Under Tough Circumstances, the Twins Front Office Nailed Their Complementary Offseason Moves

Was Kiermaier designated for assignment or placed on waivers so a team could claim him and his salary for nothing and take his salary?  I think he is still with the Blue Jays.

Even Farmer was surprised he was kept. So he will pocket that money and try to keep going.  I am surprised he hasn't hit a homerun yet.  I think the biggest negative while he hasn't hit was to also be the backup SS which he is not anymore.  He has hit ok since his season opening slump.  That slump was so bad though that his overall numbers have not rebounded and may not.  

Taylor was the OF they wanted.  but Taylor overplayed his hand.  I am sure he would have hit a little better here and been a better defender.  Margot is an ok backup.  but the main goal of a backup OF is defense and Margot being unable to play solid Defense in CF would have been a huge problem had it not been for Castro and Buxton being more available.  But the Twins could have done worse with this pick for sure.

Santana was the ideal signing.  He is a Twins type of hitter.  One that is good for 80 RBI's as those hitters are much cheaper than the 100 RBI guys.  The Twins go with 8 out of 9 hitters who could knock in 60-80 runs a year any given night.  That is the key to their success.  You will not see any Twin in the top 10 or probably top 20 in RBI but they are the 3rd highest scoring team in the league.  

as far as the bullpen goes.  Staumont hit.  Keeping Alcala is a hit, Trading for Okert is a hit,  even minor league signings Bowman, Castillo and Duarte were psuedo hits in that they were good when up.  

Topa is an incomplete at this point.  and DeSclafani was a miss due to injury.  

That is a pretty good record based on the budget they had.  

Santana really has exceeded expectations and credit should be given to him for his play and to Falvey for believing in Santana as a player.

Margot has been fine, although it is possible that the Twins may have received similar work from Martin. Either way, the Twins did well in the trade with LAD because they received a useful layer for a small MLB contract and a decent prospect in Doncon. The Dodgers did well to reduce their payroll in order to sign the guy they wanted and received a brilliant shortstop to play in their minor leagues simple as a benefit to their young pitching prospects but not with any expectation of the player ever reaching their team.

The heading is questionable. I'm not thinking that Falvey operated under tough circumstances in any way last offseason.

Margot was supposed to be the backup CF. His defense out there loses games.

Farmer was supposed to be the backup SS. Like Margot, he is about 4th in line if everyone is healthy.

The real question is, if we pooled all this money and chose the right guy, would we be better off with that one guy plus our rookies - Martin, Lee, Keirsey? I will say that depth would have then been an issue.

Here in Wisconsin I was surprised by the Brewers choice of Hoskins over Santana. When the Brewer's added Carlos to the roster last season he was true catalyst. The move to add Rhys has not been totally without merit as he's hit 14 HR / 46 RBI, He is essentially tied with Carlos in terms of those statistics with Carlos having a higher BS at .245 compared to .215...Santana got off to a slow start whereas Rhys was hot at the beginning of the season. I think the second half of the season will be revealing and the two will go head to head on their opposing teams right out of the gate in said second half. The other nuanced story of the Twins first half is Health....Miranda and Correa have been different players simply given the foundation of good health allowing demonstration of their full abilities. I know they are both battling injury presently - But hopefully this is exception and not rule. Win Twins!

Margot is just ok.  His defense is awful at the worst possible times.  Plus they keep insisting on using him as a right handed pinch hitter even though he's like 0 for 24 pinch hitting.  I'm not impressed with him.  He's been hitting better lately in the regular lineup but causes too many outs with his pinch hitting and bad defense.

I'll grant that Santana has been better than expected thus far with his bat, and his defense is better than other options the Twins have (despite a maddening inability to dig out some throws... multiple errors this year, even though some weren't scored that way).

Margot has not been good, and the alternatives to Margot mentioned in the article weren't the only ones (example: Tommy Pham didn't sign until April, and he has hit much better for Chicago, and can't be much worse with a glove).

Farmer signing didn't work out, obviously.  I didn't expect Farmer to fall of the statistical cliff either, but the FO seriously misjudged the utility infielder market if they thought they could be able to trade him at some future point.

I’m still down on Margottago but the trade did bring in Doncon (future asset) Farmers signing was a safety net that so far hasn’t paid off because younger guys are outplaying him.   If these two guys don’t pick up their game in July/Aug, they have no business being on the field in Sept/Oct. 

Maybe Margot resets over the allstar break and Farmer comes back from the IL and finishes the season with an above average ops+ 

We got 45 more wins to get before October. The higher paid vets gotta step up or get out of the way. 

3 minutes ago, Fatbat said:

I’m still down on Margottago but the trade did bring in Doncon (future asset) Farmers signing was a safety net that so far hasn’t paid off because younger guys are outplaying him.   If these two guys don’t pick up their game in July/Aug, they have no business being on the field in Sept/Oct. 

Maybe Margot resets over the allstar break and Farmer comes back from the IL and finishes the season with an above average ops+ 

We got 45 more wins to get before October. The higher paid vets gotta step up or get out of the way. 

For who?

6 minutes ago, RpR said:

For who?

What? Margot/Doncon for Noah Miller and whatever else?

1 minute ago, Fatbat said:

What? Margot/Doncon for Noah Miller and whatever else?

What year?

14 minutes ago, RpR said:

What year?

It was an offseason move this past winter. My point was that Doncon was the best part of that trade and will might possibly payoff some day in MLB. 

3 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Santana has been good, no doubt. Miranda could have been that good, and they'd have had money. That money could be useful at the break....

Miranda top the only time he played extensively a 1st Base; Santana bottom this year.

14 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Not listing Miranda as an option seems like a huge miss in this treatise. You completely ignored internal options. 

Margot plays a lot against RHP, and he's not good on defense at all. Saying his batting line, which is well below league average, and even more below corner OF average is acceptable? Ugh. 

Santana has been good, no doubt. Miranda could have been that good, and they'd have had money. That money could be useful at the break....

Bingo! This year, what have we gained?  Margot? We had plenty of depth before we signed him & Keirsey is still sitting in AAA long overdue for his call-up. Margot isn't quality depth. CF backup, we have Castro, Martin & Keirsey all much better than Margo. Santana? 1B is a production primary/ defense optional position; up the middle defense is primary/ production is the cherry on top. Santana, overall production falls short of what a 1Bman should be & is expected to regress. Miranda has much better production with Julien, Kiriloff & MLB-ready Severino as back up. With all the acquisitions mentioned we gained nothing as far as needed depth or added production over their in-house options.

What have we lost? 1st the money that was spent for not going with in-house young players. Money could be spent on a player we really need. 2nd playing time for Miranda, Martin, Kiriloff, Keirsey & Severino to get their feel for playing in the MLB & master their positions. 3rd Lost production from Kiriloff. During the offseason, it was said that they were going to limit his duties to only 1B/ DH to keep him healthy. Due to Santana playing 1B, leaving Kiriloff to play a more physically demanding position, resulting him to hurt his back & put a halt to his prosperous start.

Future, we lost the experience to build upon for the future success of our young players. Margot & Santana took from these guys & we lost our best future Correa replacement in GG Noah Miller, Again at a premium position SS, glove is primary, production is the cherry on top.

So again grading these FO's offseason moves is failure. Because it did nothing to meet our real needs & made us weaker in other areas.