Twins Talking With Nationals About Relievers, Right-Handed Outfield Help

I wonder who Washington would be looking at. Williamson & Prato maybe? There is not much on the St Paul pitching side doing well right now, maybe Winder or Headrick. I think the Twins will hang unto Varland pretty tight.

The other side beside Lane, who has mostly played right field this year, Garrett, a righthander, has hit lefties to a 881 ops. On the pitching side Harvey or Finnegan?

Lane Thomas would be a great addition. Like everyone else just wonder about the cost.

On the reliever side the pitcher I'd want is Hunter Harvey, but he's currently on the IL so don't think that's it. The other effective pitchers they have all seem to have walk issues, which the Twins tend to shy away from.

Makes sense to trade a LH OF for a RH OF.  Either Wallner or Larnach since there is no way that they entertain taking Gallo even if we paid the remainder of his salary and Kepler only has one more year and is older.  I suspect Washington is looking for youth to rebuild around.  I'd be OK with SWR but not Varland.

2 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Lane Thomas for SWR - Winder - Celestino…..is that enough?

The more I see our club in the 2nd half, the more I think we need 3 upgrades in the Pen & we’ll be fine!!! No outfield add. Watching the Mariner/Twins game this afternoon…,,,,,BTW Vazquez has contributed in every game played for last 4 or 5…..that helps!

After a trade, Lane Thomas makes the play-off roster for sure…….Wallner-Castro-Kepler as well

Lewis/Farmer - CC - Julien/Polanco - Kirilloff/Solano

Vazquez/Jeffers

No room for Gallo - Taylor - Buxton on playoff roster. 2 of them - maybe 3 of them could play through September on expanded roster.

Maybe need to sacrifice Solano for Taylor?

No back-up CF or no back-up 1B? I guess Farmer could play 1B in a pinch. Either way Buxton seems out in October. Hard to imagine. Gallo too!

To me, the obvious move to create enough roster space in October is to trade Polanco by the deadline or after the deadline to someone wanting him for future & depth.

Take Thomas out of the mix and it’s still a roster dilemma!

Interesting.  More than likely, someone will be hurt, so it'll work itself out.  If Buxton isn't hurt, they won't leave him off.  Granted, I'm assuming he's this bad of a hitter the rest of the year.

I think Taylor probably makes it, just for late inning defense.

I think Julien or Polanco could also play 1B.

Maybe Farmer is left off.  Might depend on matchups.  If they face a team with a bunch of LHP, that might change thing.

2 hours ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

Makes sense to trade a LH OF for a RH OF.  Either Wallner or Larnach since there is no way that they entertain taking Gallo even if we paid the remainder of his salary and Kepler only has one more year and is older.  I suspect Washington is looking for youth to rebuild around.  I'd be OK with SWR but not Varland.

I would trade Wallner and Larnach along with any other prospects not named Lee just to not have to watch Gallo strike out every 30 AB’s this year.

Lane Thomas has an xWOBA a little lower than Kepler and Gallo. He is an extreme buy high with a BABIP much higher than his career norm. His xSLG would rank 14th on the Twins. His hard hit and barrels rate is almost an extract match to Farmer. I trust those statcast numbers to predict the rest of the season better than the slash stats. The Nationals would be wise to sell in spite of his years of control. I hope the Twins stay away.

The Nats organization right now does not have stellar pitching, with not much in the pipeline for the forseeable future. At AAA Rochester, just about every pitcher has an ERA of 5.00 or over. Any gem on the big club is probably not available. I'd go fishing in different waters.

9 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Doesn’t seem with Wallner’s relative success in ‘23 that it makes sense moving him for a corner OF. (btw - just hit his 3rd HR of the Seattle series) …..maybe Larnach & SW & ???Miranda - Celestino are always available, with major league experience.

Lane Thomas seems solid!

Does anybody pay attention to the fact that Teoscar is leading the league in strikeouts? We do not need more of that!!!

Brad Hand - Michael Fulmer are veteran experienced guys for a stretch run …….not sure about the particulars on guys with Washington?

There you go.  If Teoscar is leading the league in strikeouts and NOT playing for us that's a problem that needs to get fixed.  We can't expect Joey Gallo to set the league team strikeout record by himself.....

17 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Lane Thomas for SWR - Winder - Celestino…..is that enough?

The more I see our club in the 2nd half, the more I think we need 3 upgrades in the Pen & we’ll be fine!!! No outfield add. Watching the Mariner/Twins game this afternoon…,,,,,BTW Vazquez has contributed in every game played for last 4 or 5…..that helps!

After a trade, Lane Thomas makes the play-off roster for sure…….Wallner-Castro-Kepler as well

Lewis/Farmer - CC - Julien/Polanco - Kirilloff/Solano

Vazquez/Jeffers

No room for Gallo - Taylor - Buxton on playoff roster. 2 of them - maybe 3 of them could play through September on expanded roster.

Maybe need to sacrifice Solano for Taylor?

No back-up CF or no back-up 1B? I guess Farmer could play 1B in a pinch. Either way Buxton seems out in October. Hard to imagine. Gallo too!

To me, the obvious move to create enough roster space in October is to trade Polanco by the deadline or after the deadline to someone wanting him for future & depth.

Take Thomas out of the mix and it’s still a roster dilemma!

I think both Taylor and Solano have value to our club. Gallo, not so much. Kepler is looking like a keeper all of a sudden, so Gallo is about the only one I would dump at this point. 

I am not concerned about losing players like Celestino, Miranda, Gallo (Pay them to take him), SWR, Sands, Winder, Larnach, Kepler, Stevenson... but we are probably overrating Lane and I fear we will do what we did with Lopez last year and buy into a strong start only to get a bad finish. 

Who is in St Paul that has not been in MLB.

Funderburk

Prato

Bechtold

Carmargo

Helman

Williams

If they take a fixer upper

SWR

Miranda

Martin

One out of the first group, one out of the second and lower minor lottery tickets, likely to be pitchers.. I would also suspect it would take 2 of the first list, especially if they can offload one of their underperforming corner outfielders.

17 hours ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

Makes sense to trade a LH OF for a RH OF.  Either Wallner or Larnach since there is no way that they entertain taking Gallo even if we paid the remainder of his salary and Kepler only has one more year and is older.  I suspect Washington is looking for youth to rebuild around.  I'd be OK with SWR but not Varland.

Yeah the nationals have no need for Gallo or Kepler, but it's hard to see how the Twins would add another corner bat without moving one of them some other way.  Buxton will have to be re-activated for tomorrow's game (I think the transaction actually has to happen today technically) and Larnach will be sent down.  If Polanco is also activated this weekend as expected, and neither Gallo or Kepler is moved, it's hard to see how Wallner doesn't lose his mlb roster spot.

Personally, I would be taking the best offer on Joey Gallo ASAP.  I'm very comfortable with Wallner being able to at the very least replicate Gallo's production, with Larnach as a decent enough backup.  I could also see a three team trade developing with either Gallo or Kepler involved.  I'm asking for a lot for Wallner, but definitely listening to offers for Larnach.

Am I the only person who cringes whenever a fly ball is hit to Wallner?

49 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

Yeah the nationals have no need for Gallo or Kepler, but it's hard to see how the Twins would add another corner bat without moving one of them some other way.  Buxton will have to be re-activated for tomorrow's game (I think the transaction actually has to happen today technically) and Larnach will be sent down.  If Polanco is also activated this weekend as expected, and neither Gallo or Kepler is moved, it's hard to see how Wallner doesn't lose his mlb roster spot.

Personally, I would be taking the best offer on Joey Gallo ASAP.  I'm very comfortable with Wallner being able to at the very least replicate Gallo's production, with Larnach as a decent enough backup.  I could also see a three team trade developing with either Gallo or Kepler involved.  I'm asking for a lot for Wallner, but definitely listening to offers for Larnach.

If you think the bag of donuts we'd get offered for Gallo would help us I'd do it.  However, it MIGHT be fun to see him break the team strikeout record...

22 minutes ago, dxpavelka said:

If you think the bag of donuts we'd get offered for Gallo would help us I'd do it.  However, it MIGHT be fun to see him break the team strikeout record...

The value of trading Gallo would be in opening the roster spot, not any additional help at the mlb level this year.  I could see him bringing back a minor league relief prospect, the quality depending on how much salary they eat. 

But there are teams that would be interested in Gallo.  Basically any team that is looking at Bellinger (other than the Yankees) would probably consider Gallo as a fall back.  These comments from the Astro's GM definitely make it sound like Gallo could fit the bill.

How about getting Canderario to solve third base? Let's see if we can put a package together for both.

And let's give Ryan a rest of 6-7 days to get back to his first half success.

1 hour ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

Am I the only person who cringes whenever a fly ball is hit to Wallner?

NO.

2 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Lewis and Polanco will play 3B.....they aren't trading for a 3B. They clearly see those two as this year's 3B going forward. 

Not to mention, I think Candelario will wind up being a reasonably hot commodity over the next couple of days and one that the Twins would be foolish to overpay for.

16 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Lane Thomas has an xWOBA a little lower than Kepler and Gallo. He is an extreme buy high with a BABIP much higher than his career norm. His xSLG would rank 14th on the Twins. His hard hit and barrels rate is almost an extract match to Farmer. I trust those statcast numbers to predict the rest of the season better than the slash stats. The Nationals would be wise to sell in spite of his years of control. I hope the Twins stay away.

What are his statcast numbers against lefties?

2 hours ago, clone52 said:

What are his statcast numbers against lefties?

His BABIP against lefties this year is .411. Last year it was .279 against lefties.