Brock Beauchamp

Define "backup" centerfielder. If Celestino plays behind a healthy Buxton and OPSes at an .800 clip but Buxton OPSes at .950, Celestino is still technically a "backup centerfielder" but that has no bearing on his talent level or value.

Except look at the names you just listed and the years they left the Rays: Crawford: 2010 Upton: 2012 Zobrist: 2014 All of those guys played under Friedman, not Neander. And what was one of Neander's first moves as head of the Rays? Trading Ben Zobrist. 2014 is a long time ago for a team as good as the Rays. Byron Buxton debuted just a few months after Erik Neander took control of baseball ops for the Rays.

As I mentioned later, I'm generally not a fan of declaring "winners/losers" of trades unless it's embarrassingly lop-sided like the Pierzynski or Johan trades. You're reading more into what I wrote than what I actually wrote.

I assumed coaching swaps would come pretty fast and furious. The Twins were on the receiving end of some pretty bad timing when they lost Shelton and Rowson a couple of offseasons ago. Then they lost their bench coach to cancer just before the season began. They need to be out in front of coaching changes to land the people they want most.

I also like Gordon in CF, relatively speaking given his complete lack of experience, though I'm not sure I'm ready to rely on him as option #2 next season. Maybe in 2023.

The problem is they need to offer Cave arb well into seven figure territory and there's no way I'd go that route. I'd prefer a no-bat defensive guy (think Billy Hamilton or the like) over seeing Cave in a Twins uniform again. Cave is at best a CF tweener and I never want to see him play there again. Defensive specialists with no bat are available pretty readily every offseason.

I think this is probably right, though I will say once again that if they trade Buxton I'm going to be ****ing furious. Pay. The. Man.

The Metrodome Twins were infinitely better at keeping their good players, they did it multiple times. There are plenty of very good players who, when the casual fan pictures them, it's in a Twins uniform: Radke, Hunter, Santana, Cuddyer, Morneau, Nathan, Mauer, et al. All of them were kept at least one season beyond free agency before Target Field opened. When I think of the Rays, the only two players I really think of as "Rays players" are Longoria and Kiermaier. And the Rays traded Longoria at 31 years old because he made too much money.

I've been a pretty big advocate for the Rays for about a decade, I'd say*. It's been a long time. I only recently came to the same conclusion. Not really sure why it took me this long, frankly. What pushed me over the edge was reading somewhere that their entire payroll was roughly what they received in MLB money in a given season. *While I was impressed with the Rays long ago, I thought they were sunk after Friedman left for LA, I didn't think they'd be able to do it again with new execs and coaches

Possibly, but Houston is just good at developing pitchers. The Twins certainly weren't at their level in 2018, though I don't really know how the two organizations compare today. Unlike others, I think the Twins knew what they had in Pressly, they simply chose the prospects over 1.5 years of control. And that was a defensible position at the time given how 2018 was going.

His slider profiles very well and his fastball is solid. Given how the Twins love to take good sliders and turn them into heavily-used out pitches, I think there's potential for Jax should they go that route.

To be clear, there's *room* for Rooker if trades happen, and they probably will. But I can't predict those or what they will look like so I'm just going with the information we have right now. The reason I'm adding Lewis to this list is because the Twins chose to run "middle infielders" in roster spots that are really "corner guys" and those players are locks for 2022 (Arraez, for example). The Twins' closest thing to a backup SS is Nick Gordon and they may want to add someone in front of him... I'd certainly consider it. That means Lewis is probably going to have to bump one of the many corner guys. There's a lot of complexity to the 40-man right now because the 2021 roster was cobbled together. There are a bunch of guys are really don't have a position and many of them overlap over the same positions (Sano/Kirilloff, Sano/Rooker, Donaldson/Arraez/Miranda). That's a problem and some house cleaning will need to happen, particularly with an eye on defensive improvement. But if the front office manages to move Sano, this entire situation changes in an instant.

There's a good chance of it, yes. I'd say maybe even 50% or higher.

In the AL, the Rays are the only team I don't actively hate so I guess they're my choice. I'm kind of over that franchise though, as they just abuse the revenue sharing system while crying poor the entire time. It's tiresome. The NL is more interesting to me. I'm leaning heavily toward Milwaukee but I'm also enjoying the Giants because how the hell did that even happen. Even though they're a large market team, they're the kind of story that makes baseball fun over 162 games. They had no business winning that many games but they did and it was legit. They played their way well over 100 wins and it wasn't a run scoring or sequencing mirage.

The problem as I see it is that you listed two pitchers and an infielder as potential Rooker swaps. The Twins also need better pitchers, and a lot of them. I don't see Rooker and the guys you listed as even a little bit interchangeable. The Twins can't carry that many corner guys on a 40-man roster again. Here's the list as I see it now: Kepler Donaldson Sano Kirilloff Larnach Arraez Rooker Astudillo Garlick Cave Then there are the guys who need to be added: Lewis Miranda Cave, Garlick, Astudillo, and Refsnyder are pretty easy choices to be removed. One of them will need to be replaced with a legit CF option. Two more will be replaced with Lewis and Miranda. That leaves one remaining spot. Does that go to Rooker? Maybe, but given some of the non-versatility in the above list, is there room for another terrible outfielder who's really a DH? And if Rooker takes that final spot, that leaves no space for position players in free agency. The 40-man space for pitchers is even more convoluted than the position players, as there are many (MANY) pitchers coming off the 60-day IL that will need to be protected or lost.

That's definitely in play. Over the past two seasons - assuming the Twins could have retained Pressly for the same money - I probably would have preferred him over Alcala/Celestino as well... though it probably wouldn't have mattered, as the Twins' postseason ineptitude in recent years has fallen squarely on the shoulders of the offense (though the bullpen and defense contributed a bit). Another year from now? It might be harder to say. If Alcala turns into a solid late inning reliever and Celestino becomes an MLB contributor of some sort (and the Twins badly need a legit defensive centerfielder, if only as backup), the trade will look much different for the Twins, it just took a couple of years to get there (as trades for prospects often do).

First, Celestino had no business being in the majors. If you want to hold that against him, so be it, but it's rather unreasonable. He wasn't ready. We all knew it, the front office knew it, everyone knew it. What he did in his first stint in AAA is far more telling than rushing a guy multiple levels straight into MLB after a year off of baseball. As for "homerism"... *eye roll* Whatever, dude. I didn't even declare anything finalized, just a suggestion that the trade looks different now than it did even three months ago. I guess posting the most recent numbers over a few months for each player without predictions attached is wild-eyed optimism now.

Oh, for sure, which is why I didn't bring up Houston at all. They're satisfied with the trade and good for them. I'm not really into declaring "winners and losers" in trades unless they're really lop-sided. Oftentimes, both teams received what they needed/wanted because organizations need/want different things depending on their win/loss cycle.

I mean... maybe? The thing is that Rooker isn't going to bring back much, if anything, and keeping him causes some awkward 40-man issues if the front office is unable to work out a trade. It seems like a lot of fuss for very little gain when the team has significantly bigger fish to fry, and a lot of them.

Brent Rooker is not Nelson Cruz. He's not even Miguel Sano. If the Twins can move Sano or someone else and keep Rooker, great... but where do you fit Rooker into this roster and who do you release to keep him? Let's make this more practical; tell me who you drop to keep Rooker on this roster in 2022.

There's nothing knee-jerk about releasing a no-position 27 year old player that hasn't hit well in 250 career MLB plate appearances. Can Rooker turn out to be a decent player? Sure, of course, but I struggle to see a competitive Twins team with him on the roster unless the front office dedicates themselves to clearing out other corner players. And if they clear out other corner players, good for them, then there's probably room for Rooker in Minnesota.

The trade was quite controversial - and for good reason - as the Twins could have certainly used Pressly in 2019 (and possibly beyond had they extended him). For those with foggy memories of 2018, the Twins traded Pressly and 1.5 years of control to the Astros for Jorge Alcala and Gilberto Celestino. It didn't help that over the first couple of years, Celestino had upside but looked more "fourth outfielder" than "starting MLB centerfielder". Even if Celestino came through as a starter, it appeared as if he'd be somewhat light on offense and have to bring most of his value defensively (and he's no Byron Buxton). As for Alcala, I think we all remember the tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth over his stunted development. We all knew the dude always had the tools, he just couldn't pull it together. Things are looking up quite a bit. Jorge Alcala's final 20 appearances in 2021: Date Tm G GS GF CG Rslt Dec DR IP H R ER BB SO HR HBP ERA FIP BF BA OBP SLG OPS BAbip Pit Str StL StS GB FB LD PU Unk GSc IR IS SB CS PO AB 2B 3B IBB GDP SF ROE aLI WPA acLI cWPA RE24 DFS(DK) DFS(FD) Jul 24 to Oct 3, 2021 MIN 21 0 4 0 14-7 W-L:1-2,Sv:1,Hld:7 1.8 23.2 15 6 5 3 27 1 1 1.90 1.94 86 .185 .224 .272 .495 .264 310 69% 17% 15% 0.96 22% 7% 0 8 25% 1 0 1 81 4 0 0 2 0 0 1.29 1.122 .00 0.00% 6.79 89.85 149.00 per 162 games 68 0 13 0 6 77 49 19 16 10 87 3 3 278 1004 23 0 26 3 0 3 262 13 0 0 6 0 0 3.6 0.0% 22.0 291 48 Gilberto Celestino after being demoted to AAA and playing there for the first time: Date G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS BAbip Aug 1 to Oct 3, 2021 49 211 183 27 53 13 0 5 24 24 1 43 4 0 0 0 4 0 .290 .384 .443 .827 .356 per 162 games 162 698 605 89 175 43 0 17 79 79 3 142 13 0 0 0 13 0

Pretty hard to make the case they've used their top picks efficiently on these guys, that's for sure. On the other hand, there's Cavaco... Yikes.

Same. I'm pretty disappointed that I think the Twins should release Rooker, I think he can be a competent maybe even good player, but I simply don't see him as a fit to fix the Twins unless they manage to move Sano or another corner guy. If this team wants to improve, they can't field 3+ players like Rooker, which is what they have on the roster right now. Despite his flaws, I could even make a case to give Rooker another chance if he wasn't such a damned butcher in the field but the lack of contact and significant offensive flaws coupled with his atrocious defense means I pass on him for 2022.