No Rodriguez?

[mrmpls]

Just now, mrmpls said:

Batters MIN	B	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS
KeaschallRF	R	9	41	16	.277	.762
Lee, B3B	S	22	76	7	.248	.736
Clemens2B	L	23	69	8	.238	.760
JeffersC	R	12	46	1	.275	.870
BellDH	S	17	83	2	.253	.732
LarnachLF	L	11	45	2	.265	.769
Lewis, R1B	R	13	46	14	.231	.691
Culpepper, KSS	R	3	6	0	.314	.858
JenkinsCF	L	1	3	1	.250	.940

but he has trade value-- lol-   1 or 2  bags of balls

[bean5302]

answered a question which had already been answered

[DJL44]

17 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

For James Outman no less. 

Yes, because playing terrible for two previous seasons, including 100 terrible PA for the Twins in 2025 wasn’t enough. He needed 70 additional terrible plate appearances to play himself off the roster.

[nicksaviking]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Yes, because playing terrible for two previous seasons, including 100 terrible PA for the Twins in 2025 wasn’t enough. He needed 70 additional terrible plate appearances to play himself off the roster.

It's pretty nuts how decision makers think the veteran is the default safer option, when the track record shows there is nothing remotely safe about such a player.

[Whammy]

On 9/1/2026 at 1:00 PM, nicksaviking said:

This franchise NEVER lets zero MLB experience rookies make the opening day roster. Maybe he'll get a late couple week audition sometime in the next month, but it's looking like E-Rod will never play for the Twins. He was never a sure thing to make it, far from it, and the Twins have lost better prospects for less, but losing a long time top 50 prospect for whatever bag of peanuts they'll get offered is a pretty big indictment on their roster building and equity management. 

I feel like your pessimism is getting the best of you here.

You're connecting a ton of very blurry dots. And the conviction with which you say it is... odd. Like it's already happened.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

On 8/31/2026 at 4:06 PM, bean5302 said:

Honestly, the Twins should just DFA Larnach and Bell.

So we are DFA’ing 2 of our better hitters for the remainder of the season to play for next year now?   I am rally confused. I know Larnach is not hitting well right now- but are we really throwing in the towel?

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Speaking of players we think are worthless like Outman- anyone kept up with our friend Gasper? The lightbulb must of clicked. 

[Saxophone Joe]

6 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

anyone kept up with our friend Gasper? The lightbulb must of clicked. 

Yeah, this one burns. He had one of the all-time best OPS for one month in baseball history! Up there with Bonds and Ted Williams. Are you kidding me?! I love players like Mickey, always rooted for him last year. I'll always remember that bomb he hit against Toronto for his first homer. Rocco postgame was like, yeah, he crushed that. 

And dang it, he'd have fit in nicely on the 2026 Twins. Seems he was destined to end up with the Red Sox though (even if he grew up a Yanks fan).  

 

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Just now, Saxophone Joe said:

Yeah, this one burns. He had one of the all-time best OPS for one month in baseball history! Up there with Bonds and Ted Williams. Are you kidding me?! I love Mickey, always rooted for him last year. I'll always remember that bomb he hit against Toronto for his first homer.

And dang it, he'd have fit in nicely on the 2026 Twins. Seems he was destined to end up with the Red Sox though. 

 

LOL - He was the current years version of Jackson.   I rooted for him but dang he seemed just awkward.  I didn't think he would ever have month like this,  but his AAA stats showed it was possible.  

[Saxophone Joe]

4 minutes ago, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

I rooted for him but dang he seemed just awkward. 

He did. The Twins definitely saw something in him. But, yeah, was a rough time for most of last season for Mickey. It all game together for that one game in Toronto! 

[alskntwnsfn]

I am glad they didn't call up Emmy if the plan wasn't to play him. However, I wanted to share this to underscore how important it is that the organization give him a chance at some point. He has ELITE exit velocity, some speed, and an excellent eye. See image. Emmy has the top Max EV and is 2nd highest in 90% EV among AAA players with over 600 pitches seen. 

I really like Spencer Jones. He can be an MVP type player if he can shave the K% just a bit. Would have always liked the Twins to target him in a trade, but we have no shortage of LH hitting OF'ers. Plus, I think the Yankees know his ceiling as well as anyone. So, it was very surprising to me to see that we basically have a Spencer Jones type player, who is younger, already in the org. 

This is a really interesting list that Emmy ranks near the top of. I do think we need to find a spot for Keaschall's bat, and need to give Jenkins a shot, and Buxton obviously is lock if/when healthy... but aside from that, no other Twin should prevent Emmy from getting a look in 2027 (assuming he's healthy). 

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Whammy said:

I feel like your pessimism is getting the best of you here.

You're connecting a ton of very blurry dots. And the conviction with which you say it is... odd. Like it's already happened.

You're probably right that I didn't need the conviction, but I still can't remember any players with zero MLB experience making the Twins opening day roster in the last couple decades. 

Maybe he will get a shot, but if it's not this month, I'd put the odds well under 50%. Let's say 20%.

And I think this team will be good next year unless they make a slew of boneheaded roster decisions, so I'd classify my attitude about the poor decisions as frustration more than pessimism.

[Whammy]

10 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

You're probably right that I didn't need the conviction, but I still can't remember any players with zero MLB experience making the Twins opening day roster in the last couple decades. 

Maybe he will get a shot, but if it's not this month, I'd put the odds well under 50%. Let's say 20%.

And I think this team will be good next year unless they make a slew of boneheaded roster decisions, so I'd classify my attitude about the poor decisions as frustration more than pessimism.

I view the main reason for your opening day roster observation is that it's so rarely a requirement. The most prominent examples of it happening across MLB are related to the Rule 5 draft, which the Twins have done on occasion, because it's the requirement.

Most of the time, not breaking camp with the big team is related to years of control, which will not be the case here. This is a pretty unique situation.

Should he be with the Twins right now? Absolutely. Can I explain why he's not? Not really.

But I expect that we'll see him in a week or so. Even if the FO plan is to trade him in the offseason, there's not really any downside to calling him up for a few weeks.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Whammy said:

I view the main reason for your opening day roster observation is that it's so rarely a requirement. The most prominent examples of it happening across MLB are related to the Rule 5 draft, which the Twins have done on occasion, because it's the requirement.

Most of the time, not breaking camp with the big team is related to years of control, which will not be the case here. This is a pretty unique situation.

Should he be with the Twins right now? Absolutely. Can I explain why he's not? Not really.

But I expect that we'll see him in a week or so. Even if the FO plan is to trade him in the offseason, there's not really any downside to calling him up for a few weeks.

Agree that there's little reason not to call him up this year.  Also agree he's more than likely to get traded. But without that option and without any MLB track record, I can't imagine it will be for much.

Years of control obviously matter to this team, but stuffing the roster with veterans, regardless of their on field talent, is also a reason they don't roster rookies. With 2026 being Rodriguez's last option year, the years of control shouldn't have mattered at all last April, yet they still felt the need to roster James Outman instead. 

[Whammy]

Unless he did something behind the scenes that we don't know about, I find it unlikely that he's traded this off season. There's no good roster reason to do it. In my opinion that would be a David Ortiz level blunder. That probably sounds silly, but only because we know how that turned out. In the moment Ortiz was confusing and unnecessary. The same way trading E-Rod for low value this offseason would seem confusing and unnecessary.

BTW - Ortiz never had a global ranking anywhere close to as high as Rodriguez has/had). Ortiz had like a 110 OPS+ over 1400 Plate Appearances with the Twins and was basically just a DH by the time they parted ways. I'm not defending the unnecessary parting ways from the Twins, just adding a little context. It obviously looks horrific in retrospect. 

Back to E-Rod... If they do trade him this offseason and they get fine value, then I'd be more OK with it. Trading him should be on the table for the Twins, but not because they are worried about finding him plate appearances in 2027, but because they viewed the trade as a positive for the organization.