Adrián Morejón Could Be the Test of Tom Pohlad's Promise

[TNtwins85]

10 hours ago, Brandon said:

A sub 3 ERS is fine with me.  I doubt any of the others are that much better.  The improvements for next season come from a better bullpen from day 1.  And health in the now deep rotation and improving youngsters in the lineup.  At this point standing pat isn't status quo.

For the off-season I expect 1 or two releivers, a C, and maybe a hitter like Suarez or Goldschmidt for 1B and DH

Dang, 1 or 2 relievers in the of the quality of Minter, a Catcher better than…. Caratini? And either a guy who is 39 and can’t hit RHP or a guy who is 35 and can’t hit LHP as a RHH. Both of which can’t play defense. If that was my option for the offseason why not just roll the dice with what’s in the system now? Can’t be much worse. Also, that would be a terrible offseason and would clearly lead me to believe Pohlad lied as usual. Nothing there moves the needle at all

[Major League Ready]

23 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

The jettisoning of Duran and Jax seemed to suggest that big money was not an efficient use of the payroll budget. A few people will see other needs as more important than adding an expensive relief pitcher. The Catch-22 is that a team cannot win when the bullpen blows leads but suffers if the big signing fails. The Twins have had issues in the past as is discussed in another article highlighting Addison Reed. We can say the same thing about getting burned by Josh Donaldson or Carlos Correa. Does a team back off of trades because of the experience in acquiring Mahle? Whether the Twins finds a Cade Smith or signs David Bednar and Adrian Morejon it seems like the team needs to add two high quality arms to the pen. Any unfavorable experiences in the past need to be forgotten. Baseball is a tough sport to find success in and dwelling on an error, a failed plate experience, or a signing that didn't pan out is living in the past, which should left to Jethroe Tull. 

Morejon? Yes.

There is a famous saying... Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it     It's one thing to say we should not avoid trades or free agents because some don't work out.   It's quite another to avoid the type of acquisition that fails at a far greater rate.  Choosing the strategy that has the greatest rate of failure does not make much sense.

We also have shing examples of successful strategies for low revenue teams.  We can't say we support the theory of following their practices and then completely ignore how these teams built rosters.   Sometimes we have to recognize it may take more than one year to be a true contender.  When they demolished our BP, they set course on a path that was going to take a couple years to rebuild.  

[Brandon]

12 hours ago, TNtwins85 said:

Dang, 1 or 2 relievers in the of the quality of Minter, a Catcher better than…. Caratini? And either a guy who is 39 and can’t hit RHP or a guy who is 35 and can’t hit LHP as a RHH. Both of which can’t play defense. If that was my option for the offseason why not just roll the dice with what’s in the system now? Can’t be much worse. Also, that would be a terrible offseason and would clearly lead me to believe Pohlad lied as usual. Nothing there moves the needle at all

We have a deep starting pitching rotation going into next season.  We rebuilt most of the pen too. Next season we won't get 125 innings of 120 earned runs coming from the failures we cycled through last season on the way to finding some pen pitchers and Woods-Richardson implosion.  

We had the 2nd highest scoring offense in the league last season.  And Buxton's health is key there and the only holes are C, 1B and possibly DH.  

So we deepen the pen and sign a C and 1B.  I mean there are a bunch of depth moves to make and trade Ober for prospects or a releivers.... What am I missing?

[TNtwins85]

7 hours ago, Brandon said:

We have a deep starting pitching rotation going into next season.  We rebuilt most of the pen too. Next season we won't get 125 innings of 120 earned runs coming from the failures we cycled through last season on the way to finding some pen pitchers and Woods-Richardson implosion.  

We had the 2nd highest scoring offense in the league last season.  And Buxton's health is key there and the only holes are C, 1B and possibly DH.  

So we deepen the pen and sign a C and 1B.  I mean there are a bunch of depth moves to make and trade Ober for prospects or a releivers.... What am I missing?

Buxtons health is key every year and he’s not getting any younger. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the offense faltered after he went down. You’ve also gotta replace Bell and Jeffers. The whole 2nd in scoring was driven by a lot of smoke and mirrors and being extremely lucky with RISP. That luck ran out end of July. The FA class is pretty weak except bullpen arms. Why not strengthen the bullpen with a shutdown arm like Morejon instead of dumpster diving and hoping for everyone to improve? Unless Jeffers takes the QO I don’t see them improving at catcher. There’s no impact bats at 1B and I think they should sign Minter but that’s in addition to another big arm as well. I just think that with Pohlads words about meaningfully improving the team and a tough central division( because if every team plays  close to it’s potential it’s gonna be tough) if the Twins don’t try to meaningfully improve with a couple big moves they’re gonna be left behind. Depth moves and moves on the edges aren’t gonna make a difference. You can’t count on the AL to be down 2 years in a row and the Twins didn’t have the talent to compete this last year. Without a few bold moves you can count on another July fire sale and the Twins drafting in the top 5 again in 2028.

[stringer bell]

For the record, both Morejon and David Bednar received QOs, probably lowering their cost to sign, but costing draft picks and/or international money. 

[tony&rodney]

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

For the record, both Morejon and David Bednar received QOs, probably lowering their cost to sign, but costing draft picks and/or international money. 

Which should not even be a consideration. 

 

[Brandon]

1 hour ago, TNtwins85 said:

Buxtons health is key every year and he’s not getting any younger. I don’t think it’s coincidence that the offense faltered after he went down. You’ve also gotta replace Bell and Jeffers. The whole 2nd in scoring was driven by a lot of smoke and mirrors and being extremely lucky with RISP. That luck ran out end of July. The FA class is pretty weak except bullpen arms. Why not strengthen the bullpen with a shutdown arm like Morejon instead of dumpster diving and hoping for everyone to improve? Unless Jeffers takes the QO I don’t see them improving at catcher. There’s no impact bats at 1B and I think they should sign Minter but that’s in addition to another big arm as well. I just think that with Pohlads words about meaningfully improving the team and a tough central division( because if every team plays  close to it’s potential it’s gonna be tough) if the Twins don’t try to meaningfully improve with a couple big moves they’re gonna be left behind. Depth moves and moves on the edges aren’t gonna make a difference. You can’t count on the AL to be down 2 years in a row and the Twins didn’t have the talent to compete this last year. Without a few bold moves you can count on another July fire sale and the Twins drafting in the top 5 again in 2028.

The Twins made moves for next season during last season.  Several relievers, a starter and promoting 2 OF and a SS so doing status quo moves puts the improvements on the three rookies, and not having the crap pitchers that cost us 10 wins or so early in the season.  With a good C, and 1B and 2 releivers we should be an 87-92 win team with luck

[TNtwins85]

On 11/2/2026 at 6:46 PM, Brandon said:

The Twins made moves for next season during last season.  Several relievers, a starter and promoting 2 OF and a SS so doing status quo moves puts the improvements on the three rookies, and not having the crap pitchers that cost us 10 wins or so early in the season.  With a good C, and 1B and 2 releivers we should be an 87-92 win team with luck

Other than Hoffman they didn’t improve for ‘27. The only other move for ‘27 was Kremer which is a depth move. Slots in as a 5 and that’s if they move someone. Unless they make a bold move they’re not improving at catcher. A bold move is contrary to what you’re suggesting. Also, they’re not improving at 1B without a bold move. So you’re left with the same team and simply hoping everyone improves. To turn this team into a 87-92 win team which would be a 10-15 game improvement based on everyone simply getting better is a slim chance. Especially when they haven’t shown that level of talent in the last 2 years. That’s why I suggest bold moves and Morejon would be one of them. In a weak FA class it’s the only way without trades to push everyone down. 2 Minters and magical catcher A and magical first baseman B are not gonna improve this team 10-15 games. That’s hoping that Buxton is healthy and MVP level all year and 2 of Culpepper, Jenkins and Rodriguez are competing for rookie of the year. No major injuries in the rotation and everyone in the bullpen improves. Wishful thinking. I would love that to happen but I think they need to make major moves. Not just moves on the edges.

[Brandon]

13 hours ago, TNtwins85 said:

Other than Hoffman they didn’t improve for ‘27. The only other move for ‘27 was Kremer which is a depth move. Slots in as a 5 and that’s if they move someone. Unless they make a bold move they’re not improving at catcher. A bold move is contrary to what you’re suggesting. Also, they’re not improving at 1B without a bold move. So you’re left with the same team and simply hoping everyone improves. To turn this team into a 87-92 win team which would be a 10-15 game improvement based on everyone simply getting better is a slim chance. Especially when they haven’t shown that level of talent in the last 2 years. That’s why I suggest bold moves and Morejon would be one of them. In a weak FA class it’s the only way without trades to push everyone down. 2 Minters and magical catcher A and magical first baseman B are not gonna improve this team 10-15 games. That’s hoping that Buxton is healthy and MVP level all year and 2 of Culpepper, Jenkins and Rodriguez are competing for rookie of the year. No major injuries in the rotation and everyone in the bullpen improves. Wishful thinking. I would love that to happen but I think they need to make major moves. Not just moves on the edges.

We also get Lopez back from injury, we get full seasons of Jenkins, Culpepper, and Rodriguez.  We also acquired Nance at the deadline and he is a middle reliever we have for a full season.  Our pen was pretty good after the trade deadline deals  our rotation is shaping up well to.  On offense we are downgrading at C unless we resign Jeffers.  We need improvement at 1B too.  Larnarch moves to mostly DH with some OF.  I see lots of improvement you choose to overlook.

[TNtwins85]

24 minutes ago, Brandon said:

We also get Lopez back from injury, we get full seasons of Jenkins, Culpepper, and Rodriguez.  We also acquired Nance at the deadline and he is a middle reliever we have for a full season.  Our pen was pretty good after the trade deadline deals  our rotation is shaping up well to.  On offense we are downgrading at C unless we resign Jeffers.  We need improvement at 1B too.  Larnarch moves to mostly DH with some OF.  I see lots of improvement you choose to overlook.

Pitchers coming back from TJ are a mixed bag. Especially with command. Full seasons of 3 rookies are a mixed bag. Especially Rodriguez who flashed his flaws after a week. Jenkins will be 22 and although he immediately upgrades the defense is still 22 and struggled for a bit in 84 AB’s. Expect a very up and down season at best “if” he makes the team out of ST over 500 some AB’s. Culpepper showed promise but the injury bug hit home several times this season. Ok but not solid at SS. Will have plenty of growing pains with those 3. Nance is a 5th/6th inning guy at best and is solid as a 5th/6th inning guy. Maybe, at 35 years old. May not even make the team out of ST. The bullpen and rotation could be good but too many question marks for a 70 something win team. Chances of Jeffers coming back on the QO are probably 20/80 according to Gleeman and John and I agree with that. 1B improvement is hard to do as there isn’t an obvious FA upgrade and a bold trade move would have to be made as I think Lewis’ track record shows he’s cooked. At least with the Twins. He’s also a non tender candidate possibly if his trade value is too low. Larnach is also a non tender candidate as he’s been ok but can’t stay healthy and can’t stay productive for a whole season. They’ve been trying to move him for 2 offseasons and almost dealt him this trade deadline.They may just cut bait. As I said the team is ok. There’s plus areas but they are definitely not capable of 87-92 wins unless everything, and I mean everything breaks right. Reminder the AL was down this year and the Twins still didn’t have a sniff of the playoffs after September 1st. Don’t count on that 2 years in a row. They need some bold moves that make a difference. Edge moves simply leaves this team at 80-84 wins. That doesn’t win the division and probably doesn’t get the WC either. 1 big BP arm. 1 medium grade BP arm and a legit bat at 2B to move Clemons over or a bold move to get a 1B are the minimum to compete for the division. Minimum