Twins Have Interest In First Basemen Ryan O'Hearn, Josh Bell, Rhys Hoskins

Big whoop.  So they can apparently go up to about $115M.  I am sure the Dodgers are busy scouting the Twins so they can figure out how to beat us in the World Series./s

This is such a meaningless exercise.  This is not anywhere close to a top, competitive roster.  Why are you adding a "mid tier" player?  So we can win a couple more meaningless games?

Totally disagree with this approach.

Either show you really mean it, extend Jeffers, extend Ryan, lock up Jenkins on a long deal, and spend the money to sign someone "top tier", or stop wasting our time.

Alternatively, trade all the older players, load up on youngsters, play them, and see who excels and who flops and go from there.

Going down the middle just guarantees mediocrity.

Why would they pay money for Hoskins?  I just don't understand that.  Sure, give him a million to platoon, not that he hits lefties that well.  If there are financial troubles, stop being stupid with money.

The lack of imagination and creativity within the front office seems extraordinary. Gallo, Margot .....

I now think that Matbe Goldschmidt would be a good idea,   Sonny Gray rebounded after a horrific stay in NY, as did Bader, as did Pavano. Some people just do not adapt to New York. Maybe Goldschmidt , a Texan, is one of those people. A rebound year 

Of those three players, the only one that appeals to me is O'Hearn. Bell seems to be more of a DH guy at this point in his career. 

11 hours ago, old nurse said:

I now think that Matbe Goldschmidt would be a good idea,   Sonny Gray rebounded after a horrific stay in NY, as did Bader, as did Pavano. Some people just do not adapt to New York. Maybe Goldschmidt , a Texan, is one of those people. A rebound year 

He's going to be 38, and he wasn't good his last year in STL. I'll pass on someone his age becoming the player he was 3 years ago

Yawn! One thing they don’t need is another left handed hitter. Seems like Clemons had as good a season offensively as these guys at first base. And with the infield defense already shaky at third, second and shortstop, signing a butcher to play first doesn’t make sense, even if he hits 20 homers. 

On 12/10/2025 at 8:05 PM, nicksaviking said:

If they have 20M to spend, as Hayes also reported, they can spend it all on one guy as far as I'm concerned. 

Patching holes with the nickel and dime approach is probably my biggest pet peeve with this club. How they haven't learned by now that a low budget free agent is just as likely to be a bust as the guy they pick up off of the waiver wire or buy for a PTBNL/cash considerations is crazy. It happens all the time. 

Twins fans can claim that they'd prefer we spend it all on one player but even when they do that fans aren't happy.  Fans LOVED when we loaded up on Carlos Correa, Josh Donaldson and even Joe Mauer.  Didn't like it near as much when they learned what even the big spenders learn:  That when you sign a guy to a big money long term contract the results as that contract goes on generally tend to NOT be worth the investment.

6 hours ago, dxpavelka said:

Twins fans can claim that they'd prefer we spend it all on one player but even when they do that fans aren't happy.  Fans LOVED when we loaded up on Carlos Correa, Josh Donaldson and even Joe Mauer.  Didn't like it near as much when they learned what even the big spenders learn:  That when you sign a guy to a big money long term contract the results as that contract goes on generally tend to NOT be worth the investment.

This is true to an extent. Many Twins fans and some within the organization struggle with those large contracts. At one time the huge numbers were 10-20 times the minimum salary, but now the factors are much larger. Signing those large contracts is a gamble.

I never object to a few large contracts. I recognize the limits of a Minnesota roster budget. Correa, Donaldson, and Mauer were all reasonable gambles. Something that gets lost is that these players take on a responsibility to show how a professional baseball player goes about their days. There are always going to be differences in appreciation of the guys who make the big bucks. A more visible impact is that a team has a player to count on day to day. Again, injuries and poor performances raise questions among the public but the example in the dugout carries value. 

Pablo Lopez is the clear leader of the pitching staff. Correa was a key leader of the position players and Buxton will take that position. A team can benefit from more than one big name. It reduces the pressure. Ryan and Ober are those guys who can help Lopez for the pitchers. The position side could benefit from adding a player like Bo Bichette. 

To each their own. My thought is that there is room in a $115M 26 person roster budget for two major gambles on the position side. Maybe Correa was too large of a contract or too volatile for the Twins. Can't say on that. To me a gamble on Bichette (I thought Naylor was worth $25M-he gone) would pay off. Some shifting of players would be needed to stay beneath $115M, but it can be done.

The Twins plans are not discernable, at all, to me. That doesn't make any difference but I sure hope to see much better baseball in 2026 from the Minnesota Twins. I think the product will be better even if the record might be the same. I can live with that much easier than a repeat of the 2025 product with a few more wins.

On 12/10/2025 at 8:48 PM, DocBauer said:

Maybe I'll be proven wrong but I'd take Lowe at 2yrs and $18-20M every day of the week, and twice on Sunday at this point.

Weren't those scheduled Sunday DH's the greatest back in the day?

Move Luke Keaschall to first base and sign Bo Bichette to play second base, problem solved. 

Ryan O’Hearn would be by far the best and anything but mid tier. High OBA, high batting average, maybe tied for 2nd on 2025 Twins) and decent power, a great mix. Sign O’Hearn, who can also play OF.

16 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

This is true to an extent. Many Twins fans and some within the organization struggle with those large contracts. At one time the huge numbers were 10-20 times the minimum salary, but now the factors are much larger. Signing those large contracts is a gamble.

I never object to a few large contracts. I recognize the limits of a Minnesota roster budget. Correa, Donaldson, and Mauer were all reasonable gambles. Something that gets lost is that these players take on a responsibility to show how a professional baseball player goes about their days. There are always going to be differences in appreciation of the guys who make the big bucks. A more visible impact is that a team has a player to count on day to day. Again, injuries and poor performances raise questions among the public but the example in the dugout carries value. 

Pablo Lopez is the clear leader of the pitching staff. Correa was a key leader of the position players and Buxton will take that position. A team can benefit from more than one big name. It reduces the pressure. Ryan and Ober are those guys who can help Lopez for the pitchers. The position side could benefit from adding a player like Bo Bichette. 

To each their own. My thought is that there is room in a $115M 26 person roster budget for two major gambles on the position side. Maybe Correa was too large of a contract or too volatile for the Twins. Can't say on that. To me a gamble on Bichette (I thought Naylor was worth $25M-he gone) would pay off. Some shifting of players would be needed to stay beneath $115M, but it can be done.

The Twins plans are not discernable, at all, to me. That doesn't make any difference but I sure hope to see much better baseball in 2026 from the Minnesota Twins. I think the product will be better even if the record might be the same. I can live with that much easier than a repeat of the 2025 product with a few more wins.

I agree that the Twins plans are not discernable.  Not that they have any obligation for them to be so.  Fans seem convinced that for some reason they have a right to know such things.  They don't.  But we live in an age when they think they do.  Neither here nor there I guess.  I'm fine with acquiring a big name guy.  I would have been fine with keeping Correa.  Bichette would work for me.  I've been advocating for Alonzo in these spaces since last Winter.  But for the most part, guys on big long term contracts seldom earn that money over the last half of the contract.  If you spend that money on retaining your own players, that is kind of offset somewhat by the fact that prior to free agency said player often far outperforms his contract.  I'm not all that concerned about what happened at the deadline either.  I understand why they dumped Correa.  Would have been nice to have kept Duran and maybe Varland but in all honesty, the return for those two should become mainstays before the end of the decade (not that far away).  Jax had to go or would have become a cancer.  Everyone else that went would, in an ideal world (possible exception of Bader) would have been gone by March anyway.   The future is NOT nearly as bleak as most think.  Play Ball.

6 hours ago, dxpavelka said:

I agree that the Twins plans are not discernable.  Not that they have any obligation for them to be so.  Fans seem convinced that for some reason they have a right to know such things.  They don't.  But we live in an age when they think they do.  Neither here nor there I guess.  I'm fine with acquiring a big name guy.  I would have been fine with keeping Correa.  Bichette would work for me.  I've been advocating for Alonzo in these spaces since last Winter.  But for the most part, guys on big long term contracts seldom earn that money over the last half of the contract.  If you spend that money on retaining your own players, that is kind of offset somewhat by the fact that prior to free agency said player often far outperforms his contract.  I'm not all that concerned about what happened at the deadline either.  I understand why they dumped Correa.  Would have been nice to have kept Duran and maybe Varland but in all honesty, the return for those two should become mainstays before the end of the decade (not that far away).  Jax had to go or would have become a cancer.  Everyone else that went would, in an ideal world (possible exception of Bader) would have been gone by March anyway.   The future is NOT nearly as bleak as most think.  Play Ball.

Agree with your basic position. There are a couple of brief thoughts that come to mind.

The baseball business benefits from a strong positive public relationship with their audience. This is complicated and we could discuss it endlessly. 

Few businesses succeed without experienced people leading the way. These folks don't need to be the most talented but have knowledge to pass on to those new or in need of experience. That is how i see the need for Correa, etc.

There really can't be a way to determine how trades will work out in baseball until a couple of years have passed. It's possible that Duran, Varland, and Jax are all out of baseball soon or they pitch another half dozen plus years. In the same manner, guys like Abel, Tait, Rojas, and Roden could be mainstays on a team or struggling to get any time on a MLB roster or out of baseball altogether. The future will give us an answer. The current conversations would be whether these were the guys to target to lead the team in a few years. I hope they do.

Last, the future of the Twins is not much of a concern to me because it is out of my control. I want them to do well and see possibilities for that to occur. That is where Twins Daily comes in. My preference is for watching well-played baseball games. Physical mistakes happen and a few mental blunders are inevitable as well. My own personal problem with this current era of Twins baseball is tied to the excessive number of careless plays which is a philosophy of a playing style. 

I'm a hopeless optimist but also a victim of my own life, one that necessarily required critical thinking. Thus I support the team since 1961 and still yearn for excellence. 

I'm not interested in any of the 3 mentioned in the article.  Two of them (Bell and Hoskins) are practically unplayable at 1B and would probably be below average DH's.  Colby Mayo is intriguing.  He's 24 years old and 6:4 230 pounds.  A big, strong RH power hitting 1B (in theory).

But the price point for a player with Nate Lowe's track record (and glove) is just a better move.  The Orioles are desperate for SP and for the life of me, I can't understand the need to trade a promising, young SP like Grayson Rodriguez for Taylor Ward.  

If I was to trade with the Orioles, after I signed Nathanial Lowe to play 1B, the player I covet is Jordan Westburg.  He's young and talented, can play 2B or 3B, hits and hits with power.  His hitting and defensive flexibility allows the Twins to consider Keaschall in LF to begin the year. 

A trade of Joe Ryan 52.5 and Mickey Gaspar 7.9 and Henry Mendez 8.6  (Total: 69.0) for Westburg 50.2  Catcher Caden Bodine 9.3, and CF prospect Enrique Bradfield 9.3 (Total: 68.8) could work.  Ryan is 30 years old and would bring a premium.  Westburg is just 26 years old, Bradfield 24, and Bodine is just 22 and was Baltimore's #1 pick (#30 1C) out of Coastal Carolina.  He's an excellent Catcher with a below average throwing arm but an exceptionally quick release who, as a switch hitter, has elite contact skills but needs to add more power.  His MLB ETA is 2028. 

Westburg is cost controlled for several years and would fit in with the core the Twins should want to build going forward.  With all the young pitching we have, this is the type of trade for an All Star caliber pitcher like Ryan the Twins should consider. 

By the way, in reviewing some of the trades on BBTV I saw that Taj Bradley is now valued at 43.1.  Considering Griffin Jax was valued at 24 or 25 at the trade deadline, despite my disappointment in seeing Jax traded, I have to salute Falvey/Zoll and company on that trade.  That's significantly more value coming back, beyond just the SP valued more than a RP.   

3 hours ago, TopGunn#22 said:

If I was to trade with the Orioles, after I signed Nathanial Lowe to play 1B, the player I covet is Jordan Westburg.  He's young and talented, can play 2B or 3B, hits and hits with power.  His hitting and defensive flexibility allows the Twins to consider Keaschall in LF to begin the year. 

A trade of Joe Ryan 52.5 and Mickey Gaspar 7.9 and Henry Mendez 8.6  (Total: 69.0) for Westburg 50.2  Catcher Caden Bodine 9.3, and CF prospect Enrique Bradfield 9.3 (Total: 68.8) could work.  Ryan is 30 years old and would bring a premium.  Westburg is just 26 years old, Bradfield 24, and Bodine is just 22 and was Baltimore's #1 pick (#30 1C) out of Coastal Carolina.  He's an excellent Catcher with a below average throwing arm but an exceptionally quick release who, as a switch hitter, has elite contact skills but needs to add more power.  His MLB ETA is 2028. 

You may be overrating Jordan Westburg and underrating Joe Ryan somewhat. Westburg has some promise as a hitter but has yet to show himself adequately and he is not very good in the field. He is 27 before next season starts. Ryan is one of the top 20 starting pitchers in baseball. I can see the Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Tigers, and a few others as trading partners for Ryan but not Baltimore. I do like to read your ideas.

Joe Ryan should remain a Twin unless he is part of a deal that returns a top player or prospect. When last season ended I was immediately curious whether a Ryan, Roden, Soto trade for Tyler Soderstrom could be possible. Soderstrom was really good at first base after being shifted away from catching. He then moved to left field for Nick Kurtz, where Tyler was surprisingly effective in the field. The A's are trying to sign all of their young players to long term contracts. Butler and Rooker are taken care of and they are in talks with Shea  Langeliers, Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson, and Tyler Soderstrom now. Leodalis De Vries might be impossible to pry away but it is worth a try. I'm offering a pile: Ryan, Marek Houston, and Kendry Rojas. Shoot for the moon.

16 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Agree with your basic position. There are a couple of brief thoughts that come to mind.

The baseball business benefits from a strong positive public relationship with their audience. This is complicated and we could discuss it endlessly. 

Few businesses succeed without experienced people leading the way. These folks don't need to be the most talented but have knowledge to pass on to those new or in need of experience. That is how i see the need for Correa, etc.

There really can't be a way to determine how trades will work out in baseball until a couple of years have passed. It's possible that Duran, Varland, and Jax are all out of baseball soon or they pitch another half dozen plus years. In the same manner, guys like Abel, Tait, Rojas, and Roden could be mainstays on a team or struggling to get any time on a MLB roster or out of baseball altogether. The future will give us an answer. The current conversations would be whether these were the guys to target to lead the team in a few years. I hope they do.

Last, the future of the Twins is not much of a concern to me because it is out of my control. I want them to do well and see possibilities for that to occur. That is where Twins Daily comes in. My preference is for watching well-played baseball games. Physical mistakes happen and a few mental blunders are inevitable as well. My own personal problem with this current era of Twins baseball is tied to the excessive number of careless plays which is a philosophy of a playing style. 

I'm a hopeless optimist but also a victim of my own life, one that necessarily required critical thinking. Thus I support the team since 1961 and still yearn for excellence. 

That's a lot of words and not one of them critical of ownership and  / or the front office.  Are you sure you're in the right spot?