How Are Ex-Minnesota Twins Traded in Team's Trade Deadline Fire Sale Doing With Their New Teams?

[RpR]

7 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

Fair enough. Then you agree if we are  operating as a small market team the primary way to succeed then is to have a superior prospect line that creates more opportunities at finding elite players? We can’t win spending more money so we have to be opportunistic with the draft, it’s why tanking in a really good draft year is probably smart. It doesn’t feel good, and some people don’t want to acknowledge it, but it’s clearly a tactic The Twins are utilizing to strengthen its prospect pool. 

It would be no better than a crap-shoot, and Twins rookies have NOT been the wunderkindt so many here pretend they are.

Twins need a winning team now, not a pie-in-sky crap-shoot.

[bunsen82]

7 minutes ago, RpR said:

It would be no better than a crap-shoot, and Twins rookies have NOT been the wunderkindt so many here pretend they are.

Twins need a winning team now, not a pie-in-sky crap-shoot.

How do you propose we get there right now? Spend a lot of money? There is only one way the Twins are going to be good, and it’s going to primarily be from prospects. Keaschall is looking pretty good so far.n

[Squirrel]

37 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

Fair enough. Then you agree if we are  operating as a small market team the primary way to succeed then is to have a superior prospect line that creates more opportunities at finding elite players? We can’t win spending more money so we have to be opportunistic with the draft, it’s why tanking in a really good draft year is probably smart. It doesn’t feel good, and some people don’t want to acknowledge it, but it’s clearly a tactic The Twins are utilizing to strengthen its prospect pool. 

The problem as I stated is that we have not been successful at devoting talent. We’ve had high rated farms before, during Falvey’s realm even, yet, our talent doesn’t produce. If you are going to operate like a small market team (we are a mid-market team in terms of our demographic, btw), then you damn well better develop that talent. We have failed to do so. Once our players get to the majors, they don’t produce. Either the wrong talent is being selected, there is something majorly amiss in our development tactics, or our on-field management kills it. As I’ve stated previously, the wrong questions are being asked. I said that selling was the right move, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Something else is wrong. It’s not the players. Until there is new ownership, it won’t change.

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

I bolded the part of your post I disagree with. The preseason Fangraphs prognostication had the Twins, Tigers, Royals and Guardians as four equal co-favorites and projected a low 80s total of wins. The 13 game winning streak made it look like more than mid-80s wins could happen, but really the talent isn't there. The players who have reached the early years of their prime haven't developed--Wallner, Jeffers, and Larnach haven't moved to the next level and two other guys--Miranda and Julien--ended up in the minor leagues. There is nothing to prove that they ever become more than marginal big league players. I have lived through the Rocco years waiting for a time when Rocco would have a lineup where the first five guys would be written in every day and it hasn't happened since 2019. 

I've opined that the pitching appeared to be good and deep enough to be a playoff team. The position players weren't good enough and they only had two proven players and one of them, Correa, was in a gigantic rut. Is that enough talent? I don't think so. That is where I fault both the front office and the field staff. They haven't developed position players to a level that is expected of them. 

I think the team had talent. The most, enough to win it all? No, I’d agree with you there. And I was dubious of their offense at the start of the season. I had them at 80 wins. That’s not WS caliber. But this team still had talent and really underperformed. We aren’t going to come close to what we should have, even if not a WS caliber team. And that seems to be the trend, or cycle. We can talk all we want about trades, good, bad or ugly, but if talent cannot be fully developed, or dies when it hits the majors, more is wrong.

[stringer bell]

36 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

I think the team had talent. The most, enough to win it all? No, I’d agree with you there. And I was dubious of their offense at the start of the season. I had them at 80 wins. That’s not WS caliber. But this team still had talent and really underperformed. We aren’t going to come close to what we should have, even if not a WS caliber team. And that seems to be the trend, or cycle. We can talk all we want about trades, good, bad or ugly, but if talent cannot be fully developed, or dies when it hits the majors, more is wrong.

When the decision was made to sell off, the Twins were on about an 80 win trajectory, so they weren't underperforming by a huge amount this year, but I would submit the club has underperformed over the years precisely because they haven't developed position players to provide year-in year-out production and as you said trades and free agent signings really can't make up for failing to develop players in their own system.

[LA Vikes Fan]

On 8/18/2025 at 11:54 AM, jmlease1 said:

It's interesting to see the updates on how guys are doing since the trades, but not necessarily all that meaningful because of the small sample sizes. Where everyone sits at the end of the season will be worth taking a look at to do a little more intermediate evaluation of the trades.

Some of them are still going to be hard to evaluate accurately this soon, but others (especially where we flipped a rental) will probably be easier.

I think the Varland deal is going to stay hard to swallow for most fans, and it puts a lot of pressure on Rojas to make it to MLB as a starter. The Stewart one was looking pretty upsetting, but the reminder that it's very hard to count on Brock Stewart to stay healthy might start mitigating it, even if few seem sold on Outman (I'm one of those for sure).

I'll miss Duran, but the return for him does look pretty respectable. 

People were very down on the Castro trade, but I do think people were overrating just how good Willi actually was. I loved watching him play, and he's been a good dude too...but he really shouldn't play SS any longer and he's such a streaky hitter that can fall off very quickly. I think his value was down quite a bit around the league, similar to how by the time Polanco was dealt.

By the way, Stewart hit his 35 inning limit (made it to 37 this year!) and is now on the IL for shoulder inflammation. The word out here is that he Dodgers are "hopeful" that he'll make it back by mid to late September and pitch in the playoffs but there's a 50/50 shot he's done for the year.  He's a 34 year old Arb 2 player next year on a team with lots of money but only 40 protectable spots and lots of players angling for spots 35-40. Will be interesting to see what the Dodgers do; he may become available again.