Cody Bellinger Would Fill Several Twins Needs

Stop pinning the cuts on the TV deal alone.  This is merely the excuse the Pohlads were waiting for.

Show you’re a serious franchise that puts out a good, entertaining product that fans demand to watch, and the TV deals will pile up outside your door.  Instead, they choose to cut every corner possible to maximize their lined pockets and try to contrive these carrots on sticks to trick fans into tagging along.  It’s tiresome and a huge percentage a fans are getting fed up with it.  

If they are suddenly open to spending, I would rather spend that money on Snell or Montgomery. Snell or Montgomery($25M AAV) + Rhys Hoskins($10M AAV) + trade of Polanco for young controllable CF depth(-$10M AAV) rounds out the roster very nicely IMO, and you wouldn't have to pay up in prospect capital to get a frontline starter.

Some speculation at this time of year is fun, and keeps the imagination going...but there's absolutely no way they sign Bellinger. They won't sign Hoskins either. You can also forget about any of the remaining high end pitchers too, while you're at it. They just won't do anything that involves prying open the vault. There's a much better chance of the Lagina brothers finding treasure on Oak Island, than the Twins spending that kind of money. 

Any money needs to be spent on pitching.  Any fielding positions need to be filled internally......

Fun article Nash. The Twins are a good match for Cody Bellinger in many ways and his strong play on both offense and defense should gain him a strong deal. Bellinger, like many of the trade ideas for starting pitchers, is a player worth discussing.

Unfortunately, there are reasons for the Twins to pass on Bellinger. Of course money is a factor, but the Twins also have two guys who still hold great promise if they can step over their inconsistencies and injuries. Jose Miranda and especially Alex Kirilloff can be terrific bats. Kirilloff has been missing as much as Buxton but it doesn't exclude him from getting it together and beginning a run of excellent production.

Belly would be a nice addition as he would look great in center but with our roster crunch and financial frugality it is a very slim.. like 1% chance of this happening. 

Their not going to commit to a long term contract for anyone now. If they do that, there wont be anything left for any of the young guys in a couple years.

Spend the money on a starting pitchers and bullpen help, not another left handed hitter for a left handed heavy lineup. I think the team will be depending on players like Kiriloff and Miranda to be healthy and have bounce back and healthy seasons. 

This is precisely why it's so fun to come to TD on a cold wintry day Nash !  I am of the camp that if the purse strings are unfettered in the near future (like TODAY!!) that starting pitching is the primary need, so I would prioritize Montgomery and Snell higher than Bellinger.  BUT...Belly is indeed an excellent fit.  I don't care that he's left handed.  A hitter that HITS is a hitter.  And the fact that he plays Gold Glove defense at either CF, 1B or RF doesn't hurt either.

That said, if Bellinger were signed, it would have to be a precursor for additional moves.  Moves that probably involve Kepler, Polanco and maybe Miranda.  At this point, I'm content to see what a Kirilloff/Miranda at 1B gives the Twins.  I'd like to hold onto Kepler but trade Polanco for pitching or prospects.   But if Bellinger were signed, a whole range of possible moves open up.

You could move on from Kepler because you replace him with Bellinger in the lineup.  If you compare their careers Bellinger is superior in every way.  You could trade Wallner in a deal to improve SP.  Bellinger's defensive prowess means you have a fallback plan for Buxton in CF.  You could replace Kepler in RF or have Bellinger at 1B.  Or, you trade Wallner and Bellinger would give you Gold Glove defense in LF.  How about an OF of Bellinger, Buxton and Kepler.  Best in MLB.

Adding Bellinger gives the Twins a green light to move corner OF's and you would still have Emmanuel Rodriguez and Walker Jenkins in the near future.  You wouldn't be signing Bellinger without a plan to do SOMETHING with Kepler, Wallner, Larnach, Em-Rod and Jenkins. (as well as Kirilloff and Miranda).  Jenkins is untouchable.  I've just GOT to see what Em-Rod does THIS YEAR in the minors.  But Bellinger makes a LOT of good talent expendable for the Twins to trade for pitching.  

Getting Bellinger allows the Twins to still add pitching, just through the trade market.  Making a deal for an impact pitcher is fine with me if he can be #2 behind Lopez and a solid bet to be better than Joe Ryan (who could still be VERY GOOD).  And if the price is right, I'd still add Trevor Bauer for a one year deal, maybe two, just to give Varland, Festa and Raya a little more time to polish their rough edges.  

not-gonna-happen....

Personally I don't see the Twins trading Kepler, mostly because they don't have any real depth in the outfield and if Buxton gets hurt the Twins could end up with a terrible outfield. But also because somebody like Bellinger is available, why would a team trade for Kepler and give up prospects (or pitching) when it is likely they could just sign Bellinger and keep the prospects, unless they were trying to dump salary which again why would the Twins take on Salary?

If the Twins signed Bellinger (which I don't think they will, unless it is super late and he is willing to sign a 1 year deal prove himself deal) then it opens up to trading Wallner, which again I don't think the Twins want to do.

Boras clients. He wants them paid for what they could be. Any team wanting to sign them would have the same thought. The thought pattern for what they could be is just different. 

3 hours ago, CRF said:

Some speculation at this time of year is fun, and keeps the imagination going...but there's absolutely no way they sign Bellinger. They won't sign Hoskins either. You can also forget about any of the remaining high end pitchers too, while you're at it. They just won't do anything that involves prying open the vault. There's a much better chance of the Lagina brothers finding treasure on Oak Island, than the Twins spending that kind of money. 

That was the same thing we said about Correa...twice.  Maybe Boras overplays his hand again and calls up his buddies to bail him out.

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Money aside, would Bellinger even want to come here, knowing that his assigned role will change with the whims of fate (AKA Buxton's health)?

Most likely would be in Left Field most of the time with stints at First Base.

9 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Then who covers center?  That's a lot of money to spend if we already have an in-house solution.  (And my original question remains, would he come here to play left if a similar money offer came in where he could be the man in CF?)

Buxton, with Bellinger as a back-up.

I do not play God as to what goes through a ball players head.

6 hours ago, Beast said:

Stop pinning the cuts on the TV deal alone.  This is merely the excuse the Pohlads were waiting for.

Show you’re a serious franchise that puts out a good, entertaining product that fans demand to watch, and the TV deals will pile up outside your door.  Instead, they choose to cut every corner possible to maximize their lined pockets and try to contrive these carrots on sticks to trick fans into tagging along.  It’s tiresome and a huge percentage a fans are getting fed up with it.  

The Twins were actually one of the more watched teams via TV in recent years.  That is one of the reasons Bally agreed to pay to keep them the rest of the season, because it was one of the few deals that were making them money.  TV deals are not piling up because it is not that simple.  Right now with the change in how people are viewing it is affecting the TV market.  The Twins contract has been up since end of season and yet no new broadcaster has come along willing to pay what Bally did last year, as least as far as we know. 

The Twins payroll has been near the league average for years, but fans that think team is cheap continue to act like their payroll is near what Ray or Oakland put out.  There were 4 teams that payroll was nearly half ours, but fans act like we have the lowest payroll in the league. Outside of Padres, who are cutting a ton of payroll and reports they had to take out a loan to pay bills, every team ahead of us in payroll are much larger markets.  Twin cities is about 16h largest metro area in country, every other team is in larger market.  

If the team was a cheap as some fans like to think, they would not be near league average in payroll they would be near bottom.  They would not have went out and signed top free agents in last few years.  They would have traded buck away in his free agent year, they would not have signed CC, or Lopez to contracts.  Just because they are not spending like the top spenders does not mean they are being cheap.  League average spending is not cheap.