The New Tampa Bay Rays = The Twins

[farmerguychris]

We all know that Twins ownership seems to be acting more and more like the Tampa Bay baseball team that has been year in and year out a contender despite having one of the lowest payrolls in baseball annually.

We already have a host of former Rays in our offices as well as a Manager in Rocco that was involved in the day to day operations for the Rays front office himself.

With the recent comments by ownership saying we need to 'right size' our payroll, it lead me to wonder - are there other ideas they would like to emulate from the Rays?

Here is the one that comes to mind that would bother me the most:

The possibility to trading young stars, year in and year out, right as they are starting to get expensive, in exchange for future prospects.

I hate the idea of seeing players such as Royce Lewis play his way into Twins Fans hearts with both his play, and his personality become the face of a different franchise simply because we don't want to pay him what he's worth.  A lot of us get hyped to see how our top prospects such as Walner, Rodriguez, and Jenkins will do once they get to the big leagues.  I hate the idea of following their progress from the draft to the majors only to them see them have their real success for the big spending teams.

While I can't really argue that, while unconventional - the Rays system has, in fact, kept them competitive year in and year out more often than not.  True, the don't seem to have a real fan base - but maybe with revenue sharing, the owners are happy to simply take their profits to the bank and live with a dissatisfied fan base.  On the other hand however - lets be honest.  They haven't won a world series using their style either.

Do you think the Polads would try to become another Rays type of team?

Look forward to your feedback.

[ashbury]

Signing Correa, Buxton and Lopez to significant contracts is one major thing that comes to mind that is un-Tampa-like.

[NotAboutWinning]

7 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Signing Correa, Buxton and Lopez to significant contracts is one major thing that comes to mind that is un-Tampa-like.

Those signings happened before the switch from Jim to Joe. I don't think we'll see any of those going forward. Maybe 1 "face of the franchise" player, but that will be it. We will have the young stars until arbitration raises their prices. They will keep the farm system stocked and ready to backfill. Joe said it pretty clearly... They want to model operations after TB 😕

[ashbury]

23 minutes ago, NotAboutWinning said:

Those signings happened before the switch from Jim to Joe. I don't think we'll see any of those going forward. Maybe 1 "face of the franchise" player, but that will be it. We will have the young stars until arbitration raises their prices. They will keep the farm system stocked and ready to backfill. Joe said it pretty clearly... They want to model operations after TB 😕

The switch to Joe Pohlad is IMO way overhyped. It seems clear to me that he takes direction from higher up than himself.  He doesn't have a stellar track record with previous business ventures (a radio station is one that I recall), so the training wheels are still on for this nepo-baby.  The recent right-sizing of the payroll didn't look to me like Joe's idea at all.

Joe was announced as the executive chair on November 28, 2022. Pablo's contract extension happened in 2023.  Ditto for the re-signing of Correa. 

Buxton's extension was indeed agreed to in 2021. I see a steady-as-she-goes attitude for having a few marquee players at high contract value for them to do marketing with; you're surely right that another such contract at that magnitude probably won't happen until one of these expires. 

I thought this seems qualitatively different than Tampa, but it seems that the Rays do have several players locked up with contracts, though more in the $10M range - in one case very favorably with team options to protect themselves, Brandon Lowe.  With guys like Kepler and Vazquez coming off the books periodically, the Twins do have latitude to offer similar deals if they choose to.

And if Dave St. Peter's scolding of the fan base last year finally delivers the necessary increase in attendance and revenue, as scoldings so often do, then there will be payroll room to do more in the coming seasons.

It all depends on keeping the prospect pipeline, with its relatively cheap labor pool, flowing - a concept that is shared to varying degrees by approximately 28 other franchises besides just Minnesota and Tampa Bay.

[Brandon]

We are not Tampa.  I bet when they get normalized streaming and TV contracts settled for around 50-60 million in total revenue then payroll will start to go up depending on attendance.  Maybe 140-150 million.  Would be cool to see 160-170 million but I’m gonna doubt it.

[Jocko87]

You mean perennially over performing the "experts" with moves the "experts" hate?  I'll take it.  We are seeing a dose of that this year already.  

They are also willing to spend money if they think it's wise.  The big one didn't work out for them.  Fortunately for the Twins they were able to learn about character relatively cheaply through Donaldson.  

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

3 hours ago, farmerguychris said:

Do you think the Polads would try to become another Rays type of team?

I was a true believer in the “Pohalds are cheap” mantra during the Terry Ryan years. Turns out, as Falvey has shown us, the Pohlads weren’t cheap after all. Unless you call 6/200 for Correa cheap!

[Craig Arko]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

We are not Tampa.

Of course not. It snows here.

[Mike Sixel]

So far they aren't.... Tampa would have dealt Kepler by now, for example.