Twins Arbitration Updates, Decisions, and Discussions (Larnach Tendered!)

[Scott51104]

"This would offer me some hope if it happened and I'd be led to believe that they actually have a clue of what they are doing."

So you agree it will not be happening.

[sweetmusicviola16]

24 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I get that some want to see Jenkins, GG and Erod like right now.

I'm with you... I can't wait to see those guys as well and they will be here sooner than you think. 

In the meantime... Trevor is one of us. Been a Twin his entire career.

I'm nothing but happy for him. He could still be traded... he could remain a Twin... either way... I'm happy for Trevor. 

The way he is being painted by some isn't even reasonable. 

On this team he's better than half of the candidates we have to make the team. He's not a superstar. 4 years ago we might have had that hope for him. But he's not. But by being average he's better than 5-7 other guys who will likely make this team. If we had 4 or 5 more average players we might actually be close to a PO team. Look at this deal as a cut off of the bottom. 

[sweetmusicviola16]

8 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Not personal here, but I don’t understand why many at TD point to Career stats or one year removed stats if it’s someone they like and those stats show a positive BUT if the advantage (or the negative) is looking at only the previous year for the argument, then that’s gospel on the Player.

Larnach:

Spotty play due to nuisance injuries and mixed (streaky) production prior to ‘24.

2024 - 116 OPS+ with 15 HRs in 400PA’s. Platooned against predominantly RH pitching. He had a .771 OPS

2025 - 99 OPS+ with 17 HR’s in 567 PA’s. Difference for ‘25 is 118 AB’s v. LH pitching. Larnach still had a .727 OPS 

Continue to just Platoon him!

100 OPS+ is average for MLB hitter

OPS in MLB for ‘24 was .711, for ‘25 was .719

I get he doesn’t bring speed & real good defense ……… Team has other OF’s. Not too many hitters.

$4M is hardly a prohibitive salary.

I agree 4mil is hardly prohibiting other moves at this point. Lets throw out 100mil as a budget number, for easy sake. Without Larnach we could have a budget of 97mil. Would having a lower budget number make anyone on here happy? They spent money and now we don't like how it was spent. But I get we all have opinions and mine has changed just a bit on this move.

[Riverbrian]

8 minutes ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

On this team he's better than half of the candidates we have to make the team. He's not a superstar. 4 years ago we might have had that hope for him. But he's not. But by being average he's better than 5-7 other guys who will likely make this team. If we had 4 or 5 more average players we might actually be close to a PO team. Look at this deal as a cut off of the bottom. 

He might be better. Maybe not. I don't know. Nobody knows.  

We know that young players can present as .800 OPS guys like Keaschall and Julien and Wallner did in their rookie seasons and we know that young players can present as .600 OPS guys like Brooks Lee. 

While we are about to find out what Jenkins, GG, Erod and others are going to do in 2026. I'd just like us to take a deep breath and not just toss above average hitting talent away on a team that lacks proven major league hitters. 

Trevor Larnach isn't Ty France or Manual Margot. Some one year invader. Trevor has been with the Twins organization for 8 years. Worked his way up from Cedar Rapids to a 2nd year of Arbitration. He did his time... he's earned a nice raise.   

 

[KGB]

Arbitration salaries are not guaranteed until the start of the season. It makes sense to tender Larnach and see what you have during spring training and what trade options you have.

 

• Offseason releases: If a player is released after the arbitration hearing but before the season starts, they are only entitled to 30 or 45 days of termination pay, depending on when the release occurs.

[old nurse]

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

LOL.

A team trading for a rule 5 pick has to keep him on the 40 man till spring.

And as noted, new adds must also stay on 40 man till spring.

 

Piece of free advice: First rule of holes...when you find yourself in one, stop digging. 

Yup, but that means your roster is not set like some people here seem to be thinking . First rule of holes for you is to not be one 

[D.C Twins]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

I get that some want to see Jenkins, GG and Erod like right now.

I'm with you... I can't wait to see those guys as well and they will be here sooner than you think. 

In the meantime... Trevor is one of us. Been a Twin his entire career.

I'm nothing but happy for him. He could still be traded... he could remain a Twin... either way... I'm happy for Trevor. 

The way he is being painted by some isn't even reasonable. 

I mean... we can be happy for him personally and question the overall strategic logic of keeping him... 

[singlesoverwalks]

I guess this (tendering Larnach) is a move you might make if you believe (1) you're unlikely to find a player worth keeping on the 40-man roster in the Rule 5 draft and (2) redundancy (AKA "depth") is actually a huge advantage in roster construction because of the frequency of injuries. And also, obviously, (3) you're not going to sign any free agents. So your theory is that when one of your slightly-above-replacement-level players goes down with injury, you're going to have the competitive advantage of not needing to call up a minor leaguer who's not yet ready for the big leagues.

Another theory is that if you're going to be a bad team, you keep your good prospects in the minors for as long as possible so they can all come up in a big wave and give you a solid competitive window in some future season. They're "blocked," but really you're manipulating their service time. You stock up on replacement level players and hope one randomly has a career year so you can trade him at the deadline for more prospects. Again, this theory assumes you don't think the Rule 5 draft is worth it this year. 

[nicksaviking]

On a team that has James Outman, Mickey Gasper, Ryan Fitzgerald, Carson McCusker, Ryan Kreidler, Eduard Julien, Kody Clemens and Johnny Pereda also on the 40-man roster, I don't get why there is any huff about Larnach. 

Definitely not a Larnach apologist, just wondering why anyone would care when there are this many players even worst than him still on the roster. If all nine of those guys were DFA'd how many would get signed to another team's 40-man roster? Two? Maybe three? One of which would most certainly be Larnach.

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

On this team he's better than half of the candidates we have to make the team. He's not a superstar. 4 years ago we might have had that hope for him. But he's not. But by being average he's better than 5-7 other guys who will likely make this team. If we had 4 or 5 more average players we might actually be close to a PO team. Look at this deal as a cut off of the bottom. 

Except those guys play infield and catcher. And everyone wants Wallner to DH..... So larnach is in the OF, or Wallner is, or both. 

[Mike Sixel]

20 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

On a team that has James Outman, Mickey Gasper, Ryan Fitzgerald, Carson McCusker, Ryan Kreidler, Eduard Julien, Kody Clemens and Johnny Pereda also on the 40-man roster, I don't get why there is any huff about Larnach. 

Definitely not a Larnach apologist, just wondering why anyone would care when there are this many players even worst than him still on the roster. If all nine of those guys were DFA'd how many would get signed to another team's 40-man roster? Two? Maybe three? One of which would most certainly be Larnach.

Because those guys shouldn't be either. And as long as he is, he's blocking hope. Also, can we stop suggesting that infielders, catchers, and OF are interchangeable?

[nicksaviking]

9 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Except those guys play infield and catcher. And everyone wants Wallner to DH..... So larnach is in the OF, or Wallner is, or both. 

Sure, but the position scarcity associated with those other guys should be completely negated by the fact that a rebuilding team like the Twins should never give one of them a single at bat.

[Mike Sixel]

14 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Sure, but the position scarcity associated with those other guys should be completely negated by the fact that a rebuilding team like the Twins should never give one of them a single at bat.

And I'm not arguing they should. But this was a thread about who was tendered, not every player on the roster. 

[JADBP]

On 11/21/2025 at 11:04 AM, ashbury said:

Both teams can just wait until the other cuts their guy, and sign him for cheaper.

DREAM ON!  He won't be dropped for nothing.  We should all jump at the chance to get Spencer Steer back in the Twins org.  He hits bombs and is an outstanding 1Bman.  When is the last time we had that?  Hrbek or Big Papi?  He is ARB eligible and won't be a Free Agent until 2029.  What's not to like?  But I highly doubt that we can work out a package that wouldn't dig deep into our prospects.  He'd be expensive. Maybe Larnach plus a prospect....

The Reds have uber prospect Sal Stewart up now (and learning 1B) as well as Sam Basallo at 1B so Steer might be dispensable to the Reds....

[ashbury]

On 11/21/2025 at 10:04 AM, ashbury said:

Both teams can just wait until the other cuts their guy, and sign him for cheaper.

 

1 hour ago, JADBP said:

DREAM ON!  He won't be dropped for nothing.  

Neither Steer nor Larnach was dropped for nothing.  I was responding to someone suggesting both were on the verge of that.

[Riverbrian]

5 hours ago, D.C Twins said:

I mean... we can be happy for him personally and question the overall strategic logic of keeping him... 

True... There is Nuance in everything. 

This off-season isn't over yet. 

[Doctor Gast]

On 11/22/2025 at 8:49 AM, JD-TWINS said:

They kept LH hitting Clemens - Julien - Gasper - Roden - Outman ahead of him. This should say something! These are baseball people making these decisions - they aren’t oblivious to the concept of development and proper opportunity.  Obviously, I too wish him well but am glad that the organization is slowly making needed changes.

Twins need to change how they evaluate & develop their players, as to be the best they can be. They look at Keirsey & say using Jerry Lewis's "The Nutty Professor" accent, "The data shows....... a 28 yr. old debuts in MLB will never make it". Using this point of view, they never gave Keirsey a chance. This is the point you missed. Unlike Keirsey, all the players you mentioned are not good & some of them should be DFAed, but they were priviledged & given many chances to prove themselves.

Data doesn't show character & heart which really tells us what kind of players they can be. There are many that are late bloomers. They have the tools but are stagnant until something clicks. Look at Ernie Clement, who at 29 in AAA, was DFAed to TOR his hitting coach at TOR, never tried to make him into a slugger, just to be the best hitter he could be & something clicked. TOR gave Clement a chance & he helped TOR to advance to the World Series.

It didn't surprise me that he was DFAed, it made me sad

[sampleSizeOfOne]

On 11/22/2025 at 5:57 PM, Riverbrian said:

On 11/22/2025 at 12:24 PM, D.C Twins said:

I mean... we can be happy for him personally and question the overall strategic logic of keeping him... 

True... There is Nuance in everything. 

This off-season isn't over yet. 

Those aren't operatic subtitles in the image?

(and i came here just to check... If they didn't explicitly say someone in the article above was non-tendered, i can safely assume the got tendered? I think it only said Larnach was tendered and only that, because readers may have expected otherwise. I'd be extra sad if only Larnach were tendered, and the rest had become free agents...)

 

And i'm too lazy to find (or start) the right forum to say this (or test the fact i can post on diamondcentric sites) but the prospect of ending up selecting Noah Miller back in the rule 5 draft is appealing to me.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Just now, sampleSizeOfOne said:

Those aren't operatic subtitles in the image?

(and i came here just to check... If they didn't explicitly say someone in the article above was non-tendered, i can safely assume the got tendered? I think it only said Larnach was tendered and only that, because readers may have expected otherwise. I'd be extra sad if only Larnach were tendered, and the rest had become free agents...)

 

And i'm too lazy to find (or start) the right forum to say this (or test the fact i can post on diamondcentric sites) but the prospect of ending up selecting Noah Miller back in the rule 5 draft is appealing to me.

PS... double checked and saw the 4:53pm update. Never mind.