Brock Beauchamp

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com wrote up a list of trade deadline candidates whose stock is rising. He only lists one candidate as a potential fit for the Twins and it's an intriguing one: Jesse Winker. Winker, once a promising rising star with Cincinnati, fell upon hard times in 2022 after joining the Seattle Mariners. He was later traded to the Milwaukee Brewers and had an even worse season in 2023. He signed with the Nationals hoping for a rebound season and he has accomplished exactly that: a 134 OPS+ on the back of a .263/.377/.425 triple-slash line. Winker, a left-handed outfielder (who is better positioned as a designated hitter, frankly), would slot nicely into the Twins lineup, which is elite against left-handed pitching while slightly above-average against right-handed pitching. Hit the link above to check out the rest of Feinsand's list. View full rumor

Which makes a lot of sense.

Happy Fourth, early game due to weather!

Festa! Again!

I agree that Wallner is valuable, I just think in the grand scheme of things his position and defense knocks his raw offensive output down a little.

That's where I landed as well. He's not enough to get what the Twins need at the cost they need.

Appearing on Skor North's The Scoop, Doogie Wolfson of KSTP 5 mentioned that the Twins are receiving calls on minor-league outfielder Matt Wallner. Wallner, after a highly successful half-season in 2023, stumbled out of the gate in 2024 and was demoted back to the Triple-A St Paul Saints where he has rebounded nicely, posting an .869 OPS in 64 games played. While the Twins may be fielding calls on Wallner, it's hard to imagine them actually trading the Minnesota native. He has less than a year of service time under his belt and with the expiring contract of Max Kepler looming, the Twins will need another left-handed bat as soon as next year. It can be argued that the Twins don't need Wallner next season, they need him today. While the Twins have done an excellent job of mashing left-handed pitching (.799 OPS, 2nd in MLB), they're merely adequate against right-handed pitching (.720 OPS, 10th in MLB). Wallner's left-handed power stature could play well in the Twins lineup in the second half of the season. Ultimately, it will boil down to the front office deciding whether Wallner is more critical than the Twins' immediate need of pitching help, both in the rotation and bullpen. View full rumor

The Tigers are freefalling but are putting two *very* tough pitchers up against the Twins, particularly tonight.

High five to chemicals!

I’m drunk so I definitely believe Pablo deserves another inning.

We let them stay up later but only to an extent. If our eldest doesn't get enough sleep or gets over-tired, she turns into a velociraptor.

I need at least one of those little goblins to start loving baseball, I'm not going to do this job forever. 😁

I believe most baseball games should target a 6:40 start. I go to WAY fewer games because of this 7:10 nonsense and it's much harder to get my kids into the sport when their bedtime is 8pm.

Derp derp, I was doing the math wrong in my head. I had just woken up.

WTF is up with this start time?

This will be an interesting series of two rather evenly-matched teams.

I don't see the Twins moving any of their top prospects given their payroll situation. It won't be long until they absolutely need guys like Lee and Walker on the roster just to get above-average production for the league minimum. Correa, Buxton, and Lopez aren't going anywhere for awhile.

Rough end to the game last night.

Most years, not a lot happens in June trade-wise but this June has been particularly slow, with almost no note-worthy trades happening between teams. That's primarily due to two reasons: The new postseason format, as many predicted, is keeping more teams in the postseason race than ever before. The ridiculous amount of parity in the leagues, particularly the National League. As of this writing, only three American League teams and just two National League teams are clear sellers: Oakland, the White Sox, and the Angels in the AL, while Colorado and Miami are the only clear sellers in the NL. In the American League, 12 of the 15 teams are in a postseason position or within 7.5 games of the third Wild Card spot. In the National League, 13 of the 15 teams are in a postseason position or within just 3.0 games of the third Wild Card spot. As we head into July, it's likely we will see more stratification amongst the contenders and some teams will drop out of the race and eventually trade expiring contracts but it's hard to imagine many high-profile names moving in the first half of July. We could also see savvy teams like the Rays, currently 4.0 games out of the third Wild Card, take advantage of the seller's market and intentionally bow out of the race. On the other hand, some GMs/PoBOs should be concerned about their jobs, such as Jed Hoyer and the Cubs, and they may try to avoid making the obvious long-term decision of selling assets to improve in later seasons. Time will tell how this all plays out but don't expect much to happen in the coming days or even weeks. View full rumor