4 Creative Tweaks the Twins Can Make to Get Better

I love Rosario, but his defense can be really questionable at times, so why not move him to a part time role at DH, let Kepler play LF, and then sign someone to play RF on a 1 year deal (Jones/Span/Markakis??). Yeah, we ‘could’ find more playing time for Cave, but I’d rather go with a veteran, and besides, Cave seems more like trade chip anyways; always need more pitching.

As Riverbrian said, the concept here is right on. In other words, maximize the talent you already have instead of constantly looking for the miracle acquisition. Nothing is etched in stone and one would think that the time in FL could be better spent than yucking it up in pretend games and working out the Nassau bets for the golf course.

Cardinals have had success starting younger guys in the pen and then transitioning them to SP later on. But as of now I have no clue how the rotation will shake out. Will we 3 traditional SP and 2 Openers? Would being a primary pitcher help Romero? His arm is talented and we need to get it on the major league staff for a complete year.

Fun piece.  The issue with moving Kepler to 1B, even part time, is that so much of his value is derived from his excellent play in RF.  Even if he ends up being a plus defender at first, too, his defense won't have the same positive impact that it has in the OF.  Add to that the fact that you'll be replacing him in RF with, most likely, Jake Cave, and now you're potentially making yourself worse at two defensive positions.  I like the idea of having a guy who can play 1B and OF, but if I'm going to ask one of my OF to grab a 1B mitt, I think it'd be Cave.  It doesn't look like he's ever played there, so the learning curve would be steeper than it would be for Kepler, and he's not the big target over there that Max would be, but he's a marginal defender in the OF, would satisfy the desire to have a LH option over there, and would not reduce your OF defense.  The Twins were good in 2017 largely because of their OF defense.  I'd like to see them go back to that now that Buxton will be healthy.

May and Romero (along with Mejia) can be very good starters for 5 innings but then they break down. This puts loads of pressure on the bullpen. Thus, they can all be used either as short starters or long (middle) relievers. My biggest problem is the manager taking a relief pitcher out after pitching a solid inning. You use up your bullpen that way and they eventually become tired and ineffective. That has happened to us over the past years. I like Astudillo as a super sub type guy who can lead off for us.

Instead of having Kepler play 1B and signing an OF/DH, wouldn't we be better off signing someone who could play a position other than 1B or RF?  Seems silly to have a "versatile" player playing positions that we are already flush at.

Someone like Jed Lowrie, who closely resembles Bellingers ouput last year, would get us someone who can play 2B and 3B.  A position of need and a position of doubt.

Yeah, just not loving the idea of putting Kepler at 1B, I mean I guess it might be better than having him DH as a way to get more LH hitters in the lineup because his size and athleticism should translate well there, but man...we're doing it for Jake Cave?

I guess I wouldn't care about it for 10-12 games, but I'm hoping Kepler improves offensively and coupled with his elite D can be a mainstay in the OF. but he needs to hit, because if his hitting doesn't improve it's hard to justify his bat at any other position. People haven't been happy with Mauer's production at 1B, and Joe was elite defensively. We don't know if Max could match that D (maybe with enough play time?) and he's hit worse than Mauer the last three years and it's not really close.

I do like the idea of letting Astudillo get 500 ABs, though. This lineup could use another high BA guy and it'd be fun as hell to see if he can be one of those guys who can get away with hacking at everything because he just hits it. Super utility guy who can hit over .300? sign me up.

Only in Minnesota I guess does it seem like a good idea to get more first-base at bats for a league-average hitter. How 'bout we just get a first-baseman that can legitimately thump? Dodgers played 16 post-season games last year, Bellinger started at first-base in exactly zero of those games. Because the Dodgers wanted to win, and they found a first-baseman that can hit like a first-baseman.

The Romero comments make sense to me. There's a pattern, and it's getting close to the time the Twins need to make a call on how to get Romero contributing for more than half a season.

Astudillo is refreshingly unique. He's also a career 760 OPS guy in thousands of minor league and foreign at-bats. In 93 at-bats last year, his SLG was 100 points higher than his MiLB/foreign career, and his HR rate was nearly 3 times his that track-record. I think the fact that any of us are intrigued by the thought of him being an (nearly) every-day player, says much about what the 2019 line-up would look like at this point in time.

I don't have strong opinions about how I'd deploy players. I just know I resonate to the whole flex concept, both with pitching and positional players.

I especially like the idea of flexibility of usage with strong-armed pitchers with dominating stuff like Romero and May, and with the notion of knowing how to guard against the damage that can be done against guys like Over Easy and Mejia and maybe Stewart and others. I'm warming up to this new age.

And I love the concept of a grouping of complimentary players to handle RF/1B/DH and the 5-7 slots. Especially if it addresses matchup opportunities and involves players who don't create a deficit defensively. 

If I had a Luger pressed to my temple and was told to make the call:

I'd cut a check for McCutcheon or Brantley, cut a check for Lowrie or similar placeholder for 2019, live with Polanco for another year at SS. Be fine with Turtle and Adrianza as bench players, along with, more often than not, Austin and Cave. Kepler gets time at1B against righties with Cron shifting "down" to DH or to the bench. Basically, I'd hand out gloves to Kepler, Cave, Kirilloff, Rooker, Larnach, and anyone else who profiles as a member of that grouping and look to upgrade as fast as possible from Austin, Cron, and maybe even Cave.

I'd pick up one more front line starter via trade or FA, and two of the Robertson/Familia tier RP's via FA. That lets me shift Mejia and Romero to the BP to join the new guys and May and Rogers, maybe Hildenberger (now fixed and used correctly?). Over Easy, Pineda, and Stewart become primaries, most of the time. Or they get moved, who knows? Short leashes. Speaking of which, I'm always a potential seller from surplus at the deadline, and always a shopper too, opportunistically.

None of these decisions are worth squat without performance to expectation from BOTH Sano and Buxton in 2019. Additionally, my status as a genius is equally dependent on running the table with Lewis, Kirilloff, Larnach, and Graterol. My flops have to be from prospects further down the list, guys like Rooker, Gordon, and Gonsalves.

In short, my whole "flex plan" philosophy and strategy has to extend to every area: between the lines, development, trades, deadline decisions, all decisions. Opportunistic, flexible in thought and action, nimble, rigorous calculation of risks as an alternative to simply experimenting.

Anyway, I love the thinking Nick has offered, and love the many terrific thoughts others have posted. Great morning read.