Did Taylor and Castro Save the 2023 Twins?

Farmer and Solano have also been good depth pickups.

It’s cheaper to have a strong bench than it is to sign everyday players.  We usually have a good bench because of this.  Compare our bench to other teams and you will see we have a top 3 bench in the league if not the best.  
 

We would probably have a better pen if the Twins would sign some 3-6 million per season players like we do on our bench instead of only dumpster diving.  

For the what ifs maybe a full season of Wallner and Bechtold and Williams getting a chance the Twins wouldn’t be running away with the division. Castro and Taylor have been fine role players but saving a season is hyperbole.

12 minutes ago, old nurse said:

For the what ifs maybe a full season of Wallner and Bechtold and Williams getting a chance the Twins wouldn’t be running away with the division. Castro and Taylor have been fine role players but saving a season is hyperbole.

Bechtold has a 9.39 ERA and 3 times as many walks as strikeouts in AAA. He's clearly not ready to contribute to a major league team.

Its guys like these two that put a team in serious contention for the playoffs when supplementing the team's stars - they stay relatively healthy and are consistent in their performance.  In the case of this year's team - they are part of the core reason why we're still in the hunt.  If three players - Correa, Buxton, and Gallo (throw-in Kepler's first-half performance if you want, too)- had played up to their potential, we would be in a significantly different position than we are right now.  I think I counted 27 losses this year where we lost by 1-2 runs.  Assuming those players played to their potential I'm easily willing to bet half of those loses (lets round down to 13) become wins, and we're looking at a record of 73-43 today... which would be the best record in baseball.

34 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Bechtold has a 9.39 ERA and 3 times as many walks as strikeouts in AAA. He's clearly not ready to contribute to a major league team.

I thought he was a 3B

Agree with you all along, I've said that the bench of Castro, Taylor, Farmer, Solano & have saved our butts especially in the beginning because the main guys weren't getting it done. OPS isn't the tell all as far the value of a player. It's defense, base running, getting on base & not striking out and clutch hitting which are often overlooked that IMO is more important & these guys are doing the little things which helps us win games. 

Yes! I have been saying this all year.

We would be well under 500 without Solono, Castro, Farmer & Taylor.

If the starting 9 had been healthy AND performing as expected we would be serious contenders. But injuries, a poor approach at the plate and bullpen injuries have kept us stuck in neutral and 500 most of the season.

If Correa, Lewis, Kiriloff, Polanco, Wallner, Kepler, Julien heat up (notice I didn't say Buxton, if he can't play CF, he's done) they have a chance to make a run.

The starting pitching is there, but the bullpen injuries along with Alcala, Moran & no one else stepping up will still be their Achilles heel. Maybe Ryan goes to the pen and "saves" the day? Stewart miraculously comes back?

There are a lot of ifs, but the pieces are there!

Starting pitching and some of the young position players are the reason this team hasn't cratered. 

Castro has been a solid utility guy. That isn't saving a season. 

Taylor is hitting .216 with an atrocious .265 OBP, a 34% K rate, and a career low 5.3% BB rate. He has an 86 OPS+ (not 90) and he has posted 1.2 WAR 116 games into the season as the everyday CF'er.

C'mon...

What exactly are the saving.  We are barely in first place in the worst division in baseball.  Would have preferred to See Steer and CES in the lineup as well as Wallner called up way sooner.  We should not have needed to sign all of these guys to start with (Farmer, Solana, Castro and Taylor).   I can understand Taylor to play CF and he is done a fine job.  But saving the season is a bit much.   This FO needs to be dismissed.

Hmm...headline begins with the premise that the 2023 Twins have been saved. Still seems very much in the balance, whatever the merits of the players (Castro and Taylor) themselves.

well, this is why one of the easiest ways to improve your team is to raise the floor. It's hard to find star talent; that takes patience, development, money, luck, etc. It's easier to raise the floor by creating more depth, shoring up the weakest positions, etc. It's amazing how much better a team is by simply not giving innings to bad players. And I do think this front office understands that and tries to mitigate against it.

"Saved" is a little loaded and probably overstates things a little. Taylor has been pretty good, but in fact has been a little below what we might have expected; he's shown good pop in the bat (and it's made for some big moments) but even less patience than usual and his defense has slipped a bit from outstanding to good/very good. The extra value we've gotten from him has been mostly about his availability, which we needed with Buxton's knee keeping him out of center.

Castro has been the real revelation; his OPS+ of 96 shows that he's still not a plus player at the plate, but the baserunning, defense, and positional flexibility has made him a real asset, a far better one than I had expected. His OBP is good enough to make him ok at the plate even if he has no real power, especially since he's a serious threat on the basepaths. (did anyone see 5th in MLB in SBs coming? the guys above him on the list have gotten a lot more ABs this season too.) He's not just stealing a lot of bases; he's doing it without giving up many outs, he's going from 1st to 3rd, is a threat to score from 2nd on anything to the OF at all times, etc. You can bring in Castro to pinch run any time in a game and not worry about screwing up your defense. That's awfully nice.

I absolutely understood the Taylor signing, and it's done as intended: ensuring that if Buxton can't play in CF that we don't get stuck giving time to a 9th choice in the OF like last season. Sorry, Mark Contreras. I wasn't sure about the Castro acquisition; he seemed redundant with other guys on the roster like Gordon or Farmer, but he's been a great fit and they've played to his strengths without over-using him.

In an extremely sad and frustrating way...yes.

Between the two of them, could end up being the difference between 80 and 85 wins, with their 'above-expectation' performances.

Maybe just enough to clear the extremely low hurdle to win this division....for whatever that may prove to be worth.

6 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Bechtold has a 9.39 ERA and 3 times as many walks as strikeouts in AAA. He's clearly not ready to contribute to a major league team.

Try again

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bechto000and

Castro... Team MVP!!!

14 hours ago, old nurse said:

Try again

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=bechto000and

You and I are talking about the same player. Bechtold also has an .800 OPS in AAA which also shows clearly he's not ready to contribute at the major league level with his bat. Hitters who are ready for a promotion are above 1000 OPS in AAA. He's currently a Triple-A bench player.

I still think Castro was signed to be minor league depth, but maybe with Taylor it was the plan all along to play center field. The offense has been a plus.