Harden's release

[TheLeviathan]

(1) The Twins being terrible enough to get elite level draft prospects;

(2) The Twins allowing useful free agents to depart on purpose to receive compensatory picks;

(3) The Twins being willing to part with MLB players of some value (Span and Revere) in exchange for prospects.

 

I would add 4) Aggressively spending in the international FA market. Otherwise, excellent post.

 

Ryan is quite good at finding bargain RP and roster fill-ins on the cheap, but he most certainly does not use all avenues available to him.

[jay]

Hard to say the Twins have spent "aggressively" on amateur Int'l FAs (guys now subject to the Int'l cap). The Rangers and Jays spent aggressively. The Twins had been pretty middle of the pack with that Sano guy being the one exception.

 

The Twins have most certainly not been aggressive on professional Int'l FAs (guys who are or would have been exempt from the Int'l cap), predominantly the Japanese and Cubans. Our only toe in this water was the Nishioka disaster. Puig, Cespedes, Iwakuma, etc... a lot of guys that would look nice in a Twins' uni.

[TheLeviathan]

Hard to say the Twins have spent "aggressively" on amateur Int'l FAs (guys now subject to the Int'l cap). The Rangers and Jays spent aggressively

 

I was referring to the Smith era.