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

[killercarewoliva]

23 hours ago, Nshore said:

If I may again obsess about the Varland trade for a moment... In a race like this, it may very well come down to just a game or two difference at the end.  The Twins have already lost multiple games they should have and would have won with Varland at the back end of the pen.  It will come back to bite them. 

Rojas and Roden better be good.........someday.

that is the main thing. how could the GM let varland go for two people that look really good but you don't know for sure this is baseball. varland has become a superstar. he was perfect for the twins organization and the GM sits in the booth. oh! we love Louie but it was the opportunity we couldn't pass up well. seems like you were wrong. emphatically pathetically wrong. glad you're gone. I tried to believe in you but it's not possible. never was.

[bean5302]

I don't think anybody knows how much of the decision making process is Falvey. Same issue as when Thad Levine was here.

Regardless, arguing Zoll needed more time to figure out how to be a GM falls on deaf ears over here.

If Zoll didn't need more time, he still did everything just like how the team has been run under Falvey so he's incompetent as a GM.

If Zoll did need more time, he was incompetent as a baseline to start with because he'd already had years in the role.

[jorgenswest]

On 7/16/2026 at 6:02 AM, tony&rodney said:

Ryan Jeffers went down and both Caratini and Jackson are better catchers.

I would have thought so also. It is hard to resolve why the majority of starters individually have lower OPS against with Jeffers catching than Jackson or Caratini. I wrote about it when Jeffers went down. I need to update but a quick look and the pitchers seem to pitch better with Jeffers. His overall line doesn’t look that good because he has caught Woods Richardson more than any other Twins pitcher and though SWR performed best with Jeffers no catcher could help him. Caratini catches Ryan more than any other pitcher.

I do believe that catchers vary in their ability to manage a games game and a pitcher. It is difficult to measure and catcher ERA is all but useless. There is so much bias when one catcher has Ryan the most and the other SWR. Is that coincidence or does the staff trust Jeffers more and gives him more of the tougher assignments? Is it possible that Jeffers handles the game and the starter better than the other two?

[tony&rodney]

29 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

I would have thought so also. It is hard to resolve why the majority of starters individually have lower OPS against with Jeffers catching than Jackson or Caratini. I wrote about it when Jeffers went down. I need to update but a quick look and the pitchers seem to pitch better with Jeffers. His overall line doesn’t look that good because he has caught Woods Richardson more than any other Twins pitcher and though SWR performed best with Jeffers no catcher could help him. Caratini catches Ryan more than any other pitcher.

I do believe that catchers vary in their ability to manage a games game and a pitcher. It is difficult to measure and catcher ERA is all but useless. There is so much bias when one catcher has Ryan the most and the other SWR. Is that coincidence or does the staff trust Jeffers more and gives him more of the tougher assignments? Is it possible that Jeffers handles the game and the starter better than the other two?

Jeffers does a decent job at catching and is a better hitter. Caratini is better at blocking balls in the dirt. It is tough to differentiate between catchers when they are close in their skills. 

I like Ryan Jeffers quite a bit. I won't be surprised if the Twins do not trade him if the offers are substandard. I expect a team wants Jeffers bad enough to put a solid offer on the table. Perhaps the Twins want more than solid; hard to guess.

Caratini and Jackson have shown enough to get the Twins through the year if Jeffers is traded. There isn't really much of a difference between the three except the bats, where Jeffers stands out this season. The Twins need relievers so that winds up being the main consideration.