Why the Twins Are Looking to Trade for Help, Not the Future

[old nurse]

17 minutes ago, mluebker said:

They can't tear the roster all the way down to the ground without losing even the fans who make excuses for them. If you have a better take on the great job the Twins are doing, I'd love to hear it.

If you could argue the for reality of your statement I would love to hear it.

[tony&rodney]

2 minutes ago, old nurse said:

If you could argue the for reality of your statement I would love to hear it.

Put up your designs and thoughts as opposed to using ridicule. There can be quite a range of opinions and the thoughts are mostly split 50-50 on Twins Daily. State some specific ideas that you have or if you believe the Twins decisions are fine just say, the Twins are doing a great job of putting together their roster .... I like the current roster, etc. When you fail to offer a stance but attack you are painting yourself. I'm sure you have some solid ideas to share.

[old nurse]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

Put up your designs and thoughts as opposed to using ridicule. There can be quite a range of opinions and the thoughts are mostly split 50-50 on Twins Daily. State some specific ideas that you have or if you believe the Twins decisions are fine just say, the Twins are doing a great job of putting together their roster .... I like the current roster, etc. When you fail to offer a stance but attack you are painting yourself. I'm sure you have some solid ideas to share.

To recap what was said since you would appear to have not followed what I responded to, the comment was about the Twins maximizing profits   There has not been a single bit of evidence to support that under the Falvey regime. Since you wish to interject yourself into that conversation perhaps you would like to show how it is so. I put in my comment why it is not. 

[IndianaTwin]

On 12/13/2025 at 12:47 PM, rv78 said:

Indication from Falvey, if you read into what he is saying, is that the Twins will only get back someone of equal value in trade. makes sense, but what it also says is that Falvey is admitting he cannot get the better of a deal. That he can only pull off a trade if he gives up what the other team wants to get what he wants. Trading from a position of strength, or in the Twins case, means depth. The only strength they have is Buxton, Ryan and Lopez and they are supposedly off the table. The only position of strength/depth they have is in the outfield. Outside of Buck, and probably Jenkins, their outfield strength is mediocre. So that tells you what they will get in return. More mediocrity.

Yeah, I think you have to read into to it to get that from Falvey. 

From the OP: “If two teams are both trying to compete and both have needs, and different ways, how can you swap them? It led to us in our Pablo acquisition a few years ago,” Falvey said. “They wanted Luis Arraez, and we wanted Pablo López, and that was ultimately a fit for us and a fit for them at the same time. It does not always happen like that, but we certainly are looking for that this time of year. We will see if we can execute.”

 

I think he's saying that the ideal trade at this time of year (and I would say at any time) is one that improves both teams. And by definition, pretty much every trade means giving up what the other team wants. If the other team doesn't want what you have to offer, they aren't going to make the trade! The idea that one team "winning" a trade means the other team "lost" that trade is a fallacy. 

 

[twinstalker]

Trade EmRod.  Please.  While he still has a little value.

[Woof Bronzer]

On 12/13/2025 at 4:10 PM, mnfireman said:

'23 might be the high-water mark for this roster group, but your HOF SS had the worst season, by bWAR, of his career. What they got was career years from Jeffers, Castro, Julien, Lewis, Farmer, Wallner, and Solano; a big bounce back year from Kepler, and solid, steady play from MAT in CF. Polanco, despite injuries, was on pace for the third-best bWAR season of his career. They also had very solid SP, with five guys making at least 20 starts (of those, only Ryan had an ERA+ that was less than league average (97)), and had the second most bWAR in MLB (Ober had the highest bWAR in his career, Gray and Lopez each had the second best bWAR of their careers). They also had an above average BP (Duran, Pagan, and Stewart were very good), with the seventh best bWAR in MLB that season. 

They need a lot of things to go their way to have a successful '26 season by W-L record, but player development could be big the season.

For sure, player development could tack on a couple more wins.  But your post is sort of my point - the ceiling for this roster required not only significantly more talent and payroll, but a lot of stars aligning and things working out.  You didn't mention the fact that the rest of the Central was the worst division in the history of baseball that year.  

Sure, everything could click, the guys who had career years last year might repeat them, the guys who had bad years will have career years, the team will be as healthy as they were in 25, the young guys will come up and be stars...sure, it could happen.  And the team might win 80 games.  

[Linus]

If you ignore the Falvey word salad and look at what they’ve actually done it really doesn’t seem like they are trying this year. First off, they blew up their bullpen which they knew would take time to rebuild. They’ve signed nobody and made two very minor trades. Their actions don’t scream compete. I think the org philosophy is to try to win as many games as they can with a payroll less than $100 million. The Pohlads make their desired profit and the Twins win enough games to placate the masses. 

[tony&rodney]

5 hours ago, twinstalker said:

Trade EmRod.  Please.  While he still has a little value.

That works if you find a team that is looking to acquire EmRod. Can you identify a team willing to trade for him? I have suggested numerous trades but I do not know if  either team would benefit from the ideas. Would Pittsburgh be interested in acquiring Emmanuel Rodriguez for Jared Jones? From past comments on Twins Daily i seem to recall that Jones has less value by a fair margin than Rodriguez according to BBTV. That doesn't mean much though. What are your ideas? 

[mluebker]

13 hours ago, old nurse said:

If you could argue the for reality of your statement I would love to hear it.

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

[old nurse]

3 hours ago, mluebker said:

We hold these truths to be self-evident.

To some the earth is flat. They use your same language. Amazing what people will believe 

[mluebker]

18 hours ago, old nurse said:

To some the earth is flat. They use your same language. Amazing what people will believe 

Well, you can either believe your opinions and preconceptions or trust the evidence you see with your own eyes. I’m going with the latter.

[old nurse]

4 hours ago, mluebker said:

Well, you can either believe your opinions and preconceptions or trust the evidence you see with your own eyes. I’m going with the latter.

Like I said, what evidence? Multiple posy’s, mo evidence.  

[mluebker]

3 hours ago, old nurse said:

Like I said, what evidence? Multiple posy’s, mo evidence.  

If you think the Pohlads have been trying to put a team on the field that actually could win a pennant (much less a championship) for the past couple years, we’ve been watching different teams. The evidence is the team’s consistently mediocre performance—they aren’t even a wild card team anymore. The Pohlads seem more concerned about “the stadium experience” than the baseball being played there.

[old nurse]

16 minutes ago, mluebker said:

If you think the Pohlads have been trying to put a team on the field that actually could win a pennant (much less a championship) for the past couple years, we’ve been watching different teams. The evidence is the team’s consistently mediocre performance—they aren’t even a wild card team anymore. The Pohlads seem more concerned about “the stadium experience” than the baseball being played there.

Again, where is the evidence that there is profit. Results on the field., the game day experience department are not a sign of profit. 

[USAFChief]

On 12/14/2025 at 9:01 AM, old nurse said:

A team seeking to sell or buy generally does worse in a trade. 

Other than sell or buy, what other role would a team take on in a trade?

[old nurse]

24 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Other than sell or buy, what other role would a team take on in a trade?

The recipient of what is available at a distressed sale price, or someone willing to se;ll what you overpay for.   The key word was seeking. Sorry, I might remember to put it ic caps next time so you notice what the subject of the sentence was, not the action of the subject 

[mluebker]

2 hours ago, old nurse said:

Again, where is the evidence that there is profit.

Ah, that’s a different issue. This generation of Pohlads don’t seem to be as astute with their money as Carl.

So in that regard, you may be correct—even if they’re trying, they may NOT actually be making a profit, although it’s difficult to imagine they’re purposefully trying to lose money. If they were, one might expect them to actually spend enough of it to sign and put nine quality players on the field on a regular basis. But clearly that’s not on their to-list, either.

So if they aren’t trying to lose money, and they obviously aren’t trying to put together a championship team, they’re picking some kind of middle position. That, I was inferring, was to at least make the team profitable. If they aren’t doing that, it’s hard to understand why they’re in the baseball business at all.

[old nurse]

28 minutes ago, mluebker said:

Ah, that’s a different issue. This generation of Pohlads don’t seem to be as astute with their money as Carl.

So in that regard, you may be correct—even if they’re trying, they may NOT actually be making a profit, although it’s difficult to imagine they’re purposefully trying to lose money. If they were, one might expect them to actually spend enough of it to sign and put nine quality players on the field on a regular basis. But clearly that’s not on their to-list, either.

So if they aren’t trying to lose money, and they obviously aren’t trying to put together a championship team, they’re picking some kind of middle position. That, I was inferring, was to at least make the team profitable. If they aren’t doing that, it’s hard to understand why they’re in the baseball business at all.

When I was a kid there was a rich guy talking to my dad. He was a wheeler and dealer in many areas. He was grousing a little bit on not making any money on a deal. He then stated “But I knew I wasn’t going to make any money on them”. So I asked him why he did it. His response stuck. “Not everything you do is just for the money”  Another guy who was a land broker said pretty much the same thing.. a house flipper said the same thing 

The other thing is that even if they are no taking a profit, they are still making money. There are articles out there explaining it.. Contact you knowledgeable tax attorney. Balmer saved 77 million in tax money owning the Clippers

it is a world most don’t live in.

[JD-TWINS]

On 12/13/2025 at 8:50 AM, mikelink45 said:

It is really hard to judge the trades at this point.  Yes, we got good value from Lopez, but with his injuries would we have been better off with Arraez getting on base? 

Prospects are no value until they rise to the majors and succeed.  I think Harrison Bader was a terrific player and should do well as a FA.

Duran is now considered the top RP in the NL.  How do you replace him?  

Outman was not just bad for us, he was bad the previous year and looks like a one-hit wonder.

Out BP looks terrible - would Varland be better than Roden who has not blossomed and plays OF where we have Rodriguez, Jenkins, and Gonzales ready to move up.

In modern Baseball the BP is at least as valuable as the rotation and we demolished ours. I need to see some strategy in our trades and so far, it is not visible to me. 

The Varland trade was for the lefty, Rojas (nice upside) & Roden was a throw-in and in my opinion, not worth fretting over. Same with Stewart (immediately injured again in LA) for the flier on Outman. If one of them has a good spring Training they will either work out for ‘26 or be a short-term place holder for Gonzalez-Rodriguez-Jenkins.

Duran trade was to get the Young Catcher, highest rated in MiLB at the time. They also got Abel, previously touted as a mid-rotation “for sure guy” ……… Abel at a controllable expense for next 5 years.

Paddack - Bader - Coulombe - Castro - France were all going to be Free Agents………not very surprising there……freeing ourselves of Dobnack made total sense.

Jax……4.03 ERA in ‘25 despite fantastic stuff. Seemed disillusioned with his role in MN. Struggles between his ears and with pitch mix in my opinion. Jax for Bradley was a choice……results remain to be seen.

Correa not being healthy and steadily declining on defense and at the plate……saving $22-$25M/year made perfect sense as well……..can’t have ownership approve $35M/yr for ONE GUY & then slash overall roster spending the next 2 years…… that’s the ZERO plan that was thrust on to shoulders of FO to fix on the fly.

Those were/are the strategic thoughts.

[JD-TWINS]

On 12/13/2025 at 8:50 AM, mikelink45 said:

It is really hard to judge the trades at this point.  Yes, we got good value from Lopez, but with his injuries would we have been better off with Arraez getting on base? 

Prospects are no value until they rise to the majors and succeed.  I think Harrison Bader was a terrific player and should do well as a FA.

Duran is now considered the top RP in the NL.  How do you replace him?  

Outman was not just bad for us, he was bad the previous year and looks like a one-hit wonder.

Out BP looks terrible - would Varland be better than Roden who has not blossomed and plays OF where we have Rodriguez, Jenkins, and Gonzales ready to move up.

In modern Baseball the BP is at least as valuable as the rotation and we demolished ours. I need to see some strategy in our trades and so far, it is not visible to me. 

The Varland trade was for the lefty, Rojas (nice upside) & Roden was a throw-in and in my opinion, not worth fretting over. Same with Stewart (immediately injured again in LA) for the flier on Outman. If one of them has a good spring Training they will either work out for ‘26 or be a short-term place holder for Gonzalez-Rodriguez-Jenkins.

Duran trade was to get the Young Catcher, highest rated in MiLB at the time. They also got Abel, previously touted as a mid-rotation “for sure guy” ……… Abel at a controllable expense for next 5 years.

Paddack - Bader - Coulombe - Castro - France were all going to be Free Agents………not very surprising there……freeing ourselves of Dobnack made total sense.

Jax……4.03 ERA in ‘25 despite fantastic stuff. Seemed disillusioned with his role in MN. Struggles between his ears and with pitch mix in my opinion. Jax for Bradley was a choice……results remain to be seen.

Correa not being healthy and steadily declining on defense and at the plate……saving $22-$25M/year made perfect sense as well……..can’t have ownership approve $35M/yr for ONE GUY & then slash overall roster spending the next 2 years…… that’s the ZERO plan that was thrust on to shoulders of FO to fix on the fly.

Those were/are the strategic thoughts.

[JD-TWINS]

On 12/13/2025 at 8:50 AM, mikelink45 said:

It is really hard to judge the trades at this point.  Yes, we got good value from Lopez, but with his injuries would we have been better off with Arraez getting on base? 

Prospects are no value until they rise to the majors and succeed.  I think Harrison Bader was a terrific player and should do well as a FA.

Duran is now considered the top RP in the NL.  How do you replace him?  

Outman was not just bad for us, he was bad the previous year and looks like a one-hit wonder.

Out BP looks terrible - would Varland be better than Roden who has not blossomed and plays OF where we have Rodriguez, Jenkins, and Gonzales ready to move up.

In modern Baseball the BP is at least as valuable as the rotation and we demolished ours. I need to see some strategy in our trades and so far, it is not visible to me. 

The Varland trade was for the lefty, Rojas (nice upside) & Roden was a throw-in and in my opinion, not worth fretting over. Same with Stewart (immediately injured again in LA) for the flier on Outman. If one of them has a good spring Training they will either work out for ‘26 or be a short-term place holder for Gonzalez-Rodriguez-Jenkins.

Duran trade was to get the Young Catcher, highest rated in MiLB at the time. They also got Abel, previously touted as a mid-rotation “for sure guy” ……… Abel at a controllable expense for next 5 years.

Paddack - Bader - Coulombe - Castro - France were all going to be Free Agents………not very surprising there……freeing ourselves of Dobnack made total sense.

Jax……4.03 ERA in ‘25 despite fantastic stuff. Seemed disillusioned with his role in MN. Struggles between his ears and with pitch mix in my opinion. Jax for Bradley was a choice……results remain to be seen.

Correa not being healthy and steadily declining on defense and at the plate……saving $22-$25M/year made perfect sense as well……..can’t have ownership approve $35M/yr for ONE GUY & then slash overall roster spending the next 2 years…… that’s the ZERO plan that was thrust on to shoulders of FO to fix on the fly.

Those were/are the strategic thoughts.