If Another Minnesota Twins Starter Gets Hurt, Which Arms on the Farm Would Be Next in Line?

[KBJ1]

Need to start drafting actual pitchers in the first round. There are no wiz kids in the system to save this team. 

[DuluthDuke]

I don't know why we can't (okay they can't) just admit that Festa and SWR are 4 inning pitchers right now. Stack them and scour the waver wire/AAA/Indy ball for a temporary 5th starter/reclamation project.

Alcala is coming up on 30, he is 166 MLB games in, his whip is 1.808 this year. Its okay to admit he is more pumpkin than prince and use his roster & 40 man spot for new 5th starter. If he gets claimed best of luck to him.

[jorgenswest]

Hopefully the Twins are studying the 2024 Tigers and their success in the second half in bullpen games. They had 33 bullpen games last year and more in the playoffs. Injuries and a deadline trade of Flaherty left them without 5 viable starters and they figured it out.

[Linus]

I would give the prospects a shot before the retreads. 

[Fire Dan Gladden]

Over the last few years, ownership has shown that money trumps wins. Do not expect any external moves that would increase payroll.

Not to hijack the discussion, but I continue to be confounded by the Trevor Bauer situation. The whole SA thing was shown to be untrue by the courts. I understand that he has not been a great clubhouse guy in the past, but the league is littered with bad clubhouse guys. This is not a Kapernick situation (signing Kapernick basically requires an NFL team to build around him). He has publicly stated he would sign for the league minimum. I am shocked a large-market team has not taken a flier on him.

That being said, I also understand he has not been signed because he has effectively been blackballed by the league.

[JADBP]

8 hours ago, h2oface said:

Would have to be DFA'd. No options left. Probably would be claimed. I think best to have him "injured" with mysterious arm fatique, need rehab, and try to fix him. Because we have a process......... right? Pitching experts. The pipeline and all.

Then just DFA him!  No need to worry about losing him and losing him would not be a bad end result!

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

That being said, I also understand he has not been signed because he has effectively been blackballed by the league.

He was also investigated in an internal, non-criminal investigation that resulted in a 2 year ban (reduced to 140+ games by an arbiter) that all teams have access to and we do not. 

This, a league, that still happily employs Aroldis Chapman (30 day suspension) and Marcell Ozuna (20 game suspension). 

He's a world class ****** person, even for a league scattered with ****** people. 

[JADBP]

31 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Over the last few years, ownership has shown that money trumps wins. Do not expect any external moves that would increase payroll.
 

JUST WHAT has this club shown over the last few years?  That they can run up an astonishing $400 million dollars in debt....even while focusing on money!  Hmmmm....

Think about this...$400 mill is probably twice the annual payroll--meaning they would run up $400 mill in 2 years if they had zero income, which of course is nonsense.  So, this has likely been going on for several years or even decades...it takes a long time to run up $400 million debt with a company that probably has revenues in the range of $100-200 million range. 

Another possibility is that the Pohlad family has already been "monetizing" the Twins club by borrowing against the franchise value.  And, that's a LOT of monetizing!  To pull out 25-30% of the value of the organization just to pad your already bulging pockets is crazy. 

I am sure this is a major stumbling block in any sale...and might actually be the underlying reason for the sale!  A bank is not going to allow you to continue to pile up debt indefinitely.  At some point they expect the noteholder to start paying down this debt.  I suspect it is with these notes might have originated with Marquette Bank, who the Pohlads sold to Wells Fargo for around $1 BILLION back in 2002.  Maybe Wells Fargo is asking for some money back?  

What I find astonishing INANE is that the Pohlads are asking buyers to allow them to "continue running the team" after the sale!!!  Whattttt?  You just ran up $400 million in debt on this company and you want to keep running it?  What planet are they on???? 

[Fire Dan Gladden]

16 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

He was also investigated in an internal, non-criminal investigation that resulted in a 2 year ban (reduced to 140+ games by an arbiter) that all teams have access to and we do not. 

This, a league, that still happily employs Aroldis Chapman (30 day suspension) and Marcell Ozuna (20 game suspension). 

He's a world class ****** person, even for a league scattered with ****** people. 

Which was done when this was at the height of public scrutiny and before the complete knowledge of the events came out. This is a lot closer to the Duke lacrosse fiasco than most people would admit.

This partially about his clubhouse history, but mainly it is perception. It would open up his past and how MLB handled the situation. The man can pitch. The fact that no one has taken a run at him means really feels more like collusion than anything. Michael Vick was able to rehabilitate his image and personality, who is to say that isn't happening here.

Should the Twins sign him? I think there should at least be some vetting and discussions about it. But, like I said, he has been blackballed.

[Otaknam]

On 6/11/2025 at 7:15 AM, NJTwin said:

And while we are talking about potential call ups, can we PLEASE send Alcala down!🤮

Alcala was traded yesterday to Boston. 

[Otaknam]

Hopefully they don’t think Dobnak is an answer. His signing several years ago for almost $10 million over four years is the biggest head scratcher for this front office. His starts typically lasted four innings of mediocre or worse pitching.

[PuckettProtector]

On 6/11/2025 at 11:51 AM, NYCTK said:

Trevor Bauer not only sucks as a human, he sucks as a pitcher. 

May as well sign Curt Schilling if you want to ruin your team's clubhouse with a washed pitcher. 

Show us on the doll where Bauer hurt you. It sounds to me like you belong to a cult given that Bauer hasn't been found guilty of anything. But since he was accused you have to dig in your heels to satisfy your ideological ilk. Must be awful living like that.

[NYCTK]

6 minutes ago, PuckettProtector said:

It sounds to me like you belong to a cult given that Bauer hasn't been found guilty of anything.

Keep championing a washed loser. Really want the 50th best pitcher in Japan and notorious clubhouse cancer on the Twins. That'd really do well for their Public Relations. 

 

[Fire Dan Gladden]

2 hours ago, Otaknam said:

Hopefully they don’t think Dobnak is an answer. His signing several years ago for almost $10 million over four years is the biggest head scratcher for this front office. His starts typically lasted four innings of mediocre or worse pitching.

The Dobnak signing was fine at the time. Extensive injuries have really derailed his career, we will never really know what he could have been.

[PuckettProtector]

Well this is a moot point now. Damn