Minnesota Twins Are Finally Planning on Playing the Young Guys. Why is Everyone So Upset?

[stringer bell]

On 11/25/2025 at 6:23 PM, dxpavelka said:

Outside of Duran, Varland and MAYBE Bader that left who would you REALLY like to see return instead of guys like Jenkins, Rojas, Raya or Culpepper?  I'll wait...

I agree with your sentiment. We'll see if the Twins got value for trading Varland and Duran. It might take some time since one of the guys acquired was a teenager. Bader had probably his best year in 2025 and he'll make a lot more money than the Twins are willing to pay, I'm sure of that, so I don't think there is any way the Twins would have retained him for 2026 if they hadn't traded him.

[Charleo]

If Jenkins, Culpepper, Rodriguez etc were the "young guys" I think the sentiment would be different.  We're talking Wallner, Julien, Clemens, Gasper, Larnach, etc.  None of them inspire much excitement and don't count as "young", in my opinion...

[RpR]

🤔As a non-actual numbers statement - IF the average age of hitting the bigs was 25 and the average age of moving on to a different job was 35 , 30 year old players would be middle aged.🤔

 

[tony&rodney]

To date, I have not seen anything that indicates the Twins are planning on playing young guys in 2026.

[dxpavelka]

3 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I agree with your sentiment. We'll see if the Twins got value for trading Varland and Duran. It might take some time since one of the guys acquired was a teenager. Bader had probably his best year in 2025 and he'll make a lot more money than the Twins are willing to pay, I'm sure of that, so I don't think there is any way the Twins would have retained him for 2026 if they hadn't traded him.

Bader had a $10 million mutual option for 2026.  Not totally out of the question but, yes, highly unlikely.

[old nurse]

4 hours ago, mluebker said:

Actually, the Merriam-Webster dictionary changed from being prescriptive to descriptive in 1962. For more than half a century it’s reflected how words evolve and are used, not what those determined to dictate definitions insist they should mean. Language lives in the mouths of people and the book you sarcastically long for recognizes that.

According to 

Merriam-Webster, "dumping on someone" means to criticize or verbally abuse them, often showing a lack of respect

 

According to 

Merriam-Webster, to "razz" means to heckle, deride, or tease, often in an informal and playful or unkind way. 

 

[mluebker]

18 hours ago, old nurse said:

According to 

Merriam-Webster, "dumping on someone" means to criticize or verbally abuse them, often showing a lack of respect

According to 

Merriam-Webster, to "razz" means to heckle, deride, or tease, often in an informal and playful or unkind way. 

 

Now go to your thesaurus and plug in “criticize” and “deride.”

[let the kids play]

Finish what you started. Ryan will never be worth more than he is now in a trade. Lopez could be the veteran the young pitchers follow or traded at the deadline. I love Buxton but does anyone believe if he stays his past injuries won't find a way to derail the rest of his career. It was ridiculous to think the Twins could contend in a big way with a payroll under 150 million. We have an opportunity overcome the poor performing ownership and front office with a group of highly valued prospects. Use your head and stop following your heart let the kids play and I'm not talking about Julien, Larnach or any of the past group. Fill in with a couple of vets where needed and develop the future. It worked in the past and it really is the only way in the current baseball market.

 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

1 hour ago, let the kids play said:

Finish what you started. Ryan will never be worth more than he is now in a trade. Lopez could be the veteran the young pitchers follow or traded at the deadline. I love Buxton but does anyone believe if he stays his past injuries won't find a way to derail the rest of his career. It was ridiculous to think the Twins could contend in a big way with a payroll under 150 million. We have an opportunity overcome the poor performing ownership and front office with a group of highly valued prospects. Use your head and stop following your heart let the kids play and I'm not talking about Julien, Larnach or any of the past group. Fill in with a couple of vets where needed and develop the future. It worked in the past and it really is the only way in the current baseball market.

 

Who are the kids? Who’s knocking down the door?

[let the kids play]

Rodriguez, Jenkins, Culpepper, Lee, Lewis, Wallner, Prielipp, Raya, Mathews, Festa, Abel, Bradley, and the rest of what they received at the deadline. This along with what they will get from a Ryan and Buxton trade will be your core group. Lopez and Jeffries can lead this group. You can sprinkle in a Clemens or another vet to hold you over. Just limit how many vets of little value you keep to one or two and away we go. The alternative is not even worth discussing. Do the right thing. Last year was horrible don't make it worse by continuing to think all we need to do is spend 125 million and we will be contenders. We are know this is the only way. Let the kids play.

[old nurse]

3 hours ago, mluebker said:

Now go to your thesaurus and plug in “criticize” and “deride.”

Perhaps you should do that. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

14 minutes ago, let the kids play said:

Rodriguez, Jenkins, Culpepper, Lee, Lewis, Wallner, Prielipp, Raya, Mathews, Festa, Abel, Bradley, and the rest of what they received at the deadline. This along with what they will get from a Ryan and Buxton trade will be your core group. Lopez and Jeffries can lead this group. You can sprinkle in a Clemens or another vet to hold you over. Just limit how many vets of little value you keep to one or two and away we go. The alternative is not even worth discussing. Do the right thing. Last year was horrible don't make it worse by continuing to think all we need to do is spend 125 million and we will be contenders. We are know this is the only way. Let the kids play.

Raya had a 6 era in triple A, Abel, Matthews and Festa have 5 eras, Bradley 4.85 era, Prielipp has pitched a total over 3 professional seasons of 112 innings.

Lewis is 26 and has 4 mlb seasons, Wallner is 28 as is Jeffers

Rodriguez, Culpepper and Jenkins do not a young team make

[mluebker]

3 hours ago, old nurse said:

Perhaps you should do that

I already know: synonyms.

[old nurse]

3 hours ago, mluebker said:

I already know: synonyms.

Yes, your comments do show you know the meaning of those words 

[old nurse]

On 11/25/2025 at 11:09 AM, RpR said:

War is a calloused .

But the other posters reason for that quote was a good one.

Rumsfeld was callous 

[mluebker]

4 hours ago, old nurse said:

Yes, your comments do show you know the meaning of those words

So does that mean it’s time to move on to something more concrete, like how many left-handed hitting outfielders can dance on the head of a pin?