Should Yoendrys Gómez Remain the Twins’ Closer in 2027?

[bean5302]

Gomez is middle reliever innings eater. A guy who fills out your bullpen. Not a guy who is expected to have a lead role.

Career 4.68 ERA, 4.91 FIP, 5.07 xFIP.

2026 4.48 ERA, 4.54 FIP, 5.22 xFIP.

Passable K rate, exceptionally high walk rate, no ground balls. It's possible Gomez could learn how to throw strikes at age 27 next year, and Stuff+ says his offerings are good. Some of the worst control in MLB.

[Woof Bronzer]

11 hours ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Thats really the only way to get elite talent if you're not lucky enough to draft and develop it yourself. If we want it, we'll have to pay for it. 

Teams like the Twins can only be successful by drafting and developing talent.  They will never be able to compete with teams like the Dodgers and Yankees for top tier free agents.  

The Dodgers are paying Kyle Tucker $60m for 1.1 WAR.  That kind of value proposition would wreck the Twins for the entirety of the contract.  The Dodgers won't even notice it.  

Middle revenue teams like the Twins have to find competitive advantages to succeed.  As always, look at the Brewers, Rays, Guardians.  They are successful without fishing in the top-tier FA pond.  

The only options for the Twins to get elite talent are:  draft and develop, or make smart trades.  Instead of going after a massive FA starter, the team should have traded Ryan a year ago for not one but TWO elite talents.

Can't be stressed enough.  There is absolutely no path to success for this organization without better drafting and development.  Zip, zero, zilch.  

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

1 hour ago, Woof Bronzer said:

Teams like the Twins can only be successful by drafting and developing talent.  They will never be able to compete with teams like the Dodgers and Yankees for top tier free agents.  

The Dodgers are paying Kyle Tucker $60m for 1.1 WAR.  That kind of value proposition would wreck the Twins for the entirety of the contract.  The Dodgers won't even notice it.  

Middle revenue teams like the Twins have to find competitive advantages to succeed.  As always, look at the Brewers, Rays, Guardians.  They are successful without fishing in the top-tier FA pond.  

The only options for the Twins to get elite talent are:  draft and develop, or make smart trades.  Instead of going after a massive FA starter, the team should have traded Ryan a year ago for not one but TWO elite talents.

Can't be stressed enough.  There is absolutely no path to success for this organization without better drafting and development.  Zip, zero, zilch.  

We have a lot of young talent. Drafting and developing definitely needs to happen. Teams arent able to draft and develop elite players at every position. We need some of those elite veterans to show the young guys how its done. 

On a side note, rumblings from the CBA negotiations are making it seem as if a salary floor is happening. If thats the case, the team will have to spend. What better way to spend than on the elite talent we need. 

[MeleMouth]

13 hours ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Thats really the only way to get elite talent if you're not lucky enough to draft and develop it yourself. If we want it, we'll have to pay for it. 

In theory, that makes sense, but in reality, it has almost always been a large mistake for the Twins that sets them back. They just dodged a bullet when they didn't succeed in getting elite talent Framber Valdez this past winter.

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

8 minutes ago, MeleMouth said:

In theory, that makes sense, but in reality, it has almost always been a large mistake for the Twins that sets them back. They just dodged a bullet when they didn't succeed in getting elite talent Framber Valdez this past winter.

Not every player is worth a big contract. Framber Valdez is one of those guys. Crossing up your own catcher? Huge attitude problem. 

All we can do is try. Skubal seems to be a better teammate. Don't hear of big complaints. 

I actually really like the upcoming talent core possibilities on our team. Im ready to take a chance on that elite talent. 

[MeleMouth]

19 minutes ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

Not every player is worth a big contract. Framber Valdez is one of those guys. Crossing up your own catcher? Huge attitude problem. 

All we can do is try. Skubal seems to be a better teammate. Don't hear of big complaints. 

I actually really like the upcoming talent core possibilities on our team. Im ready to take a chance on that elite talent. 

There's less than a 1% chance the Twins will sign a pitcher to a $400 million contract, especially not one who had a bad elbow injury this year.

Further, if they do sign him, that would eat up such a large portion of their budget that they wouldn't be able to fill any of their other holes.

In Skubal's last CYA year, he was worth 6.7 wins. This year he is worth less, but if he had his best CYA year, it would be perhaps a 5 win gain over the Twins' #5 starter this year. If he did that for this year's team and they couldn't improve elsewhere, they would still be out of the playoffs. 

The team has tried this path, e.g., Donaldson, Correa. 

[mickster]

22 hours ago, soyouresayingtheresachance said:

If I had the ability to run the offseason, I would make 4 acquisitions. Either FA signings or trades:

1. Acquire a top shelf, proven, shut down Closer. Mason Miller, Aroldis Chapman type of guy.  Everyone else moves down an inning and, on paper, we have a pretty good BP.

2. Acquire a True Ace. We have the guys to fill out the rest of the rotation already. What we dont have is an Ace. We need a guy that can match up against anybody in game 1 of a playoff series. Taj, Ryan, Prielipp and hopefully Pablo plus an Ace make for a very nice rotation. 

3. Trade Lewis and find a stud 1B. Elite bat and good defense. Just a monster to bat cleanup daily. Especially since the All Star break, we've needed this guy. We've had guys on base, but nobody was driving them in. 

4. Trade Caratini. We need an actual starting C. Caratini is not him. Jeffers is an option if we can get him to stay, otherwise we'll need to make a trade for one. 

On paper, these 4 moves will elevate us to a competitive playoff team capable of catching fire in the playoffs 

The Jeffers decision will be the one that needs to happen first, and will be what other decisions are made.   Sign him to a 3 year deal and you are off to a good start in the offseason.