Cody Christie’s Twins Offseason Blueprint: Major Trades & Roster Roulette

[MeleMouth]

11 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

Sign free agent Austin Hedges for 1 year at 4.5 million with a second year Twins option at 5 million. Thus no prospects are lost. Hedges is a strong defensive catcher and his poor offense will be OK on the Twins due to the  Twins having scored the second most runs in the American League last year. Hedges salary is less than Jeffers was. Thus a savings at catcher. He would be a great mentor for Lackey in 2028. Sign Tyler France for 2 years at 18 million per year. No prospects are lost. France's salary will be made up by releasing or trading Lewis, Ober and Larnach.  France increases the defense for the entire infield. Helps the pitching staff. Houston is added to the Major League roster sometime in 2027 and the Twins have the best fielding IF in the American League : Lee at 3B, Houston at SS, Culpepper at 2B and France at 1B. and Hedges at catcher. Sign Minter and Abreu as suggested. No prospects are lost in trades. Put either Prielipp or Rojas in relief for a third lefthanded reliever to go with Funderburk and Minter. I rest my case. NO PROSPECTS ARE LOST.

Like the direction of your thinking, other than putting Prielipp or Rojas in the bullpen, but would pass on Hedges without good film or explanatory medicals.

His defense seemed to go way down in 2026, rating below Caratini and #38 of 48 Cs with min 400 innings in FanGraphs DEF rating. 42 SBs against 3 CSs with negative framing and defensive runs saved. Statcast says he had negative fielding run value, with negative throwing and blocking and slightly positive framing. Is he losing ability or was it just a blip?

[Twins GFP]

I continue to not understand why the general belief is that Larnach and Ober have no value. Non-tendering is the same as saying they are not worth their contract which is patently false. They both outperform their salary, especially Ober.

If you want the Twins to move on from them because you want better, fine. Tender them then trade them for something. Everyone here complains about the FO all the time about everything. To jettison them with nothing in return is truly something to complain about. 

[Whammy]

24 minutes ago, Twins GFP said:

I continue to not understand why the general belief is that Larnach and Ober have no value. Non-tendering is the same as saying they are not worth their contract which is patently false. They both outperform their salary, especially Ober.

If you want the Twins to move on from them because you want better, fine. Tender them then trade them for something. Everyone here complains about the FO all the time about everything. To jettison them with nothing in return is truly something to complain about. 

What Ober did last season is worth a $7M one year contract. But unless you're Vladimir Guerrero Jr, you get paid for what teams expect you to do going forward. I suspect most teams (including the Twins) are extremely skeptical of Ober having continued success with the peripherals he had last season. 

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, MeleMouth said:

I am hoping for a site about the Twins that presents new ideas and ways of looking at things. 

There are AI tools now that can help you set up such a site.  Knock yourself out.  I'll come read it.

[Andy MacPhail]

1 hour ago, Twins GFP said:

I continue to not understand why the general belief is that Larnach and Ober have no value. Non-tendering is the same as saying they are not worth their contract which is patently false. They both outperform their salary, especially Ober.

If you want the Twins to move on from them because you want better, fine. Tender them then trade them for something. Everyone here complains about the FO all the time about everything. To jettison them with nothing in return is truly something to complain about. 

I'm with you GFP, even though we might be in the minority. Larnach, Ober & Lewis all have worth & shouldn't be DFAed. If you think their asking price is too high, trade them or go through arbitration do not DFA them. Lewis has the talent to be great MLBer. He'll figure out 1B & be pretty good there. IMO, his hitting came around before he ran out gas. If we trade him now, we'd get little for him but if he has a good 1st half or return would be substantial. 

[Cris E]

18 hours ago, bjorks said:

Followed the Marte drama quite closely and he's not the guy people think he is. He's no longer a CF option, but could play LF/RF in a pinch, but the "cost" would not be nearly as high as Houston, Prielipp, and Roden. This is a classic case of a change of scenery would be good for both parties. While he's still under team control through '30 w/player option in '31 for $11.5MM in his age 37 season, not sure he would get much more if he opted out. Contract doesn't age great ($13.5MM in '27, $20MM in '28, $22 in '29 and '30) but if the snakes wanted prospect(s) back, they'd have to pay a bit. 

It's a perfect scenario hypothetically to move our malcontent Lewis and maybe someone like Gabby G. for Marte and filler. The filler I'd take a flyer on is AJ Puk who was solid before elbow issues and is a solid bounce back candidate, but you'd probably have to add on the Twins side a little bit. Maybe Marte, Puk, $10MM for Lewis, Gonzalez, and Marco Raya would get it done. Mercedes could replace Gabby in there as well since he's running out of options. He actually fits fairly close to the OF profile they like. 

As for my original thoughts on Leo Bernal, sounds like the Cards are entertaining moving Rodriguez to 3B, Bernal stays behind the dish with Crooks backing up. It's a helluva dilemma to have and hopefully in about 4 years, we have Lackey behind the plate, Tait at 3B/1B/RF and Tinney at 1B/DH. The Cards are the envy of a lot of teams with their catching riches. 

Marte has played exactly 2 games in the outfield since 2021. And he finished third in the MVP voting two years ago in the midst of a 4.9-6.8-4.4 WAR streak, so he's not going to be given away for Royce Lewis and a bad defensive player with 11 career MLB PAs. Plus he'd be a potential headcase with a heavy drag-ass contract that would make him very difficult to get rid of if the need arose. You're talking about a middle infielder who is due to  receive over $20m for his 34-36 seasons. There are just too many moving parts with this one, so I don't think he's a good target.

I do think getting a catcher via trade is still a good idea.  MIN is about three years from being waist deep in young catching too, and the world will be laughing at them if all are still with the team and attempting to make the MLB roster at once. So the Cards need to pick a couple and convert the rest to something else, via trade or position change. I think Herrera has caught his last game, Bernal is the Cardinals' catcher of the future, and Pages will back him up. That leaves Crooks, but the man cannot hit. So I would tend to choose San Diego as my trade partner this winter.