Ryan, Twins Left Out In The Cold At Winter Meetings

Twins did not convert Nathan from a starter to a reliever.  He was already a reliever before we ever got him.

Do the Twins have a plan?  Yes.  But it probably isn't:  the same as yours, the one you think it is, or much different than previous plans.  I think they still view pitching as a luxury, bargain-basement veterans as a security blanket, and that additional minor league "experience" is a blessing.  The plan?  Control the budget and somehow repeat 1987.

I think people way over reacting to what the Twins didn't do or not do at the Winter meetings. The Twins have a lot of options even as they sit now. If they go with May, Jepsen, and Perkins those are three strong arms and proven talent that could be very effective in the bull pen. They all throw above 96 and have reached as high as 98 last fall when they were pitching. Also the Twins have a lot of relief talent down in farm system with some big arms which I think could be called up a lot of teams would have already called up. Look at this past year the Mets took rule 5 draft pickup of Gilmartin and look at year he had and Mets are counting on him for coming year. If these options don't work out they could still go and trade for someone yet this year. I sure don't want the Twins weighed down with some big longterm contracts for relievers that have short life in the majors usually. They need to keep this payroll managed so they can lock up Sano's, Buxtons, Rosario's. and some these future propects coming up because looking at these new contracts being offered now Mauers contract will look pretty small in the near future. We could see for kind of talent we have contracts that will be 300 million plus in near future.

Just what I wanted, another Terry Dump thread.

Nick wrote an article, like he's done many times here as one of the staff writers.  The thing going on the last few days in Major League Baseball was the winter meetings.  This is a Twins site so he wrote about how the Twins didn't complete any transactions during said meetings.  Makes complete sense he would write such an article and complete sense people should discuss lack of transactions by the Twins.  You saw the headline, you could have skipped it altogether.  No one made you click on the story, or read the comments, or make a comment yourself.

I'm sorry my comment hit a nerve. First, I read content not headlines to try to get the whole story. Second, I'm not put off by legitimate criticism, but some of the comments fall into the same old tired theme. Third, there seems to be a extremely short memory of moves that were made before the meetings. Finally, I just don't get too bent out of shape over one weeks activity or the lack thereof.

No nerve hit, just tired of people complaining about people discussing what's happening with the team during a major event in MLB. Talk about the same old tired theme.

In any event, it seems like a good time to discuss the things you sited with fellow posters.  

In regards to the moves made before the headlines, IMO, a low-risk signing of a guy to DH who has never played at any professional level is nothing to be too excited about.  We have no idea how he'll perform in the majors and now Sano is pushed to the OF where he hasn't played, likely hurting the OF defense. Signing a backup catcher, while hurting our OF defense, doesn't help much while we still have no quality starting catcher.  

Do we have any new starters, besides Sano in RF IF our new DH proves he can hack it in the majors? Even then, Sano was starting, he'd just be starting at a new spot.  So, so far, one new possible starter: Park.  If he can hack it.

As far as not getting worked up over a week's inactivity, these meetings are big for getting stuff done.  On top of that, we have a huge historical view of the kind of moves our GM makes overall. How many times has he traded for, or signed, a proven MLB high quality player who was a star at the time he did it?  Do we count Shannon Stewart? I doubt the groaning is really so much about just this one Winter Meeting's worth of Twins inactivity. I believe it's more the feeling many likely get that, under Ryan, we will NEVER make a big slash and that no one even expected us to make any kind of significant move.  I imagine many were dying to be proven wrong.

Shocker. He's been doing the same thing every year for the past two decades, with poor results. I would say he's insane (by definition...see previous sentence), but it's the owners of the team. Winning baseball game has never been, and will never be, a priority. It's just gravy.

i honestly believe that TR is an excellent baseball mind that has been hamstrung by the Pohlads. It must be extremely frustrating. Maybe equally as frustrating as being a season ticket holder to this multi-decade clown show.

In the last 10 years........that's what I asked, right?

His name is Trevor May, the 2016 All Star set up man.

Well, I don't think he was a bad starter.....but others might think he is.

Ah, my mistake. I would agree that he is not a 'failed' starter.

I am hoping May starts but if he doesn't then we are talking Jepsen, May and Perkins.    IMO a lot depends on Perkins but if he is good that makes a pretty good three inning group.    Maybe not Wade Davis good but good nonetheless.   Rotation of Santana, Gibson, Duffey, Berrios and MIlone with a pen of Jepsen, May, Perkins,   Hughes, Nolasco, Rogers and Burdi.    Looks to me like an improvement in the rotation and the pen over last year.     Adding Park, Buxton, Sano and Murphy looks like a likely improvement to the offense and slight improvement to the defense.     Now I don't like that we have 8 likely candidates for the rotation and that my favorite (May) is probably going to be an odd man out but I don;t think it is unreasonable that the three that don't make the cut will make serviceable depth for the pen.     I think this is reasonable.   I am an optimist.     Some one can poke holes in this analysis and be reasonable also.  :That's baseball. 

Ryan himself said that he was disappointed in himself in his performance at the winter meetings this year. 

He has his way of doing things. And the first is to go cheap with the bullpen, usually picking up junk on the scrap heap and turning a few of them (Blaine Boyer) into serviceable relievers.

I think the Twins' best option remains developing their own relievers. I'm not saying they shouldn't go out and get someone -- and I'm hopeful they'll trade for someone like Drew Storen. But developing the young guys enables the Twins to benefit for many years while those relievers establish their dominance. In theory.

You're totally right, of course. But then again, the Twins haven't had a whole lot of success developing any pitching the last ten years.

 

 However, I was just (trying) to point out that a lot of teams seem to be emulating the Royals Ultra-Lockdown Bullpen (RULBing, if you will,) but missing the fact that the Royals didn't build that bullpen by shopping for free agents.  I don't really know Herrera or Holland's history as starters, but Wade Davis was a converted starter, as was Hochevar, and Madson was a cheap, bargain-bin pickup.

 

Having said that, wouldn't some here agree that the Twins may be on the cusp of a wave of converted-starter relief help?  May, Rogers, Meyer, et al?  Do we really need to be paying Tony Sipp $7 Million dollars for his age 35 season?

May needs to be in the rotation. 

Shocker. He's been doing the same thing every year for the past two decades, with poor results. I would say he's insane (by definition...see previous sentence), but it's the owners of the team. Winning baseball game has never been, and will never be, a priority. It's just gravy.

i honestly believe that TR is an excellent baseball mind that has been hamstrung by the Pohlads. It must be extremely frustrating. Maybe equally as frustrating as being a season ticket holder to this multi-decade clown show.

How often have the Twins brought up a relief prospect and he became a quality ML late inning pitcher? If you are serious about a playoff push do you go with unproven players, bullpen and in the outfield?

So what part of this team is better, at this point, than what we had last year?

You really think they'll have 2 rookies in the bullpen to start the year? And why wasn't Rogers up last year, if he's ready this year?

Darnell would probably be just as good as Rogers and I am not a big we need a lefty just to get one out every other game either and Berrios probably won't start the year in the rotation and as was pointed out by dman Hughes and Nolasco in the pen isn't a very good bet either.   This isn't my prediction of what the Twins would do but just pointing out that the cupboard isn't bare.   It is pretty close to what I would have penciled in even though I don't like May out of the rotation.     I have no problem with rookies taking some spots.   They have to start somewhere and I just want the talent to start falling into place.    IMO May, Duffey, Gibson, Santana and probably Milone have earned a spot in the rotation and Berrios has earned a shot to pitch with the Twins.   I am not down on Hughes or Nolasco but don't want them given the spot based on pre 2015 years or on how much they are paid.   They can be assets in the pen.