Riverbrian’s 2027 Payroll Blueprint:

[Riverbrian]

If Tom is going to spend. 160 million. Go get em Tom.

This team has starting pitching depth. It has a hard throwing bullpen. It has 6 infielders who could all be starters. It has 5 outfielders who could all be starters. It' a roster built for 162 games.

Free Agents... Sato and Morejon (as a starter). I'm just putting names down to represent the types of players I'd want for 2027. Bauers can substitute for Sato. I just want a big bat at 1B to be brought in. Morejon can be replaced by Rogers or someone in the upper shelf of the available starting pitchers. If they want go get King that's fine with me. But, see if you can bring in a starter that is better than Ober or Kremer. We will need someone who join Bradley for 2028. 

Trade acquisitions Casey Schmitt, Jeremiah Estrada and Sam Bachman. Again... just representations of the type of players that I would like to acquire. Doesn't have to be Schmitt, Estrada or Bachman. I want a capable infielder. 

Larnach, Ober, Kremer, Wallner plus unnamed minor league players for trade capital. I would like to keep Wallner for another run at it but I know I would be crucified for it by Twinsdaily. Wallner had a bad couple of months... no doubt about that. But he had some great months for us before that. But, if I list him... too many want him gone so I didn't list him.

Keaschall is listed as the DH... but I would not have a permanent DH. The DH would be used to our talented depth into the lineup more often. We would have 11 players for 8 positions if you don't count the Catcher position which is it's own rotation.

More playing time goes to the players who are earning it. Less playing time for anyone who hits like Lewis did last year.

If we end up with 11 guys who are killing it. The manager will have a good problem because it won't matter who plays and the Twins will still win 100 games. Unfortunately... that won't happen. Someone is going to perform like Lewis or Wallner did last season. Someone is going to get hurt.

I'm not afraid of youth. I'm afraid of no safety nets if Culpepper really struggles or if anyone gets hurt. I'm afraid of asking role players to take on larger roles when players struggle or players get hurt so I don't want role players on the roster.

I'm afraid of not enough talent. I want too much talent be it realized or unrealized talent. I want too much talent. I want the manager to lose sleep at night because he has too many options. It can be done and this is how you build a team for 162 games and a team built for 162 teams is the first thing Tom Pohlad mentioned that we didn't have in the press conference about what went wrong in 2026. So here is a team built for 162 games. 

• C: Victor Caratini ($7.00M)
• 1B: Teruaki Sato ($26.00M)
• 2B: Kody Clemens ($3.60M)
• 3B: Brooks Lee ($1.00M)
• SS: Kaelen Culpepper ($1.00M)
• LF: Emmanuel Rodiguez ($1.00M)
• CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M)
• RF: Walker Jenkins ($1.00M)
• DH: Luke Keaschall ($1.00M)
• 4th OF: alan roden ($1.00M)
• Utility: Casey Schmitt ($2.50M)
• Utility: Royce Lewis ($5.10M)
• Backup C: Alex Jackson ($2.00M)
• POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M)
• SP1: Pablo Lopez ($21.50M)
• SP2: Joe Ryan ($9.60M)
• SP3: Taj Bradley ($4.50M)
• SP4: Adrian Morejon ($20.00M)
• SP5: Connor Prielipp ($1.00M)
• RP: Jeff Hoffman ($7.25M)
• RP: Yoendrys Gomez ($2.30M)
• RP: Tommy Nance ($1.20M)
• RP: Cole Sands ($1.30M)
• RP: Kody Funderburk ($1.00M)
• RP: Jeremiah Estrada ($1.00M)
• RP: Andrew Morris ($1.00M)
• RP: sam bachman ($1.00M)
• POS: Add Dead Money Here ($10.00M)

Payroll is 9.91% over budget

[Linus]

I like the overall philosophy. Add a bat and some relievers which gives us a chance this year and builds towards the future. 

[tony&rodney]

Good roster and it looks fairly realistic to me. Thank you for submitting one. I count only 14 submitted rosters with many, many frequent TD voices absent. Thus, pleased to see you put up one

The idea of Sato is fun and I think Morejon is a good idea. I'm interested in how you acquired Schmitt, Estrada, and Bachman. They are all good acquisitions but the price for them is unclear to me. Did you trade Abel, Rojas, Matthews for them? Finally, what do you see in Wallner? He was a darling for almost everyone on Twins Daily before last year but his fans have abandoned him. Wallner is a pure DH and you state that you would not use a DH, so I was merely curious.