The Inevitable Split of Derek Falvey and the Minnesota Twins

[HerbieFan]

Simply put....they have to replace him with someone from an organization that showed itself capable of developing players through the major league roster.

[LastOnePicked]

3 hours ago, smartfred said:

My thoughts of what happened which is not factual and just a hunch but the only thing that makes sense. Most likely happened over a week ago.

Derek: Hey Tom, it looks like the Twins are due for a mediocre season since we only signed 2 replacement level players this off-season and our bullpen still has grand canyon type holes. We have an offer on the table for Joe Ryan that involves Carson Benge and Brandon Sproat which are both top 100 guys and I think we should do it and go big for 2027.

Tom: Our attendance is already at an all-time low. Trading another fan favorite will not sit well with our season ticket holders. Our new minority owners aren't going to like another season in the red.

Derek: With the resources you've cut from me, the only chance we have is to build a team through development since we aren't going after FA's that are difference makers. I'm trying to mirror what the Brewers, Marlins, and Rays are doing because they are able to put together winning teams with less budget.

Tom: Being "just good enough" will keep the cash flow moving, and with any luck we'll make the playoffs every once in awhile. We need to keep the Twins looking like an attractive investment at all times to possible buyers.

Derek: I think we are moving in different directions. I want to find ways to win, however you're handcuffing me from the business side. This is not something I signed up for.

Tom: You know what, you're right. Lets call it a good 9 years and peace out.

Here's what makes me doubt this - Pohlad was the only one who mentioned tearing things down, and Falvey, by his own admission, talked him out it by showing him the early FG projections. I'm guessing that the more Tom has gotten involved, the more he's realized that Falvey's been misleading him and the team is in far worse shape than he realized,

[mluebker]

5 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

I actively opposed the sale of the Twins to Carl Pohlad  in 1984.

I was thrilled. I didn’t know anything at all about the guy except that he wasn’t Calvin Griffith. And that was enough. Three years later, the Twins win the World Series and it seemed like Pohlad was the answer to a prayer. Four years after that they do it again and I’m ready to nominate him for sainthood. Then all the guys that the Griffith organization had signed, nurtured, and shepherded to the big team were dispersing or retiring. It took 26 years for the Twins to get that first World Championship. It’s now been 34 years since the last one. Do you think maybe I was a little too hard on Calvin?

[tony&rodney]

5 minutes ago, mluebker said:

I was thrilled. I didn’t know anything at all about the guy except that he wasn’t Calvin Griffith. And that was enough. Three years later, the Twins win the World Series and it seemed like Pohlad was the answer to a prayer. Four years after that they do it again and I’m ready to nominate him for sainthood. Then all the guys that the Griffith organization had signed, nurtured, and shepherded to the big team were dispersing or retiring. It took 26 years for the Twins to get that first World Championship. It’s now been 34 years since the last one. Do you think maybe I was a little too hard on Calvin?

The Twins won with Calvin's boys. To be fair, the addition of a few players was critical but that was all Andy Mac. People really judged Cal harshly because he was so raw, just a simple baseball gut; the last of the dinosaurs. Carl proved himself to be exactly what we said he was all along. His boys are actually good people, imo.

[tony&rodney]

3 hours ago, smartfred said:

Not likely I agree with you.

Falvey was high on Joe Ryan before the Nelson Cruz trade and tried to obtain him previously due to his arm slot and comments made by Twins AAA hitters finding it difficult to hit against. I can't seem to find a source indicating Tampa Bay approached the Twins with the offer.

I find the timing of him leaving interesting.

Spring Training is right around the corner and the off-season is ending. Why let him hang around for so long? The timing right after one of the only significant trades that resembles something the Twins could have done is interesting. 

We won't agree. That's fine, it's life.

[tony&rodney]

The Twins ownership has collapsed the payroll in a dramatic fashion. Nobody in Twins Territory is pleased with lower payrolls. Nobody. Reality can be tough. In reality, Falvey had more money to spend on HIS roster than any team in the AL Central in his time as the man in charge of rosters. How did he do? You can each decide for yourself. Take away the players left by Terry Ryan and there wasn't much to brag about. Who is the best player on the Twins team today? Who signed that guy? Clue- it was in 2012.

Falvey did some good things and has some success. Certainly there are positives but when he had to work with the budgets of Cleveland or Milwaukee he was toast. The Twins need to find a new owner. That is a possible positive path forward.  They also need someone to lead the team who is in tune with the dire state of mid market MLB baseball. That wasn't Derek Falvey.

[KirbyDome89]

2 hours ago, Pat said:

While I understand the frustration with the job he did in some areas, it's hard  for me to be too hard on him when you consider the position that ownership put him in when the drive started to "right size" the payroll.  Pretty much a " no win" situation for him.  If you don't have the resources to do what needs to be done, how do you get it done?

I've seen this sentiment echoed in both threads. 2023 was the outlier of the last 5 seasons and even for most of that season they weren't a good team. They were below .500 going into the ASB. They needed Cleveland to straight up quit on the season + a historically awful rest of the ALC + unrepeatable contributions from multiple rookies to win 87 games. 2024 looked identical to 2022 and last year was more of the same malaise. If we're giving Falvey a pass for the last two years, what's the excuse for 2021 and 2022? 

[Woof Bronzer]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

I would be frustrated too if ownership said, "Spend the money to get Carlos Correa" followed by "Cut spending $30M".

Yeah the 2 likely scenarios here seem to be a) Falvey snapped and did a "FU, FU, FU, you're cool, FU I'm out"...or b) he said something like "if I don't get more resources to do my job I might have to consider my long term future" and Tommy the Terminator snapped and called him on his bluff.  

[DocBauer]

A change was inevitable. Falvey shouldn't have been promoted to running both sides of the operation. That's too much for one man to handle. If the Twins have a poor season, Falvey was probably gone after 2026. But for the move to take place NOW, just a couple weeks before ST begins is very odd to me.

I was a big fan of Falvey the first few years. He modernized everything from how things were run in the MILB system, to greater coaching emphasis on such things as catching instruction, all the way up to the scouting and analytics department. 

He did a lot of good things and the Twins had some good early success. While Falvey certainly wasn't perfect, and he made mistakes, he also made some smart moves and the 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2023 seasons were fun and successful, culminating in actually winning a playoff series in 2023.

I don't absolve Falvey of some mistakes made in regard to moves made, or not made, that affected the Twins rosters and lack of success other seasons. But even with mistakes and imperfections, the rug was pulled out from under him post 2023 by ownership. While the team did have a winning record in 2024, the wheels were starting to come off with the whole "right sizing the payroll" mantra.

I've said before and will say again, I would have liked to see what Falvey might have done in 2024 had the payroll simply stayed neutral. 

Now, all that being said, I DON'T excuse Falvey for some of the roster constructions, not changing approaches that weren't maximizing talent, and waiting too long for changes in how the International department was run. Certain things weren't working, there didn't seem to be a plan or formula in place that made sense, and I think a change was needed. 

Somewhere along the line, Tom Pohlad and Falvey didn't mesh. That seems obvious. But why is the change happening NOW? It's beyond bizarre timing!

IMO, this probably was mutual. Tom waited too long, probably due to the whole minority ownership changes dragging on for so long, before deciding it probably wasn't going to work. But also IMO, I tend to think Falvey was the one to just say, "OK then, I'm ready to go". Why? Imagine having a plan...good or bad...having your payroll cutting you off at the knees, not even knowing what payroll you had to work with until November, seeing it cut even further than 2025's OPENING number, but being even LESS than the 2025 CLOSING number. Plus, you and the new boss have different visions. And you know you're probably gone if things don't go surprisingly well in 2026, why not walk away now?

Again, I've been ready for a change as even with the payroll cuts, I've been disappointed in both roster decisions and approaches in place. But between unexplainable debts, payroll cuts, and in-family disputes during this transition of sell, no sell, I just wonder if ownership is more dysfunctional than we even realized.

I can't blame Falvey for walking away and washing his hands. And I'm hoping whoever is in charge next has a distinct vision that will help maximize the talent on hand, and simply build better, more competent rosters. But I still can't blame Falvey for everything. Ownership still needs to step up at some point.

Falvey is gone, Tom. And apparently you wanted him gone. And a change was probably necessary at this point. But now the onus is on YOU to put a smart guy in charge, and for you to keep your promise of growing the payroll going forward to keep the team competitive. 

[old nurse]

The business side of the Twins did not see the RSN collapse coming. There are all sorts of people on the business side in revenue projecting and revenue generating. All are most likely St Peter guys. If on the business side Falvey wanted to retrench and remove that might not sit well with St. Peter. Falvey lost the power struggle

Correa was signed with the blessing of ownership. The money to pay him was anticipated by the revenue people. Lopez was extended by the same process. Owing Correa 10 mill is better than 30 mil. Again, an ownership decision. Why St Peter was not also mutually parted is a questioned that should be asked.  Maybe that is going to happen. People here want to blame the player side of the business. The problem is on the other side. 

[Post-Concussive Blues]

Tom Pohlad is upset that we don’t have Mickey Gasper anymore. Simple as that.

I do feel bad for Falvey. He had a good vision, and I think a lot of our player development issues have been bad luck more than poor drafting. It would be very hard to run an organization where your long term plans of increasing payroll to supplement core players are suddenly jerked out from underneath you. I suspect that he had an idea of spending some money, and ownership is not approving. So, does he really want another losing season on his resumé when it’s not the roster he wanted, or does he “mutually” agree to leave to save face for both parties?

[LastOnePicked]

Aside from the timing, no one should be surprised. One of the most disappointing teams in MLB, hundreds of millions of dollars in debt and a very low ranked farm system according to Keith Law's new ranking. The business side is a disaster and so is the overall roster. It's long past time to clean house. 

[tony&rodney]

9 minutes ago, Post-Concussive Blues said:

Tom Pohlad is upset that we don’t have Mickey Gasper anymore. Simple as that.

I do feel bad for Falvey. He had a good vision, and I think a lot of our player development issues have been bad luck more than poor drafting. It would be very hard to run an organization where your long term plans of increasing payroll to supplement core players are suddenly jerked out from underneath you. I suspect that he had an idea of spending some money, and ownership is not approving. So, does he really want another losing season on his resumé when it’s not the roster he wanted, or does he “mutually” agree to leave to save face for both parties?

Falvey was hired in October of 2016. Ober and Jeffers are his plum pipeline thus far. Now i really hope every prospect performs at 150% of their expected talent to make Derek look good retroactively (I really do) but thus far Falvey has been a failure, objectively; he didn't have any vision. By all accounts Falvey is a pretty decent guy that most people like. He talked a good game. It appears that Tom Pohlad didn't buy the bull&*it any longer. Baseball is a tough business. Players get DFA'ed with very little notice and sympathy. Edouard Julien and Pierson Ohl were traded with few people lamenting their exit. So it goes.

[Patzky]

2 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

I've been emailing the Pohlad's asking to replace them for years...Oh, Falvey's position? Less interested in working for that family, but if they still have any money left, I guess I'll take a million of it.

I'll do it for 275k 🤔

[JADBP]

Well, as mentioned earlier...there are very, very few jobs like this in MLB.  Falvey would have to had been impossibly frustrated to walk and leave all that money behind!  He's dumping on what...2 years of pay?  I highly doubt it!!!

But, as Dman said, it all comes down to results.  The reality is that other small market, small budget teams do far better than Falvey.  He just made far more BAD decisions than GOOD decisions.  And, with limited payroll, there is little room for error.  Tom saw through the BS.  Good for him for stepping forward, going BIG, even at an inconvenient time!

[chpettit19]

2 hours ago, Patzky said:

I'll do it for 275k 🤔

You're a stronger person than me to put up with them for 275. The job is yours!

[chpettit19]

10 hours ago, JADBP said:

Well, as mentioned earlier...there are very, very few jobs like this in MLB.  Falvey would have to had been impossibly frustrated to walk and leave all that money behind!  He's dumping on what...2 years of pay?  I highly doubt it!!!

But, as Dman said, it all comes down to results.  The reality is that other small market, small budget teams do far better than Falvey.  He just made far more BAD decisions than GOOD decisions.  And, with limited payroll, there is little room for error.  Tom saw through the BS.  Good for him for stepping forward, going BIG, even at an inconvenient time!

Gleeman and Bonnes are reporting pretty significantly different things than that. They say pretty strongly that their sources around the league feel Falvey could have another top or 2nd in command job next year if he wants it, and that he appeared to be pretty darn comfortable with being out from under the weight of the Pohlad regime today and Tom was the one who was on edge with the situation.

And I don't think Falvey is struggling for cash. Dude has been been making 7 figures for going on a decade.

[chpettit19]

4 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Here's what makes me doubt this - Pohlad was the only one who mentioned tearing things down, and Falvey, by his own admission, talked him out it by showing him the early FG projections. I'm guessing that the more Tom has gotten involved, the more he's realized that Falvey's been misleading him and the team is in far worse shape than he realized,

Really? Almost every quote I see from Tom is him talking about them being competitive in 2026. He's giving very Monfort (Rockies owners) vibes of being so out of touch with the talent on the roster he refuses to trade his players because he constantly thinks they can win when they have 3 good players and a bunch of replacement level, or worse, players.

From Gleeman's article on The Athletic today:

“Yes, our payroll is down from last year,” Tom Pohlad said. “I think there are still some investments to be made between now and Opening Day. I’d also say, at some point, I’d love to get off this payroll thing for a second. Let’s judge the success of this year on wins and losses, and on whether we’re playing meaningful baseball in September.”

“We have to have a good season in 2026,” Pohlad said last week. “Just because I say we’re trying to build a team that can play a string of October seasons, that doesn’t mean we’re not all in on 2026. Frankly, for us to be able to build a team and build a business that can invest in a team, we have to have a strong 2026.”

I think you have it backwards and Tom is the one pushing for them to try to compete this season because he falsely believes its going to drive revenue. That first quote, about judging the season on wins and losses and meaningful September baseball, is from his press conference today. Tom Pohlad expects the Minnesota Twins to be competitive on the field in 2026. Right now. Today. That is his expectation. 

[Woof Bronzer]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

I’d love to get off this payroll thing for a second. Let’s judge the success of this year on wins and losses, and on whether we’re playing meaningful baseball in September.”

This....is a fascinating thing to say with the roster they have.  

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

“Yes, our payroll is down from last year,” Tom Pohlad said. “I think there are still some investments to be made between now and Opening Day. I’d also say, at some point, I’d love to get off this payroll thing for a second. Let’s judge the success of this year on wins and losses, and on whether we’re playing meaningful baseball in September.”

“We have to have a good season in 2026,” Pohlad said last week. “Just because I say we’re trying to build a team that can play a string of October seasons, that doesn’t mean we’re not all in on 2026. Frankly, for us to be able to build a team and build a business that can invest in a team, we have to have a strong 2026.”

 

[Cris E]

Dan Hayes in The Athletic puts the fire sale on the Pohlads and also describes Tom Pohlad as "naively" asserting that they can win this year. His piece pretty clearly indicates that Falvey was frustrated and they were not going to get along. What's not quite as clear in that piece is which Pohlad was the one who "implored the front office to rip apart the roster before the Aug 1 deadline. "  If it was Tom who said both "Sell it all" in July and "We're going to win" in December then I could really see Falvey pulling his hair out. 

[Brandon]

2020 did Falvey in,  The team lost money and the prospects were set back.  After resetting in the draft we have quite a few top prospects at AAA. 

Falvey is the fall guy for the last Pohlad in charge.  

It would be interesting to see how he would operate with a 180-200 million payroll.

 

[JDubs]

"Tom brings a strong business background from running other family enterprises"

I keep seeing some version of how Tom has this "strong business background" and it's so funny. You mean the guy who oversaw all of their tanking businesses that are run so poorly they had to offload $500 million in debt onto the Twins? That strong business background?

[Bodie]

At least they Twins waited for the trade of Julien to get done. 

Despite the many, many, many fork-ups by Failvey, he literally got something for nothing (actually, less than nothing- nothing won't hurt you, but Julien could and did).

 

Good riddance.  Twice.

[Jeff K]

13 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

How many “good teams” have a Team Spend of $105M in 2026, with 10% of that total going to a former player????

The “partial blame” laid at the feet of ownership with the principal blame going to Falvey just doesn’t make sense to me.

Spending 65-70% of what was spent in ‘23 and 9% of that total is being paid to Correa. It’s “Calvin Griffith Cheap” at Target Field these days!!!

You can't fire the owners...as much as we would like to.  Falvey's nibbling around for mediocre infielders has done nothing.  And the miserable fielding players that he has acquired and held on to are 100% on him.

[lukeduke1980]

The Brewers' success is probably TP's goal.  I think further tearing down the team to get there is an indictment on Falveys inability to build it in the first place, or at least would be in TP's eyes.  I'm guessing Falvey wanted to start over and trade everyone, but TP didn't think Falvey should be the one to do so.

[tony&rodney]

6 hours ago, Brandon said:

2020 did Falvey in,  The team lost money and the prospects were set back.  After resetting in the draft we have quite a few top prospects at AAA. 

Falvey is the fall guy for the last Pohlad in charge.  

It would be interesting to see how he would operate with a 180-200 million payroll.

 

I think you meant it would be interesting to see how Tampa Bay would do with the Twins payroll.

The last time the Twins were relevant, 2023, the Rays had less than half the payroll of the Minnesota Twins, but won 12 more games than the Twins.

I wish all teams spent the same amount on player payroll but that won't happen in my lifetime. 

Are there big fans of the Pohlad way of running the Twins? I would like to hear if there are voices for the owner's positions. That issue should not be confused by a lack of skill by the Twins front office. The teams that should receive your sympathy are the Rays, Brewers, Guardians, etc. 

[bunsen82]

9 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Really? Almost every quote I see from Tom is him talking about them being competitive in 2026. He's giving very Monfort (Rockies owners) vibes of being so out of touch with the talent on the roster he refuses to trade his players because he constantly thinks they can win when they have 3 good players and a bunch of replacement level, or worse, players.

From Gleeman's article on The Athletic today:

“Yes, our payroll is down from last year,” Tom Pohlad said. “I think there are still some investments to be made between now and Opening Day. I’d also say, at some point, I’d love to get off this payroll thing for a second. Let’s judge the success of this year on wins and losses, and on whether we’re playing meaningful baseball in September.”

“We have to have a good season in 2026,” Pohlad said last week. “Just because I say we’re trying to build a team that can play a string of October seasons, that doesn’t mean we’re not all in on 2026. Frankly, for us to be able to build a team and build a business that can invest in a team, we have to have a strong 2026.”

I think you have it backwards and Tom is the one pushing for them to try to compete this season because he falsely believes its going to drive revenue. That first quote, about judging the season on wins and losses and meaningful September baseball, is from his press conference today. Tom Pohlad expects the Minnesota Twins to be competitive on the field in 2026. Right now. Today. That is his expectation. 

I think you have hit this on the head.  Tom wants (needs) the team to win.   Falvey is saying - at some point we have to trade Ryan,  we have rebuild for the next step.    The issue is the Twins had a plan in place for this offseason - and I don't think it was even related to the minority owners.  Joe and Falvey's plan was to tear it down to the studs and try to build for the future.  Thats why they had all the trade feelers out for Lopez and Ryan.   

Then Joe is out, Tom is in and everything changes.   Tom will acknowledge they screwed up saying they needed to spend more in 2023,  the reality is the Twins can't spend.  They started with $430 million debt to start the year last year.   They had $40 million in interest payments (per Hays which is baloney -10% interest rate holy crap - they should easily be getting half of that 6% at the higher end) and then operations loss of 30 million effectively.   Their operations and interest added 70 million to debt because they never pay their interest.  I don't know who the heck set up this business model.  This is the whole reason for the minority owners.   Tom was frustrated yesterday about questions about Payrolls,  effectively saying can't we get off this topic.  Sadly no,  your payrolls are dictating the success of the organization to a degree.  So it will obviously be  a topic of conversation.  

The issue is the Pohlads changed their mind.   They decided it was better in their interests to take on minority owners to pay down the debt,  decrease interest payments.  Thats great,  but if that was the case and you still wanted to win,  you shouldn't have traded your entire bullpen.  You want to win now,  with bullpen that currently does not have the upside or is heavily going to rely on young kids,  because you refused to sign anyone noteworthy or trade for anyone.  Tom claims they are still planning to sign or make additions.   

Falvey came out and said they had effectively decided to part ways 2 weeks ago.  Its also interesting at the dinner last week, that many people claim this was the most free - "loosey - goosey" they had seen him.  I think Tom was sent to create change, I also think the inevitable picture was Falvey was going to be fired.   Falvey could read the writing on the wall and both agreed.  Its the theory an employer writes an employee up, the employee can see this is more than a write up - this is the paper trail for an end game of firing, and says you know what I am done which the employer gladly accepts.   So do I think Falvey wanted out,  absolutely.  To be fair - This was because this was Tom's expectation and also that most likely Tom's expectations are unachievable and Falvey knew he would be the scapegoat.  

So what are we left with.  Zoll handling baseball ops.  Tom handling business ops -  likely 30% or more decrease in ticket sales. Remember he is the one who has been calling ticket holders who have not renewed their tickets this year.  And holes still left on the roster.   Falvey can have job tomorrow, but with his contract he is likely be paid significantly for this year.  He can come back next year either in a GM role for another team or 2nd in command.  He trades well,  overall had a good W-L record even with a challenging organization (but with the help of a weak division).   For something that Tom thought initially this could bring some good will to Twins fans parting ways with Falvey, and for some I do think they are very happy,  ultimately I think this is more an indictment on a total lack of consistent message or operational vision that is merely being done to try to maximize the value of a future sale.    I don't see Tom achieving his goals this year.    

[TopGunn#22]

What a week of Twins Cities sports!!  I've been down in Tampa, Florida, playing in a Senior 65's softball tournament and just got back (We Won the Tournament) !!

On the one hand this is shocking and on the other hand, even with the timing, this makes sense.  

Falvey (and Thad Levine) were brought in to bring a different vision and higher level of competency than the Dave St. Peter/Terry Ryan regime, (much like Rocco was) and at first that more modern, analytic driven system seemed to be successful.  Heck, just subtracting Dave St. Peter from the equation brought the Twins a substantial benefit.

But even though the payroll peaked in 2023 at $160M and Carlos Correa was solid, the foundation was still shaky.  Tom Pohlad claims Twins ownership has always tried "hard."  As evidenced by getting themselves $500 million in debt.  That's more an indictment of poor fiscal policy and boneheaded decisions in my opinion.  Trying "hard" to the tune of negative $500M is not a medal you want to earn.

To me, the Falvey regime was marked by an inability to be PROACTIVE and a propensity to be REACTIVE.  The Twins never seemed to identify problems and go out and get their guy.  Even ending up with Nelson Cruz, probably the best move Falvey/Levine ever made, kind of fell in their laps.  We signed him late and he was fantastic.  Trading him a couple years later after it appeared he was slipping and getting Joe Ryan was also master stroke.

But the big money moves always seemed risky.  Josh Donaldson, Carlos Correa, were big moves, but for guys with a questionable health history that nagged the Twins the entire time those guys played for us.  Having Kiriloff, Wallner and Larnach and needing a RH hitting corner OF/1B type, the Falvey regime sat around and watched other teams scoop up all kinds of players, until the Twins were left with signing Joey Gallo...a LH hitting corner OF/1B.  It just made NO SENSE.

Year after year under Falvey I wondered what the "plan" was.  I could never see a true strategy other than hanging back and looking for "bargains," and "value" players late in the process.

I think the Pohlad's expected Falvey to be an idea person, who could aggressively make moves within a framework (albeit somewhat restrictive framework) to build a competitive roster.  I think Falvey just ran out of ideas.  There were opportunities for Falvey to do things with Twins rosters despite whatever limitations he was operating under.  But the moves he made just didn't click.

Last season's gutting of the Twins BP raised a lot of eyebrows in MLB.  It could be argued that the Twins received positive value in each trade.  But decimating one aspect of a successful team just to add perceived value is not effective roster construction.  The Twins currently have young pitchers like Matthews, Bradley, Abel and SWR.  You could add Festa and Prielipp to that group as SP that might spend time time in the BP before moving back into a rotation spot (or remain in the BP).  But if you also have Ryan, Lopez and Ober there are too may arms and not enough slots.

One of Ryan, Lopez or Ober should have been traded by now.  I like to quote Baseball Trade Values because it gives you a somewhat logical formula to imagine possible trades.  I've suggested an Ober trade to the D-backs for Jordan Lawler several times.  Ober has a 21.0 value. Lawler has gone from 19.4 to 20.1 to now 3.6.  I checked and he hasn't been signed to a rich 5 year deal.  What precipitated that drop in value??  I have advocated an Ober (21.0) trade to the CWS for Kyle Teel (18.9) or Edgar Quero (17.8) to get a young catcher (younger than Jeffers and Caratini).  

Moving Ober to improve the roster construction for a young MLB catcher, a SS/2B or a speedy RH hitting OF or solid veteran BP piece would open up a rotation spot for a young SP  and improve the overall major league roster, possibly leading to other trades that could improve the roster.  It just seemed like Falvey either ran out of ideas, or was just incapable of closing the deal.

While surprising, this move was not shocking, even with the timing.  

[Heiny]

I have some thoughts on the sense or maybe non-sense of how we got here:

1.  ANY TIME  you are paying someone to play for another team, there has been a big boner leading up to it.  And 10M per year for the next 3 years?  Somebody needed to pay for that blunder!

2.  The draft is always a crap shoot.  But leading up to the last several drafts I don't think anyone thought the picks we made were huge mistakes.  Lewis and Lee were highly ranked prospects that haven't performed up to expectations as of yet, but it's too early to give up on them.  Other first rounders have also been ranked pretty high and still have high hopes of success.  So, I don't blame Falvey for the drafts.  But developing the picks may be a problem from Falveys' regime.

3.  The combination of Falvey and Baldelli  had a sour smell to it all along IMHO.  Finally getting rid of Rocco was a day that I rejoiced and now Falvey gives me hope for the future.  Now if only the Polahds could get the team sold, well, that will be the turning point.  The 2024 season was the biggest disappointment for me because it looked for the longest time that we were playoff bound even though the payroll had been cut. Then they stepped on a  landmine and totally blew the stretch run.

4.  I still have high hopes for the future because I believe in our prospects. Jenkins, ERod, Gonzales, Culpepper,  Houston and a plethora of good looking young pitchers.  I just don't think I'll be around long enough to see how good they can be.

5.  The trade deadline sell off is still a head scratcher for me.  We went from having a very strong bullpen to selling off all of our best relievers, several with multi year control left.  Unless you are looking to do a total rebuild, this just doesn't make any sense to me.

6.  I think the Twins are trying to keep the payroll as low as possible while still trying to show a bad attempt to compete in the bad, but getting better AL central, until after the new CBA.  With possibly a very different set of rules, they are holding back on guarenteeing any larger contracts until they have an idea of what they are dealing with.  Along those lines, I'm betting that Lopez's big contract will be traded by the deadline.

All things considered,  I am happy to see both Falvey and Rocco gone.