2026 Minnesota Twins International Signings

[bunsen82]

50 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I don't think they've given out a contract like that since Wander Javier? And that was back when Terry Ryan was in charge. And I'm pretty sure the Twins have yet to see one of their international signings under Derek Falvey reach the majors. 

So I might argue that it's time for a different approach. Even if it's just once.

What I was referring to was higher level contracts - such as the 2023 class where we gave out 3 - 1+ million contracts

Ariel Castro - $2.4

Carlos Silva - $1.1

Hendry Chivilli - $2.1

[Dman]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

I don't think they've given out a contract like that since Wander Javier? And that was back when Terry Ryan was in charge. And I'm pretty sure the Twins have yet to see one of their international signings under Derek Falvey reach the majors. 

So I might argue that it's time for a different approach. Even if it's just once.

It feels like that Javiaer signing cured them from going all in on just one guy so to speak.  There have been some notable top tier signings that have worked out quite well for other teams, but it seems like we see just as many or more of the medium to low end guys work out as well. 

It doesn't seem to cost much to go after arms and I don't know the success rate for arms, but it seems like for 100K or less you could grab a bunch of those guys and see how they work out.  Colorado went after some of the higher end arms in this class as did a few others.  I wouldn't mind the Twins allocating more money there, but then maybe they just haven't identified them soon enough to get them to sign with them.

Last year 4 of their signings were in the top 50 for MLB.com.  All in the 1.5 to 1M type of players.  That seems to be the range where the Brewers like to target their guys and they have had decent success.

One thing I can't argue with you about is their relative lack of success on the international signings for quite some time.  Maybe Bohorquez can break that streak and become something or Oliveros?  I like DeAndrade but there's quite a ways to go there.  Maybe Beltre and his big forearms can find more in zone contact? Olivar is a good hitter, but is he good enough and he has no good defensive home. 

So to your point whatever they are doing hasn't been working well. Hopefully the 2025 and 2026 classes can right the ship as it sure hurts to waste that pool of talent every year.  They have thrown enough darts that they should hit some something soon, right?

[nova_twins]

4 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

I don't buy the quantity over quality argument. We can even set aside the notion that across all sports, winning teams tend to "go for it" while prudent half-measures and hedging your bets tend to be the hallmark of mediocre franchises.

The real problem with this argument is that even if the Twins signed one or two of the top international prospects, they STILL could have signed 20 players in all. Instead of signing five guys in the 500K to 1.3M range, you sign one or two of the top players and then sign a bunch of 20K to 100K players. If it's truly all about quantity, that approach should still fit the bill.

But I'd guess the real reason the Twins aren't getting the top guys is because other organizations were faster to recognize them as top players a couple years ago. If the Twins  identified, vetted, nurtured and built a relationship with a 15-year-old who two years later ended up being the top rated prospect, they wouldn't walk away from him, they'd crow about it and make sure Aaron Gleeman and Dan Hayes wrote articles about him.

This seems really speculative if not outright fictional. You don't seem to be recognizing how this stuff works on the ground -- there's no mystery among any teams about who the most exciting 13 or 14 years old are. 

The alignment between players and teams is very complicated and highly dependent on interpersonal relationships in the Dominican. Player evaluation is secondary. Every club has a huge miss rate on 16 year olds. 

There are other similar comments in this thread, basically issuing strong opinions on a subject without even the most cursory understanding of it. 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, nova_twins said:

This seems really speculative if not outright fictional. You don't seem to be recognizing how this stuff works on the ground -- there's no mystery among any teams about who the most exciting 13 or 14 years old are. 

The alignment between players and teams is very complicated and highly dependent on interpersonal relationships in the Dominican. Player evaluation is secondary. Every club has a huge miss rate on 16 year olds. 

There are other similar comments in this thread, basically issuing strong opinions on a subject without even the most cursory understanding of it. 

It's speculative to suggest the Twins haven't been good at identifying international players under the current front office? Because as it stands, since 2016 the count of useful MLB players found this way for the Twins is zero. That's not a huge miss rate, that's an infinite miss rate.

It used to be a strength of this franchise, and it's still a major pipeline for MLB talent. Phrase it how you like, but the Twins need to improve their interpersonal relationships with young players. But I will say this, if as you suggest every team knows who the most exciting 13 or 14 year olds are, than the Twins need to be better at predicting which of them are going to be the better 16 year olds on signing day, and ultimately, the better 25-year-olds who will win games at the MLB level.

Tall task, I know. But other clubs are still doing it so it can be accomplished.

[DarrenPS]

FYI to anyone interested, Spotrac currently has us at $6,290,000 spent of $7,357,100, so $1,067,100 remaining. Could make sense if Angel Ozuna gets 500k of that still. What's weird is these numbers don't mirror the MLB.com article, so I wonder if some are estimate? Regardless, it's the best we have

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/international/_/year/2026/team/min

[nova_twins]

2 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

It's speculative to suggest the Twins haven't been good at identifying international players under the current front office? Because as it stands, since 2016 the count of useful MLB players found this way for the Twins is zero. That's not a huge miss rate, that's an infinite miss rate.

It used to be a strength of this franchise, and it's still a major pipeline for MLB talent. Phrase it how you like, but the Twins need to improve their interpersonal relationships with young players. But I will say this, if as you suggest every team knows who the most exciting 13 or 14 year olds are, than the Twins need to be better at predicting which of them are going to be the better 16 year olds on signing day, and ultimately, the better 25-year-olds who will win games at the MLB level.

Tall task, I know. But other clubs are still doing it so it can be accomplished.

The Twins themselves recognized this and made significant changes to their international operations over the past several years. So your observations in that regard add nothing. 

Meanwhile, none of that explains how you could possibly evaluate this current class, you literally have no clue what you're talking about but somehow felt confident in trashing it?

[Doctor Wu]

Seems like these international signings of mostly teenagers is very much a roll of the dice. Hopefully,  a handful of these guys become legit prospects. That said, Ashwar Sprok is now my favorite name in baseball. 

[nicksaviking]

9 hours ago, nova_twins said:

The Twins themselves recognized this and made significant changes to their international operations over the past several years. So your observations in that regard add nothing. 

Meanwhile, none of that explains how you could possibly evaluate this current class, you literally have no clue what you're talking about but somehow felt confident in trashing it?

Not once did I trash these players, and in multiple other threads I've acknowledged that they hired a Kevin Goldstein a few years back and hopefully that will start showing results. Still, either by choice or by folly, they still are not in position to sign the top international free agents and it's been that way for a decade now. 

I suggested that they try a different approach since this one hasn't been paying off, that shouldn't be that objectionable.

For some reason this topic seems pointedly personal to you. If you want to share the source of your expertise feel free.

 

[Riverbrian]

Quality over Quantity is an interesting debate... I certainly don't have the answer to it. I'd guess it's a combination.  

With the assumption that 16 year olds are indeed hard to project... it would certainly require a lot of research to stand on firmer ground on the quality/quantity thing.  

However... I suspect that we are asking the wrong question or looking in the wrong place.

Signing the young IFA is simply entry into a system. I suspect that the system is what needs to be discussed and analyzed because age 16 to 22 has to be critical development years. 

Some organizations seem to produce more IFA fruit. Some produce less. Why is that? 

It's quite possible that the answer lies in the development system. Not the entry point as a hard to project 16 year old?  

 

[USAFChief]

18 hours ago, nova_twins said:

The Twins themselves recognized this and made significant changes to their international operations over the past several years. So your observations in that regard add nothing. 

Meanwhile, none of that explains how you could possibly evaluate this current class, you literally have no clue what you're talking about but somehow felt confident in trashing it?

And yet...here we are on the verge of 2026, and still, no international FA signings of any help. None.

[Riverbrian]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

And yet...here we are on the verge of 2026

Are you still writing 2025 on your checks? 

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Are you still writing 2025 on your checks? 

There are only two seasons. Baseball, no Baseball. It's still no Baseball. 

2026 starts when there's Baseball. 

 

[Riverbrian]

10 hours ago, USAFChief said:

There are only two seasons. Baseball, no Baseball. It's still no Baseball. 

2026 starts when there's Baseball. 

 

I feel the same.

However... somebody need to come up with better names for those seasons.