The Twins Don't Need a Full Rebuild. They Need a Direction.

[nicksaviking]

On 9/18/2026 at 6:39 AM, DJL44 said:

That sounds like most MLB 4th starters. 

 

21 hours ago, ashbury said:

I'm not sure if this was meant in contrast to what I said, but I see very little daylight between our two posts.  😁

This would be my argument for putting him in the pen. Maybe he can cut it in the rotation, but a #4 starter ceiling is less valuable than a late-inning, soul-sucking reliever, and Matthews has that ceiling. Peak Bailey Ober was never more valuable than peak Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax or Louie Varland.

[Vanimal46]

39 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

It's always frustrating when your opponents have a better understanding of your players' potential than the people running your own organization.

Toronto’s GM had to have been thrilled every time Derek Falvey called. Fleece job after fleece job. 

[bean5302]

4 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Varland broke the record for playoff appearances in 2025. Toronto clearly viewed him as a significant asset. 

[Coach]

On 9/17/2026 at 10:25 PM, ewen21 said:

This is why Buxton wants to be a Twin for life in my mind.  He knows the expectations are almost non-existent for him.  He's who has been chosen to be "the face of the franchise" and this is largely due to a large section of the fanbase.  It almost seems as though since Target Field has opened the Twins and a great number of fans are content with Buxton even though he appears in roughly 60% of the games each season.  If this is the player you want to make for your "face of the franchise" then good luck with building a team.

 

Rant over!

Totally off subject, but I want to apologize for being disrespectful to you, it was one of those days.  I do agree with you on this take, Buck is way too comfortable.

[The Great Hambino]

20 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

This brings up something I've been saying for awhile (and fought upstream abput with many posters here): I don't think Falvey had advanced notice on the payroll slash or the "we're going to win!" ownership changeups.  I think he added Correa under the notion he had payroll manueverability and had it abruptly changed.  This offseason he resigned rather than deal with it again.

It was suggested on Gleeman's podcast that Falvey was led to believe that they were in year one of a five year runway of increased payroll when they decided to reverse course after 2023.  So he got his budget slashed right after locking in some immovable high-price contracts in Correa and Lopez, which handcuffed the payroll until they had to pay for Correa to go away. 

If true, no wonder the limited partners wanted nothing to do with Joe P

[ashbury]

5 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

That's probably the real rot. We've changed GMs, managers, coaches, rosters. The one constant is the Pohlad heirs - people with no real interest in baseball, no urgency to grow the business and no understanding of how to build a winner.

The residents of the Twin Cities better hope the next owners provide some kind of improved outcomes, or else some soul-searching will be the next step - assuming enough of them even care.  😁

[HarmonK03]

20 hours ago, jkcarew said:

Except that the very first thing Tom did was to fire the previous GM who had just begun an obvious rebuild. Followed up by a deliberate, highly visible campaign tour promising a commitment to “winning”.

Falvey had the business operations duties taken away from him and he didn't agree with that.  The Twins have always split the business and baseball operations duties.  Falvey was given the additional business operations duties when St. Peter because at that time the team was up for sale so it would seem that was a transitionary move.  But Falvey wanted both and felt one person could do both and Tom P. didn't agree.  Now Tom P. may have pushed him out the door with that move, but he wasn't fired.

[jkcarew]

2 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

Falvey had the business operations duties taken away from him and he didn't agree with that.  The Twins have always split the business and baseball operations duties.  Falvey was given the additional business operations duties when St. Peter because at that time the team was up for sale so it would seem that was a transitionary move.  But Falvey wanted both and felt one person could do both and Tom P. didn't agree.  Now Tom P. may have pushed him out the door with that move, but he wasn't fired.

1000% pushed out the door and his recent moves to sell at the previous deadline was what triggered everything…perceived bad PR, Tom coming in and making promises (that he had no chance of keeping). Pushed out or fired. Same thing.

[HarmonK03]

39 minutes ago, jkcarew said:

1000% pushed out the door and his recent moves to sell at the previous deadline was what triggered everything…perceived bad PR, Tom coming in and making promises (that he had no chance of keeping). Pushed out or fired. Same thing.

Falvey was looking for a way out because he wanted to operate like the big boys and when he got his feelings hurt because he had duties taken away from him that anyone in his position would know were temporary.  He then had his out and grabbed it.

[TheLeviathan]

2 hours ago, The Great Hambino said:

It was suggested on Gleeman's podcast that Falvey was led to believe that they were in year one of a five year runway of increased payroll when they decided to reverse course after 2023.  So he got his budget slashed right after locking in some immovable high-price contracts in Correa and Lopez, which handcuffed the payroll until they had to pay for Correa to go away. 

If true, no wonder the limited partners wanted nothing to do with Joe P

Do you know when they had that conversation on Gleeman's pod?  I'm curious to hear his reporting on this.

But yeah, this is exactly what I was speculating back in this thread.  It's the only reasonable explanation for how he behaved as a GM.

[TheLeviathan]

1 hour ago, HarmonK03 said:

Falvey was looking for a way out because he wanted to operate like the big boys and when he got his feelings hurt because he had duties taken away from him that anyone in his position would know were temporary.  He then had his out and grabbed it.

You may need to accept that you've had the Pohlad/Falvey situation wrong from the get-go.

Like I said in our conversation from a few months ago - it takes nothing away from your valid criticisms of Falvey to distinguish between things that are his fault and blame that lies at the feet of the Pohlads.

My guess is that Falvey realized he no longer had an ownership group he could count on to be consistent in setting short and long term expectations and resigned rather than become the fall guy.  (Though he deserved to be that fall guy for moves unrelated to Pohlad behavior)

[HarmonK03]

6 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

You may need to accept that you've had the Pohlad/Falvey situation wrong from the get-go.

Like I said in our conversation from a few months ago - it takes nothing away from your valid criticisms of Falvey to distinguish between things that are his fault and blame that lies at the feet of the Pohlads.

My guess is that Falvey realized he no longer had an ownership group he could count on to be consistent in setting short and long term expectations and resigned rather than become the fall guy.  (Though he deserved to be that fall guy for moves unrelated to Pohlad behavior)

“We believe that the best structure going forward is a president of business and a president of baseball,” Pohlad said.

“I think any structure can work with the right belief in it, with the right people, with the right people underneath, and the foundation,” Falvey said. “And I want to say this: I totally respect Tom's position that he would like it to look a little different in the other way. There are few teams that have it this way, there are a lot more teams that don't that have it spread apart. I totally respect that decision. It's a really hard job for sure to do both. I think with the right environment, the right structure around it, you can do both,

This is from the reporting at the time of his leaving.  His own words say he wanted both positions.  

I blame the Pohlads for not addressing this at the end of the season due to not having the ownership situation worked out.  Because they just continued the same practices for another year and I hope they address it soon.

[TheLeviathan]

25 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

“We believe that the best structure going forward is a president of business and a president of baseball,” Pohlad said.

“I think any structure can work with the right belief in it, with the right people, with the right people underneath, and the foundation,” Falvey said. “And I want to say this: I totally respect Tom's position that he would like it to look a little different in the other way. There are few teams that have it this way, there are a lot more teams that don't that have it spread apart. I totally respect that decision. It's a really hard job for sure to do both. I think with the right environment, the right structure around it, you can do both,

This is from the reporting at the time of his leaving.  His own words say he wanted both positions.  

I blame the Pohlads for not addressing this at the end of the season due to not having the ownership situation worked out.  Because they just continued the same practices for another year and I hope they address it soon.

I don't personally consider press conference comments to be terribly reliable about what is happening behind the scenes.

Per our previous conversation, and the one you're having here, I don't think you're considering Falvey's behavior relative to your narrative about what occurred.  As I said before, abrupt changes from ownership are the most comprehensive explanation for the last 3-4 years.  Abrupt changes that caused Falvey to have to make decisions that were seemingly incoherent or lacked long-term thinking.  Ultimately, which caused him to peace out.

[NYCTK]

11 hours ago, bean5302 said:

The only significant asset the Twins moved was Duran.

The guy that returned Taj Bradley wasn't a significant asset? That same guy that looks like he might be a playoffs starter? He's not significant? How about Varland? Is the guy that performed like a top 5 reliever in the league significant? 

Not arguing the trades aren't defensible, but to say the players traded were insignificant seems a mighty stretch. 

 

Quote

Twins fans have been coddled in this market featuring the only team in the AL Central which has never walked out a sub-$100MM payroll during the Falvey era.

These plebians have had it far too good for far too long. LEAVE THE BILLIONAIRES ALONE! 

[ashbury]

56 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

LEAVE THE BILLIONAIRES ALONE! 

Concurs:

[HarmonK03]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

I don't personally consider press conference comments to be terribly reliable about what is happening behind the scenes.

Per our previous conversation, and the one you're having here, I don't think you're considering Falvey's behavior relative to your narrative about what occurred.  As I said before, abrupt changes from ownership are the most comprehensive explanation for the last 3-4 years.  Abrupt changes that caused Falvey to have to make decisions that were seemingly incoherent or lacked long-term thinking.  Ultimately, which caused him to peace out.

We view the events that have occurred differently and will have to agree to disagree.

[Kummel]

For next year: Lee, Culpepper, Keaschall, Clemens, and the newest generation (Jenkins, Culpepper, Rodriguez).  Taj Bradley and Lopez are at top of pitching rotation. 

Could Twins make Jeffers an offer (I assume not a competitive one).  If not, catcher is going to be a problem. 

Ryan and Buxton are not reliable second half players.  You can't continue to have two of your best players disappear in final months, it's one factor in end of year collapses if rest of your roster can't make up the difference.

Move on from Lewis, Larnach, Martin, Wallner.  

There will be offensive and defensive weaknesses.  We're so used to Twins not paying for talent, esp young talent, we assume it's off the table.  But c'mon, surprise us.