Offseason Status Update: Attrition By Subtraction

[JBK]

Sign a legit DH.

Move Julien back to 2B.  Allow him to improve on the job in the field.

Move Polanco to 1B. AK is hurt too often and inconsistent.

Pray Buxton can play 150 games for once.

[Whitey333]

The best thing that could happen to the Twins is fir the Royals and Tigers to keep signing free agent pitching.  They need competition.  

[HoskenPowell]

23 hours ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

Wasn't Joey Gallo a Boras client?

Boras' only concern is HIS pocketbook.

[Whitey333]

My guess is that if twins cannot obtain a decent starter they will then unload both Polanco and Kepler in separate deals for prospects as part of a continued salary dump.

[HoskenPowell]

1 hour ago, JBK said:

Sign a legit DH.

Move Julien back to 2B.  Allow him to improve on the job in the field.

Move Polanco to 1B. AK is hurt too often and inconsistent.

Pray Buxton can play 150 games for once.

As far as Buxton is concerned you had better lower expectations and PRAY he can play 81 in the field and another 30 at Dh...THAT would be in fantasy land as his career has proven.

MY folks will come back from the grave b4 Buxton plays 150 games.

[David Maro]

Same problem different year!!Can Buxton play or not.Just like last year no one knows if he will be ready to play the 1st game of ST.I think it is long past time to move on if he isn't ready.Everyone knows they need pitching and Polanco will not get them a SP pitcher they need.May get a BP arm at best.Looking at the Tigers and the Royals the Twins will need to be better this year than last.

 

[JD-TWINS]

2 hours ago, JBK said:

Sign a legit DH.

Move Julien back to 2B.  Allow him to improve on the job in the field.

Move Polanco to 1B. AK is hurt too often and inconsistent.

Pray Buxton can play 150 games for once.

I agree Julien deserves a chance to get better over time at 2B. Having him play 2B & Polanco play 1B is two guys “working it out” during games and doesn’t seem to spell winning club.

Praying for Buxton to play 150 games when his 9 year history is averaging less than 70 games per year is something from a dream.

Polanco .235 BA in 108 games in ‘22 & .256 BA in ‘23 in 86 games…………..career BA of .270. He’s unavailable and regressing - acting like he’s more durable than Kirilloff isn’t reality.

The only way Buxton approaches 125 games is if he DH’s 80 games.

[tony&rodney]

Almost nothing has changed since the season ended except the roster budget. Perhaps the Twins are at their limit right now. There is still a decent chance that the team get itself involved in a trade or two. Pretty much every angle has been covered already. It does seem like the end result may be a surprise. The Twins are likely interested in a couple of Marlins pitchers. The Marlins should hold all of Braxton, Luzardo, and Perez but may be willing to trade Cabrera or Meyer for Jeffers or Lee. Not sure this works though.

The Twins are also lurking like every other team around Seattle and may be trying to work out a big trade for Gilbert with Lee or Julien plus Kepler, with the Twins including some money. Again, I'm nor sure this works for both teams. A challenge trade still seems likely. While both Seattle and Minnesota fans would protest loudly and each front office may not be willing to step forward, it makes sense for the teams to complete a Lewis for Kirby trade if Seattle believes in Miller, Woo, and Hancock and Minnesota believes in Lee.

[Kirby Killebrew]

On 12/16/2023 at 2:48 PM, Reptevia said:

There either has to be a salary exchange or dump to afford a real #2 guy.   I doubt any team would give up a real #2 with team control for Polanco, Farmer and Vasquez combined. Unless there’s some team out there that has tons of pitchers and feels they are a starting 2B and a couple depth players away from being contenders. 

I think there's going to have to be a top prospect(s) along with the combo of Polanco, Farmer and/or Vasquez.  

[Kirby Killebrew]

41 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Almost nothing has changed since the season ended except the roster budget. Perhaps the Twins are at their limit right now. There is still a decent chance that the team get itself involved in a trade or two. Pretty much every angle has been covered already. It does seem like the end result may be a surprise. The Twins are likely interested in a couple of Marlins pitchers. The Marlins should hold all of Braxton, Luzardo, and Perez but may be willing to trade Cabrera or Meyer for Jeffers or Lee. Not sure this works though.

The Twins are also lurking like every other team around Seattle and may be trying to work out a big trade for Gilbert with Lee or Julien plus Kepler, with the Twins including some money. Again, I'm nor sure this works for both teams. A challenge trade still seems likely. While both Seattle and Minnesota fans would protest loudly and each front office may not be willing to step forward, it makes sense for the teams to complete a Lewis for Kirby trade if Seattle believes in Miller, Woo, and Hancock and Minnesota believes in Lee.

Wow, trading Lewis ... that would be daring!  But then again, they traded a young AL batting champion a year ago.

[Fatbat]

Easy math is subtracting 7-10 M (vet) and adding 25M for a #2 pitcher and the payroll is still at 135 to 138M.  It can’t be that hard can it?

[Riverbrian]

On 12/16/2023 at 9:59 AM, Nick Nelson said:

It's a respectable roster, which speaks to the quality of the base from which the front office is building this offseason. But there's work to do. How long until they get to it? How long until we have some additions to talk about instead of only attrition and subtraction?

Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner were protected against left handed pitching. They were all pinch hit for very early in games last year. 

I'm not sure how any of us can look at any of these 3 and say covered.

At the very least the Twins are going to need right handed hitters to handcuff them to. 

[Doctor Wu]

It just seems like a shame, a waste, or however else you want to spin it, that the Twins just had their best season in MANY years, and actually won some playoff games, and with all that momentum, it now appears they will be cutting the budget and trying to pick up cheap pieces again to compete next year. Very frustrating. Sure, I understand that these are still early days in the process, but that hasn't stopped the Royals and Tigers from being aggressive in adding players to their rosters. Of course, just adding players isn't the idea, we need to add some quality to this roster. At this point I'm not convinced it's going to happen .

[Major League Ready]

2 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

It just seems like a shame, a waste, or however else you want to spin it, that the Twins just had their best season in MANY years, and actually won some playoff games, and with all that momentum, it now appears they will be cutting the budget and trying to pick up cheap pieces again to compete next year. Very frustrating. Sure, I understand that these are still early days in the process, but that hasn't stopped the Royals and Tigers from being aggressive in adding players to their rosters. Of course, just adding players isn't the idea, we need to add some quality to this roster. At this point I'm not convinced it's going to happen .

1) They had a .537 win percentage last year.  They had .600 and .623 in 2020 and 2019.  Winning one playoff series does not make last year's 87 win team something special.  

2) The players that the Royals and Tigers picked up would not move the needle on this team so what's the point.  You also fail to mention that even with these additions the Tiger's and Royal's payrolls are $20M less than the Twins.

3) The trade market is just now developing.  Therefore, the most compelling options simply are not available yet.  Did you want them to make a bad trade in order to get it done early?  What's the benefit of making a trade in December vs February?

4) Why would you be convinced of anything in December?  If we were to form any opinion at all wouldn't it make sense to examine how this front office has navigated previous off-seasons?  They traded for Lopez on Jan 20th and made several moves after that transaction last year so why would you conclude nothing is going to happen?