Gabriel Gonzalez’s Future with the Twins is Getting Complicated

[stringer bell]

Gonzalez progression seems to be an every other year thing. He wasn't very good in 2024, very good in 2025 and ordinary (at best) in 2026. Even though he's still young, it would appear that 2027 will be a last chance season, at least with the Twins. 

The complicator IMHO is that he again is bat-first or bat-only and like Jose Miranda, he will have to be well above average as a hitter to have value to this or any other major league team. The Twins have had too many players like that in the past half-decade.

[LastOnePicked]

20 hours ago, MackMan said:

Yeah. They haven't had a real direction in almost 15-16 years. I thought they were figuring it out come 2023 after our post-season series win. Then they decided to cut budget and hope that similar results were going to happen. Then a fire sale of our BP in 2025 really showed us they wanted to rebuild. Then 2026 came around and the AL was really weak and it made us look really good compared to a lot of teams. So I don't even know what to expect for 2027 other than expect the unexpected

Same.

I was really wary about the re-signing of Correa, but I could kinda see a plan in place. Take a few lumps, get a few key prospects to the cusp, bring in a top free-agent to fill a huge hole, make the playoffs regularly and then let the excitement generate more revenue. 

In 2023, you could kind of see that all coming to fruition. But then they realized they had spent too much, and they panicked and retreated. Basically, the worst possible move for the moment.

Since then, it's been a mess. To be fair, it was probably going to be a mess regardless. It's bad enough to have Buxton as an annual question mark. It would have been worse to have Correa be your salary centerpiece and perpetually hurt. Just as the 2022 medical reports suggested he would be.

The answer is: get smarter. Smart organizations are flexible. They weather storms. They don't put all of their eggs in one free agent basket. They don't sign a Correa - they develop a Correa. I think attendance would already be league average here if baseball fans could sense an intelligent plan being put in place.

[MackMan]

2 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

Same.

I was really wary about the re-signing of Correa, but I could kinda see a plan in place. Take a few lumps, get a few key prospects to the cusp, bring in a top free-agent to fill a huge hole, make the playoffs regularly and then let the excitement generate more revenue. 

In 2023, you could kind of see that all coming to fruition. But then they realized they had spent too much, and they panicked and retreated. Basically, the worst possible move for the moment.

Since then, it's been a mess. To be fair, it was probably going to be a mess regardless. It's bad enough to have Buxton as an annual question mark. It would have been worse to have Correa be your salary centerpiece and perpetually hurt. Just as the 2022 medical reports suggested he would be.

The answer is: get smarter. Smart organizations are flexible. They weather storms. They don't put all of their eggs in one free agent basket. They don't sign a Correa - they develop a Correa. I think attendance would already be league average here if baseball fans could sense an intelligent plan being put in place.

Yes. I was ecstatic that we actually were willing to spend some money on a player to help benefit our team. At the time it seemed like a huge deal that we did because the FO showed they were committed to winning at this point in time. The issue of course was that Correa was not worth that price tag we gave him. Yes, his offense was good for a shortstop, but wasn't elite. His defense and anchorability was what the Twins were targeting. We haven't had a solid and consistent shortstop in a VERY long time. If he got some resemblance of post-season Correa, thats a win. Other than that, the Twins and the FO were okay with a .260+ hitter, with a 20ish HR season, that anchored the middle of the diamond. 

Yes, they made the worst possible move in back tracking and trying to shed payroll. They should have just stayed pat. They would have at least gotten less criticism if they had kept payroll similar to what they currently had at the time. The downside is that Correa (Buxton too) are not built for the colder weather in MN where they need to be healthy all the time in order to perform properly. If we were to make it to the playoffs with them, how well are their past injuries going to hold up as the weather starts to get colder? I'm guessing a struggle for the most part. 

Now we just need a change in Farm Director or have a better scouting team that can work to identify players of interest, scout them accurately, and then have them deliver. Somehow the Guardians and the Rays get these arms that all other 28 teams overlooked and make them into perennial All-Stars then ship them out when they're worth their most and restock their farm system. I know thats what Falvey and Levine were trying to do, but their draft picks just weren't turning out. They were missing WAY more than they were winning. 

[Twinsrtheworst]

23 hours ago, Andy MacPhail said:

GG was hyped up to the Twins & they bought into it. Twins continued that hype to the fanbase. GG is on the long list of Twins' favorites that haven't panned out. GG is slow, doesn't have a good glove, doesn't have good jumps & routes. He's a big liability in the OF. Maybe that's why he's playing more 1B where his only defensive talent (arm) doesn't come into play.

GG is a free swinger & pitchers especially MLBer, will quickly take advantage of it. Twins have had a knack of picking losers & sticking with them. GG has been on the MLB's top 100 prospects & currently on the Twin's top 10. GG is a loser, finally take advantage of his hype, & trade him for someone good who serves a purpose. Buxton is our only true RH hitting OFer, Martin should be at 2B & Keaschal at 1B, they are out there because of need. Twins have a big need for RH hitting OFers but GG isn't the answer. The situation is simple, you trade him. But Twins & some fans complicate it.

I know you enjoy calling others losers. Why? He got a reasonable guess but I won't share it. But calling someone a loser is against TD policy. Reflects bad on you as well. Thankyou

[Andy MacPhail]

19 minutes ago, Twinsrtheworst said:

I know you enjoy calling others losers. Why? He got a reasonable guess but I won't share it. But calling someone a loser is against TD policy. Reflects bad on you as well. Thankyou

Thank you for bringing that to my attention, sorry to have offended you. TD often use winners & losers in their evaluations. That's my intention in the use of the word. In life he's not a loser, he's a winner, just in the fact that he's made it this far. But like me, he's not a true MLBer. In the future, I'll try to use a different word in my evaluations.

[saviking]

23 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

I don't think Gonzalez's future with the Twins is all that complicated at all. He's still got a couple of option years left and if he shows he can hit in AAA in 2027 then he's going to get opportunities in MLB, whether it's corner OF, DH, or 1B because there will almost certainly be a need for his RH bat.

Maybe he makes it, maybe he doesn't, but he's actually reasonably well-positioned. He needs to take a step forward; he didn't have a particularly good season at the plate, but he's also only 22 and had barely played in AAA. This isn't a guy who is 26 or repeating AAA for the 3rd time. And I'm not concerned that he didn't immediately produce in his late-season cup of coffee, because that's really what it was: he didn't exactly get much playing time. (7 PA's in 5 games is nothing) He'll very likely start next season in AAA, unless he's destroying it in spring training (which would be great) and there's not exactly a 40-man crunch right now for the Twins.

GG's future with the Twins doesn't make my Top Ten list of off-season things to think about, let alone be concerned about,.

It's the options years left that give him value as a call up if someone gets injured. 

[Rosterman]

Right now, being an outfielder in the Twins system is a prospect without a job. Jenkins and Rodriguez are sure bets. Buxton is still around. Roden is cheap. Martin is unqiue. Larnach and Wallner are close to being set free, although Wallner is still inexpensive. You have GG and Mendez in the minors. Rosario needs to be protected from the Rule 5. Kendle, O'Daniel, Winkor are in the wings, 

But the question remains, "Who's On First!" Sabato? Lewis? One of the above?