Twins 6, Red Sox 5: Three-Phase Clutchness Gives Twins First Sweep at Fenway Since 1994

[Peter]

8th/9th inning was stressful and intense!!! Heart rate and bp went through the roof!!!Catch by Martin and relay play at home play was 💪💪💪🔥🔥🔥 huge win and sweep!!!

[Peter]

8th/9th inning was stressful and intense!!! Heart rate and bp went through the roof!!!Catch by Martin and relay play at home play was 💪💪💪🔥🔥🔥 huge win and sweep!!! Once over .500 look out!!!Twins are must watch rest of season!!!

[tony&rodney]

The Twins have reduced the mental mistakes .... for now ..... hopefully going forward as well. Clean baseball turns batted balls into outs. 

The Red Sox announcer was agog over that catch by Austin Martin. The degree of difficulty was extremely high with cold, wet, and windy conditions. One could question the route but only Martin lucky rabbit of a glove makes that catch.

We keep seeing comments about trading Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers and even Byron Buxton. My stance on trades never changes very much - any deal must improve the team going forward. My curiosity makes me wonder what team will give what players to the Twins for Ryan. I am having trouble finding a suitor. The Chicago Cubs desperately need starting pitching. What can they offer? I'm not sure that Pedro Ramirez, Jaxon Wiggins, and Kevin Alcantara are better than what the Twins already have in their organization. I read the comments about trading these guys and want to know who is coming back in a transaction. Unless the players coming in a better than what we have, I'm holding my fellows. Give me names.

[captbrow39]

For me, this series with Boston has been the most exciting and entertaining I've seen. Looking forward to the next four games with the surprising White Sox.

[Jack207]

Forget about trades, let's just enjoy the team as it is playing now.

[TopGunn#22]

Jeffers is a must trade for me tony&rodney.  He's not signing an extension and if he comes back and looks good they could get some nice talent back.  I wouldn't trade Joe Ryan unless the return was substantial.  Same with Buxton.  With those 2 guys there is Shouldn't be any pressure to deal them.  They would be key pieces in a rebuild and could allow the Twins to be contenders much more quickly, especially with the expectation that Pablo Lopez comes back strong in 2027 (whenever MLB is actually playing baseball games).

But as nice as it is to see a team just one game under .500, while my heart says "YEAH!!!" my brain says a team like the Red Sox, over 162 games SHOULD be better than us.  We are not serious playoff contenders.  This is about evening up the roster and accumulating talent to fill in the cracks and improve the overall depth when injuries happen.  And yes, maybe even making the team leaner and meaner to better facilitate a sale. 

Ryan and Buxton are our best assets because they make us better and would make any other team better.  Jeffers would qualify as well, if his agent wasn't Scott Boras and he wasn't a FA at the end of this season. But when you have a chance to draft the top catching prospect in the draft and Tait and Jimenez in the pipeline Jeffers is, as I said, a must trade.

We have young pitchers starting to emerge and an asset in Ober that has built value back up.  I don't know how Ober has done it to this point, but yesterday's game vs. the Red Sox showed that Ober's recent success could end sooner rather than later.  To me, Ober is a must trade as well.  There are teams that will give up something of value for the allure of a good #4/#5 SP to fill out the back end of their rotation. I would make an Ober trade SOON.

The other guys that were discussed in the op, and some that weren't originally suggested, like Larnach are all prime candidates for a trade.  I like what Larnach has done this season.  He's certainly built a little more value up.  But Jenkins and E-Rod are coming, and Gabe Gonzalez is already here.  Even a Kyler Fedko could/should get a chance.  Larnach, Wallner and Lewis should be shuffled off for something that fills out organizational depth more effectively.

[mike8791]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

The Twins have reduced the mental mistakes .... for now ..... hopefully going forward as well. Clean baseball turns batted balls into outs. 

The Red Sox announcer was agog over that catch by Austin Martin. The degree of difficulty was extremely high with cold, wet, and windy conditions. One could question the route but only Martin lucky rabbit of a glove makes that catch.

We keep seeing comments about trading Joe Ryan and Ryan Jeffers and even Byron Buxton. My stance on trades never changes very much - any deal must improve the team going forward. My curiosity makes me wonder what team will give what players to the Twins for Ryan. I am having trouble finding a suitor. The Chicago Cubs desperately need starting pitching. What can they offer? I'm not sure that Pedro Ramirez, Jaxon Wiggins, and Kevin Alcantara are better than what the Twins already have in their organization. I read the comments about trading these guys and want to know who is coming back in a transaction. Unless the players coming in a better than what we have, I'm holding my fellows. Give me names.

If we look at Twins most pressing needs, the list is long, but I would say top 3 now are: 1.) Need for a potential cleanup hitter with 30/100rbi potential; 2.) a genuine closer; 3.) A long term SS.  I have focused on a Cubs/twins trade featuring Ryan because the Cubs are in a win-now mode and Twins seem loaded with starters.

So, with those assumptions, I feel the Cubs badly need Ryan and would overpay.  Shaw tops the return list because he has shown his potential in his first full season and is expendable.  But he is not enough, of course.  My second demand would be Danny Palencia who showed good potential in 2025 as a closer with his 100mph heater.  To complete the trade I would like to see Ben Brown added.  If he is untouchable, I'll take Alcantara.  While Twins have a crop of top OF prospects at AAA, Rodriguez looks very iffy with all his injuries and  Gonzales's defense is shaky.  While 1 of the 3(incl. Jenkins) should be a good bet to be starting in 2027, Alcantara would lift the ceiling of the Twins OF long term. 

If you think the Twins are really contenders this year, then no, you don't trade Ryan, but this hope is really a pipe dream.  Trading Ryan for a package of Shaw/Palencia/ Brown and/or Palencia would, IMO, raise the ceiling for next year.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, Jack207 said:

Forget about trades, let's just enjoy the team as it is playing now.

The trading deadline is a looooong way away. The season is two months old and there are more than two months until the trade deadline. Think of how perceptions have changed for the following players: Kody Clemens, Royce Lewis, Austin Martin, Matt Wallner, Simeon Woods Richardson, Trevor Larnach, Luke Keaschall, Bailey Ober and Taj Bradley. The meter for Josh Bell and Victor Caratini has gone up and fallen in that two-month time frame. Two months from now, the Twins might be begging someone to take Larnach and feeling like Lewis and Wallner could be stars (probably not).

At 26-27, the Twins can't be looking to be in pure sell mode. A lot has worked and we've seen that good starting pitching can make up for a lot of other soft spots. 

[JD-TWINS]

12 hours ago, gmwannabe said:

My biggest fear is that like the Angels not trading Ohtani, the Twins will think they can sneak into the playoffs and not trade Ryan and Jeffers. Big mistake for the future if they don't trade them 2. Bigger mistake if they can't identify future decent prospects like the Jay's and Brewers do when trading away good players. I would take a good offer for Buxton as well because age 32 seems to be the start of declining skills in MLB if he'll waive his no trade clause. 

 . 

Buxton is very affordable and probably a Top 20 player in the game. Trading him, just as he’s come into his own at the plate (with more consistency) is nuts. He will not allow a trade - seems to have made that clear a number of times.

Front office seems to have identified 3 pretty good prospects from 3 pretty good organizations ………. Rojas - Abel - Bradley all 3 from the “terrible trade deadline moves of ‘25”. Edward Tait & a couple others with potential on top of the 3 young arms.

Jeffers will be more difficult to trade after the broken hand/wrist and with no contract past this season………..Pohlad should step up with a respectable 3 year offer …….. he may bite 

Ryan is tradable anytime, if healthy. Deadline trade may make sense IF Team is not in playoff mix ……… helping a contender this year with one year of control helps his value stay high…………he’s an off-season trade piece if they keep him through the year.

[Linus]

39 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Buxton is very affordable and probably a Top 20 player in the game. Trading him, just as he’s come into his own at the plate (with more consistency) is nuts. He will not allow a trade - seems to have made that clear a number of times.

Front office seems to have identified 3 pretty good prospects from 3 pretty good organizations ………. Rojas - Abel - Bradley all 3 from the “terrible trade deadline moves of ‘25”. Edward Tait & a couple others with potential on top of the 3 young arms.

Jeffers will be more difficult to trade after the broken hand/wrist and with no contract past this season………..Pohlad should step up with a respectable 3 year offer …….. he may bite 

Ryan is tradable anytime, if healthy. Deadline trade may make sense IF Team is not in playoff mix ……… helping a contender this year with one year of control helps his value stay high…………he’s an off-season trade piece if they keep him through the year.

Ryan is a free agent at the end of this season. 

[Scott51104]

Great plays by Martin and Rosario (2019). Also interesting that, in both cases, the pitcher was Taylor Rogers.

[terrydactyls]

21 minutes ago, Linus said:

Ryan is a free agent at the end of this season. 

Not correct.  He becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2027 season.  While he is playing on a one-year contract, the Twins and Ryan have a mutual option for 2027.

[Blyleven2011]

10 hours ago, RpR said:

For what ever reason this is the first win in 31 years where I jumped out of my chair with joy with the last out; last was game winning home run from Puckett.

That game 6 homerun was definitely special ...

Last time I got excited and stood and applauded a game was back in July of 2015 , twins were down 6-1 against Detroit  , bottom of the ninth  , Mauer i think starts it off with a double , twins managed to score 4 in all kinds of ways  , Dozier with the score 6-5 and 2 runners on hits a walk off homerun and twins win 8-6 ...

I got out of my recliner and stood , applauded the comeback win and said IT'S ABOUT TIME  , it been quite awhile since the twins had a walkoff win ...

[JD-TWINS]

1 hour ago, Linus said:

Ryan is a free agent at the end of this season. 

No, there’s one more year of control with an option from both sides at $13M for ‘27. Team has control through ‘27 if they opt in ………. Joe can sit or try to re-negotiate but he can’t play elsewhere unless Team cuts him or trades him.

[Linus]

10 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

No, there’s one more year of control with an option from both sides at $13M for ‘27. Team has control through ‘27 if they opt in ………. Joe can sit or try to re-negotiate but he can’t play elsewhere unless Team cuts him or trades him.

My bad. I meant to type Jeffers is a free agent at the end of this year. After I re - read your post I see you were referring to Ryan. Ignore me. 

[Linus]

1 hour ago, terrydactyls said:

Not correct.  He becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 2027 season.  While he is playing on a one-year contract, the Twins and Ryan have a mutual option for 2027.

Yes. I meant to type Jeffers. My mistake.