Where Do the Twins Fit All of the Youth

[Riverbrian]

2 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

IDK that they keep Kepler but they have rather limited OF depth next year and the free agent market is thin. The potential Polanco replacements are Lewis / Lee / Severino / Prato / Farmer / Castro / Gordon and Miranda.  Larnach is the only realistic replacement for Kepler.  I would move Kepler readily if the depth chart behind him was six deep as it is with Polanco.

You could move Wallner to RF and Castro / Gordon become options.  Not ideal.

Yeah... I understand the thought process.  

Unfortunately... Just not the logic of Kepler over Polanco from a performance stand point. 

IMO... OF needs to be addressed. I'd rather it be done via Kirilloff or Lewis or Trade or Free Agent or whatever necessary combination of. 

Not signing Polanco but signing Kepler in my mind... Is letting a 7 (Polanco with another option year) go because you have a bunch of sixes and keeping a 5 (Kepler) because you have a bunch of 4's. 

Let's keep the 7 and figure out the 6's and 4's. 😉

[Major League Ready]

2 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Just to clarify, De Leon, Canterino, Mahle, Paddack, Stewart and Gordon, while technically on the 40 man they aren't currently counted.

Alcala, Balazovic, Canterino, Duran, Headrick, Henriquez, Jax, Lopez, Moran, Ober, Ryan, Sands, Varland, Winder, SWR, Paddack
(16 coming back)
Jeffers, Vazquez, Correa, Farmer, Julien, AK, Lewis, Miranda, Polanco, Castro, Kepler, Larnach, Wallner, Buxton
(14 coming back)
Not Back
Taylor, Luplow, Gordon, Gallo, Celestino, Solano, Thielbar, Stewart, Pagan, Ortega, Mahle, Maeda, Keuchel, Gray, Floro, Del Leon.
(16)
So technically they would have 10 spots, but 10 of the guys not coming back are also on the active roster.

So it isn't as easy to say there is plenty of room for the prospects, that is why IMO this offseason they need to trade Larnach or Wallner, and probably Miranda. I don't think they are going to trade Kepler or Polanco because they aren't going to run 5 or 6 young players.

 

 

I also had Henriquez being taken off and Polanco traded so 12 spots.  I have been through the list of who needs to be added and I can't come up with 12 that need to put on the 40 man.  

[Major League Ready]

1 minute ago, Riverbrian said:

Yeah... I understand the thought process.  

Unfortunately... Just not the logic of Kepler over Polanco from a performance stand point. 

IMO... OF needs to be addressed. I'd rather it be done via Kirilloff or Lewis or Trade or Free Agent or whatever necessary combination of. 

Not signing Polanco but signing Kepler in my mind... Is letting a 7 (Polanco with another option year) go because you have a bunch of sixes and keeping a 5 because you have a bunch of 4's. 

Let's keep the 7 and figure out the 4's. 😉

I just don't see it as Polanco VS Kepler.  We have ample options for Polanco so the comparison is do I want some combination of Lewis / Lee / Prato / Severino / Miranda taking his place + $10M to spend on pitching or a RH OFer free agent.

BTW ... I am a Polanco fan.  He has been good for us and I have no problem with them keeping him until one of the others comes up and takes the spot as Julien has and Arraez before him.

[Riverbrian]

14 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

I just don't see it as Polanco VS Kepler. 

Man I'll tell ya... I wish life and baseball was that easy though. 😎

[Mike Sixel]

20 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I still think whether they want to or not, this team needs to put Kiersey on the 40-man roster and give him MLB action to evaluate him, unless they are near certain the Buxton or Lewis will play CF next season.

The CF market is not great next year:

 

Unless they think they can get Bellinger, or think a 35-36-year-old Adam Duvall will cut it, they're going to be in the exact same situation as they are now with the position, which from my view, is not good.

Austin Martin......

[Mike Sixel]

What if....... And I'm not saying to do this...... They traded Julien for a great pitching prospect, plus, and put Lee at second next year.....I actually dreamed or nightmared that last night for some reason. 

[TwinsDr2021]

8 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Austin Martin......

Can't believe the Twins are going to put a 25 year old with no major league experience in Center Field. As of today he has started 5 games in CF this year and 12 last year. He did play 46 in 2021. To me his just a depth option at a few spots next year.

[TwinsDr2021]

9 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

What if....... And I'm not saying to do this...... They traded Julien for a great pitching prospect, plus, and put Lee at second next year.....I actually dreamed or nightmared that last night for some reason. 

Not saying I don't like this, but he has played 1 game (and had no plays) at 2B in 2021 (In the cape cod league). I would love to see them put him there right now in AAA and Martin in CF for the rest of the year.

[Mike Sixel]

1 minute ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Not saying I don't like this, but he has played 1 game (and had no plays) at 2B in 2021 (In the cape cod league). I would love to see them put him there right now in AAA and Martin in CF for the rest of the year.

I mean, for some reason he's only playing a position he has zero chance of playing the next few years. Assuming reasonable health for CC.... I'll never understand that. 

[TwinsDr2021]

47 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

I also had Henriquez being taken off and Polanco traded so 12 spots.  I have been through the list of who needs to be added and I can't come up with 12 that need to put on the 40 man.  

Of course you can't come up with 12, but 12 isn't the number unless every player put on is added to the active roster. Because 11 of the guys you mentioned are currently on the active roster.

 

[TwinsDr2021]

1 minute ago, Mike Sixel said:

I mean, for some reason he's only playing a position he has zero chance of playing the next few years. Assuming reasonable health for CC.... I'll never understand that. 

100% agree, maybe the FO thinks he will be in AAA all next year (why add a guy to the 40 until you have to with some issues they might have and lets be honest he is way cheaper in the future the longer you keep players in the minors) and the plan is for 2025 is to move Correa to third and give Lee the spot.

They do seem to be stubborn on moving some players, it seems like trying Wallner and Julien at first last year hurts them later.  I mean somebody mentioned Jeffers at first but somehow those two can't play 1B? Unless of course they are thinking one or both of them could have more trade value their current position.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Austin Martin......

Yeah, I had missed the memo he'd been playing CF since his return. Martin works for my agenda too. I'm in favor of giving him a look at the MLB level, but I'd rather get to it soon so there's time to evaluate.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Can't believe the Twins are going to put a 25 year old with no major league experience in Center Field. As of today he has started 5 games in CF this year and 12 last year. He did play 46 in 2021. To me his just a depth option at a few spots next year.

I don't see that there's much to lose. Castro is now injured and Taylor has an OBP of .246 since April. There is next to no scenario where replacing Taylor with anyone in AAA is going to actually lose you more games. 

Regardless, this team needs to identify a CF for next year, and it's not Taylor. The Twins are in an extremely rare position where they can both win the division and evaluate young players without much fear.

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, nicksaviking said:

I don't see that there's much to lose. Castro is now injured and Taylor has an OBP of .246 since April. There is next to no scenario where replacing Taylor with anyone in AAA is going to actually lose you more games. 

246? Yikes. Call up Martin!

[Riverbrian]

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

100% agree, maybe the FO thinks he will be in AAA all next year (why add a guy to the 40 until you have to with some issues they might have and lets be honest he is way cheaper in the future the longer you keep players in the minors) and the plan is for 2025 is to move Correa to third and give Lee the spot.

They do seem to be stubborn on moving some players, it seems like trying Wallner and Julien at first last year hurts them later.  I mean somebody mentioned Jeffers at first but somehow those two can't play 1B? Unless of course they are thinking one or both of them could have more trade value their current position.

I wish I knew the answer to this but it is something that I have thought a lot about. 

1. Lots of fans show concern about moving players to positions that they don't have a lot of experience playing. Yet these moves to lesser played positions happen a lot due to necessity and very rarely does it turn out to be the disaster worthy of the concern expressed by fans. 

2. Despite these position switches happening often enough that every front office should be aware of the almost inevitable need to move a player to a position they have little to no experience at mid-season. Teams typically don't expose players to multiple positions in the minor leagues as preparation for these changes.

3. If a player like Brooks Lee (For Example) is knocking on the major league door and playing SS exclusively with Carlos Correa entrenched at the position in the majors. If a player like Brooks Lee is ready to help the major league club win games. The ability to play multiple positions opens up more major league doors for him to walk through. Front offices don't know where the door is going to open. The ability to play multiple positions makes Brooks the first call up if there is an injury anywhere besides P and C instead of waiting for Correa to go down before calling up your best player. 

4. Yet... what typically happens is that a Brooks Lee is installed as an every day player at another position other than SS with little experience at that other position and that's how you end up with Spencer Steer playing OF out of necessity.  

What does all of this tell me?

Teams don't worry about the position changes on the fly out of necessity or changing team context as much as fans do.

If they worried about it... They would be exposing their best prospects to multiple positions in the minors as an obvious cure to what happens a lot and to get them into the positions of need as soon as possible.   

Take inventory and make it fit. 

[Cris E]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

I mean, for some reason he's only playing a position he has zero chance of playing the next few years. Assuming reasonable health for CC.... I'll never understand that. 

They may have two things in mind:

1. He's not coming up for a bunch of months while he works on his hitting at AAA so he may as well play his primary position. And there's no guarantee that 2B or 3B will be open when he's ready either, so don't try timing the market and just stick to basic development and don't distract him with potentially irrelevant duties.

2. One bad slide and we could have a huge opening at SS. Correa has a long injury history and a scary looking ankle so the future could be closer than any of us want to admit and having Lee fully ready would look really smart on that dark day.

 

[Mike Sixel]

3 minutes ago, Cris E said:

They may have two things in mind:

1. He's not coming up for a bunch of months while he works on his hitting at AAA so he may as well play his primary position. And there's no guarantee that 2B or 3B will be open when he's ready either, so don't try timing the market and just stick to basic development and don't distract him with potentially irrelevant duties.

2. One bad slide and we could have a huge opening at SS. Correa has a long injury history and a scary looking ankle so the future could be closer than any of us want to admit and having Lee fully ready would look really smart on that dark day.

 

If you want Lee on the team, IMO, you put him at a position he'll be playing......if all you do is hedge your bets, he's never going to be ready for another position. How much further along would Martin be defensively had they moved him to the OF or 2B sooner?