Twins Trade for Eric Wagaman, Designate Ryan Fitzgerald for Assignment

[karcherd]

13 minutes ago, Jose Herrera said:

@karcherd Consider Miami gave him over 500 plate appearances with the turnaround they had. I'm sure he will help us out.

He helped out so much, that they decided to DFA him after one season.  So we have added another bat first player who is not even a good bat.  And all the domino moves make us worse.  We now will have at least 4 players that should be the 13th man on the roster on this team as best case scenario, Wagaman, Clemens, Gasper and Kriedler.  And Outman if he makes the team.

[TNtwins85]

8 minutes ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

Why do I feel like the team will attempt to break their season errors record this year?  We sign Bell, who can't field, then pick up this guy who can't field, and to top it off we take our best fielding SS off the 40-man to make room.  I am totally confused what this FO is attempting to do this year regarding roster building.

You shouldn’t be confused at all. They’re making it look like they’re attempting to roster build but more and more I see a trade deadline sell off round 2 coming. The FO is leaving breadcrumbs to a rebuild. Unless a big move is made via trade to shake things up this month that’s my assumption now with this move.

[stringer bell]

I don't know very much at all about Wagaman, I recall he played a bit for the Angels in 2024, but I think the Twins see potential in his increased swing speed. That was the big change for Clemens in 2025 that propelled him all the way to average as a major league hitter.

I assumed that many would be lamenting the possible loss of Fitzgerald, but I have a hard time believing he is anything but a major league stopgap. I don't know if Kreidler is anything, but he is supposed to be a plus fielder at two of the most important defensive positions.

With Wallner, Larnach, Roden, Outman, Martin all competing for time in the corner outfield and Rodriguez, Gonzales and Jenkins all already at Triple A, it make close to zero sense to move Keaschall to the outfield. 

[Doc Lenz]

2 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Like Gasper.

As long as Gasper is on the roster we are not serious. Keeping him and not Fitzgerald is lunacy, oh well.

[whosafraidofluigirussolo]

2 hours ago, bunsen82 said:

Granted he could be a AAA option.  However it does lend credence to the continued theory that has been floated,  that they plan for Keaschall to be in the outfield.  Clemens is then a 2nd baseman,  and then you have Bell and Wagaman as a platoon/DH options.   Its still means there is more moves coming and I don't see how Larnach remains on the team if the plan is for Keaschall to be in Left.  His August and September were pretty decent. 

So under this scheme, Wagaman gains at-bats while Martin and Roden lose them - I still don't get why that's a good thing.

[Doc Lenz]

2 hours ago, KirbyDome89 said:

Zero chance Wagaman is a AAA "depth," signing. Zero. 

Concur on Keaschall. I keep hearing about how he looked so much better in LF (Idk I didn't watch him play in the minors) but he struggled making throws from 2B so who knows what that looks like in the OF, plus the grouping of prospects you mentioned. 

My guess is Keaschall stays at 2B, Clemens/Wagaman platoon at 1B, and Bell is locked in at DH. I hate that. $7M of your limited budget for a DH who isn't a good hitter on a roster full of DH candidates is terrible resource allocation/roster building. Another platoon where both sides struggle, even in "favorable," matchups is a disaster waiting to happen without even accounting for the poor defense. Keaschall looked awkward at 2B. You could've given him 1B and used the money/roster spots to actually improve the team, maybe even beyond this year. 

Keaschall can and will get better at second base. We have plenty of outfielders.

[shimrod]

28 minutes ago, TNtwins85 said:

They’re making it look like they’re attempting to roster build but more and more I see a trade deadline sell off round 2 coming.

A month ago I expected a $70M payroll or less this year. Now I think you're right. Pretend to contend for half a season, trade everyone making more than the minimum, and enter the lockout at $60M MLB payroll and a ton of prospects.  

[Parfigliano]

40 minutes ago, TNtwins85 said:

He will serve as a platoon partner for Clemons and Bell at 1B/DH. This move may signify that they’re not gonna go after another bat. If that’s the case I anticipate a few low wattage RP moves and this is the team they’ll go in with. By August 1st the Twins will have sold everyone worth a decent prospect again and they’ll be in full rebuild mode. I hope I’m wrong but the picture becomes more clear day by day with low wattage moves or no rumors at all on trades or FA’s. 

So they are not going big and are going home.

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

So they are not going big and are going home.

No half measures.....

[jorgenswest]

I don’t think a short side platoon is worth roster spot unless they can contribute defensively or have some speed but I am probably in the minority on that view.

Wagaman did have an OPS of .783 against lefties his rookie season. He did well as a sub entering with an OPS of .826. His overall OPS was 103 points better in his second half. He has three options remaining. He might not be a bad option for a right handed short side platoon bat.

[TheLeviathan]

Woohoo!  Dust off those homer hankies!

[HerbieFan]

Yawn. 

[High heat]

I would assume that a minor league deal is in place for Fitzgerald.  The Twins will get to in theory claim Wegeman and keep Fitzgerald.
is a right handed hitting Julien.  some outside numbers say he could be a productive hitter.  
 

This is a move that terrible teams make to bring in players to atleast fill out a roster with fringe major leaguers.  Right now if Bell or Clemens got hurt they wouldn’t have anyone to even fill in at 1B so it’s a move that makes sense around the margins and maybe a lotto ticket hits.

[LA Vikes Fan]

I think the trashing of Wagaman here is a little overblown. Yes, this is not exciting but the play here is pretty obvious. Wagaman hit .268/.319/.425 (.744) last year after the ASB, and hit .283/.321/.462 (.783) against lefties last year. He also has 3 options. The hope is he hits like last year's second half, not the first, and then he's actually a better than average MLB hitter. If not, he could still be a platoon bat or be sent down. We gave up very little for him, a guy whose ceiling appears to be a fungible bottom of the pen reliever. The transaction makes sense. Losing Fitzgerald is no big deal - he'll be 32 in June, hit .196 in limited ABs, and has never made it in the majors. I too would rather lose Gaspar but it's like getting bad or really bad seats at a game, i.e., hard to care.  

What wouldn't make sense to me is to move Keaschall to the OF so either Clemens or Julien can play second base. Both frankly are not good unless Julien an re-harness 2023 which seems unlikely. Keep Keaschall at 2B and give him a shot to see if he can lock down the position in the field. Whatever you do, don't use him to replace Martin - Martin actually looked the part of an above average LF for 2 months last year. He plays every day until he shows he can't. If Keaschall goes to the OF it's to replace Wallner, with maybe Martin moving to RF.  That makes no sense to me with Bell on the roster to DH, so effectively moving Keaschall so Clemens and Julien get time at the expense of Martin (and Roden) is a big time dumb move. 

 

[Linus]

44 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

I don’t think a short side platoon is worth roster spot unless they can contribute defensively or have some speed but I am probably in the minority on that view.

Wagaman did have an OPS of .783 against lefties his rookie season. He did well as a sub entering with an OPS of .826. His overall OPS was 103 points better in his second half. He has three options remaining. He might not be a bad option for a right handed short side platoon bat.

I agree. With only three spots on the bench (plus a backup catcher) this makes no sense. You can’t have this guy on the bench because he is so limited positionally. The only way this makes sense to me is if he is strictly an insurance policy in St Paul. 

[FilthyMogwai]

Honestly, a yawn is too much excitement for this move. 

[IndyTwinsFan]

4 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Only on a bad team does a Wagaman have a chance to break camp. Miami, MN....

Falvey must have a secret fetish for bad men. First Outman and now Wagaman.

It's another example of Pohlads being Pohlads, with Falvey being the proxy on the operations side of the house. 

[Greglw3]

4 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Looking at his stats, I don't see where the 'thump' is. 

I hope there's a clear off-ramp for this player come April. Outside of a half dozen injuries, I don't see how he'd make sense to put on the 40-man roster let alone the 26-man. I wish they'd stop swapping out fringe player for fringe player and just start sloughing off all of the fringe players.

Wagaman hit lefties real well .283 with good sag pct and Bell hit righties to a .804 OPS plus Bell hit lefties at a .150 clip. A quick estimate shows the platoon with about a .274 ave. with 79 RBIs and 23 HR.

[FilthyMogwai]

1 minute ago, IndyTwinsFan said:

It's another example of Pohlads being Pohlads, with Falvey being the proxy on the operations side of the house. 

We're gonna win Twins, we're gonna.... *record screeeeeeech*

[thelanges5]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

No half measures.....

Once Falvey gets to know Tom a little better, he’ll find out that he’s a go big or go home kind of guy.

[IndyTwinsFan]

Just now, FilthyMogwai said:

We're gonna win Twins, we're gonna.... *record screeeeeeech*

Nice one, Mogwai!

[FilthyMogwai]

1 minute ago, IndyTwinsFan said:

Nice one, Mogwai!

Been turning into a Gremlin the past few years... 😆

[Mike Sixel]

17 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

I think the trashing of Wagaman here is a little overblown. Yes, this is not exciting but the play here is pretty obvious. Wagaman hit .268/.319/.425 (.744) last year after the ASB, and hit .283/.321/.462 (.783) against lefties last year. He also has 3 options. The hope is he hits like last year's second half, not the first, and then he's actually a better than average MLB hitter. If not, he could still be a platoon bat or be sent down. We gave up very little for him, a guy whose ceiling appears to be a fungible bottom of the pen reliever. The transaction makes sense. Losing Fitzgerald is no big deal - he'll be 32 in June, hit .196 in limited ABs, and has never made it in the majors. I too would rather lose Gaspar but it's like getting bad or really bad seats at a game, i.e., hard to care.  

What wouldn't make sense to me is to move Keaschall to the OF so either Clemens or Julien can play second base. Both frankly are not good unless Julien an re-harness 2023 which seems unlikely. Keep Keaschall at 2B and give him a shot to see if he can lock down the position in the field. Whatever you do, don't use him to replace Martin - Martin actually looked the part of an above average LF for 2 months last year. He plays every day until he shows he can't. If Keaschall goes to the OF it's to replace Wallner, with maybe Martin moving to RF.  That makes no sense to me with Bell on the roster to DH, so effectively moving Keaschall so Clemens and Julien get time at the expense of Martin (and Roden) is a big time dumb move. 

 

Short side platoon bat who can't field is one of your three bench players?

[Hashim]

4 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Looking at his stats, I don't see where the 'thump' is. 

I hope there's a clear off-ramp for this player come April. Outside of a half dozen injuries, I don't see how he'd make sense to put on the 40-man roster let alone the 26-man. I wish they'd stop swapping out fringe player for fringe player and just start sloughing off all of the fringe players.

He was really good in the last two months of the season. Hit for average and extra base hits. I think the power is there. I’m cautiously optimistic. 

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, karcherd said:

He helped out so much, that they decided to DFA him after one season.  So we have added another bat first player who is not even a good bat.  And all the domino moves make us worse.  We now will have at least 4 players that should be the 13th man on the roster on this team as best case scenario, Wagaman, Clemens, Gasper and Kriedler.  And Outman if he makes the team.

Plus Julien. They have six 13th men on the roster.

[tony&rodney]

4 minutes ago, Hashim said:

He was really good in the last two months of the season. Hit for average and extra base hits. I think the power is there. I’m cautiously optimistic. 

Caution and optimism are both good.

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

No half measures.....

To be fair, this isn't a half-measure. It's more like a 1/4 measure.

[IndyTwinsFan]

3 hours ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

So… fire sale 40% of the roster? Again? Just this time keep the good ones

Not that I disagree with your premise, but I sure hope you don't trust Falvey to be able to do that!  I certaintly don't. 

Saving money on the roster rules the roost here, not baseball ability. 

[TNtwins85]

1 hour ago, shimrod said:

A month ago I expected a $70M payroll or less this year. Now I think you're right. Pretend to contend for half a season, trade everyone making more than the minimum, and enter the lockout at $60M MLB payroll and a ton of prospects.  

I hate it. I’m more of a no half measure guy. Either trade them all this off-season or contend and see what shakes out next offseason. But unless there’s a miracle this move points to all things make it look like an attempt to contend. I give it the end of January. If there’s no big moves by then that’s the plan.

[GNess]

I am squinting hard to see the logic behind this move which creates a 1B "pool" of Bell, Wagaman and Clemens? Not very exciting. 

The Twins continue to fiddle around the margins which can only help the team in a marginal way ultimately.