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

The asking price for Taylor, Kiermaier and Hoskins was out of the Twins’ self-imposed budget restrictions. For the dollars spent, the Twins got good value for Santana and probably have done okay so far with Margot.

The front office also decided to keep Farmer for $6M+, which made further or more expensive additions impossible. I’m not overly critical of the decisions, but it hasn’t been a clear win. 

7 hours ago, Jocko87 said:

But Santana isn't keeping Miranda from playing.  It's the wrong comparison.  None of these are binary comparisons.  

Santana absolutely 100% kept Miranda from playing at the start of the season. 

42 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Santana absolutely 100% kept Miranda from playing at the start of the season. 

Had Miranda made the team out of camp because they had no one else is different from Santana keeping him from playing.

His .566 OPS in 2023 and .360 slug in the spring are far more to blame than Santana.

I say again, nobody playing well is losing time to any of these vets (platoon rants in another thread please).

4 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

"That you know of".. belongs on the end of this. Doesn't it? 😉

We can't say for sure how Camargo would do? Right? 4 AB's and all.  

Diego A?

Severino?

Keirsay?

Helmen?

Holland?

Could any of the above 6 out perform a .556 OPS? I don't know but that's a real low bar. 

 

 

 

 

Sure, but we could add that disclaimer to every post on the site.

We don't know what they saw in only 23 at bats for Wallner at the start of the year.  It wasn't playing well, I'm pretty sure.

I have a pretty good idea why Martin went down, back when he almost took out Keplers and Juliens knees in the same week. That can cancel out a lot of playing well if I'm in Rocco's shoes.

It's pretty obvious why Miranda didn't break camp but when he got his chance he played well, and was instantly a regular.

None of the names you mentioned really qualify, as none would be expected to make a contribution, absent emergency injuries. Festa maybe. Zebby if we are going off the 40 man but neither are ready. Had Festa thrown 12 innings of 1 run ball, I bet he would still be up. Like that other guy who's name I can't spell but was off everyone's radar, SWR.

It's very much a prove it organization. The best guy get playing time.

The framing should be that "fill in the blank youngster is not outplaying xyz veteran, even if the veteran is looking bad, that we can tell." Our minds dont work that way but it's the proper way to look at it. They have dozens of coaches and analysts for a reason.

When we scream for the rookie, what we are really saying is we think we know better with less information. Quite dumb, actually.

36 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I make no claims to know better... But I will make this claim. 

We/I/The Front Office doesn't know how... (pick a name from my haphazard list)... will do if pressed into major league duty. The only thing We/I/The Front office can say for sure... is how the players being pressed into duty this season have performed and we have a couple expiring contracts that... have not performed very well. 

My nutshelled suggestion and also my intended response to your quoted sentence... is to try someone else. 

Camago is called up... get him some AB's and let's see if he produces better than a .514 OPS. Diego is here now... let's see if he can produce better than a .556 OPS. If they can't... back down they go and let's try the next candidate out. 

It isn't lost on me and I do appreciate that Miranda was given a shot... made the most of it and is getting regular playing time until his injury because he earned that opportunity. That's the way it is supposed to work. 

However... Miranda getting that shot and succeeding is a case in point. The front office did not know that Miranda was going to do as well as he did. The front office did not know that Farmer was going to tank real real hard. If the front office knew either of these things would occur... Miranda would have broken camp with the club out of spring training and Farmer's 6 million option wouldn't have been picked up. 

I'm not going to claim to know anything about Camargo but what I do know is that Rocco has given him 4 AB's while Vazquez has a .514 OPS and handling the DH position because of the lack of options. .514 OPS is not good enough to keep anyone out of the lineup. 4 AB's is not enough to make any determinations. Therefore I think it's fair to point out "That we know of" be attached to your sentence that nobody playing well is losing playing time to these vets. 

BTW... Santana isn't part of my point. He's been decent this year. He's not a problem in my opinion. 

And missing on Farmer or Miranda isn't a criticism of the front office because all organizations make these type of missed assessments.

My constructive criticism is how long does it take to try someone else. You have players on the 26 man roster right now who should get the chance to clear a couple of low bars being set. 

 

My general response would be that they see things, that we are not privy to, that lead them to believe even giving a shot is not a realistic idea.  They know very well Diego A (and B) is not an option, he's here because they can afford to lose him on waivers.

For the Carmargo example, his 750 OPS in a very hitter friendly AAA environment probably does translate to a 500ish MLB OPS, but without Vazquez defense.  That's a break glass in emergency only option. 

And frankly, try something else is for the White Sox and As.  They aren't searching for a nugget.  

38 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I get that... Believe me I understand that they have access to data that you and I don't and that data has to count for something... they have a bunch of analysts on the payroll and they do whatever they do full time... they are not doing this on the side like I am.

I fully recognize the craziness of any attempt by me or others to criticize without the same information at our fingertips.  

However... that aside. Those things that they see, that we are not privy to, those things led to letting Nick Anderson go. Once they let Nick Anderson go for nothing and then they watched him strike out two batters an inning in the majors just like he was doing in AAA for us. The signing of Joey Gallo for millions and other things just didn't work out. They won't get the benefit of the doubt from me on these types of decisions because I know and THEY KNOW... they get it wrong sometimes.

I insist on letting the players make the decisions for them but that's all I can do is insist.  

On Camargo... I have no idea what he can do... his numbers are not that impressive in St. Paul but they called him up for whatever reason and didn't play him for whatever reason.

I didn't call him up... they did. He's here now and the guy in front of him has an OPS of .514. 

No doubt that try something else is for the White Sox and A's. However... replacing a vet who isn't playing very well... that's for the Twins, Yankees, Orioles, Gaurdians, Mariners, Astros. Royals, Braves, Phillies, Brewers, Cards, Dodgers, Padres.

How do you replace a vet who isn't playing very well. You try something else. 😉

The legend of Nick Anderson is not the miss you may think.  He's never been a two K an inning guy.  Decent major leaguer, but we need to get used to our former friends making the bigs.

You are stretching here, bringing up names like Helman and Holland and Kiersey would mean them leaping over Martin and Lee and Miranda.

If you have a vet who isn't playing well, you don't replace him with a kid you know won't play well and who might take out someone's knee.

No deserving player is losing out on playing time for any of these vets.  Including Farmer.  Injuries have only helped push off hard decisions.