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    Twins New Front Office Off To Strong Start

    Nick Nelson

    By Nick Nelson

    Less than three weeks after being formally introduced in a press conference at Target Field, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine made their first major acquisition as heads of the Minnesota Twins baseball department.

    The Jason Castro signing was a bold stroke from the new front office, and one that sends some very positive signals regarding what we can expect from this new era of leadership.

    Image courtesy of Tommy Gilligan, USA Today

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    It has been evident that Castro was the team's top priority from the get-go. While serving as interim GM late in the summer, Rob Antony pointed to finding a starting catcher as Minnesota's primary offseason imperative, and as soon as free agency got underway the Twins were repeatedly tied to the former Astro by multiple sources.

    But wanting a free agent and being able to sign him are two different things, as we've seen many times over the years. During Terry Ryan's tenure, the Twins were frequently unable to lure coveted targets, too often beaten to the punch by more aggressive (and less risk-averse) suitors.

    Castro had no shortage of demand – his name was generating significant buzz and he had at least one other three-year offer on the table – but the Twins managed to strike quickly and lock him up by Thanksgiving, even with the disadvantage of posting baseball's worst record in 2016.

    That meant going above and beyond in terms of salary. While we don't know the specifics of what different clubs were proposing, it seems safe to say that the Twins offered the most money at $24.5 million, which surpassed Josh Willingham's contract to become Minnesota's largest commitment for a free agent position player in the last 25 years.

    On the surface, that's a tough number to justify for someone who has batted .210 as a part-time catcher over the past two seasons, especially when your team is amidst a rebuild. In fact, it's an expense that can only really be justified on the basis of advanced metrics and contemporary thinking. Castro derives much of his value from superior pitch-framing capabilities, and his left-handed bat provides a platoon advantage when paired with John Ryan Murphy or Mitch Garver.

    It is promising not only that Falvey and Levine appear to be heavily weighing such factors, but also that they were able to sell ownership on these merits. It's no easy task to come in and push for giving a historically large contract (in relative terms) to someone with Castro's track record.

    It's a great first step for Falvey and Levine, and the organization as a whole. But of course, their biggest test still lies ahead.

    Nick is a co-founder of Twins Daily who's been writing about the team for more than 15 years.
    Follow Nick Nelson on Twitter: NickNelsonMN

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    Blackjack

    Blackjack 869

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

    I can't believe I just slogged thru the bickering in this thread.

     

    Is the glass half full or half empty??  The new Twins front office signed a player that they think will improve the team. I'm thinking that's a positive and I'm curious and looking forward to any other changes they make.  Its going to be an interesting 4 months until the season starts and I'm going to give the new management every benefit of the doubt because no matter what they do it has to be better than what we've seen the last 5 years.

     

    Now on to a news site to see what the Trumper is up to, something that really is important to our future.

    markos

    markos 2,012

  • Provisional Member

    • Posted

     

    Question to all.

     

    In the article this was said '.It has been evident that Castro was the team's top priority from the get-go'

     

    Assuming we understanding FA isn't the only way to get players, how does everyone feel about Jason Castro being the team's top priority as opposed to say trading for some quality pitching prospects (or however else they want to go about improving the pitching)?

    My answer is that the team's top priority should be improving run prevention, not just acquiring better pitching, and from that perspective the signing of Castro is a move in the right direction. As other people have pointed out, almost every team is trying to acquire good pitching right now. By every defensive metric, last year they were one of the worst defensive teams. Taking a holistic approach to run prevention opens the door for several smaller, non-pitching moves that could have, cumulatively, as big an impact as any trade for pitching. 

     

    Some rough back-of-the-envelope calculations:

     

    If you buy into the various pitch-framing metrics, moving from Suzuki to Castro could subtract 25 runs.

    Adding a defensive 4th OF and ensuring that Grossman/Santana/Sano don't play another inning in the outfield could subtract 30 runs.

    Adding a defensively above-average SS could subtract 15 runs.

     

    Now, obviously the Twins still need to acquire/develop better pitchers, and any plan to get them to a 90+ win team will require a both-and approach to pitching and defense. But making a commitment to putting an above-average defense on the field everyday will go a long way toward improving run prevention, even with this current pitching staff. Getting to 90+ wins is a long haul right now - probably a multi-year project - and the Castro signing is a first step in that direction.

    Mike Sixel

    Mike Sixel 55,005

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

    My answer is that the team's top priority should be improving run prevention, not just acquiring better pitching, and from that perspective the signing of Castro is a move in the right direction. As other people have pointed out, almost every team is trying to acquire good pitching right now. By every defensive metric, last year they were one of the worst defensive teams. Taking a holistic approach to run prevention opens the door for several smaller, non-pitching moves that could have, cumulatively, as big an impact as any trade for pitching. 

     

    Some rough back-of-the-envelope calculations:

     

    If you buy into the various pitch-framing metrics, moving from Suzuki to Castro could subtract 25 runs.

    Adding a defensive 4th OF and ensuring that Grossman/Santana/Sano don't play another inning in the outfield could subtract 30 runs.

    Adding a defensively above-average SS could subtract 15 runs.

     

    Now, obviously the Twins still need to acquire/develop better pitchers, and any plan to get them to a 90+ win team will require a both-and approach to pitching and defense. But making a commitment to putting an above-average defense on the field everyday will go a long way toward improving run prevention, even with this current pitching staff. Getting to 90+ wins is a long haul right now - probably a multi-year project - and the Castro signing is a first step in that direction.

     

    great post.

     

    Let's hope Grossman never plays in the OF again! Heck, I'd rather have him as the DH than Napoli, in a sever PINCH he could play OF for an inning or three.

    HitInAPinch

    HitInAPinch 4,518

  • Verified Member

    • Posted (edited)

     

    Question to all.

     

    In the article this was said '.It has been evident that Castro was the team's top priority from the get-go'

     

    Assuming we understanding FA isn't the only way to get players, how does everyone feel about Jason Castro being the team's top priority as opposed to say trading for some quality pitching prospects (or however else they want to go about improving the pitching)?

    I would say this:  with current options of Murphy and Garver, catching became a priority and a priority that can [was] quickly addressed. 

     

    Trading for some quality pitching prospects is going to be a pretty long, drawn out process.  Pitching is  valued higher than just about anything in baseball.  FA starting pitcher signings have gone WAY off the charts.  IF a trade of Dozier to LA is still being worked on, a return highlighted by 3 LA pitching prospect is probably a tough sell.  Just one man's opinion....

     

    Derek Falvey and Thad Levine sound like a couple pretty smart guys.  My bet the pitching priority is being looked in organizations not named Los Angels Dodgers.

     

    Edit:   Looks like I'm WAY behind on this comment     :roll:

    Edited by HitInAPinch
    Doomtints

    Doomtints 2,816

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    I can't believe I just slogged thru the bickering in this thread.

     

    Is the glass half full or half empty??  The new Twins front office signed a player that they think will improve the team. I'm thinking that's a positive and I'm curious and looking forward to any other changes they make.  Its going to be an interesting 4 months until the season starts and I'm going to give the new management every benefit of the doubt because no matter what they do it has to be better than what we've seen the last 5 years.

     

    I think I (and many commenters) lost sight of things a little bit.  The Twins Daily staff is working to build a positive relationship with the new front office and with that in mind wrote a positive piece about what they have done so far.  This isn't wrong, certainly what has been done so far is not negative.

    The viewpoint from us fans is different, and as we a group we feel like "not much of consequence" has been done yet.  We would rather wait and see, because sure the moves so far are good but they're not enough.

    We all forgot to consider that the positioning is different between the author of the piece and those of us who read the piece.  I think this is probably on both of us (the author should have been able to predict our reaction just as much as we should have realized why he wanted to write it this way).  A different word choice for the title would have made all the difference.  Lessons learned for everybody.

    TheLeviathan

    TheLeviathan 20,986

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted

     

     We would rather wait and see, because sure the moves so far are good but they're not enough.

     

     

    No one move is going to be "enough".  If we're waiting to cross that threshold we might as well shut the place down for a few years.  We can only evaluate what has happened so far and that is all that was being discussed.  

     

    The very nature of the phrase "strong start" indicates an evaluation of what has taken place, with the expectation that more will take place.  (Otherwise we'd not call it a "start")  I'd suggest Nick isn't in need of rephrasing himself at all, you're taking the comments beyond their intended scope.

     

    We all expect more to be done.  We can also appreciate a really nice start on the way to that.



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