Targeting Free Agent Hitters to Suit the Twins' Needs

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you Nick. Although Vazquez elevated our catching from bottom of the barrel to middle of the pack we are not very good in depth. Our catching prospects are so low it's hard to find them on the prospect list & those who are highest on that list are years away to arrive at the show.  C, CF, SS, 3B & 2B is where you need the greatest quality of depth. CF maybe Martin will rise up & fill that void. I truly hope so but to solely trust on that is wreckless, especially if we don't know where we stand with Buxton.  Castro can adequately cover CF & INF but I wouldn't want to depend on him to play there in any extended time. Only quality defensive INF we have are Correa, Lewis & Polanco. Maybe Farmer if he's still around. 

Yet where you see a need at 1B/ DH which aren't  premium positions we are very deep in. Buxton (DH), Kiriloff, Julien, Miranda & Farmer (1B) if he's still around.

Hoskins would be a good addition, but at the expense of Kiriloff’s development. He is also a needed right handed bat, which Bellinger isn’t. Any free agent needs to be a right handed bat or switch hitter, and preferably can play defense. 

PITCHING!

I think the Twins need to address at least one SP slot through trade or FA before they go hunting for a bat (CF or 1B type).  And I'd almost feel more comfortable if they addressed BOTH SP slots through FA or trade before they go hunting for a bat.  

I like what Jung-hoo Lee could bring to the lineup (an elite contact hitter with some power) and defensively in CF.  

I'm only interested in two guys who are reasonable to sign and fit in the Twins new budget: Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Kevin Kiermaier. 

The Twins are likely to move on from Farmer and sadly, Kepler and Polanco are included in trades.

13 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I'm only interested in two guys who are reasonable to sign and fit in the Twins new budget: Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Kevin Kiermaier. 

The Twins are likely to move on from Farmer and sadly, Kepler and Polanco are included in trades.

Then the Twins would regress , not improve; that makes no sense.

Don’t we need an always gets on base and swipe 2nd twice a week type guy? We got plenty of swing and miss guys and a GIDP specialist.  Lets add more baserunners. 

18 minutes ago, RpR said:

Then the Twins would regress , not improve; that makes no sense.

Your idea? Write it out and send it in.

46 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Your idea? Write it out and send it in.

Status Quo.

I read an article last night about Korean and Japanese players the Twins should target here, and I like the OF who was gold glove caliber and could be a doubles machine.  I forget his name.  
from This article I like the idea of Hoskins who could be a 1B / DH.   
 

But in reality,  I would be thrilled just to have Solano and Taylor back.  I don’t think the 1B hole is as big after the news Killeroff’s surgery went best case scenario (Holy Moly, we never get best case what is that)?  While there is no news yet, I suspect Buxton’s knee will improve enough for him to get back out on the field atleast half of the time.   I think we just need a good bench like last season and someone who can play 50% or more of the time in CF with mega awesome defense, 30+ stolen base potential, strikes out 6% of the time to help bring those numbers down for the team and Walks 20% of the time with a .300 average and only costa 3 million or less….  Or MAT or Kiermaier will do nicely if we can sign one of them.  

2 hours ago, RpR said:

Status Quo.

How does that work? Resign Gray, Maeda, Pagan, Gallo, Taylor, Solano, etc.?

I’m on board with a quality right-handed 1B/DH bat. That would go a long way toward improving/stabilizing the offense.

Gotta pretend that Buxton doesn’t exist (other than the contract…sigh). He’s not a great DH regardless. Also, there’s a difference between shoulder surgery being “medically” successful, and shoulder surgery that restores the ability to hit major league pitching at a high level without regression or reinjury. Kirilloff remains a house of cards, until he proves otherwise. Meanwhile, Miranda did nothing to re-establish himself in St. Paul…in fact, he did the opposite of that.

The Twins offense was quite good after the AS break.  I would determine what to do with position players after taking a run at Montgomery / Rodriquez oe perhaps Stroman.  If we can't land one of those guys maybe we take a chance on Giolito or Maeda.  Once the pitching spend is determined we address the position players.

If we spend $25M on a SP it becomes necessary to trade 1 or 2 of Polanco / Farmer and Kepler and I would prioritize keeping them in the reverse order.  Kepler is a starter where the other two are bench players and we have far more depth in the IF.  The next priority is CF.  If we could sign Kiermaier or Jung-Ho Lee, I would trade Polanco or Farmer or both.  We can get a very good SP and Kiermaier or Lee for $140M but Polanco would have to go and possibly Farmer as well if it were one of the top SPs.

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

for $140M

This is the unknown. Right? I mean ... How does a payroll of $125M or less change your team?

Can one ignore that the Twins have never signed a top FA SP for market value?

While I play around with configuring a 2024 Twins roster, those questions seem inescapable. However, the one thing we do know is that you just never know.

35 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

This is the unknown. Right? I mean ... How does a payroll of $125M or less change your team?

Can one ignore that the Twins have never signed a top FA SP for market value?

While I play around with configuring a 2024 Twins roster, those questions seem inescapable. However, the one thing we do know is that you just never know.

I sure hope they don't opt for the low end of the range we are hearing.  I have played with the numbers and possible combinations quite a bit and have come up with what I think is a good roster at 137-140M.  Of course, you still have to convince guys to come here and we will be up against a lot of big market teams looking for pitching. 

The part about never having spent does not weigh quite as heavily for me as some others here.  We never signed a player like Correa before either.  Perhaps more importantly, I don't remember a time when we had so much young (cheap) talent.  That significantly changes the decision parameters.  

My gut tells me they sign Maeda or equivalent but there is a path to a good free agent SP provided the market does not pay an absurd amount this year which is all together possible.  I would love it if we could somehow use Polanco to trade for pitching but that is not a likely Scenario, especially for a front of the rotation guy.  Teams willing to trade such a pitcher want elite prospects which I am very much against doing.  That's a short-term emphasis with a huge potential down-side.

7 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

We never signed a player like Correa before either. 

When Isaid that same thing to myself, I remembered that the Twins have spent for Puckett, Mauer, Donaldson (position players) as opposed to their reluctance to go years and money for pitching. The Pablo Lopez extension gives some hope though. 

Needs this off-season:

-Starting CF option to take pressure off of Buxton/Castro

-1B option to have a fall-back option for Kirilloff/Julien/Miranda

-#4 Hitter who excels at driving in runs and can hopefully hit left-handed to balance Lewis batting 3rd and Correa batting 5th

-clutch post-season hitter that can carry this offense in October

Cody Bellinger fits all of these boxes, sure there are other needs on the team (a #2 SP) but the front office has some solid trade capitol and can trade for a starter. What really sells me on Bellinger is that he’s a perfect fit for this team (reminder, he also crushes lefties) but you probably won’t find anyone who can remotely fill his production on all facets of the game at the positions he fills. Sign the man.