RP Market

[USAFChief]

The pen is an absolute disaster and there's no path to fix it in 2026. There never was.

You can't trade away your entire effective pen in July and expect to recover by April, even WITH money to burn. And, of course, the Twins don't have money to burn. 

 

Whether you supported the fire sale or not, Falvey's 2025 trade deadline made contention in 2026 virtually impossible. 

[bunsen82]

2 hours ago, USAFChief said:

The pen is an absolute disaster and there's no path to fix it in 2026. There never was.

You can't trade away your entire effective pen in July and expect to recover by April, even WITH money to burn. And, of course, the Twins don't have money to burn. 

 

Whether you supported the fire sale or not, Falvey's 2025 trade deadline made contention in 2026 virtually impossible. 

I disagree, had you spend $30-$35  million you could have rebuilt to have an effective bullpen.  Nothing great but effective.  

Saurez 15 million, Dominguez, $10 million, Armstrong $6 million, Rogers 2 million  

Throw in Sands, Funderburk, Topa Festa.     That would be a pretty effective bullpen that i think most would have been ok with.   

Their issue is they are stating they want to win,  they aren't willing to spend and not trade significant assets.  We traded Kisting for Orze.  This bullpen will have arms, but not high leverage arms.   I extremely question the philosphy.  For this I will agree with you about the deadline trade implosion. 

What we have seen since,  is that the Pohlads have pressed the gas pedal and stopped multiple times in the last year.  They were finally willing to sell off, and now they want to reverse course on a rebuild,  and act like everything is fine and they are set to compete again.  Tom is telling bigger fairy tales than I told to my kids back in the day.  If the plan was to compete,  they should have kept Duran, Varland and Stewart.  I am ok trading Jax as he was disgruntled.  

The only way it works is someone like Festa takes a Duran path, and you sign someone like Kopech and he suddenly has health and dominant stuff.  Then the rest of the bullpen could fill their spots and maybe you pick up a reliever at the deadline.  The odds of this is like below 3%.   

[tony&rodney]

2 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

I disagree, had you spend $30-$35  million you could have rebuilt to have an effective bullpen.  Nothing great but effective.  

This a somewhat surprising take. The Twins jettisoned Duran, Jax, Varland, and Stewart to clear payroll. Those four would cost about $10M more than four rookies. Why would you or actually anyone ever think the Twins would shed the payroll last July only to add significantly more cost for inferior relievers now? 

I'm not opposed to the Twins adding $50M in relief pitching since last season, but any additions that cost money were never going to happen. The Twins were more likely to sign Bo Bichette. 

The management of budgets has been a nightmare as has the management of the roster payroll. Thus the recent amicable divorce of Tom and Derek.

[bunsen82]

44 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

This a somewhat surprising take. The Twins jettisoned Duran, Jax, Varland, and Stewart to clear payroll. Those four would cost about $10M more than four rookies. Why would you or actually anyone ever think the Twins would shed the payroll last July only to add significantly more cost for inferior relievers now? 

I'm not opposed to the Twins adding $50M in relief pitching since last season, but any additions that cost money were never going to happen. The Twins were more likely to sign Bo Bichette. 

The management of budgets has been a nightmare as has the management of the roster payroll. Thus the recent amicable divorce of Tom and Derek.

The theory would be with also removing Correa you had ample salary to rebuild -  you would have reloaded the system with prospects,  gotten the #3 draftpick,  and you could have rebuilt a bullpen if you wanted to remain competitive.   Also if you wanted to remove the closer you could have done the rest for $18 million.   The post I responded to said you couldn't rebuild a bullpen.  To be fair I think your post acknowledges thats not a bad bullpen.  Granted had we gotten involved, the entire relief market salaries goes up due to additional demand.  

The divorce isn't over the budget,  its over the control and vision,  are we trying to win a few more games in 2026 or trying to set the Twins up for the longterm,  and its apparent no matter what happened in 2026,  Falveys tenure was ending.  Tom acknowledged as much.  If that is the workplace environment no wonder Falvey said I am ready to go.  

[nicksaviking]

43 minutes ago, bunsen82 said:

The theory would be with also removing Correa you had ample salary to rebuild -  you would have reloaded the system with prospects,  gotten the #3 draftpick,  and you could have rebuilt a bullpen if you wanted to remain competitive.   Also if you wanted to remove the closer you could have done the rest for $18 million.   The post I responded to said you couldn't rebuild a bullpen.  To be fair I think your post acknowledges thats not a bad bullpen.  Granted had we gotten involved, the entire relief market salaries goes up due to additional demand.  

The divorce isn't over the budget,  its over the control and vision,  are we trying to win a few more games in 2026 or trying to set the Twins up for the longterm,  and its apparent no matter what happened in 2026,  Falveys tenure was ending.  Tom acknowledged as much.  If that is the workplace environment no wonder Falvey said I am ready to go.  

You just can't build a bullpen through free agency though. The only free agent relievers that could ever even approach being considered reliable, are the free agent relievers who frequently change teams and consistently perform well no matter where they land.

That tends to describe only a couple of relievers any off season. 

Because if you're signing a guy, simply because they pitched well last year, good luck. That sample size is too small and means jack squat. There are too many variables and not enough data to predict if they were good last year, or if they were just in the right situation. They're just as likely to be a liability as they are a benefit.

[USAFChief]

5 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

I disagree, had you spend $30-$35  million you could have rebuilt to have an effective bullpen.  Nothing great but effective.  

Saurez 15 million, Dominguez, $10 million, Armstrong $6 million, Rogers 2 million  

Throw in Sands, Funderburk, Topa Festa.     That would be a pretty effective bullpen that i think most would have been ok with.   

Their issue is they are stating they want to win,  they aren't willing to spend and not trade significant assets.  We traded Kisting for Orze.  This bullpen will have arms, but not high leverage arms.   I extremely question the philosphy.  For this I will agree with you about the deadline trade implosion. 

What we have seen since,  is that the Pohlads have pressed the gas pedal and stopped multiple times in the last year.  They were finally willing to sell off, and now they want to reverse course on a rebuild,  and act like everything is fine and they are set to compete again.  Tom is telling bigger fairy tales than I told to my kids back in the day.  If the plan was to compete,  they should have kept Duran, Varland and Stewart.  I am ok trading Jax as he was disgruntled.  

The only way it works is someone like Festa takes a Duran path, and you sign someone like Kopech and he suddenly has health and dominant stuff.  Then the rest of the bullpen could fill their spots and maybe you pick up a reliever at the deadline.  The odds of this is like below 3%.   

In addition to the preposterous notion the Twins were going to spend  $33M on the pen, neither Suarez  or Dominquez were 1 year deals. So you're not talking about $33m, it's $71m and that's if the Twins got them for the deals they signed. And who would sign with the Twins for the.same money Atlanta offered??

Not to mention good bullpens aren't 3 or 4 deep.

Nor are teams trying to sign the top half all at once in free agency.

The 2025 deadline ruled out the 2026 bullpen. And likely longer. 

 

[Brandon]

I would like to see the Twins get 1 more major league reliever.  I am not too picky.  Someone who can pitch with a league average ERA.for stability in the pen.  I would even be fine with resigning Tonkin to a 1 year 1 million deal.  We can always trade or release him if youth is successful and we need another slot for a younger reliever.

[Doctor Wu]

6 hours ago, Brandon said:

I would like to see the Twins get 1 more major league reliever.  I am not too picky.  Someone who can pitch with a league average ERA.for stability in the pen.  I would even be fine with resigning Tonkin to a 1 year 1 million deal.  We can always trade or release him if youth is successful and we need another slot for a younger reliever.

Well, at this point in the off-season (February is here!), the Twins are going to need to be VERY creative in stocking the bullpen. I expect a few of the fringe starter candidates will end up in the pen, along with one or two of the high-end farm system pitchers, but I still think they need to make an effort to sign a legitimate veteran arm. But right now the pickings are slim. As usual. 

[Brandon]

3 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Well, at this point in the off-season (February is here!), the Twins are going to need to be VERY creative in stocking the bullpen. I expect a few of the fringe starter candidates will end up in the pen, along with one or two of the high-end farm system pitchers, but I still think they need to make an effort to sign a legitimate veteran arm. But right now the pickings are slim. As usual. 

I agree we need to sign 1 or two more arms for the pen.  I think we need someone who can give us an ok floor with league average pitching.  Or preferably better but at minimum league average.