One Year From Now: Predicting the 2025 Twins Lineup

From these iine-ups you boy must expect hell to freeze over also.

How about next months line-up? Next years can wait till March..

3 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I pretty much agree with you on the starters except Larnach. He's a good player but not a starter (Castro will get the nodd before him) & will get plenty of playing time in the cOF but he is not a steady starter. I still put Kiriloff as a better hitter than Larnach. In the beginning of the season, Kiriloff was hitting great. If we didn't sign Santana & kept Kiriloff at 1B & DH to keep him healthy. Kiriloff wouldn't have gotten hurt & slumped, he'd have had a great season. Plus Miranda would have more playing time.

We have a great roster of young players in '24. It was a waste to have signed Santana & Margot that took precious playing time from our superior younger players to cement themselves in their starting positions so we could have an even better '25 roster. I would have like to see what Keirsey can do earlier this season & get his feet wet (he's not getting any younger).

Emma & Severino are great players but it'll be hard to squeeze them in because of the players ahead of them at cOF & 1B. There is talk about trading Kiriloff, I'd absolutely not do that because his stock is almost worthless & he's still a pretty good hitter, If they don't want to play Julien at 1B then trade him. Can we pick up a good SP deal with MIA? Here's something else for you to think about.  Jeffers's contract will be up soon, will they extend him? With Boras as his agent, I doubt it. So the best time to trade Jeffers is next offseason so we have Vazquez to mentor in a new young elite (LHH) catcher.

Total nonsense regarding Kirilloff. His wrist surgery was 2 years ago. Putting him in LF got him hurt? I guess if one posts no fact based drivel often enough it'll become the truth.

Looks like zero FA position player signings.  AK is the comeback wild card and Erod is the rookie wild card. Next years roster will look alot like what we have going now minus the 4 vets that will be gone.  
 

Payroll may go down even further if arbitration sides with the FO and no FA are signed.  The core will be older but also under contract.  I anticipate Castro and Lewis may sign deals that buy out their arbitration years.  
 

Its going to be a very consistent lineup of flexibility.  The Pitching will also be very similar but with a possible big name added at some point. 

My ideal lineup is pretty similar to yours

C - Jeffers

1B - Miranda

2B - Julien

3B - Lewis

SS - Correa

LF - Larnach

CF - Buxton

RF - Wallner

Bench - Vazquez, Martin, Castro, Kirilloff

SP - Lopez, Ryan, Ober, SWR, Paddack

Bullpen - Duran, Jax, Stewart, Alcala, Staumont, Topa, Okert, Funderburk

I think they have a very good ML team without making any deals this offseason. However, I could see them shopping a LH outfielder and maybe a few prospects for a top of the rotation type of arm. There will be solid depth in AAA with Camargo, Kersey, Severino, ERod, Keaschall, etc. and young pitchers like Varland, Festa, Matthews, etc. But I would not be surprised to see them sign a veteran or two. Hopefully they can keep playing some good ball and we can worry about this more in November!?!?

15 hours ago, Scott51104 said:

" If he DOES, he has a role playing 3 days a week.."

Autocorrect/spellsheck is fun...

Imagine his potential if he doesn't!!!

7 hours ago, Schmoeman5 said:

Total nonsense regarding Kirilloff. His wrist surgery was 2 years ago. Putting him in LF got him hurt? I guess if one posts no fact based drivel often enough it'll become the truth.

News Flash! Kiriloff had a shoulder injury last season & had surgery on it this last offseason, the Twins announced that they were going to start Kiriloff's throwing & hitting conditioning a month before spring training, after a quiet offseason & limit Kiriloff to 1B/ DH duties.

Kiriloff had a great spring training but the Twins were totally committed to Santana at 1B so to get his bat in the line-up they decided to lift the restrictions & put Kiriloff in the OF. While on the active list the Twins have taken Buxton & Larnach out from the OF  & restrict them to DH duties when they had physical limitations because OF is a physically more demanding position.

This isn't drivel it's called observing with an open mind, putting the pieces together & making a reasonable conclusion. I'm sorry it doesn't into your box.

I don't see Wallner improving on the K's ...that ship has sailed..now Kiersey,  could be a nice option in RF ??? 

The big issue I see with is and a bunch of others is the Twins don't let Larnach, AK, and Wallner hit against lefties, so having all three on the team means you needs three right handed hitters to back them up. Larnach (190 at bats, 8 against lefties), AK(178 at bats, 8 against lefties), Wallner (33 at bats, 1 against lefties and in 46 at bats last year his OPS was .481)

Sure they could do Miranda/AK at first, but at this point there is no reason to have Miranda sit against righties (.966 OPS),

IMO one or two of those guys are likely not with the Twins organization next year.

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

News Flash! Kiriloff had a shoulder injury last season & had surgery on it this last offseason, the Twins announced that they were going to start Kiriloff's throwing & hitting conditioning a month before spring training, after a quiet offseason & limit Kiriloff to 1B/ DH duties.

Kiriloff had a great spring training but the Twins were totally committed to Santana at 1B so to get his bat in the line-up they decided to lift the restrictions & put Kiriloff in the OF. While on the active list the Twins have taken Buxton & Larnach out from the OF  & restrict them to DH duties when they had physical limitations because OF is a physically more demanding position.

This isn't drivel it's called observing with an open mind, putting the pieces together & making a reasonable conclusion. I'm sorry it doesn't into your box.

News Flash. When you said the same thing yesterday. The analogy you used was about his wrist. You said "let's break Santana's wrist and then put him in the outfield when he isn't 100%" Now you mentioned Kirilloff's shoulder surgery.  So which is it that attributed to the back and nerve issues that he's dealing with now? In his vulnerable state.  And you also mentioned how he was "raking" so it didn't affect him at first. But then it did.

What everyone seems to be forgetting or ignoring is that Emmanuel Rodriquez, while intriguing, is absolutely completely unreliable from a health standpoint. He hasn't played in weeks and hasn't consistently played all season. He needs at-bats in the minors but he can't get them because he's always on the shelf. He's pretty much a non-factor.

Pretty easy to predict based on current roster and no injuries setting in.  Personally, I see 1st base as a possible move by Twins in offseason again.  No one on our current roster are considered strong defenders there, and unless they rake like crazy having average offense and bad defense is not good combo at 1st. 

In addition, so many of these guys are pushing each other could get traded in off-season, or at deadline. 

On 7/4/2024 at 10:07 AM, TopGunn#22 said:

Something needs to be done to patch that hole this season and for the near future until Festa or Matthews or anyone else in AA has a little more polish than they do right now.  A trade?  A free agent signing?  A trade or FA signing that brings a heavy expense to the payroll just isn't going to happen with a Pohlad owned team.  That much is a certainty.  Can this front office come up with a miraculous move to put the Twins in a better position??    

 

The coming offseason looks to be quite similar to last winter. The Twins have some players that other teams may be interested in acquiring for their team. The Twins will be limited (only if one wants to spend more than $135 million) in spending. The Twins have eyes for a few young controllable starting pitchers.

Falvey had opportunities last winter and will again. The names being asked about will remain similar to last offseason as well, although the interest and value levels on said players will have gone up or down for various reasons. Who (among players with MLB time) would be on those "interest" lists? Just guessing, but pretty much every player who still has controllable years. Think about the perceived value of Wallner, Julien, and Varland (plus possibly Kirilloff) last winter. You can then add Jeffers, Miranda, Lee, Lewis, Larnach, Martin, Woods Richardson, and Festa as well as a few relievers to the top prospects to get possible choices for Falvey. Obviously, the Twins do not need to trade anyone, which is the track Falvey chose last offseason. Perhaps one or two players could be on the move though. 

This feels like an exercise sure to frustrate, however, because Falvey swings small and leaves fans wishing the Pohlads would bale him out by signing big name free agents. So let us hope Joe P. decides to add Max Fried and Juan Soto. Hmmm.

6 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Brooks Lee gets traded?

Good call out, I knew I was forgetting someone. Forgot to include the DH slot, which is where Julien would go, and Lee would take over 2B