Complacent Twins Front Office Stands Pat at the Trade Deadline

[Loops]

With the current team I have no problem with this strategy. Yes we can win the lowly Central. Beyond that we are going nowhere. We have more problems than one or two players we might get in a trade. Odds would be good they would be rentals. Plus you would be once again probably stealing from our already dwindling farm team. We aren't as rich in talent down there as we used to be because of past trades. I am not sure what we do. Bring up players from the minors to see how they perform, then work in the off-season with that knowledge to try and build a competitive team. Shake up management and coaches. Going about like we have been has been a disaster. We need more thought than a knee jerk reaction to win the division.

[SwainZag]

4 hours ago, USAFChief said:

---

Paul Sewald to AZ for nothing is the one that really pisses me off.

He'd have been a nice fit.

 

At first glance it seems it would be comparable to a package of Castro, Larnach and Schobel.  Maybe a little less than that.  Certainly more than nothing. 

[hitterscount]

Guessing there will be some significant changes after this disastrous season is put to rest. Thinking the GM’s were instructed to lay low… with their unremarkable track record of getting fleeced at the trading deadline and an incompetent manager running the sinking ship it was best to do nothing and do no more harm and let the next brain trust figure this mess out. At least that’s my hope.

[old nurse]

10 hours ago, Nick Nelson said:

Trades involve risk. People beg for them all the time and then act shocked when the downside plays out. That's part of playing the game – doesn't mean you shouldn't play it. 

Sitting on your hands and doing nothing might be easier, but entails risk of its own. (It's also much less interesting!)

No trades were made in 1991. That season must have been less interesting than most 

[Dave Borton]

10 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Here's what I find funny: Cleveland has so little fear of us that they turned themselves into sellers and are probably still certain they can take this thing.

Would LOVE to hear Francona's input into these moves.

WSox have redefined a "bench clearing" episode.

[TL]

I'm ambivalent about the lack of deadline activity as I am gun shy about trading a decent prospect (Schoebel level?) for a rental given what happened last year and what we still have coming back.

That said, I wonder if there is still another avenue to add a med/high leverage RP in August. There were too many buyers at the deadline and some of them will fall out of it in August. That could cause them to jettison some more expensive relief pitchers or role players (bat that mashes LH pitching?) on expiring contracts to make way for younger players. The Twins are toward the bottom of the contending teams and so may have first pick at nabbing one or two of them for nothing but cash.

[Dave Borton]

8 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I still think this is a good team, waiting for the spark Royce Lewis will surely bring soon.

"Good team" based on potential, but not based on performance which counts. While I love Lewis' enthusiasm for the game, it shouldn't take a young ballplayer to light the fire of a $163MM payroll-ed team.

Something is amiss in the clubhouse and leadership present. 

[Peter]

No trades are the best trades. I was against this at first but now im on with nothing happening. We need to bear down and ride with twins in closing out division.

[UK Twin]

Given Duran has been inconsistent of late I would have liked another closer brought in. Not too fussed about not bringing in a RH bat - players like Correa and Buxton simply need to step up. But there were so many rental bullpen arms available I am disappointed we didn't get one in. 

[bighat]

12 hours ago, rwilfong86 said:

After last season, I'm okay with this. 

I couldn't agree more. Thrilled they didn't mortgage the future. 

In order to really improve at the trade deadline, you've got to have a pretty complete team already in place. A bat and a bullpen arm can patch a few holes and provide some lift to teams that just need that extra boost. 

This team would need to add 5-6 major pieces to realistically be competitive in October. There was no way they could improve this team enough to be relevant, no matter how much they gave away. 

Looking forward to '24. 

[Dave Borton]

47 minutes ago, bighat said:

Looking forward to '24.

Ouch.

I know my attention now shifts to other division games/races to which I will listen. Lost a measure of interest in the Twins and other divisional games will carry more interest.

Winter trade session will be tough. Buxton has healed as much as he will so he clogs the DH. Will need a CF. Kepler/Gallo gone. Can Larnech and Wallner carry the corners? No Lewis experiment in OF, please.

Polanco's wheels are finished so they will have Julien working all winter on his defense. Kirilloff will cover 1st, Lewis at 3rd. How to work Lee in?

SP: Gray gone, Maeda resigned. Ryan, Lewis, Ober. Will need another arm.

C: Jeffers will get most of duty; saddled w/Vazquez thru '25.

BP: Good grief. Your guess is as good as mine. 

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Strangely comfortable with this.

[Johnny Ringo]

The telling thing is that they did NOTHING. This team did not warrant major commitment. My philosophy was: buy them a coffee, not a ring. That sort of thing.  Trading Maeda and calling up Keuchel seemed an easy way to improve for instance. No prospects gone. No real risk there.

But they did nothing. This is not a team that needs nothing. You don't need several multi-million dollar FO executives to do nothing. So what I would guess this is telling us is that Falvey has been told his services are no longer needed after this year. Please don't disturb the toys for the next kids. I don't how else you could interpret it.  

 

[wabene]

Walker Jenkins is the perfect example of how sometimes you have to ignore handedness in personnel decisions. Obviously they should have selected him regardless of how many lefty bats they already had. What I don't understand is Joey Gallo. Why not a right hander if you are not going to trust one of Wallner or Larnach stepping up? Personally I would've rather they sign no one. Yes Larnach has gotten dinged, but Wallner looks like the type that does the dinging, hello Tim Anderson, lol.

I would've liked at least some bullpen depth, but I am glad Larnach is still around. From here Gallo needs to be a backup, if he is going to be here. When Lewis comes back I don't see how they can keep him around. If they send down Wallner again and keep Gallo, I will flip my wig. 

[theBOMisthebomb]

13 hours ago, CRF said:

It's exactly what I expected, but it's still a huge disappointment. If you think that things are going to improve the rest of the season, with what we've got...your rose colored glasses need an update. 

That's easy enough to say and difficult to counteract your rise colored glasses statement. However, I will try... Correa and Buxton can't really be this awful at the plate. I believe the starting pitching is legitimate and we will not see further regression. If they win the AL Central they get three playoff games at home in the wild card round and this pitching should play to good results in the playoff environment. 

I use the Walmart vision center in Apple Valley for my glasses prescriptions. 

[Baumer67]

Talking about the bullpen, is there any word on how Matt Canterino is progressing with his recovery?  Is he going to pitch at all this year?

[Mike Sixel]

12 minutes ago, Baumer67 said:

Talking about the bullpen, is there any word on how Matt Canterino is progressing with his recovery?  Is he going to pitch at all this year?

 

 

[rv78]

"The goal here is straight-forward and measurable," Falvey said on Monday. "It's to build a sustainable, championship-caliber team, an organization that Twins fans will be proud of." -- Derek Falvey, November 2016

We're still waiting!

Seriously though, how can anyone take this FO at their word? Look at some of the dead wood they have brought in thinking those players were going to make this team better. The biggest mistake, and I was absolutely shocked at the time, was signing Gallo for $11M. How can anyone with any baseball knowledge or common sense think he was going to help this team? Letting Sano take the bus and then signing someone just as bad or worse isn't going to make Twins fans proud. At the very least DFA the guy and move on. Your first mistake was signing him. Don't compound the first mistake by making a second mistake by keeping him around. At least be smart enough to chop one piece of dead wood from the roster.

[rv78]

Based on their past moves at the deadline, I'm happy they didn't do anything drastic. No need making this roster worse than it already is. My only hope is that the reasoning for it, is that the Pohlads have changes in store for next year and the next regime is coming.

[Major League Ready]

8 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Gallo still has a job. 

Pathetic leadership, and I don't usually post words like that. Just awful.

Inaction is a decision, and Gallo isn't as good as either Wallner or Larnach. The young guys have almost universally been better than the veterans..... Maybe the FO should trust their decision to bring them into the system in the first place....

I figured this FO would do nothing. 

Could it be he has a job because Kirilloff is on the IL.  Do we want Solano as our only guy on the roster with significant experience at 1B.  AM I missing someone with 1B experience?

[Major League Ready]

Do nothing last year would have been far better than giving up a bunch of assets for nothing.  If they had blocked players they should have traded Steer and CES and/or a couple pitching prospects for catchers or RH outfield prospects that were near ready.  I would like to have CES for 1B right now and going forward.

[bloomwcjkl]

Fal-Vine have not delivered. Regime change is sometimes necessary.

[Mike Sixel]

17 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

Could it be he has a job because Kirilloff is on the IL.  Do we want Solano as our only guy on the roster with significant experience at 1B.  AM I missing someone with 1B experience?

I was promised promotions in the minors too. .....I see no evidence this FO is doing anything at all. You want to bet on Gallo losing his job?

[mikelink45]

Here is the take from the Athletic: Their only move was a change-of-scenery swap: Jorge López for Dylan Floro. It’s an astonishing lack of activity for a team with real flaws.  If you want the rest - here is the URL.https://theathletic.com/4738208/2023/08/01/mlb-trade-deadline-winners-losers-takeways/?campaign=5888993&source=dailyemail 

[chpettit19]

The FO should've done what Cleveland did...sell without really selling. Cleveland moved Bell, an underperforming "big" FA addition for a flier on an athletic recent 1st rounder. They moved their expiring contract SS for an expiring contract arm so they could then move their more valuable, but not great, arm for a AAA top 100 prospect. They have young guys ready to step in at SS and Naylor available to take all their 1B reps while also replacing Bell with that top 100 prospect (he's hurt so probably won't be a factor until next year). They didn't blow things up, or do any drastic selling. They moved pieces around so their organization fits together better.

The point being that there's a middle ground. Yes, last deadline turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. But you don't have to swing 3 or 4 prospects for multi-year controllable big leaguer deals to make deals. You can make more minor deals that reshape your roster, and organization, without being drastic about things. I didn't expect, or want, big trades (unless it was for 1 of the young Seattle arms), but doing absolutely nothing outside of a "meh" Floro deal is unacceptable to me. This team is flawed. The idea that "getting our injured guys back is going to be as good or better than any trade" is nonsense. This team needs reshaping. If I thought this FO was going to be replaced at the end of the year I'd be more OK with them not doing the reshaping and leaving it up to the next regime, but I don't think that's the case, so I think they really missed the mark by again refusing to accept that their predictions for the current team were wrong, and the players aren't performing how they expected.

[JD-TWINS]

14 hours ago, NeverSeenATwinsPlayoffWin said:

The market was weird this year, and I wish they had added a Brad Hand/Brent Suter/Andrew Chafin/David Peterson. There was no reason to seriously spend for a bat (especially when the market was so thin this year), but you should always look to add mid-leverage relievers at deadlines if you're competing. Unless they plan on running Duran into the ground the way the '16 Cubs used Chapman.

Any mid-level reliever would have had value! They knew yesterday that Stewart is burned up for the year. Not sure how they are going to piece it together now. Gotta get through 2 months. Can live in the playoffs with 6-7 guys in the Pen. Hope Ortega can come back and contribute. Thielbar being effective is a big deal as well.

[Major League Ready]

4 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

The FO should've done what Cleveland did...sell without really selling. Cleveland moved Bell, an underperforming "big" FA addition for a flier on an athletic recent 1st rounder. They moved their expiring contract SS for an expiring contract arm so they could then move their more valuable, but not great, arm for a AAA top 100 prospect. They have young guys ready to step in at SS and Naylor available to take all their 1B reps while also replacing Bell with that top 100 prospect (he's hurt so probably won't be a factor until next year). They didn't blow things up, or do any drastic selling. They moved pieces around so their organization fits together better.

The point being that there's a middle ground. Yes, last deadline turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. But you don't have to swing 3 or 4 prospects for multi-year controllable big leaguer deals to make deals. You can make more minor deals that reshape your roster, and organization, without being drastic about things. I didn't expect, or want, big trades (unless with was for 1 of the young Seattle arms), but doing absolutely nothing outside of a "meh" Floro deal is unacceptable to me. This team is flawed. The idea that "getting our injured guys back is going to be as good or better than any trade" is nonsense. This team needs reshaping. If I thought this FO was going to be replaced at the end of the year I'd be more OK with them not doing the reshaping and leaving it up to the next regime, but I don't think that's the case, so I think they really missed the mark by again refusing to accept that their predictions for the current team were wrong, and the players aren't performing how they expected.

I agree completely in concept but how would that look.  I would have been good with Polanco being traded but was there a market for him right now?  The rest of the IF Correa / Julien and Kirilloff are not going anywhere.  Cron at 1B and Kirilloff to the OF seems like the most viable move they could have made.  None of the OFers that were moved are difference makers IMO.  The best thing they could do there is DFA Gallo but that's not ideal right now with Kirilloff out.

They could have moved one of Gray or Maeda but that would have to be characterized as selling.  What would selling without selling have looked like?

[USAFChief]

7 hours ago, SwainZag said:

At first glance it seems it would be comparable to a package of Castro, Larnach and Schobel.  Maybe a little less than that.  Certainly more than nothing. 

Quite a bit less, in fact. 

 

[gman]

I think the Twins can win the division with a losing record. Does anybody realistically think this team is going to win 90 plus games. Not necessary in this division. I think Gallo is here until Kirilloff is back. Obviously nobody wanted Gallo. Gallo was signed as a backup and as someone else noted they don't have experienced first baseman right now. I think Jeffers has played a few games, along with Kepler about 10 years ago and maybe Farmer, but no one else with current time at first. I don't see who they will release or send down when Lewis is ready to play again. Although they have a few options. How many bodies can they add in August?

Cleveland sold because they weren't concerned about winning this year, but were trying to get better for next. If they lucked into it, so be it. Do they think they can win next year, probably.

The Twins have the 13th worst record in baseball this year, including 4 teams in their own division. Maybe they can win a playoff game. Whoever they play in the playoffs will have a better record then them, or else they will really go on an amazing hot streak the last two months. One thing about it they will have a whole season of playing close, down to the wire, games. Good practice for the playoffs.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

2 hours ago, davidborton said:

Ouch.

I know my attention now shifts to other division games/races to which I will listen. Lost a measure of interest in the Twins and other divisional games will carry more interest.

Winter trade session will be tough. Buxton has healed as much as he will so he clogs the DH. Will need a CF. Kepler/Gallo gone. Can Larnech and Wallner carry the corners? No Lewis experiment in OF, please.

Polanco's wheels are finished so they will have Julien working all winter on his defense. Kirilloff will cover 1st, Lewis at 3rd. How to work Lee in?

SP: Gray gone, Maeda resigned. Ryan, Lewis, Ober. Will need another arm.

C: Jeffers will get most of duty; saddled w/Vazquez thru '25.

BP: Good grief. Your guess is as good as mine. 

Last night's game spoke volumes about Polonco playing 3B. He was moved to 2B because he didn't have the arm nor the legs to play SS, Why should Rocco or the FO expect him to be able to throw accurately and with power from 3B? He was not charged with committing any errors last night, but he committed 2. Put Lewis at 3B. Leave Julian at 2B. Thank Polo for his good play in the past and trade him. The Twins have better, more useful defenders at each IF position, and at utility also. He could be useful at DH however, there is the problem of Buck needing to play DH.