Dear Rocco,

[Riverbrian]

I know we are just 3 days in. 

Your roster has gone from 10 to 18 pre-arb players.

With 4 position players traded and Buxton on the IL... you have added 5 pre-arb players to the position side. 

Your roster now contains 11 players with less than 3 years experience out of 13. That's 11 out of 13. 

Here's why I bring this up. You have 13 roster spots for DEVELOPMENT. If you are not utilizing all 13 spots for DEVELOPMENT. You are in the way and you need to get out of the way. If you are only utilizing 11 out of 13 roster spots. You are choosing to ignore two roster spots and not allow those two roster spots to be a part of the solution. 

You need to find out who will help you in 2026. That's your job now. If you have players on the 26 man roster that you don't believe in. They need to get off the roster and their spots need to be given to someone you will allow to compete for playing time. 

If there isn't anyone? If the organization can't cobble together 13 players with potential upside that could benefit from MLB exposure. After 8 years of DEVELOPMENT... After an influx of young players from a pretty busy trade deadline. If after all that... you can't find 13 players with upside... Your boss needs to go along with you. 

You don't need to hold players for pinch hitting, pinch running or any kind of pinching. You need to see who wants a job in 2026. You need to utilize all 13 roster spots. 

I bring this up because there are two players that you haven't touched yet and there is reason to assume that you ain't that confident in them.

Now forgive me... because it's only 3 days since the trade deadline. I realize it is too soon to be this preemptively direct. 

Your job is to develop. Don't even think about wasting roster spots... AFTER ALL OF THIS... After all of this selling.

If you fail to develop... AFTER All of this... after all of this selling... the future result of this deadline will be compromised... the road back will last as long as the development problem exists.

If you think you know who will be successful and who won't be successful... AFTER ALL OF THIS... after all of this selling! I need to point out that your assessments of talent prior TO ALL OF THIS... LED TO ALL OF THIS. 

Knock it off... get the hell out of the way. Let the players tell you who will be helping us out next year and beyond. 

Sincerely, 

 

Riverbrian

 

 

 

[Doctor Wu]

Great post. Let everyone play ... and play some more. Bring some more players up, and send the laggards down. We want to see some production!

[jaimedude]

I doubt that Rocco cares what fans think but there is some truth in this thread. The trade deadline indicated roster development was needed.

[Vanimal46]

I’m mostly fine with the position player side right now. We’re triple checking that Julien isn’t going to work at the MLB level… Lee and Lewis on the left side of the infield. As we already knew, there is nothing substantial to call up for C or 1B. 

The pitching is where I have an issue at the moment. I don’t know why we are wasting opportunities and roster spots on Urena, Ramirez, Tonkin, and Davis. None of them have upside, nor a future on a rebuilding team. Call up the youth and get their feet wet for next season. Raya is already on the 40. Prielipp, Culpepper, and Morris are Rule 5 eligible this winter. Get them all up and see what they can do. 

[notoriousgod71]

This reminds me of molitor's last year and someone asked him if there were any prospects he was interested in seeing.

 

"No, not really."

[jorgenswest]

@Riverbrian

I don’t think I am with you here. He doesn’t control who is on the roster and right now there aren’t 13 players to develop. The four players Fangraphs list on the bench are 28 or over. Vazquez is 35. Fitzgerald at 31. I get that he is on the roster because they traded Correa and Castro and ran out of shortstops. I would rather Lee get every game there. Gasper is nearly 30. If they think they can develop him at catcher I am in. Give him two starts a week. Otherwise I want the opportunities at 1B, 2B and DH to go to others. The next guy on the bench is Keirsey. In the last 6 games he has started 3 and subbed in the other 2.

My letter would go to Mr. Falvey or possibly Mr. Pohlad. I would wonder how long Vázquez, Fitzgerald, Ramirez, Tonkin, Topa and Urẽna will be in the roster.  As for now I want to maximize the playing time for Martin, Clemens, Lewis, Lee, Roden, Wallner and even Julien. Should Martin, Clemens, Roden and Julien be counted on for a roster spot next year? Can Lee, Lewis and Wallner be counted on the starters next year? Can Gasper be a number 2 catcher?

[chpettit19]

5 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

@Riverbrian

I don’t think I am with you here. He doesn’t control who is on the roster and right now there aren’t 13 players to develop. The four players Fangraphs list on the bench are 28 or over. Vazquez is 35. Fitzgerald at 31. I get that he is on the roster because they traded Correa and Castro and ran out of shortstops. I would rather Lee get every game there. Gasper is nearly 30. If they think they can develop him at catcher I am in. Give him two starts a week. Otherwise I want the opportunities at 1B, 2B and DH to go to others. The next guy on the bench is Keirsey. In the last 6 games he has started 3 and subbed in the other 2.

My letter would go to Mr. Falvey or possibly Mr. Pohlad. I would wonder how long Vázquez, Fitzgerald, Ramirez, Tonkin, Topa and Urẽna will be in the roster.  As for now I want to maximize the playing time for Martin, Clemens, Lewis, Lee, Roden, Wallner and even Julien. Should Martin, Clemens, Roden and Julien be counted on for a roster spot next year? Can Lee, Lewis and Wallner be counted on the starters next year? Can Gasper be a number 2 catcher?

Vazquez has started 2 of 3 games since the deadline. Play Gasper. I have no faith he can be a backup major league catcher, but may as well find out during this lost season. Especially in a game where you're pitching Urena, Funderburk. Topa, Sands, Tonkin, and Ramirez. Those aren't young arms you need Vazquez behind the plate hand holding through the game to help them. Starting Vazquez twice has also lead to Jeffers DHing twice. More ABs being taken away from young guys.

It's not huge stuff (just 3 days as the OP states), but if this is the plan for the rest of the season I think it's a pretty awful plan to continue to give Vazquez 50% of the games.

Can Fitzgerald be your backup SS next year? Is he worth having around on a league minimum deal or is he a complete disaster and you need to bring someone in? Find out now, not next year. Again, it's been 3 days, so not a huge deal, but don't let him rot on the bench in order to get Jeffers DH days and Vazquez in the lineup. DH Lee and let Fitzgerald get some starts at SS. He's very likely a disaster and has no shot at being a utility infielder, but the odds were against Clemens when he was claimed, too, and now you want to maximize his playing time (for good reason).

I can answer your Vazquez question right now. The rest of the season. The Pohlads aren't paying him to go away. Christian Vazquez will be a Twin until his contract runs out. There's nothing I'm more certain of this season. And, unfortunately, he'll probably continue to play 50% of the time.

[jorgenswest]

We differ on Fitzgerald. No upside and decline will come soon. I would start Lee almost every game. He may not be a starting shortstop and they will need to fix that this winter. 

I am only interested in Gasper as a second catcher. Raya had great things to say about him behind the plate earlier this year otherwise I would join you in my skepticism.

[Riverbrian]

7 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

@Riverbrian

I don’t think I am with you here. He doesn’t control who is on the roster and right now there aren’t 13 players to develop. The four players Fangraphs list on the bench are 28 or over. Vazquez is 35. Fitzgerald at 31. I get that he is on the roster because they traded Correa and Castro and ran out of shortstops. I would rather Lee get every game there. Gasper is nearly 30. If they think they can develop him at catcher I am in. Give him two starts a week. Otherwise I want the opportunities at 1B, 2B and DH to go to others. The next guy on the bench is Keirsey. In the last 6 games he has started 3 and subbed in the other 2.

My letter would go to Mr. Falvey or possibly Mr. Pohlad. I would wonder how long Vázquez, Fitzgerald, Ramirez, Tonkin, Topa and Urẽna will be in the roster.  As for now I want to maximize the playing time for Martin, Clemens, Lewis, Lee, Roden, Wallner and even Julien. Should Martin, Clemens, Roden and Julien be counted on for a roster spot next year? Can Lee, Lewis and Wallner be counted on the starters next year? Can Gasper be a number 2 catcher?

Chia Pet summed my feelings on it. 

[chpettit19]

2 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

We differ on Fitzgerald. No upside and decline will come soon. I would start Lee almost every game. He may not be a starting shortstop and they will need to fix that this winter. 

I am only interested in Gasper as a second catcher. Raya had great things to say about him behind the plate earlier this year otherwise I would join you in my skepticism.

I said Fitzgerald is very likely a disaster, but I've been saying since day 1 Lee isn't a starting SS, and likely not an everyday MLBer. Doesn't mean I wouldn't put him out there nearly every day now, too. I would start Lee almost every game, too. DHing him instead of Jeffers 20% of the games when Vazquez catches isn't hurting your chances of figuring out if Lee is an everyday player. His bat is the question. They already know he isn't an everyday fielder at short. He's never had the range or arm for that. 

I didn't say anything about upside with Fitzgerald, I asked if he can be a backup. Can he save you from going out and trading for and paying the next Kyle Farmer? The Twins keep paying backups 5 to 10 million a year. Finding some backups for league minimum has value, too. Fitzgerald likely isn't even that good, but why not confirm it instead of not even trying? Like I said, Clemens wasn't even supposed to be that good and now you're thinking he may be a starter next year.

My point, and I'm quite positive Riverbrian's point, is that we don't actually know. We are all pretty darn sure, but the season is lost and this is the time to confirm these things. Confirm Gasper can't catch. Confirm Fitzgerald can't hit. Confirm all of it. Catching Vazquez half the games and letting those 2 rot on the bench serves no purpose. Don't assume you're (the Twins, not you specifically) so smart that you can't possibly be wrong about these guys. Because you are wrong. All the time. Every team is. So, take advantage of the lost season and confirm things. Play everyone. Even guys without perceived upside. Because even backups at league minimum instead of backups at $5 million is value.

[big dog]

Dear Riverbrian, 

Good luck with that. 

[tony&rodney]

9 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Can Gasper be a number 2 catcher?

If you have watched Gasper catch both at St. Paul and in his limited innings (2) behind the plate for Minnesota, you already know the answer to your question. Are you being nice? I appreciate that and any optimism but the umpires can't have Gasper behind the plate. 

Mickey Gasper is one of those strange but true stories of players who manage to hit at AAA against some really good arms but have about as much chance versus MLB pitching as you and me. He is a good AAA story. Let him play there. It is pretty embarrassing to carry Gasper on a major league roster. The guy is likable but send him down for the integrity of the game.

I'm not exactly sure why Keaschall is still waiting. He is not tearing up AAA but he needs experience with the speed of the game and if the Twins see him as a part of the future he should be playing. The Twins are not going to have either Julien or Fitzgerald on their 40 person roster this winter. This is a given.

Riverbrain is correct that Baldelli needs to manage differently, playing all 13 players. If he doesn't in these last 2 months, it will only increase the space between the players and their manager. 

[jorgenswest]

45 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

If you have watched Gasper catch both at St. Paul and in his limited innings (2) behind the plate for Minnesota, you already know the answer to your question. Are you being nice? I appreciate that and any optimism but the umpires can't have Gasper behind the plate. 

I have watched and am very aware that I have no idea.

I remembered the wrong AAA pitcher praising his work behind the plate. It was Ohl after his July 10 performance. My optimism comes from Ohl’s comments. They are much more valuable to me than my eyes watching on TV.

[jorgenswest]

If it were Eeles instead of Fitzgerald I would be in on the development. If development gets a higher priority then the roster needs to match that goal. It doesn’t. 

[DJL44]

Some of these players have less than 3 years experience because they kinda suck. Why do you want players who kinda suck to get more playing time?

[lecroy24fan]

You needed to ask for players that can be developed added to the roster. The likes of Eeles, Sabato, maybe even ERod and Jenkins. You can't expect the bench we have now to develop after turning 30.

[jaimedude]

Personally I feel like Rocco doesn't want to be here anymore or manage the Twins. I think he knows a lot of Twins fans are displeased or do not like him.he has been here years. He is hanging in for the money and want's to be paid to go away. If Twins were interested in development they would let Rocco move on and see of Dinkleman or Gardenhire are ready to move up. Preferably Dinkleman, been very impressed with Wind Surge this season. 

[Riverbrian]

9 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Some of these players have less than 3 years experience because they kinda suck. Why do you want players who kinda suck to get more playing time?

 

9 hours ago, lecroy24fan said:

You needed to ask for players that can be developed added to the roster. The likes of Eeles, Sabato, maybe even ERod and Jenkins. You can't expect the bench we have now to develop after turning 30.

Chia pet is expressing the thought perfectly.

I am purposely not mentioning names because I don't want anyone confused. I don't want anyone thinking I'm a huge supporter of any players. I don't want the point sullied and trapped helplessly by opinion of individual players.

Y'all don't like certain players. That's Fine. Rocco doesn't like these players either. It would be helpful if you didn't let your low opinions cloud the real question. Why are they on the roster? 

I'm not here to defend them. I'm here to scream about the wasting of the roster spot. I'm here to say. Rocco... If you don't like them... GET THEM OFF THE ROSTER!!! 

If they can't be trusted to compete. If there is no value now or in the future. If Rocco thinks it will go horribly wrong and ruin everything if they play. GET THEM OFF THE ROSTER. 

I didn't like the wasting of roster spots when we were in so called contention. I especially hate it when we are in so called non-contention. Everyone can debate the merits of individual players and lose sight of it all in the process. Why would you waste a roster spot? Why would you purposely reduce 13 spots to 10?

They are on the roster... Why are they on the roster?

While some are apparently comfortable with D.O.A's on the roster. D,O,A's will slow the road back because you have reduced from 13 to 10 roster spots utilized and that is a much bigger odds shift than 50 to 100 AB's out of 6,000 in a LOST SEASON.

(Insert player here) doesn't have to give us 6 years of .900 OPS to be worth it.

One or two years of .650 to .700 can take away the necessity of paying 6 million to (Insert player here) for the same numbers. 

[Riverbrian]

11 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Some of these players have less than 3 years experience because they kinda suck. Why do you want players who kinda suck to get more playing time?

I don't want players who suck to get more playing time. I want players who suck to get less. If you look at it that way. My point is hopefully easier to understand. 

If they suck and can't help... I want them off the roster. If the manager isn't going to play them I want them off the roster. That's less playing time... a whole lot less. 

I want to find players who don't suck. I want to utilize all 26 roster spots for the quest. I want the players that Rocco doesn't want to play off the roster and out of the way so all roster spots are utilized to help us on the road back. 

And... And... I don't trust Rocco's assessment abilities. I don't trust mine... I don't trust anyone's assessment ability. The baseball highways are littered with failed assessments coming from all 30 corners of the MLB baseball globe.  

I didn't give them a 26 man roster spot. The front office did. That roster spot decision needs to be justified.   

[Riverbrian]

If they can miss assessment to the downside. Miranda? 

They can also miss assessment to the upside. Rooker?

We are selling because of a whole bunch of missed assessments. 

Let the players decide through performance. 

[nicksaviking]

11 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Some of these players have less than 3 years experience because they kinda suck. Why do you want players who kinda suck to get more playing time?

Are there other options currently? 

The Twins currently have two kinds of players who kinda suck. Younger ones who have visible talent but still suck for various or yet-to-be-explained reasons. And older ones who have already been given up on by plenty of other teams.

Here is my chance to point out that on 31-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald's BBR page, his primary listed position is Pinch Runner.

What?!?! I'd like to hear why this guy is at all relevant to the only team in the league that has publicly said they are rebuilding.

[Riverbrian]

Just now, nicksaviking said:

Are there other options currently? 

The Twins currently have two kids of players who kinda suck. Younger ones who have visible talent but still suck for various or yet-to-be-explained reasons. And older ones who have already been given up on by plenty of other teams.

Here is my chance to point out that on 31-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald's BBR page, his primary listed position is Pinch Runner.

What?!?! I'd like to hear why this guy is at all relevant to the only team in the league that has publicly said they are rebuilding.

It's mind boggling. It really is. 

To my knowledge... the Twins have drafted a lot of SS's in the draft over the years. Where are they? We are 8 9 years into the regime. We just opened up a bunch of space and (insert name here) is the choice and Rocco won't play him.

How bad has our SS development become despite a lot of attention paid to it in multiple drafts? 

1B? Where is our 1B? We just opened up a bunch of space... where is the future 1B? 

C? Where are they? No one that can challenge Vazquez for 3 years? 

CF? Where are they? Is Martin the fruits of our labors in CF or is he just flowing into the massive hole left by not...  

2B, 3B, Left handed Corner outfield... Coming out of ears I guess and we acquired 3 more left handed outfielders in the deals we made and we have been busy strip mining those guys for parts for the past 100 years so the odds of them reaching full potential is compromised on arrival.    

[DJL44]

2 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

I don't want players who suck to get more playing time. I want players who suck to get less. If you look at it that way. My point is hopefully easier to understand. 

I see it differently. The choices they have for the last roster spot is mainly players who kinda suck. They could either

a) fill the last spots with veterans who suck but benching them doesn't hurt their development

b) fill the last spots with rookies who suck, benching them DOES hurt their development

Option b also burns service time, so you get less time from those players in later seasons when they're actually good.

I am not bothered at all that Mickey Gasper, Dashawn Keirsey and Ryan Fitzgerald are taking up spots on the MLB bench while Aaron Sabato, Emmanuel Rodriguez and Payton Eeles play every day in St. Paul. Sabato, Rodriguez and Eeles are sufficiently challenged at that level.

[Riverbrian]

42 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I see it differently. The choices they have for the last roster spot is mainly players who kinda suck. They could either

a) fill the last spots with veterans who suck but benching them doesn't hurt their development

b) fill the last spots with rookies who suck, benching them DOES hurt their development

Option b also burns service time, so you get less time from those players in later seasons when they're actually good.

I am not bothered at all that Mickey Gasper, Dashawn Keirsey and Ryan Fitzgerald are taking up spots on the MLB bench while Aaron Sabato, Emmanuel Rodriguez and Payton Eeles play every day in St. Paul. Sabato, Rodriguez and Eeles are sufficiently challenged at that level.

Yeah... We certainly see it differently. 

My suggestion is to not think of it in terms of hard lines of either or.

This guy plays every day or this guy is benched with nothing in between that's gonna make it hard to see.   

Nobody has to be benched. The problem is keeping someone on the roster that you think needs to be benched.   

Thinking that one day off a week is a problem or even 2 out of 6 days off is a problem... that's a problem. A day off here and a day off there from the entire roster can feed the entire roster. It can help provide answers to questions that will be front and center in just a couple of months when the business of staffing for 2026 is front and center.   

Service time? Sure that's an issue with certain players not on the 40 man. Rushing Jenkins may be a bit irresponsible if Jenkins could use more cooking. 

With players like Sabato? He's 26 and already passed through rule 5 untouched.

Erod... He's on the 40 man... options are ticking, 2 months service time isn't much of a tick of the clock. But let me be clear... I don't want to get lost in the discussion of individual players because... I'm really more concerned with the collective and how we can be in this position where it can be justified that we just sold a big chunk of the 26 man roster and we have 3 roster spots being frozen. 

If you are not bothered by 3 guys taking up roster spots. You are placing a lot of faith in the Twins ability to identify and bring home the other 10. It's going to slow the rebuild.         

[Riverbrian]

What happens if (Insert Name Here) goes down with a back injury or something? 

Is (Insert Name Here) all of a sudden the every day guy at SS? Is (Insert Name Here) the every day guy in CF? 

Is (Insert name here) the guy at 1B or Catcher? 

[The Great Hambino]

17 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

What happens if (Insert Name Here) goes down with a back injury or something? 

Is (Insert Name Here) all of a sudden the every day guy at SS? Is (Insert Name Here) the every day guy in CF? 

Is (Insert name here) the guy at 1B or Catcher? 

Hopefully (Insert Name Here) can give TBD a break in the rotation.  That guy starts a ton of games!

[The Great Hambino]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

 

C? Where are they? No one that can challenge Vazquez for 3 years? 

 

It can be tough to develop catchers when you only draft one like every five years and your international free agent program is pretty much worthless

[DJL44]

29 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

If you are not bothered by 3 guys taking up roster spots. You are placing a lot of faith in the Twins ability to identify and bring home the other 10. It's going to slow the rebuild.         

I'm more bothered by the people they have taking up the other 10. The position players with upside they're really developing right now are Wallner, Roden, Lee and Lewis. Larnach, Jeffers, Vazquez, Buxton and Clemens are established veterans. Julien and Martin have bench player upside. They're playing service time games with Outman (and Bradley and Abel). Nobody else in the minors is ready. Emmanuel Rodriguez has missed a lot of opportunities due to his inability to stay on the field.

[Riverbrian]

2 minutes ago, The Great Hambino said:

It can be tough to develop catchers when you only draft one like every five years and your international free agent program is pretty much worthless

Yep... And the position pays a premium.

We have been paying a decent defensive catcher who can't hit 10 million for 3 years. 

We can't develop a decent defensive catcher who can't hit for the major league minimum and spend the 10 million elsewhere? 

[Riverbrian]

4 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I'm more bothered by the people they have taking up the other 10. The position players with upside they're really developing right now are Wallner, Roden, Lee and Lewis. Larnach, Jeffers, Vazquez, Buxton and Clemens are established veterans. Julien and Martin have bench player upside. They're playing service time games with Outman (and Bradley and Abel). Nobody else in the minors is ready. Emmanuel Rodriguez has missed a lot of opportunities due to his inability to stay on the field.

I'm equally bothered by that. Perhaps more so, than the point I'm making about wasting spots. 

Actually... in my mind... it all ties together. One could be causing the other and vice versa. 

I don't know the answer but I've been thinking out loud for a few years now.

Is it a system development problem that is causing distrust in the product being produced or is it simple distrust not willing to take chances that is causing the development problem.

Either way... we just sold a bunch of players and C, 1B, SS and CF don't have easily identifiable possibilities and we have 3 roster spots being wasted.