BREAKING: Twins Sign Left-Handed Reliever Taylor Rogers to One-Year Deal

[Twinsrtheworst]

22 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Right now how the team stands? Yeah I would. This team played at a pace of a 55 win team the last half of 2025. What have they done to change that? Added some fringe players, Orze, Jackson, Kreidler, Waggaman, etc. No gains here. Added Bell, Caratini and now Rogers. These guys produced 1.7 WAR in 2025. At 60 I'm giving them more. Bell and Caratini their added offense improve us. Now, their defense is actually worse. But I'll stand by 60 for the moment and give them some improvement. I'm willing to evaluate piece by piece what they do between now and opening day but as of yet I call it like I see it.

Ok, Sounds fair.  Only thing to decide is what do we wager on it?  An all expenses paid trip to the next Spring training including airflight for 2, 5 game tickets for 2, and a 4 star hotel for 6 nights.  I’m not really a betting man, but I am a man of my word. I am absolutely confident the Twins will win at least 61 games.  Sound like a good premise for a friendly bet?  Anything you would like to add or subtract?  I am game if you are.

[JD-TWINS]

On 1/22/2026 at 1:40 PM, Brandon said:

So they were 10th in the league and can get improvement from Wallner and Lewis and a full season of Keaschal and 1B is improved.  That is 4 out of 9 positions plus C is improved with Vazquez replacement is a much better hitter.  Are you sure that won't move the needle to slightly above average?  That is a lot of improvement and we have several prospects ready to jump in as a plan B or in case of injury..

I agree on your probable offensive uptick with a number of guys just being Average. I too would think Caratini for Vazquez will be a nice shot in the arm ……….. remember Vazquez was a .270 plus career hitter when we signed him for $10M/yr.

[DJL44]

With Dominguez gone, there are no RH RP remaining with a projected WAR above 0.3. Their best options to raise the ceiling for the bullpen are

a) convert a prospect starting pitcher

b) convert a free agent starting pitcher

[Vanimal46]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

With Dominguez gone, there are no RH RP remaining with a projected WAR above 0.3. Their best options to raise the ceiling for the bullpen are

a) convert a prospect starting pitcher

b) convert a free agent starting pitcher

I couldn’t care less about projections, but the people clamoring that building a bullpen is the easiest thing to do on a baseball team will have a rude awakening this season. 

[ashbury]

13 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

I couldn’t care less about projections

Assuming you're playing armchair-GM along with the rest of us, what do you base your roster decisions on?

[Vanimal46]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Assuming you're playing armchair-GM along with the rest of us, what do you base your roster decisions on?

Not ZIPs/Fangraphs that projected the Twins to win 82 games that’s for sure 

[USAFChief]

4 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

I couldn’t care less about projections, but the people clamoring that building a bullpen is the easiest thing to do on a baseball team will have a rude awakening this season. 

Don't be so sure. We'll read the same next off-season. 

"Bullpens are easy" is one of those myths that just won't go away. 

Meanwhile 3-5 relievers are pitching 3-6 innings every game. Every game. And those numbers grow every year. It's not unusual for a team to use 8 or 9 different relievers in a 3 game series. 

There are no "low leverage" relievers, and a team will go through, what?...16 relievers in a season? 18? 20?

 

[Brandon]

8 hours ago, DJL44 said:

With Dominguez gone, there are no RH RP remaining with a projected WAR above 0.3. Their best options to raise the ceiling for the bullpen are

a) convert a prospect starting pitcher

b) convert a free agent starting pitcher

C.  Trade?

Trade seems like a good option to get a reliever.

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, Brandon said:

C.  Trade?

Trade seems like a good option to get a reliever.

Trading prospects for relievers seems like a worse idea than using the prospects as relievers. That is pushing the “undo” button on last year’s trade deadline.
 

They might be able to get a reliever for Larnach, but not a good one. 
 

They have been obsessed with “raising the floor” this offseason and have made one move that raises the ceiling: Caratini. Improving a 65 win team to a 75 win team isn’t helpful.

[Twinsrtheworst]

19 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Forget about Dominguez, he's going to the CWS. 5th place here come the Twins. Calling it like I see it.

Any desire to take that bet, you had said yes,,, But have you changed your mind?  Willing to put your money were your mouth is? Calling it like ai see it.

[Fatbat]

Great signing! We definitely need lefty help and he can share wisdom with the young guys!  It would be great to spend some $$ and get a bonafide closer as well.  I was looking at our 40 man roster on MLB dot com and there are currently 42. I wonder who is going to get sent out?

[Fatbat]

10 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Don't be so sure. We'll read the same next off-season. 

"Bullpens are easy" is one of those myths that just won't go away. 

Meanwhile 3-5 relievers are pitching 3-6 innings every game. Every game. And those numbers grow every year. It's not unusual for a team to use 8 or 9 different relievers in a 3 game series. 

There are no "low leverage" relievers, and a team will go through, what?...16 relievers in a season? 18? 20?

 

You’re not wrong. The FO is counting on the SP’s going 7 innings every game and the offense producing an average of 5 runs/game.  Neither of those things are remotely an actual possibility. We need more bullpen help and its not going to be easy to find. 
 

[jorgenswest]

8 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

I wonder who is going to get sent out?

Ohl and Pereda

[Twinsrtheworst]

On 1/22/2026 at 7:10 PM, ashbury said:

 

This is not the kind of discussion I was hoping for in Year 10 of the Falvey Era, parsing whether 60 or 70 wins is where to set the bar.

Well the responder  predicting 60 wins is obviously joking or light on actual baseball knowledge, possibly both. So the real discussion if you would like to have one is somewhere between 70 - 82 wins as currently constructed.

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, se7799 said:

Well the responder  predicting 60 wins is obviously joking or light on actual baseball knowledge, possibly both. So the real discussion if you would like to have one is somewhere between 70 - 82 wins as currently constructed.

The discussion I want is what our chances are against the Dodgers in the World Series, and which AL team maybe stands in the way of getting there.  A topic of "70 versus 82," after promises from the new FO of sustained excellence, kind of leaves me cold.  It's not exactly Taylor Rogers's fault that he proved to be the catalyst for this instead.