The Twins Are Giving Their All, But It's Not Enough

[HarmonK03]

20 minutes ago, AKTwinsFan said:

Honestly, when we were at our best was when Buck and Jeffers were sidelined with injuries. Vic and Kriedler helped us win games. As soon as Buck and Jeffers came back we started losing. Ultimately by keeping Jeffers, Ryan and Larnach on the team we lost out on hauls of prospects in return. Instead our gamble of keeping them has flopped. 

Caratini had a career month in June and is very unlikely to repeat that.  He has had a sub .500 OPS since then.  Kreidler never filled in for Buxton when he was on the IL.  And his stats dropped when he started playing every day and was exposed.  So I am not sure how crucial they were to winning games.  And I wouldn't want to count on them to consistently win games.

[LastOnePicked]

5 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

But don't blame the "team" for not trying.

Help me out here. Isn't "trying" the absolute bare minimum qualification for playing MLB? Do we really need participation ribbons and a trip to the Dairy Queen for a professional baseball team?

Look, ownership is absolutely to blame for this mess, I agree. But I don't really see the roster doing anything special on the mound, the plate or the field, either.

 

 

[TheLeviathan]

19 hours ago, Saxophone Joe said:

I'm 43, was a hardcore Twins fan from '90 through around 2010. I've read several books on the team's history, didn't follow too closely from around 2012-2022 but was on board again for 2023, the epic collapse in '24, etc.

So maybe this is my recency bias showing, but can any of you longtime fans recall a Twins team that has struggled more than this one in winning/finishing close games? The 9-65 record after the 6th inning is eye-popping. And it's not just failures in clutch hitting but all aspects. It was a problem of course in the early parts of the season, but for about six weeks from early June to the All-Star Break, we had done a much, much better job of closing games, especially the bullpen.

But this part of the 2026 season has been so hard to watch lately. This season has gone from fun and rewarding to uber frustrating over the last six weeks or so. We truly had a shot at legitimate shot at the playoffs. I draw a line at the Mariners series when it started to go south, bad. 

I appreciate the hope you had....but it was a false hope.  Staring at the wild-card standings so you don't have to look at all the problems with the team confused a lot of people, including ownership.  That confusion cost us real long-term value that might be the difference in 2 to 5 years if this next young core is legit.

You can't run tight margins AND make asinine decisions about value on a consistent basis and expect to get it right.

[Woof Bronzer]

1 hour ago, LastOnePicked said:

Help me out here. Isn't "trying" the absolute bare minimum qualification for playing MLB? Do we really need participation ribbons and a trip Dairy Queen for a professional baseball team?

I for one think the team should be commended for how well they've tied their shoes this year.  I can't think of a single example of a guy tripping over his own shoelaces!   These aren't the most talented players but that doesn't stop them from tying their shoes day in, day out.  Heroes, really!

[LastOnePicked]

35 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

That confusion cost us real long-term value that might be the difference in 2 to 5 years if this next young core is legit.

This is the part that I don't think has sunk in yet. 

In two years, Jenkins might be good. Culpepper might be good. Lackey might even be good. Who's going to pitch? The pipeline of pitching prospects never materialized here. Even the most promising arms - Abel and Bradley - are from outside the organization. And both of them are still question marks.

The Twins absolutely needed to restock their system with high-upside value and they absolutely needed a year to parse through their players on the fringes on the majors. They did neither. In fact, they made both situations worse.

Free agents have a role to play, but there's still a costly hit-or-miss aspect to signing top free agents. The misses are costly on a low-payroll team, and even if there's a salary floor in the future there will still be low-payroll teams and the Twins will certainly be one of them.

There is a pathway to win in 2027, but it requires a ton of good luck and a sizeable payroll boost. In other words, two things the Twins never seem to get. And if they don't make it in '27, they'll be forced to begin a rebuild during the prime years of their young stars.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[MikeNC]

22 hours ago, HarmonK03 said:

And eat over $30m in salary, that will never happen.  Accept the fact that he is here for another two years unless he changes his mind.

Yep.  That's why we need Jenkins, even if he's only hitting a buck 50 for awhile.

[MikeNC]

2 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

Help me out here. Isn't "trying" the absolute bare minimum qualification for playing MLB? Do we really need participation ribbons and a trip to the Dairy Queen for a professional baseball team?

Look, ownership is absolutely to blame for this mess, I agree. But I don't really see the roster doing anything special on the mound, the plate or the field, either.

 

 

Totally agree.  The standard for MLB is 100% effort, every day.  This is Professional grade, and the fans are paying real money and deserve some entertainment for their $$.  At $780,000 to $21.75MM I think they all s/b trying real real hard.  Or go back to bartending. Next!  

[MikeNC]

29 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

This is the part that I don't think has sunk in yet. 

In two years, Jenkins might be good. Culpepper might be good. Lackey might even be good. Who's going to pitch? The pipeline of pitching prospects never materialized here. Even the most promising arms - Abel and Bradley - are from outside the organization. And both of them are still question marks.

The Twins absolutely needed to restock their system with high-upside value and they absolutely needed a year to parse through their players on the fringes on the majors. They did neither. In fact, they made both situations worse.

Free agents have a role to play, but there's still a costly hit-or-miss aspect to signing top free agents. The misses are costly on a low-payroll team, and even if there's a salary floor in the future there will still be low-payroll teams and the Twins will certainly be one of them.

There is a pathway to win in 2027, but it requires a ton of good luck and a sizeable payroll boost. In other words, two things the Twins never seem to get. And if they don't make it in '27, they'll be forced to begin a rebuild during the prime years of their young stars.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

So you're saying there's a chance!