Why Adley Rutschman Should Be Minnesota Twins' Top Trade Target This Offseason

23 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

The Twins have been playing it safe until the recent July trade deadline. They need to make a few gambles. So much is unknown. It was surprising to hear the Twins chose Tait over Aiden Miller. The team needs defensive players and hitters. It's going to be tough, so negotiations must be extensive. The Twins front office made some errors in evaluation and should move forward aggressively. They cannot be concerned with the past.

I was good with going with Tait there. But you aren’t wrong. I do think Culpepper can be a good defensive SS, but I don’t see a way he doesn’t start the year in aaa. Marek Houston might be the best defensive SS in the system but he starts at high a. I know Brooks Lee is set to start at SS opening day but I wouldn’t hate at all making it an emphasis to shoot for a higher end defender at either SS or 2b than they currently have there. Course, if Keaschall can hit like he does then it’s less of a problem if he isn’t high end on defense at 2b. 
But yeah, if they do trade Ryan, I think they need either a good young catcher or good young SS coming back in the deal who would be on the team opening day

10 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

They could have drafted one early the last two years, and didn't. 

Who? Who should they have taken early?

20 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

"should" isn't the right word....there were options, not sure they were better than who they took or not.

Ike Irish is who I would have taken this last draft for sure. Especially given their lack of catching prospects. They could have not taken Jenkins (who I think was the right choice) and taken Teel, who I really like.

I said "could have", not should have, though. I'm good with Jenkins, I would have taken Irish (and seen if they could keep him at catcher).

Everything I heard was Irish had an agreement with Baltimore before the Twins even picked. So even though their choice came after the Twins, he really wasn't available to them. I'd love to be wrong.

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Twins could still draft him. What was he going to do? 

I don't think it works that way anymore.

38 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Redrafts are fun but incredibly unfair in my opinion.  

But... it didn't stop me from looking back at past drafts. 

2025... #16 overall - Marek Houston was the selection - 4 catchers Irish, Bodine, Oliveto and Stevenson were taken after Houston and before the Next Twins selection. I will pass no judgement on this. Only Irish was drafted near the 16th selection. 

2024... #21 Overall - Kaelen Culpepper was the selection - 3 catchers Moore, Lomavita and Cozart were selected after Culpepper and before the next Twins selection. Only Moore was reasonably distance from the #21 pick. 

2023... #5 Overall - Walter Jenkins was the selection - 3 catchers were taken between Jenkins and the next selection. I don't think anyone is regretting the Jenkins selection so the names don't matter. 

2022... #7 overall - Brooks Lee was the selection - 3 catchers Parada, Susac and Rushing were taken between Lee and the Twins next selection. Only Parada was drafted reasonably close to #7 overall. Hindsight could suggest that Rushing would have been a better selection. I'm not saying that... I'm saying could. However... I think it matters that Rushing was selected 40th and that's a long way from 7th. 

2021... #26 overall - Chase Petty was the selection - Only 1 catcher Mack was taken between Petty and the Next selection. If anybody wanted to be concerned about the Petty selection. Catcher isn't where you would direct that concern. Jackson Merrill was selected the next pick after Chase Petty. 

2020 - #27 overall - Aaron Sabato was the selection - 3 catchers were selected between Sabato and the next Twins selection. Wells, Romo and Dingler. If we wanted to do a redraft and criticize the Sabato selection. It would be a legit criticism. Wells went one pick after Sabato. Romo 8 picks after and Dingler 10 picks after.  

2019 - #13 overall - Keoni Cavaco was the selection - 1 catcher Lee was selected between Cavaco and the next selection which was Wallner. Corey Lee went 19 selections after Cavaco so I'm not sure we can criticize not taking a catcher at 13 instead of Cavaco but we can certainly criticize the selection of Cavaco over Corbin Carroll. 

2018 - #20 overall - Trevor Larnach was the selection - Ryan Jeffers who has one year before free agency was out 2nd pick at #59 overall. 2 Catchers Siegler and Bo Naylor between Larnach and Jeffers. I have no criticism. Jeffers has out performed Siegler whoever he is and Bo Naylor. We got the guy. Well... We got the guy if you ignore Cal Raleigh who went #90 that year.  

2017 - #1 Overall - Royce Lewis was the selection - No Catchers were selected between Lewis and the next Twins selection. 

Looking at DECENT catchers on rosters across baseball that have arrived since 2017.  

IFA's 

Basallo, Narvaez, Quaro, Diaz, Moreno, Alverez

3rd round or later Picks

Wong, O' Hoppe, Raleigh, Feduccia, Goodman, Hicks, Pages

Was available after a DFA

Joey Bart

That's pretty much it for the Falvey era. 

Looking at the current Twins catching roster. 

Jeffers - 2nd Round

Gasper - Trade (Cost us Moran)

Pereda - Waivers

Olivar - IFA

Cardanes - 8th round

Winkel - 9th round

Baez - 12th round

Cossetti - 11th round

Ruiz - Undrafted College Player

Tait - Trade (Cost us Duran)

Diaw - 3rd Round

Jimenez - Trade (Cost us Paddack)

D. Pena - IFA

R. Pena - IFA

Castillo - IFA

Nunez - IFA

Again Hindsight is 2020 so this type of thing can be unfair. But I would conclude that they blew the 2020 Draft in regards to Catching picking Sabato with Wells, Romo and Dingler drafted shortly after. I also think that whatever we are doing in regards to our approach with International Free Agents could be questioned. 

Other than that... The Twins and a 28 other teams really blew it with Raleigh, Goodman and O'Hoppe going in later rounds. Hoppe was drafted in like the one millionth round. 

Just for fun - Cal Raleigh was selected 90th overall in 2018. As I mentioned earlier... The Twins took Jeffers in the 2nd round - 59th overall. Interestingly... the Twins did not have a 3rd round selection that year. They forfeited that pick when they signed Lance Lynn. The pick probably would have been after the 90 pick had they retained it.  

Just for fun - Hunter Goodman... I really like this kid. Hunter was selected in the 4th round 109 overall. The Twins selected 98th in the 3rd round and took Cade Povich 11 picks before. Carter Jensen and Adrian Del Castillo were selected 78 and 67 that year. Hajjar was selected by the Twins at 61.

I'll add 2021 to 2020 where the Twins could have... should have drafted a decent catcher if they had the powers of foresight. 

So in conclusion... Unfairly... If the Twins knew then what I know now. We could have had Ryan Jeffers, Austin Wells, Hunter Goodman and Basallo on the roster today.

Would have cost us Sabato and Hajjar. 

Oh the Pain... The Pain.  

This was a super fun read and a great job down fairly recent memory lane. Thank you for this.

5 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

For fun... it would be interesting to put together a perfect redraft since 2017, Not just catchers but all players drafted after Twins selection. What would the Twins look like today if they perfectly nailed every single draft. 

BTW... If Ohtani would have been draft eligible instead of an IFA. He would have been a Twin. I think he declared his intention prior to the 2017 draft. We had the first pick that year,  

Fun is one word to use :) But yeah, I would read that for sure :)