A Few Under-The-Radar Trade Targets for the Twins

[D.C Twins]

11 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

You are not alone expressing this and I understand why it's being expressed but I'll never understand.  

This pitching staff is real good.

Unfortunately real good for numerous 3-1, 2-1, 1-0 etc losses with our current offense   offence. 

[D.C Twins]

Trading more prospects at the deadline for this team is only going to add more years to the eventual rebuild... 

[gman]

3 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Can you show the math on this?

We can easily open up 8-10 spots next offseason, but adding 1 player now changes all that?

 

 

You seperated what I said. Try reading it like I wrote it. I could start with 1=1 = 2 if that would help.

[Riverbrian]

16 minutes ago, D.C Twins said:

Unfortunately real good for numerous 3-1, 2-1, 1-0 etc losses with our current offense   offence. 

So let's do something about it. 

[Mike Sixel]

17 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

So let's do something about it. 

There is no evidence of that coming. I hope to be wrong. 

[Riverbrian]

24 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

There is no evidence of that coming. I hope to be wrong. 

I'm not seeing it either. We should stop looking at the same spots. 

I'll look over here and you look over there and use the 2-way if you see something. 😁

[DocBauer]

As a Twins fan, I often struggle being a pessimistic optimist. (This also applies, even more so, as a Vikings fan, lol).

The Twins have one of the top 3 rotations in all of MLB, even with the Mahle injury, and the start/stop/re-start of Maeda. Having Varland sitting at AAA is a HUGE luxury. My goodness, the kid was solid in 2022, and looked great his first 7 starts here in 2023 before he suddenly struggled. He's shown more than enough to show future potential though. And week to week, month to month, the pen has hung around 10-15 in MLB from my understanding despite injuries and a few disappointments.

I DON'T want to waste pitching that we haven't seen in YEARS or waste an opportunity to make some noise.

We all know the offense is the issue. Everyone in baseball knows the offense is the issue. But how do you correct that mid season? The system is not devoid of young talent, even though MOST of it is either in A ball, already with the Twins, or sitting at AAA waiting for opportunity, or still rehabbing from injuries. 

But while the system wasn't DESIMATED by the trades in 2022, we did give away a nice little group of talent. So how much are we willing to give up to add more? A really good 2022 draft, and the potential of the upcoming one, adds talent back in to the system. But how much more are we willing to give up to add for this year?

I don't know that a single good bat does a lot for an offense that is struggling this poorly. So we add 2? At what cost?

Julien, Kirilloff, and Lewis offer hope for the present as well as being part of the future. Unfortunately, Lewis is now gone until August. A HUGE blow! 

Correa and Buxton need to continue to show life and do what they are capable of, otherwise the offense continues to struggle. Role players are doing well, but can't carry the team. 

With even a little bit of good luck/fortune...and this team is DUE...both Stewart and Thielbar will be ready to go early August. That's HUGE for the pen. If Lopez, off his IL stint, has found some grounding, and can continue with whatever therapy he's undertaking...and I say this with concern and sensitivity...being even 80-85% of the arm we traded for, and can be, adds another quality arm for the pen. And there are still a few weeks left to audition Balazovic, Ortega, and even Sands, (putting up pretty good numbers this year in SSS), to see if someone can emerge as an option for the pen as well. 

I'd focus on a solid BP arm that is good, solid, proven, and there are a few in these recent threads. But I'd stop at anyone that costs a lot. Blindly faithful or optimistic, I still like a lot of what we have with just a little bit of the good fortune I mentioned. A good, inexpensive rental might be perfect. A good, solid, inexpensive veteran rental who we might re-sign this offseason. That's my #1.

With the offense being what it is, I have no illusions the Twins are a WS contender. I DO BELIEVE they are better, based on talent, than their record, and the best of the ALC. As a fan, I DO BELIEVE that having that flag to fly forever is still a good thing. I DO BELIEVE that having an opening playoff round AT HOME with a chance to maybe actually win that opening round, is a good thing. Hell, winning might just invigorate ownership, the FO, the players, the system, and even the fans for 2024.

I believe winning breeds confidence and a winning attitude.

I DON'T want to sacrifice the future by emptying out the system for a couple of bats that can't do it all by themselves.

I'd bring in that 1 solid BP piece.

I'd look really hard at a veteran bat who can bring a spark. I like the Turner idea. I don't think Goldschmit from the Cards is viable for many reasons.

I have no opinion on Pham as a person. But since he was also mentioned, does he come cheap? Does he fit? 

I still have a really hard time looking around baseball at other teams trending toward youth and doing well, and recognizing that in addition to Correa and Buxton needing to lead the way, our corner OF production is amongst the worst in MLB. A couple good weeks of Gallo and Kepler...which have been great...doesn't erase generally disappointing results from Gallo, and 3 seasons of decline from Kepler. I have no ill well to either, but when things aren't working, changes have to be made.

WITHOUT giving any consistent opportunity to Larnach and Wallner, we are willing to trade prospects for corner OF rentals? This is where I have a serious disagreement with the FO. We've almost reached the point where it's just too late to make any sort of accurate decision on what the younger options might do. 

And that's a shame for this year, and beyond.

The tragic and convoluted thing is, to bring in a corner OF bat at the deadline, or even a CF option, means moving on from someone else. But that was a move the FO didn't want to do the previous 30 days or more, to see if they might already have as good or better options. So, theoretically, they would have to move on from Gallo or Kepler at this point to add someone else, with prospect cost, in a trade. When they might have FIRST, tried what was already on hand.

I DO generally like most everything the FO has done the past 7yrs. I even like most all of what they did this offseason. What I DON'T LIKE is their stubbornness to change when it's obviously not working. And that's terribly ironic in the fact that they have affected so much change throughout the entire system of the organization. 

Sorry I'm on a SOAPBOX at the moment, but I'm really FRUSTRATED right now with our team! We should be 10-15 games above .500 with the pitching and talent on hand!

1] Hedge your bets and bring in a solid BP that doesn't cost a lot, who you can re-sign if he doesn't have another year

2] DON'T break the prospect bank, but bring in a solid, veteran bat who can help and maybe provide a spark.

3] Time is running out. Remember you might be a patient FO in regard to offseason moves, but remember you are also an AGGRESSIVE FO for CHANGE.

And when what you are doing doesn't change, change what you are doing.

 

 

[USAFChief]

2 hours ago, gman said:

You seperated what I said. Try reading it like I wrote it. 

Maybe try paragraphs?

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

I'm not seeing it either. We should stop looking at the same spots. 

I'll look over here and you look over there and use the 2-way if you see something. 😁

Can't seem to clear this, so I'll just add that I vacuumed and didn't find anything going on, which I'm this case is likely good, unlike the FO fiddling while the season burns

[MTV]

3 hours ago, dxpavelka said:

"Easily replaceable" players would have been gone long ago.

If that was true Kepler and Pagan should’ve been gone last year. This front office has to act on the new and give up on the old and underperforming

[dxpavelka]

30 minutes ago, MTV said:

If that was true Kepler and Pagan should’ve been gone last year. This front office has to act on the new and give up on the old and underperforming

Obviously their opinion differs from yours.

[Brandon]

If we are all in right now we acquire Goldschmidt and Turner and maybe Pham and trade Kepler for a prospect maybe Polanco too and acquire a reliever too.  

 

[Major League Ready]

16 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Can you show the math on this?

We can easily open up 8-10 spots next offseason, but adding 1 player now changes all that?

 

 

These 7 are expiring .....

Sonny Gray / Kenta Maeda / Tyler Mahle / Emilio Pagán / Donovan Solano / Joey Gallo / Michael A. Taylor.

José De León will be cut.  Kepler's option is probably not executed.  Ronny Henriquez and Gilberto Celestino would be no big loss.  The depth at 2B makes it logical to move one of Farrmer / Polanco / Julien. 

Gman's statement of the potential to cut 10 from the 40-man is well-founded and quite reasonable.  However, adding one probably does not change the equation because we probably give up someone off the 40 man in trade to the addition.

[Vanimal46]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:42 AM, Riverbrian said:

You are not alone expressing this and I understand why it's being expressed but I'll never understand.  

This pitching staff is real good.

You’ve seen the offense, yeah? That may help you understand why it’s being expressed. 

[Riverbrian]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

You’ve seen the offense, yeah? That may help you understand why it’s being expressed. 

I have... So make it better. Support the pitching. 

[Vanimal46]

Just now, Riverbrian said:

I have... So make it better. Support the pitching. 

That will be pretty darn expensive to acquire 2 top of the order bats. The pitching staff will still be quite good, probably good enough to win a playoff game, even without one or more of Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda, Caleb Thielbar, or Emilio Pagan. 

[Riverbrian]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

That will be pretty darn expensive to acquire 2 top of the order bats. The pitching staff will still be quite good, probably good enough to win a playoff game, even without one or more of Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda, Caleb Thielbar, or Emilio Pagan. 

You can improve this offense through subtraction as well as addition. 

[Vanimal46]

2 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

You can improve this offense through subtraction as well as addition. 

Yep. How much improvement? Not enough IMO. My thoughts on this are still the same as a couple of weeks ago.  I have little to no interest in supplementing this team further trading prospects for veteran talent. 

[Riverbrian]

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

Yep. How much improvement? Not enough IMO. My thoughts on this are still the same as a couple of weeks ago.  I have little to no interest in supplementing this team further trading prospects for veteran talent. 

It shouldn't be as expensive as trying to acquire starting pitching like we did last year. 

[Vanimal46]

4 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

It shouldn't be as expensive as trying to acquire starting pitching like we did last year. 

You’re right. The system is pretty depleted as it is. There’s a reason why we’re all rooting for Julien to do well. He’s the only option.