twins33

[GP830]

Does this mean Masa Abe is now out of a job?

[Twins33]

Does this mean Masa Abe is now out of a job?

Maybe Darvish loves Abe

[Thrylos]

I think that there is way too much information, including conflicting information out there.  Allegedly he is inviting a handful of teams to meet with him in LA next week.  We will find out which teams are the finalists.

 

Re: west coast small markets.    There really is not such a beast.  Seattle is a close to 4 million metro and the headquarters of Microsoft and Amazon.  San Diego is a 3 million metro with the highest real estate $ in the country (in the desirable areas).

There are teams that fans do not like (Padres, A's), but small markets they are not.  Same situation with the Marlins.  Miami is not a small market.  They just fail to capture it...

 

One more thing re small markets in the west coast:

Median household income: LA $55,870, San Diego: $63,996, Seattle: $75,331, San Fransisco: $78,378  (Twin Cities $71,008)

Edited December 4, 2017 by Thrylos

[PseudoSABR]

Now do we trade the Int'l pool money or sign some former Brave prospects...

[drjim]

Now do we trade the Int'l pool money or sign some former Brave prospects...

I hope they have a plan for the $3+ mil. Hopefully they do both.

[jud6312]

Well, it was a nice pipe dream to have for a few weeks.

 

Now let's settle back into reality and overpay for Mike Fiers and Chi Chi Gonzalez.

[DaveW]

The good news is the twins are just as good as ever in being “interested” in great Free Agents.

 

Hopefully one of these days we will sign one!

[DaveW]

Seattle is the no brainer to get him. Good fit all around, at least he will end up with my #2 team!

[Thrylos]

 

The good news is the twins are just as good as ever in being “interested” in great Free Agents.

Hopefully one of these days we will sign one!

 

It takes two to Tango.  Otani was not interested in the Twins...

[laloesch]

It takes two to Tango. Otani was not interested in the Twins...

At least they (Twins FO) tried to play the part, doesn't help there overall situation though.

Edited December 4, 2017 by laloesch

[Twins33]

The good news is the twins are just as good as ever in being “interested” in great Free Agents.

Hopefully one of these days we will sign one!

I'd disagree on that. The "great" part at least.

 

This is the first time I can recall the Twins being interested in a top SP available (Darvish). Never heard the Twins interested in Greinke, Price, or Scherzer when TR was the GM.

 

Pretty confident that they never even talked to them at all. This is a change. They still may not get a Darvish and can pull the "we tried" thing (though this is a different FO), but no way TR would be talking to Darvish right now. This FO is.

 

This is just my opinion but I'm not even sure TR would have went after Lynn this offseason if he was the GM. A Hellickson or Cashner seems more his top level.

[DaveW]

It takes two to Tango. Otani was not interested in the Twins...

Sounds like the new FO could have done a better job then. All I hear is how great and ahead of the curve they are, yet they haven’t made one real move yet to make this team better now or in the future other then Jason castro, who ended up being about a 1.5 WAR guy anyways.

 

All this “talk” about being in on good players is just talk until they actually make a move, color me skeptical for now.

Edited December 4, 2017 by DaveW

[DaveW]

I'd disagree on that. The "great" part at least.

 

This is the first time I can recall the Twins being interested in a top SP available (Darvish). Never heard the Twins interested in Greinke, Price, or Scherzer when TR was the GM.

 

Pretty confident that they never even talked to them at all. This is a change. They still may not get a Darvish and can pull the "we tried" thing (though this is a different FO), but no way TR would be talking to Darvish right now. This FO is.

 

This is just my opinion but I'm not even sure TR would have went after Lynn this offseason if he was the GM. A Hellickson or Cashner seems more his top level.

We have no idea who the twins were or were not interested in, TR and his FO notoriously played it close to the vest and didn’t leak much of anything.

 

This FO decided to come out and say they were going hard after Ohtani, but didn’t even end up as a finalist. Basically the same result, just more bluster.

 

I’m a results guy personally. Talk is talk.

[Thrylos]

 

Sounds like the new FO could have done a better job then.

 

Well, Pohlad could have moved the team to the West Coast.  This is what it would have taken to sign Otani.  He wants to live and play there.

Geography did not help the Twins.  Nothing that the FO could have done.

[laloesch]

We have no idea who the twins were or were not interested in, TR and his FO notoriously played it close to the vest and didn’t leak much of anything.

This FO decided to come out and say they were going hard after Ohtani, but didn’t even end up as a finalist. Basically the same result, just more bluster.

I’m a results guy personally. Talk is talk.

Exactly.

[sthpstm]

 

We have no idea who the twins were or were not interested in, TR and his FO notoriously played it close to the vest and didn’t leak much of anything.

This FO decided to come out and say they were going hard after Ohtani, but didn’t even end up as a finalist. Basically the same result, just more bluster.

I’m a results guy personally. Talk is talk.

This is just beyond ridiculous.

He wants to play on the west coast; but let's blame Falvey and Levine for the location of Minneapolis. Or maybe it's because the Pohlads are cheap.

The only blame here is on Ohtani and his representatives. How can you make every team put in time and effort (aka money) to give you a presentation when 2/3 or the teams have no chance regardless of that presentation?

[drjim]

 

We have no idea who the twins were or were not interested in, TR and his FO notoriously played it close to the vest and didn’t leak much of anything.

This FO decided to come out and say they were going hard after Ohtani, but didn’t even end up as a finalist. Basically the same result, just more bluster.

I’m a results guy personally. Talk is talk.

 

They're going to sign Cobb, a couple of the non top-tier relievers, and a veteran bat on the cheap and it will be a masterstroke that Terry Ryan could not have pulled off.

[Guest]

We have no idea who the twins were or were not interested in, TR and his FO notoriously played it close to the vest and didn’t leak much of anything.

This FO decided to come out and say they were going hard after Ohtani, but didn’t even end up as a finalist. Basically the same result, just more bluster.

I’m a results guy personally. Talk is talk.

Seems like last year’s results were pretty good. If you’re going to measure a GM by big trades and free agent signings, instead of by performance, you should love Dipoto and Preller, who haven’t won anything but have made repeated big splashes and also had the intelligence to locate their teams in cities desired by Ohtani.

[Twins33]

We have no idea who the twins were or were not interested in, TR and his FO notoriously played it close to the vest and didn’t leak much of anything.

This FO decided to come out and say they were going hard after Ohtani, but didn’t even end up as a finalist. Basically the same result, just more bluster.

I’m a results guy personally. Talk is talk.

So you are going to assume the Twins talked to those three guys? I know TR kept things more quiet but I don't think he's so good that no one on the planet ever reported that the Twins talked to these players.

 

Doesn't feel very likely especially when players love to use interested teams as leverage against each other. Certainly possible I suppose, but I don't think TR was a magician. It's way too hard to secretly talk to the best most talked about FA and never have the news leak. And to have it happen on multiple players? Those types of players always are the most watched/reported on until they sign.

 

I think we all like results. I'd be surprised if someone said otherwise. If you really thought Ohtani was going to come here, then maybe you were fooled. If I had a choice of any team in MLB, the Twins wouldn't be my first choice either. And I'm from here and love the team. That's just how it is. It sucks. Until top players choose here and/or the Twins are a constant deep playoff contender that's how it's always going to be.

 

Every team was going to try on Ohtani because he's not getting a big contract. Now if this was two years later and Ohtani was looking at a 200M contract then that's going to be limiting. We don't know what the Twins would have done then. I have a pretty strong feeling that TR wouldn't have gone after him because he didn't go after the other high priced foreign players (example: Matsuzaka posted at 51M and basically cost 100+ million to acquire). I didn't want him so I didn't care, but no surprise the Twins weren't near the top of the bidding. I don't even know if they bid at all. No idea what this FO would have done.

 

I think everyone, except east coast biased people, believed he would prefer the west coast. It seemed rather obvious. It's closer to Japan and the weather is better. Maybe that's just an assumption too, like any other, but his list of teams that is now coming out sure is proving that to be true.

 

And honestly, I'd take this FO way of going after guys by leaking the info or reporters finding out via digging. Why? Because at least we know. With TR, we didn't know. And honestly, like I said, since no reporter ever got a whiff of him going after top names...it feels safe to say that he never did. I do not think TR is that good where the player or agent never leak it or a reporter doesn't find out.

 

We basically only have Castro as a measuring stick with this FO. They targeted him and got him. He's not a big fish obviously, but we knew of their interest in him and 2-3 weeks later he signed. We don't know how this offseason is going to play out, but personally I like to hear the names they are interested in. I prefer that to being in the dark. It's still up to the player if they want to come here.

[Mike Sixel]

Shocking he's not coming to Minnesota.

[Mike Sixel]

Seems like last year’s results were pretty good. If you’re going to measure a GM by big trades and free agent signings, instead of by performance, you should love Dipoto and Preller, who haven’t won anything but have made repeated big splashes and also had the intelligence to locate their teams in cities desired by Ohtani.

What did last year have to do with anything the new FO did?

[nicksaviking]

Sounds like the new FO could have done a better job then.

No kidding, they should have borrowed that machine from Rick and Morty that teleported the house and used it to move Minneapolis to the Bay area.

[Guest]

What did last year have to do with anything the new FO did?

Are you speaking rhetorically or do you not think the new FO gets any credit for last year’s results?

[jimmer]

 

Are you speaking rhetorically or do you not think the new FO gets any credit for last year’s results?

Well, LAST year was the 2016 season, THIS year was the 2017 season :-)

[Guest]

Well, LAST year was the 2016 season, THIS year was the 2017 season :-)

I considered it “last year” once the last game in Yankee Stadium ended.