Brock Beauchamp

It felt almost inevitable to hear this, didn't it? Jeff Passan of ESPN recently wrote that the Twins front office has been receiving calls inquiring about the availability of starting pitcher Pablo Lopez, who is under contract for the next three seasons. Lopez, entering his age-29 season in 2025, is owed $21.75 million per season for the next three seasons. The Twins need to remove approximately $10 million from their payroll before Opening Day to meet budget expectations. They could probably meet that number by trading both Christian Vazquez ($10 million) and Chris Paddack ($7.5 million), or they could get under the number in one fell swoop by trading one of their two large contracts in Pablo Lopez or Carlos Correa. The Twins aren't in a rush to trade Lopez but the recent sky-high prices for pitching may cause them to change their minds. View full rumor

The Cubs backed out of a Luzardo deal last night due to medicals. I don't know what that means specifically but it probably means a trade will be hard to pull off. If the Marlins disagree on the medicals - which apparently they did - they're not going to lower the price.

I expect Posey's tenure to be short and brutal. Did Farhan do a bad job in San Fran? Sure. Was it because of analytics? No. Stop blaming the analytics. They're chasing wins, they don't care about aesthetics. Blame the league for not preventing analytics from changing how baseball is played. That's the job of the league, to take a big-picture view of the game.

Steve Gasser was a second-round draft pick of the Twins in the 1985 MLB June Amateur Draft. He was drafted as an 18-year-old straight out of high school in New Philadelphia, Ohio. Gasser stood 6’3” and was a right-hander who threw with some speed. In the minor leagues, he produced a high strikeout per inning pitched but also had a high WHIP and a losing record each season. Nevertheless, he marched up the minor league ladder to Class AAA Portland in 1987. Once there, he suddenly lost control, walking 16.1 per nine innings. He began the 1988 season back in class AA, started one game, walked all six batters he faced, got no outs, and that was the end of his season. He was simply unable to throw strikes. After the 1988 season, Gasser was traded to the Mets in a package with two other pitchers for second baseman Wally Backman and a pitcher, Mike Santiago, who never threw a pitch in the Twins system. Gasser went from being untouchable to being a part of a package for players without much left to offer. Backman was the Twins' main second basemen in 1989 but had a pathetic .591 OPS and was allowed to leave as a free agent in the offseason without the Twins putting up much of a fight. After being traded from the Twins, the big right-hander did not pitch in 1989. In 1990, Gasser appeared in 24 innings for Class A teams in the Mets and Braves systems. His combined ERA was 11.25, and his WHIP was 2.833. He was done. View full player

I'm reluctant to say this is the cause but with every passing month, it feels more accurate.

Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune wrote that Derek Falvey is open to bringing back Carlos Santana in 2025. Santana was paid $5.25 million in 2024 and is entering his age-39 season. He posted a 109 OPS+ in 2024, his best offensive season since 2019. The Twins are already over their 2025 budget by approximately $10 million, give or take a few million. Santana will also likely look for a raise over his 2024 salary and could fetch a contract more in the $7 million range. If the Twins are interested in this reunion, they must subtract to add. View full rumor

I was wondering how long it would take someone to notice that line! The vitriol was just oozing off my fingers as I hammered it out.

I refuse to believe rebuilding is the correct answer when the team could have new owners as quickly as tomorrow. If this team had just its 2023 budget again, they're more than marginal contenders.

Bobby Nightengale of the Minnesota Star-Tribune wrote up a nice piece on Derek Falvey at the Winter Meetings. In it, he revealed that Falvey has received multiple calls about a potential Carlos Correa trade. Yep, it's that time of year. The Twins are already over their projected 2025 payroll of $130 million. They will need to shed somewhere in the vicinity of $10-15 million before the season begins. While they can trade players like Chris Paddack and Christian Vazquez, neither has excess value and will have to be something close to a pure salary dump. On the other hand, Correa is due to make $36 million in 2025. Dumping his salary will put the Twins well under budget and allow them to chase multiple, high-octane, $4 million role-players in free agency. Carlos Correa has a full no-trade clause. Twins fans can only hope he refuses to waive it. View full rumor

Alex Speier of The Boston Globe wrote a throwaway line near the bottom of his recent piece about the Red Sox pursuing pitching help this offseason, saying the Twins have "shown little appetite for dealing righthander Pablo Lopez." In an offseason completely devoid of Twins rumors, this is good news. Speier is a highly-respected Red Sox beat reporter and is tuned into the Sox's pursuit of high-end starting pitching, which has been active with news since the completion of the 2024 season. And the Sox are engaged with almost everybody right now. They've met with every pitcher expected to receive a nine-figure deal. They were runner-up on Juan Soto. They're in on Alex Bregman. They kicked the tires on Willy Adames. They've been circling Garrett Crochet for weeks. Long story short, if anybody is keenly aware of who is available on the current market and where they're wasting their time, it's the Boston Red Sox. View full rumor

Why do you care?

The players keep coming in our attempt to create specialized pages for all Twins players; come take a look at some of the newest members of the group! What is the Players Project? It's a community-driven, wiki-style project that focuses on Twins players of all stripes. It's open to all Twins Daily users and we've had contributions for current players, past players, and players who never even made the major leagues but played in the Twins farm system. Create your favorite player today! Junior Ortiz was a role player for the Twins in only two seasons: 1990 and 1991. He was also a bit of a lunatic. Read about his mid-season name change and weird antics in this great write-up from @Al from SoDak. Now that I'm thinking of it, I should probably make note of the swipe Scott Erickson took at Ortiz at our very own Winter Meltdown about ten years ago (probably the most famous Winter Meltdown in Twins Daily history). Yours truly added Big Papi to the Players Project a week ago. Once a promising slugger, the position-less David Ortiz bounced between the minors and Metrodome for several years before breaking out in 2002. Whatever happened to him, anyway? One of baseball's great mysteries. Billy Martin wasn't much of a ballplayer but was quite the manager. The problem is that he was also one of the great red-asses in baseball history and was fired by George Steinbrenner so many times both of them lost track of the number. Read about his role as both Twins player and manager in this fantastic retrospective on the man. Thanks again to all who contributed this week, please stop by the Players Project by hitting the button below! The Minnesota Twins Players Project is open to all Twins Daily users. If you're a Twins history buff or just want to dive into the background of your favorite player, come on board! View full article

As usual, I find myself in lock-step with chpettit. Posted this earlier:

Whoa, thank you for the clarification on that!

You can now embed Bluesky posts just like Twitter:

David Ortiz (aka. "Big Papi" & "David Arias") was born in the Dominican Republic in 1975. Ortiz was originally signed by the Seattle Mariners as a 17-year-old. He spent a couple of years in the Mariners system before being traded to the Twins as a PTBNL (Player To Be Named Later) in the Dave Hollins trade. Never considered anything but a position-less masher of the baseball, Ortiz spent most of his minor-league career wearing a first baseman's mitt. In his first season with the Twins organization (1997), he progressed three levels in the farm system, jumping from High-A ball all the way to the major league roster in Minnesota as a 21-year-old. 1998 and 1999 saw Ortiz on the Minnesota-to-Salt Lake shuttle, mixing major league time with stints in the minor leagues. From 1997 through the end of 1999, Ortiz had a 102 OPS+ over 111 games yet couldn't stick on a Twins roster that lost 94, 92, and 97 games, respectively. The 2000 season saw Ortiz break out with the Twins, posting an .810 OPS in 130 games while carrying a .358 on-base percentage. His 478 plate appearances that season were the most he accumulated in a Twins uniform. No matter how much Ortiz hit, there were always suggestions the Twins organization wasn't happy with his pull-happy nature, constantly trying to remake Ortiz into a more "well-rounded" hitter. 2001 came and Ortiz battled injuries, only playing in 89 games but posting a 107 OPS+ as he continued to refine his plate discipline and elite power. The 2002 season was Ortiz's last with the Twins. He broke out again, posting a 120 OPS+, far and away the best of his career to that point. After the season, Ortiz entered arbitration due to his accumulation of over three years of service time. Twins General Manager Terry Ryan attempted to trade Ortiz but found little or no takers. The perpetually cash-strapped Twins put Ortiz on waivers to avoid paying him an arbitration salary. And here ends the story of David Ortiz. Once a promising young slugger, no one is really sure what happened after this point as he faded into the annals of baseball history. View full player

Ah, that's quite an oversight from Bluesky. We changed our username to our domain name, which Bluesky should automatically redirect because username changes, especially of that kind, are not uncommon. @twinsdaily.com on Bluesky BSKY.APP The top destination for independent Minnesota Twins content and conversation on the web.

Good catch, fixed it. But remember... if you see something wrong, fix it! Everyone has access to the edit player button at the top of every player page, just pop in and change it.