Brock Beauchamp

I completely agree but if the teams bidding include the Dodgers and/or Yankees, I think the Twins chances drop from “low” to “zero”. The Dodgers in particular can add $20m to an eight year deal without blinking an eye and should the Twins go nuts and match it, the Dodgers could simply add another $20m and not even notice.

Five words Twins fans did not want to hear to start this offseason. Jon Heyman has reported that while Trea Turner is obviously open to returning to the premiere Los Angeles team, the Dodgers themselves may be targeting Correa as their number one shortstop free agent. This is terrible news for the Twins, especially coupled with rumors that the Yankees may be sore after their ALCS loss and may also enter the fray for Correa. It's safe to say that if those teams are involved, the Twins' chance of retaining Correa approaches zero. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/10/dodgers-interested-in-carlos-correa.html View full rumor

Rodon also terrifies me but, as I said, I think he's the most gettable name that is actually really good.

Upside with risk. I don't do a lot but what I do costs a bunch of money. I retain Correa with a front-loaded contract, starting him at $40m over the next few years. I sign Rodon. I don't love Rodon but I think he's a gettable name that's better than almost all of the Twins internal options. I trade Kepler. I know the minimization of the shift might help him in 2023 but I'm done with Max and can no longer expect him to make the necessary changes to improve upon his half-a-dimension approach at the plate and dishing him to another team allows me to keep the payroll in check. And then I run out a bunch of guys who could tank the season, particularly in the bullpen. But I think the Twins have enough arms to keep the pen afloat until some names emerge as true bullpen candidates. It's a risk but it's the kind of risk I'm willing to take to drastically improve at two key positions. No more patchwork rosters. Go big, even if it leaves you vulnerable at other positions. C: Ryan Jeffers ($0.70M) 1B: Luis Arraez ($4.50M) 2B: Jorge Polanco ($7.50M) 3B: Gio Urshela ($9.00M) SS: Carlos Correa ($40.00M) LF: Alex Kirilloff ($0.70M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Matt Wallner/Trevor Larnach ($0.70M) DH: Jose Miranda ($0.70M) 4th OF: Kyle Garlick ($0.70M) Utility: Nick Gordon ($0.70M) Utility: Gilberto Celestino ($0.70M) Backup C: Sandy Leon ($1.00M) SP1: Carlos Rodon ($25.00M) SP2: Sonny Gray ($9.00M) SP3: Tyler Mahle ($8.00M) SP4: Joe Ryan ($0.70M) SP5: Bailey Ober ($0.70M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Lopez ($3.00M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($2.00M) RP: Kenta Maeda ($5.00M) RP: Josh Winder ($0.70M) RP: Ronnie Henriquez ($0.70M) Payroll is 0.64% under budget

I just read through this entire thing as a reminder of the system before we roll it out to Brewer Fanatic. This was a really good debate and props to @jharaldsonfor being such a quality opponent.

Ah, I hadn't caught that, will add it to the list!

Now that you've all had a chance to play around with the tool, what are your thoughts? Right off the bat, I see two significant issues that I will resolve either later this offseason or for next offseason: - A Save Draft function so you can work on it, pause, and come back to it later before posting - The ability to customize the title a little bit, instead of "UserName's Payroll Blueprint" let users customize it as "UserName's Payroll Blueprint: Sign Correa, Trade Kepler, etc".

This was kind of a last minute tool. I hope to create some sort of save and revision feature next off-season. But considering that it was assembled in about ten days, shut your mouth about its lack of options.

So we stepped up our game quite a bit this year and some of you should really enjoy this tool for building a 2023 Twins roster. If you've used our previous years' spreadsheet, this works very similarly but after you're done, you click submit and it creates a thread with your name in the Twins forum so others can comment and participate in talking about your roster. https://twinsdaily.com/payroll-blueprint You can mix and match any players and dollar figures you want. The only thing set in stone is Dead Money, the rest is entirely up to you. The "budget" is set right around the 2022 payroll of $140m and is merely a guideline to see if you're under- or over-spending. After you've built your custom roster, use the Your Comments & Explanation field to type out your thoughts, reasoning, and explain just how it is you managed to sign Aaron Judge and trade for Zack Wheeler. Enjoy, everybody! If you have feedback or questions, ask away.

I’m pretty iffy on Maki but people make wayyyyy too big of a deal about the third base coach. His windmilling is a tiny part of his overall duties and I have no idea how good he is at those other duties so I have no real opinion on his coaching acumen as a whole.

Another thing to note is that Kirby is the only retired guy pictured with just one batting title. Oliva and Mauer had three, Carew had about 17. Puckett also played in the heart of the turf era, including his home stadium (Kirby is pretty overrated by Twins fans)

This isn't entirely true, though. The Twins were playing much better baseball early in the season. They had some really nice runs against good teams like the Rays, Blue Jays, and others. I mean, look at their opening day OF and the OF they rostered in September. It's pretty easy to spot the biggest reason why they stopped playing good baseball. (I'm not letting the front office off the hook for that opening day roster, they made some huge mistakes, but injuries are what ultimately caused this team to spiral)

I generally don't predict exact win totals but I expected the team to be in the 84-88 win range.

Our social team just posted this and I just realized something about Twins batting champs. Tony Oliva - Hall of Fame Rod Carew - Hall of Fame Kirby Puckett - Hall of Fame Joe Mauer - Should be voted into the Hall of Fame when eligible Luis Arraez - Not in Hall of Fame because he's, you know, 25 years old Just an interesting observation. When the Twins field a batting champ, that player has a really good career.

Watching Dahmer-Monster on Netflix. It’s a hard watch. Slow with no easy answers to why he was an absolute monster. It throws a lot at the viewer but I think it works overall, as nice and tidy answers don’t jibe with how someone like him exists in the world. And holy **** is Evan Peters disturbing as Dahmer.

That's a very Twins type offer and I'll leave it at that.

While I'm at the game, I generally only care about pitcher and exit velo and that's just a passing interest after a nasty strikeout or ripping the cover off the ball. I'm there for the game experience, not a bunch of stats. Watching on TV is a very different experience for me, I love the concept of Apple TV's metrics but I wish they weren't utter garbage.

Correa is better than good. He's wrapping up his age 27 season and has over 30 career fWAR. The only real problem with Correa is his health issues, he's damned near a perfect player outside of being unable to stay on the field. He has played 120 or more games only three times in his career. But when he's on the field, he's spectacular. Extrapolate most of his seasons to 140-150 games and he's routinely around the 6 fWAR mark.

The Twins won't pony up the money but given how loathe they are to spend on pitching, there's no good reason they shouldn't throw a monstrous pile of cash at Correa. But hey, signing six $8m or under guys has worked so well for them, it will be hard to convince them to stray from that path.

John Bonnes is there. Me, I wouldn't even drive eight miles to watch a free Vikings game last week so if I travel again to England, it's not going to be for football.