The Clock is Ticking on the Twins' Roster

[Larry Janisewski]

On 6/10/2023 at 10:47 AM, Nashvilletwin said:

Beating a dead horse here, but I honestly don’t care if I ever see another AB in a Twins uniform from Kepler, Solano, Garlick, and Gallo. I wouldn’t cry if Castro and MAT were included as well (but for one reason or another, they are pretty much earning their keep). I’m just not interested in developing any further fan-player attachment with a player who will certainly not be a Twin next season and continues to flail away while taking critical ABs away from what should be our more quickly developing future core.

Joining Lewis and Kiriloff getting regular ABs and innings should be Miranda, Larnach, Julien and Wallner.  Lee should join this group in September. It’s time to invest and give these kids the experience and show them the confidence they deserve. Moreover, they’d be way more interesting to watch and do we honestly believe they could perform much worse than the players they would be replacing?

Except for Wallner, but including the injured Gordon, I think all of these prospects have been consensus Top 100s at some point. I have no idea why young player development at the MAJOR LEAGUE level is not one of, if not the single, most important criteria for our manager and his staff. We have a treasure trove of talent and at some point someone needs to be held responsible for developing it. I’m afraid we are letting it atrophy while also losing the opportunity to build deep fan enthusiasm by playing a bunch of one year, mediocre at best vet rentals. At the end of the day, it appears the buck will have to stop with the Nephew.

Agree about it being more fun to watch the 'young' hitters than guys like Kepler and Garlick. Lewis, Julien, Wallner, and even Larnach look like they have a plan for their at bats instead of just flailing at every pitch they see.

[USAFChief]

On 6/11/2023 at 7:38 AM, Doctor Wu said:

I honestly don't think the idea of trading Kepler is remotely realistic at this point. He's too old and too streaky. 

I agree the idea of Trading Kepler is unlikely at best.

However, it's not because he's too streaky. He's maddeningly consistent. That's the issue. Entire seasons of "meh."

[Richard]

The Twins have the pieces we need to win a ring.  They have an outstanding rotation and the best closer in the league.  We have a shortstop who is under producing a tad but history shows that he'll pick it up.  There are a ton of teams who can't say that.  We have young pieces like Lewis and Julien.  I think we just need to change the scenery for some guys and hope to find something with that.  If you look at who else we have, Kepler and Polanco have been on the team their entire careers.  Maybe a change of scene will benefit both of them.  The worst that can happen is we take a chance on some new players and we stay how we are.  We can't get much worse.