5 Things You Can Count On in the Second Half of the Minnesota Twins Season

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, Heiny said:

Not sure why people seem to be so down on Jeremy Zoll.  What has he done to deserve such negativity?  I put last year directly on Falvey and Baldelli.  I favor giving Mr. Zoll a chance to do his job, which at this point, with the restricted payroll he started with, he has not yet had that chance.  I have to say, I already like him better than Falvey.

Zoll was promoted to the GM role in 2024. He was the director of MiLB ops in 2018-2019, promoted to assistant GM in 2020 and full GM in 2024.

Falvey was told he was going to be fired in mid-January. Zoll would have known in mid-January he would take over as GM. That's 2.5 months to change directions.

The Twins didn't have 40 guys with full no trade clauses or something. Need capacity? Trade Lopez. Need to enhance the MLB roster to be competitive, trade MiLB talent. Zoll did nothing. He had more than enough time to fix the bullpen.

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, Nick Nelson said:

Yeah I'm very curious to see what they do with him. His path back to the majors seems to have disappeared here. Mentioned this on twitter yesterday, but if I were a team in need of some offensive explosiveness, with ABs available at DH, I'd absolutely take a flier on him. 

I'm dealing him to Houston for one of their 5-10 ranked prospects. I've been his biggest backer here, but they have plenty of OF options at this point, especially if Keaschell is one now. 

[Nick Nelson]

49 minutes ago, twinstalker said:

A well-considered article.

I would disagree, though, that we can count on playing meaningful baseball in September, unless you're saying they're not eliminated by then.

Things can easily fall apart from where they stand now, partially due to other things you mention: a batting regression, which is all but guaranteed, and the pitching will be tested.  Those are almost for sure, and when you add in the distinct possibility of bad luck otherwise, counting on the Twins to play meaningful games in September comes down to getting technical about it.  That doesn't mean they won't, just that it's very possible they won't. 

 

Great comment! Very fair. I guess my confidence is less about the Twins and more about the quality of the league. These teams just aren't that good. Twins have a winning record against everyone surrounding them in the WC standings sans Seattle. And also there's only 40 games until the end of August which doesn't create a ton of room for separation as long as Twins hold their own (and I do expect them to improve so some extent at the deadline, unless they complete unravel in the next 2 weeks).

[Mike Sixel]

6 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

He also still strikes out way too much to be valuable, even in a DH role. In 2026 he struck out 53 times in 135 PAs, 120 ABs. That's a rate of 39.3% of his PAs, and 44.1% of his ABs ended in strikeouts. He only drew 10 walks in those 135 PA, for a not horrible 7.4% walk rate, but that gives him a 5.3 to 1 K/BB ratio, which is horrible. His SO rate in AAA is down to 27.8% and his K/BB is 49/17, still bad but not quite as alarming. The general rule of thumb that I have read is you should take someone's AAA strikeout rate and add 5-7% to get their likely MLB strikeout rate. That would mean an "improvement" to a 33-35% SO rate, still not in the acceptable range.

I would like to see Wallner get another MLB shot. At this point though, I don't think he'll have shot on a good or even an average team. He'll need to go to a bottom feeder to get enough playing time to show improvement. Kind of the same journey Brent Rooker went through. Unfortunately, Wallner is already 28 so it's hard to see even a bad team like the Angels giving him a lot of playing time. I would love to see him included in a prospect package traded for pitching from a bad team so he gets that chance. I wouldn't trade him to a team like the Astros just in case he has one of his hot streaks while we're competing with them for a playoff spot. He won't add value or get us a better player, but I'd like to do right by the guy to make sure he gets every shot to make it. I doubt that he will get another shot with Twins because I think they've concluded that he can't help us. I could be proven wrong.

Houston needs a LHH.....

[mike8791]

2 hours ago, Heiny said:

Not sure why people seem to be so down on Jeremy Zoll.  What has he done to deserve such negativity?  I put last year directly on Falvey and Baldelli.  I favor giving Mr. Zoll a chance to do his job, which at this point, with the restricted payroll he started with, he has not yet had that chance.  I have to say, I already like him better than Falvey.

Simple.  Zoll took over Feb. 1st with the same knowledge everyone else had: the pen was a disaster.  The Twins have made one actual trade in the interim - for Nance who was at the tail end of Toronto's pen.  Everything else were waiver wire pickups.  Is it any surprise our pen statistically is about the worst in baseball?

So the fact is that he has hardly lifted a finger to improve a pen devastated in last year's deadline.  At least Falvey had made some good trades(Bradley, Abel, Gray, Ryan).  Blame ownership on the payroll, yes, but they did not tie Zoll's hands in the trade mart.

[Coach Wheels]

6 hours ago, Jeff K said:

I was not aware that Able was ruled out for the season.  Is that real?

Yes. Elbow surgery, I believe.

[Heiny]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

Zoll was promoted to the GM role in 2024. He was the director of MiLB ops in 2018-2019, promoted to assistant GM in 2020 and full GM in 2024.

Falvey was told he was going to be fired in mid-January. Zoll would have known in mid-January he would take over as GM. That's 2.5 months to change directions.

The Twins didn't have 40 guys with full no trade clauses or something. Need capacity? Trade Lopez. Need to enhance the MLB roster to be competitive, trade MiLB talent. Zoll did nothing. He had more than enough time to fix the bullpen.

Oh my!  Forgive me and him.  He had two and a half months to build a team and with no money.  What the hell was he doing?

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, mike8791 said:

Simple.  Zoll took over Feb. 1st with the same knowledge everyone else had: the pen was a disaster.  

How many times does this need saying?

Jeremy Zoll was named GM in November 2024.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

13 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

How many times does this need saying?

Jeremy Zoll was named GM in November 2024.

Falvey was the Executive Vice President and Chief baseball Officer.  

Zoll became the Executive Vice President/General Manager when Falvey left.   Falvey was making the decisions, although Zoll would assist.    Pohlad now appears to be the decision maker.  He is not quite as naive but still seems be a little Pollyanna.   

Right wrong or indifferent,  I think the best think for this team was Falvey quitting with the ultimatum effectively you have to win this year and push all the responsibilities back on Pohlad.  Other than Lopez getting injured things have gone about as well as could have been expected.   

[USAFChief]

4 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

Falvey was the Executive Vice President and Chief baseball Officer.  

Zoll became the Executive Vice President/General Manager when Falvey left.   Falvey was making the decisions, although Zoll would assist.    Pohlad now appears to be the decision maker.  He is not quite as naive but still seems be a little Pollyanna.   

At least Once more I guess: Jeremy Zoll was named GM of the Minnesota Twins in November, 2024.

And there is zero chance Pohlad is making baseball decisions, outside of finances.

Edited 54 minutes ago by USAFChief

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

2 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

At least Once more I guess: Jeremy Zoll was named GM of the Minnesota Twins in November, 2024.

 

I never stated he wasn't name GM in 24.   You seem rather obtuse regarding this subject.   Whatever title Zoll had, he had no real decision making ability regarding players or trades prior to February 1st.    

[USAFChief]

Just now, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

I never stated he wasn't name GM in 24.   You seem rather obtuse.   

Your words: "Zoll became the Executive Vice President/General Manager when Falvey left."

 

You seem rather dishonest. 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

1 minute ago, USAFChief said:

Your words: "Zoll became the Executive Vice President/General Manager when Falvey left."

 

You seem rather dishonest. 

He gained a title to his already title.   He had no decision making ability - so who is being dishonest.   Read my whole posts rather than cherry picking singular lines.   I have no idea why you are so hung up on this.  

[USAFChief]

3 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

Whatever title Zoll had, he had no real decision making ability regarding players or trades prior to February 1st.    

 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Just now, USAFChief said:

 

[Andy MacPhail]

4 hours ago, Heiny said:

Not sure why people seem to be so down on Jeremy Zoll.  What has he done to deserve such negativity?  I put last year directly on Falvey and Baldelli.  I favor giving Mr. Zoll a chance to do his job, which at this point, with the restricted payroll he started with, he has not yet had that chance.  I have to say, I already like him better than Falvey.

I like Zoll, he spent time with LAD & has done some good things when he 1st came over. It might take some time but, IMO, he could be much better than Falvey. 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

24 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

 

To be fair I recall the following - 

Your opinion was Taj Bradley sucked last year "who can't beat out "TBD" in the rotation, correct?"

Ridiculing the idea that with all the trades last year it would result in losing lot of games last year although painful would result in a better prospect that would give the Twins a better chance to win in the future.  Most would agree Lackey has the potential to be a franchise player for the Twins. 

Stating there was no way the Twins would be able to compete this year.  

So to sum it up those were your opinions and needless to say on the other side and a year later things are quite different.  It all depends on how you want to look at things.   

[1985Fan]

I think the rotation is going to need more help than anywhere else, IF they hang onto the position players they have now and some pitchers recover. Consider that the offense has done well without Jeffers and, recently, Buxton. Add those two back into the lineup and it should help keep the offense stay afloat. I know everyone assumes Jeffers is traded, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to keep him and either try to extend him or let him go in the offseason for a compensation draft pick. In TP’s mind, the value of making the playoffs to rebuild the fan base is higher than getting full value for Jeffers. 
Sands is ready to return and if he can show his 2024 form, that would really help the BP. They’ve also just added in Nance as well. I also see Prielipp moving to the BP to limit his innings later this season, which would be a real boost. Add in Rojas later if he can throw strikes, and they might have a decent pen. They also have Bowman sitting at AAA(again) in case of injury. 
I think they need to add a SP or two to get through the last half of the season. Prielipp is hitting his limit, Ober is not going to be effective at 87mph, and I don’t see any help at AAA. Gallagher or Klein aren’t inspiring a lot of confidence as of late, so they may need to go outside for SP. 

 

[Andy MacPhail]

Twins needed a high-leverage RHP to begin the season. Twins have lost many close games due to the BP, if they had traded for one early we could have been in a good position to make the position. If we trade a MLB player for such a RHP, IMO, we could squeak out a WC spot.

IMO, DET will trade Skubal, so they will not be in the WC race. If Twins make a significant trade for a change, they could challenge for the Division.