Prove It: Two Former Top Twins Prospects Fighting for 2025 Roster Openings

Miranda has always crushed minor league pitching, up to, and including AAA.  It is the bigs that test him.  I would be surprised if he didn't perform extremely well in St. Paul, and I hope he gets another shot and finally succeeds.  

Larnach has always had good power, and is a nice threat to have in the lineup, if he can lay off the breaking balls he seems to flail at far too often.  I would love to see him come up again, as well, and come to his true potential.  

I seem to remember a certain first baseman, who shall remain nameless but pontificates on Twins broadcasts regularly, getting sent down early in his career before he finally came around and became one of the best hitters we had.  I wish Miranda and Larnach the same success; we could use them at their best.  

I still have hope in Miranda to shine at 1B. Larnach had a great '23 spring training & 1st part of the regular season until MLB pitchers found that chink in his armor. IMO he won't be able to have the luxury of having enough duration of time at the MLB level to correct his weakness with the Twins. He'll need to be traded to a team that can afford him the time to spend at the MLB level to correct his problem.

Larnach just K's waaay too much..as do most TWINS. Twins need more players to put the ball in play..so frustrating watching 1st two guys get on base followed by 2 K's and a ground out. I wouldnt have a problem at all if Baldelli even started bunting one of so called superstars , Buxton, Correa,  if the first two batters in front of him got on with no outs. cut down on the K's Twins !! this team is so hard to watch

58 minutes ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I believe signing Margot at $4,000,000 was a mistake. So far his fielding has been below average (he made a terrible play and throw in a spring training game I attended) and his batting average in spring training and so far in the major leagues in 2024 speaks for itself. This money could have been better used on pitching.

 

 

It is only 4 games, but if you remove Lewis's 2 at bats. Margot leads the team in AVG, 2nd in OBP, 4th in SLG, and 3rd is OPS, compared with the part time 1B they signed for more, that 4 million doesn't look so bad?

If Larnach figures out off speed pitches, look out!

Larnach has to hope he gets a chance at some point this season and does really well, because if not he will be 28 at the start of next season and more likely than not will fall into the Andrew Stevenson relm of players.(Why would the Twins go to Arb with a 28 year old minor league guy)

Miranda on the other hand was just an average minor league player until he broke out big time at age 23 season, so I hope last year was because of injury and gets back into the groove this year and re-establishes himself, 25 is not too old and he is barely less than a year older than Martin.

4 hours ago, Mark G said:

I seem to remember a certain first baseman, who shall remain nameless but pontificates on Twins broadcasts regularly, getting sent down early in his career before he finally came around and became one of the best hitters we had.  I wish Miranda and Larnach the same success; we could use them at their best.  

The biggest difference between these two and said first basemen was he was 22 and 23 and was established major league player by 24 and a MVP at 25, so not really at all comparable.

3 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I believe signing Margot at $4,000,000 was a mistake. So far his fielding has been below average (he made a terrible play and throw in a spring training game I attended) and his batting average in spring training and so far in the major leagues in 2024 speaks for itself. This money could have been better used on pitching.

They got Margot in a trade, not as a free agent signing. I'm not sure what people expect for $4M. For that price you will get below average players. Average players get over $10M a season.

39 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

The Twins seem to expect more for $4M. Well at least they expect more for $5.25M since they signed Santana to be their everyday 1B for that. That's my problem with it.

I don't like that they sign, or trade for, multiple guys in that 4-10 million range instead of bundling those salaries for the guys making more and going with the below average players that cost 740k a year (I believe that's the league minimum). I'd much rather the Twins carry Miranda for as little as possible than carry Santana for $5.25. Especially when you could pair that with not having a $4M broken SP, $4M 4th OFer, and $6.3M utility infielder (all 3 hitters being short side platoon bats). Give me Larnach and Miranda for less than $2M combined and another 17.5+ to play with (Santana, DeSclafani, Margot, and Farmer make 19.55 this year if my math is correct).

While I agree fans shouldn't expect more from cheap vets I think it's far worse that the Twins seem to believe those cheap vets are a key piece of building a contending team. The team expecting more from $4M is the problem.

You will get to see Larnach and Miranda play this year. If they don't add Santana and Margot then you're looking at AAA backups like Helman and Isola getting at-bats this year or keeping vets like Niko Goodrum around. I understand why they want to avoid that scenario. It isn't hard to argue that Farmer is worth $6M more than Niko Goodrum. I don't think they always choose the best available bench players (I think they picked Santana based on how Falvey remembers him 5 years ago and it would be really nice to have JD Davis instead) but I understand why they want competent veterans for the bench.

50 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

While I agree fans shouldn't expect more from cheap vets I think it's far worse that the Twins seem to believe those cheap vets are a key piece of building a contending team. The team expecting more from $4M is the problem.

The real problem IMO is this FO hasn't developed enough good healthy (being the key word) major league players in the amount of years they have been here.  (Active roster, Alcala, Funderburk, Jax, Ober, Sands, Varland, Jeffers, Julien, AK (prior FO draft), Martin and Wallner) nothing screams out amazing job until Lewis can stay healthy, and Wallner and Julien can hit lefties.  And in their top prospects I don't see much help in the near future (hopefully a few can be ready sometime next year) outside of Martin (bench player), Lee (currently hurt), Festa (not on the 40), Canterino (hurt again),SWR and Maybe Severino.

1 minute ago, USAFChief said:

point of order, your honor. Santana isn't a bench player.

Correct, he's a stopgap because they didn't have a decent option at 1B on the roster. Miranda and Kirilloff are a DH platoon.

FWIW - Brandon Belt is unemployed right now and he was a decent starter for a playoff team last year. I don't understand how he is looking for work while Santana gets $5M guaranteed. It makes no sense to me that the Twins decided to wait out the free agent market but still were unable to get the real bargains at the end.

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

The Twins seem to expect more for $4M. Well at least they expect more for $5.25M since they signed Santana to be their everyday 1B for that. That's my problem with it.

I don't like that they sign, or trade for, multiple guys in that 4-10 million range instead of bundling those salaries for the guys making more and going with the below average players that cost 740k a year (I believe that's the league minimum). I'd much rather the Twins carry Miranda for as little as possible than carry Santana for $5.25. Especially when you could pair that with not having a $4M broken SP, $4M 4th OFer, and $6.3M utility infielder (all 3 hitters being short side platoon bats). Give me Larnach and Miranda for less than $2M combined and another 17.5+ to play with (Santana, DeSclafani, Margot, and Farmer make 19.55 this year if my math is correct).

While I agree fans shouldn't expect more from cheap vets I think it's far worse that the Twins seem to believe those cheap vets are a key piece of building a contending team. The team expecting more from $4M is the problem.

This. The difference between the cheap vets and younger players isn’t great. However adding one good player could be a game changer. 

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

Why is Miranda a platoon player? 

That's probably being generous. Based on last season Miranda is a triple-A player and not a particularly good one. That's why there's an article above about how much he needs to improve his hitting and fielding to become a real possibility again.

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

How much below "below average" are Helman and Isola types?

A lot. They're both likely so far below average that they are below replacement value. That's actually bad enough to cancel out the contributions from one of your star players.

5 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I'd argue having a star player with 500 PAs outweighs the 18-20 guys on the roster getting 50 PAs each. Does 500 PAs of Isola cancel out the contributions of 500 PAs of Hoskins? For sure. But Isola wouldn't be getting 500 PAs because replacing Santana and Margot with Hoskins and Martin (or Larnach or whoever) to start the year doesn't jump Isola to the top of the depth chart it moves him up 1 spot.

Hoskins is getting $16M this season so it's really Hoskins, Martin, Goodrum and Balazovic instead of Margot, Santana, Farmer and Jay Jackson. The problem with that is if Hoskins gets hurt your season is over.

19 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

The problem with the 3 below average guys instead is that you've given yourself no shot at a high ceiling from the very beginning. You're handicapping yourself in the name of being able to survive being handicapped. I'd prefer to take the big swing and at least have the chance of finding big time success. All the Margot, Santana, Farmer trio does is improve your chances of not losing 100 games. Doesn't increase your chance of winning 100. I want the increased chance of winning 100 with the added risk of losing 100.

Miranda and Farmer are not equivalent defensively which is why I went with Goodrum. I agree that the Twins are trying to make 85 wins a sure thing and not trying to build a team that wins 100. With the expanded playoffs and a weak division there is little benefit to winning 100 games.