Do the Twins Have Offensive Upgrades in the Minors?

The short answer is probably not. There's talent in St. Paul, but finding the right roster moves to get them PA where they could add value is tough at the moment.

I predict Lee will be the first called up. 😀

2 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

IMO, quite a few of the teams would give EROD or Keaschall a chance to see what they have, but the Twins are still trying to figure out what the have with Larnach, Juien, Miranda and Lee.

I would put EROD in Left and see what they have but that moves Larnach to the bench and he only has three positions (LF, RF and DH)

Maybe, but probably not a lot of teams who think they are playoff teams.  Rookies usually get a lot of run and make an impact either because they are superstars in the making or because the team has nowhere else to turn.  We’re not there on either front yet.  

3 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

IMO, quite a few of the teams would give EROD or Keaschall a chance to see what they have, but the Twins are still trying to figure out what the have with Larnach, Juien, Miranda and Lee.

I would put EROD in Left and see what they have but that moves Larnach to the bench and he only has three positions (LF, RF and DH)

Emma is struggling to hold his own in AAA. No power, 40% K rate. Keaschall is at wRC+ 120ish territory, which is about league average if pushed up to MLB, plus he's still proving his UCL is ready for consistent game action. Keaschall isn't considered a plus defender by any stretch, either.

Larnach's expected results are quite a bit better than actual, but it's clear he's not seeing the ball too well. We're talking about April 13th, here. Like 12 games worth of plate appearances. Anything under 80-100 PA is just noise. When guys aren't making stupid mistakes like Miranda made, it's all knee jerk reactions at this point.

Look, I understand we are only 16 games into the season and it's far too early to panic. Having said that, I do think it's becoming increasingly obvious that the current Twins roster has enough pitching to succeed but simply does not have enough hitting or a versatile enough offensive approach to score enough runs competitive. Adding Lewis will help (how much depends on whether we get the first half 2024 or the second half Lewis), but we don't really see much else on the horizon. Lee helps on the defensive side but not so much on the offensive side at least based on his performance last year.

I think were about two weeks away from making what seems to be fairly inevitable decision: this is a retooling/rebuilding year with an outside shot at a playoff spot, not a championship contention year. Seems to me that certain decisions become obvious once you cross that bridge. You need to find a place to play the two real prospects we have in the minors, Keschall and Erod, at the expense of guys like Larnach, Miranda, and Castro. I personally think Julien can hit well enough and you need to keep playing him but it might be as a primary DH with only a couple of days a week in the field. You need to make a decision about whether you want to try to keep Ty France long term and, if not, start to reduce his playing time in the field so that Julien can transition to 1B. Maybe those two are the primary 1B/DH tandem. You need to pitch the starters likely to be here for the long haul, Festa and Matthews, at the expense of Paddack, who is traded or sent to the bullpen. 

In short, it's rapidly becoming time to treat this as a transition year where the only long-term fixtures are Buxton, Correa, Wallner, and Jeffers in the field, Lopez, Ryan, and Ober in the starting rotation, and Jax and Duran ( and maybe Sands) in the bullpen. Let's see if we have some replacements in the system over the next couple of months so we can decide how to handle the trading deadline. The old saw is the first two months the baseball season is to see what you have, the second is to try to fix your holes, and the third to just play. I do think keeping Festa up after his last MLB start and giving Matthews the start tonight is a good first step, particularly if we keep both of them in the rotation while Lopez is out. I think we need to start doing that on the position player side with Keaschall and ERod, and maybe even McCusker and some playing time for Keirsey. Let's see what we have now before we get too far behind to have any hope.

2 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Look, I understand we are only 16 games into the season and it's far too early to panic. Having said that, I do think it's becoming increasingly obvious that the current Twins roster has enough pitching to succeed but simply does not have enough hitting or a versatile enough offensive approach to score enough runs competitive. Adding Lewis will help (how much depends on whether we get the first half 2024 or the second half Lewis), but we don't really see much else on the horizon. Lee helps on the defensive side but not so much on the offensive side at least based on his performance last year.

I think were about two weeks away from making what seems to be fairly inevitable decision: this is a retooling/rebuilding year with an outside shot at a playoff spot, not a championship contention year. Seems to me that certain decisions become obvious once you cross that bridge. You need to find a place to play the two real prospects we have in the minors, Keschall and Erod, at the expense of guys like Larnach, Miranda, and Castro. I personally think Julien can hit well enough and you need to keep playing him but it might be as a primary DH with only a couple of days a week in the field. You need to make a decision about whether you want to try to keep Ty France long term and, if not, start to reduce his playing time in the field so that Julien can transition to 1B. Maybe those two are the primary 1B/DH tandem. You need to pitch the starters likely to be here for the long haul, Festa and Matthews, at the expense of Paddack, who is traded or sent to the bullpen. 

In short, it's rapidly becoming time to treat this as a transition year where the only long-term fixtures are Buxton, Correa, Wallner, and Jeffers in the field, Lopez, Ryan, and Ober in the starting rotation, and Jax and Duran ( and maybe Sands) in the bullpen. Let's see if we have some replacements in the system over the next couple of months so we can decide how to handle the trading deadline. The old saw is the first two months the baseball season is to see what you have, the second is to try to fix your holes, and the third to just play. I do think keeping Festa up after his last MLB start and giving Matthews the start tonight is a good first step, particularly if we keep both of them in the rotation while Lopez is out. I think we need to start doing that on the position player side with Keaschall and ERod, and maybe even McCusker and some playing time for Keirsey. Let's see what we have now before we get too far behind to have any hope.

I've got Ryan starting tonight

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

I've got Ryan starting tonight

You're right. It looks like they kept Festa up and did not call up Matthews, at least not yet. Matthews hasn't pitched in St. Paul for a week since their earlier plan was to call him up for tonight. Wonder if he will go for the Saints tomorrow. If not, there may be a plan afoot to get him up to the MLB level soon. 

26 minutes ago, 1985Fan said:

Give Camargo a chance. Can’t be worse than Jeffers.

Can't be worse than Vazquez at the plate!

20 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

Maybe, but probably not a lot of teams who think they are playoff teams.  Rookies usually get a lot of run and make an impact either because they are superstars in the making or because the team has nowhere else to turn.  We’re not there on either front yet.  

Yet