The Twins Offense Boasts Plenty of Upside Going Forward

Santana, Farmer, Vazquez and Margot are struggling against right handed pitching. I believe they can get better against right handers but I don't believe they will be better enough because there isn't any recent history that they can hit right handed hitting better enough.  

When we are completely healthy we can hide those 4. When we are not healthy... we can't.

IMO...  We have gone from decent depth to health vulnerable as a result. 

Unfortunately... I'm pretty sure that Miranda will be sent down if we are healthy when Lewis returns just to keep the above 4 on the roster to face those left handers who throw 25% of the time. Money was spent on them, they will not be just tossed aside. 

This will marginalize the uptick that the return of Lewis provides because of instead of Lewis replacing one of our worst hitters (Margot). He will replace one of our better hitters (Miranda). 

Replacing Margot is how it should work. Always cull from the bottom. This is where the extreme platooning and the need to roster below average hitters against right handed pitchers punches you in the face. 

The only solution to keeping Miranda up, culling the worst hitter on the team (Margot) and keeping this platoon system intact requires

1. Pulling Jeffers out of DH'ing and making him the two start guy to a 2 to 1 catching rotation with Vazquez regardless of what hand is throwing. 

2. Returning Kepler to full Time vs both left handers and right handers

3. Making Castro a short side platoon with Larnach in LF

4. Miranda stays full time playing 1B against RH's and DH'ing against left handers. 

That would create: 

DH Kirilloff/Miranda

C - Jeffers and Vazquez 2 to 1

1B- Miranda/Santana

2B - Julien/Farmer

3B - Lewis

SS - Correa

LF - Larnach/Castro

CF - Buxton

RF - Kepler

Player Roles Recap:

Every Day Players - Lewis, Correa, Buxton, Kepler and Miranda

Platoon Players vs RH - Kirilloff, Julien and Larnach

Platoon Players vs LH - Santana, Farmer and Castro

Catchers - Jeffers and Vazquez

I hope that Miranda stays and Margot goes. Lewis really improves the offense this way by replacing a bad hitter with a real good hitter. Lewis replacing Miranda is just trading a good hitter for a better hitter. 

The team would be better with Lewis and Miranda than it is with Lewis and Margot.  

4 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I've seen the "what will they do with Miranda when Lewis returns?" articles/threads/whatever on here, and all over the internet recently. I've always been confused by any answer other than "figure out where they both play to keep them both in the lineup everyday." But the more and more I see people talk about it and think about it I've come to accept that there's a real chance they send him down. They should be fired immediately if they do, but they wouldn't be. Outside of their big money guys and Jeffers he's the last guy they should be considering moving. He's arguably the best hitter on the team right now. 

I know it's a long season, and you need to account for that, but sending down your best hitter in order to maintain "depth" is a joke of a move. They absolutely can't be giving it serious consideration. But I know they are. Their "positional flexibility" plan has completely failed if they have to move their current best hitter to AAA to add their young superstar back to the roster.

I don't know about fired immediately but yeah... they shouldn't send Miranda down.

Figure it out... let's try to keep the best bats batting. See if we can create some cushion for our pitching staff. 

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Santana, Farmer, Vazquez and Margot are struggling against right handed pitching. I believe they can get better against right handers but I don't believe they will be better enough because there isn't any recent history that they can hit right handed hitting better enough.  

When we are completely healthy we can hide those 4. When we are not healthy... we can't.

IMO...  We have gone from decent depth to health vulnerable as a result. 

Unfortunately... I'm pretty sure that Miranda will be sent down if we are healthy when Lewis returns just to keep the above 4 on the roster to face those left handers who throw 25% of the time. Money was spent on them, they will not be just tossed aside. 

This will marginalize the uptick that the return of Lewis provides because of instead of Lewis replacing one of our worst hitters (Margot). He will replace one of our better hitters (Miranda). 

Replacing Margot is how it should work. Always cull from the bottom. This is where the extreme platooning and the need to roster below average hitters against right handed pitchers punches you in the face. 

The only solution to keeping Miranda up, culling the worst hitter on the team (Margot) and keeping this platoon system intact requires

1. Pulling Jeffers out of DH'ing and making him the two start guy to a 2 to 1 catching rotation with Vazquez regardless of what hand is throwing. 

2. Returning Kepler to full Time vs both left handers and right handers

3. Making Castro a short side platoon with Larnach in LF

4. Miranda stays full time playing 1B against RH's and DH'ing against left handers. 

That would create: 

DH Kirilloff/Miranda

C - Jeffers and Vazquez 2 to 1

1B- Miranda/Santana

2B - Julien/Farmer

3B - Lewis

SS - Correa

LF - Larnach/Castro

CF - Buxton

RF - Kepler

Player Roles Recap:

Every Day Players - Lewis, Correa, Buxton, Kepler and Miranda

Platoon Players vs RH - Kirilloff, Julien and Larnach

Platoon Players vs LH - Santana, Farmer and Castro

Catchers - Jeffers and Vazquez

I hope that Miranda stays and Margot goes. Lewis really improves the offense this way by replacing a bad hitter with a real good hitter. Lewis replacing Miranda is just trading a good hitter for a better hitter. 

The team would be better with Lewis and Miranda than it is with Lewis and Margot.  

 

 

Preach! Unfortunately, gotta keep the terrible veterans. 

Are people still defending Vazquez? How they aren't moving to more catching for Jeffers hurts my brain. How Margot is in this roster hurts my brain, they don't even trust him to field center. They are so obsessed with depth......

14 hours ago, dxpavelka said:

LF continues to be a black hole.

 

Despite the seeming revolving door in LF, as of a few days ago, the Twins were 17th overall in MLB in LF. 1B and DH have been near the bottom of the league. Thats where we really need to find improvement. 

I'm an optimist for the offense the rest of this season and going forward. Big surprise huh? LOL

Getting Lewis back and for the rest of the season is of tremendous importance. That's a given. But ANY thought of sending down Miranda would be idiotic. He's young and doing well again. He can backup 3B, play some at 1B, and DH. You KEEP your best bats! And 1B and DH are the worst performing spots in the lineup. Period. Miranda can help with that.

Due to Jeffers, catcher is not a bottom performing spot, despite Vazquez pretty much stinking. Being a veteran, I guess there's SOME HOPE Vazquez will improve slightly. But his defense and game calling absolutely has real value regardless. A 60-40 split between Jeffers and Vazquez should be the norm going forward, with Vaz starting against LHP as much as possible to help mitigate his overall lack of production. Considering he's not a bad bunter, I wouldn't hesitate to use him in that capacity from time to time with runners on base, similar to a pitcher batting 9th.

I'm super excited about Emmanuel Rodriguez, what he's doing, and what he might become. And I think he's close to heading to AAA. But placing hopes on a 21yo to jump to MLB and be a savior is misguided at best. And while I have great hope/expectations for Lee, he's a few weeks away from helping with all of the time he's missed. I'd like to think he's 2nd half help if an injury happens, IF Julien doesn't rebound, or IF Farmer is somehow gone, which I doubt.

IMO, one of the biggest keys for offense is Larnach, Kirilloff, and possibly Wallner. Larnach has made major adjustments and has been productive. Despite his lack of production recently, the contact has been decent, and he's really stung the ball with little result. He can DH and if his toe heals up more, he might play a little more corner OF. Kirilloff started hot, slumped terribly, but has been on fire the past 7 to 10 days. Can he continue his upswing? He's also, potentially, part of the DH/1B conundrum as well as a little time as a corner OF. The Wallner we've seen in 2024 is just NOT the player we've seen the past 3-4 years as he climbed the milb ladder, or what he's shown at the ML level. Can he get RIGHT for the 2nd half? All 3 of these guys are potentially important for this year, and beyond, BEFORE we even fantasize about E Rodriguez and what he might become. TWO of those THREE figuring it out really changes the complexion of the roster now, and going forward. But even ONE, helps make a difference. Larnach and AK STILL have less than 800 ML AB even though it feels like they've been around forever. 

Roster construction with Lewis being back may crowd out any immediate idea of Keirsey coming up. For now at least. But I just can't ignore a kid on the upswing for the past couple of years who is making AAA look easy. Defense, power, and speed are impossible to dismiss. Can he HIT at the ML level? We'll never know until he gets his shot one of these days. 

The basic principles of having offensive balance of RH/LH batters is solid. But it only takes you so far, especially when you consider A] You still face RHP 75% of the time, and B] Just how good/productive ARE those "extra" RH depth batters?

No vitriol, but Margot has done little defensively for the club, despite past reputation and ability. He's always been pretty decent...not great...against LHP. But even in that regard, he's still about 50 points behind league average OPS. Add in poor, average at best, defense and he's taking up a roster spot with very little production. June 1st is around the corner and it's time to let loose the least productive player you have rostered. 

Note: I've removed Vazquez from the previous comments not only due to his contract, but because he's in a different discussion as a strong catcher.

With all due respect to Farmer as a person, a teammate, his contributions in 2023, and a still solid glove, and a fairly decent uptick with the bat the past couple of weeks, he should be considered as a possible removal come July if Lee is ready and there are no significant injuries. I'm not saying he should be on the chopping block now, but there's a real chance Castro and a fully rehabbed Lee could not only be better options, but part of the future as well.

Lewis back, Margot goes. Kepler, Buxton, Larnach, Krilloff, and Castro are your OF.

Buxton goes down at some point, time for Keirsey to get his shot. But you also have Martin in reserve, and maybe even the versatile, hot, and late blooming Helman as an option. 

Vazquez you treat as already stated.

This is a club that is "oh so close" to being pretty damn dangerous with Lewis back, keeping Miranda, and SOMEONE of Larnach, Kirilloff, and Wallner FIGURING IT OUT, even before we talk about Rodriguez and Lee.