bean5302

I'd be awfully surprised if Woods-Richardson didn't stay a starting pitcher. He's got good stuff and 4 pitches.

Yep. Law didn't think much of Berrios until 2015 slating him as a likely bullpen arm with a ceiling of a #4 starter as I recall.

Anything for Robles was a win. Just like Happ, really.

Glad to see the Twins were able to move Happ, but I have to be honest. I can't fathom why Simmons is still on the roster. Pineda should have been moved as well. So having expiring contracts on the roster in a lost season isn't exciting to me. Overall, I think I'd give the front office a B. Berrios = A- The Twins got two better prospects than I was expecting, but the Twins got no help for 2022. Cruz = A The Twins got Ryan, who looks like he could be ready for to provide value in 2022. Strotman and Fauchner don't feel like they're a world apart, to be honest. Happ = A. Anything for Happ was going to be an A. Gant's peripherals look like a train wreck as he hasn't been ablet to hit the broad side of a barn this year, but he's had results somehow despite that? Evan Sisk is PTBNL quality, but that's more than nothing. Pineda = F With some expected solid value and an expiring contract, moving Pineda felt like an obvious must. The front office wasn't able to get it done. Simmons = D Simmons wasn't going to attract a ton of interest, but the Twins had a vested interest in freeing up some middle infield opportunities. When it comes to trades not made for players not on expiring contracts (Donaldson, Maeda, Buxton), I have no idea what was offered and there's no need for the Twins to sell any of them at all right now. Maeda is likely at a value low point right now, but likely to bounce back. Donaldson is playing well and the longer he plays, the smaller his contract gets. Buxton is still apparently an extension candidate for the Twins and no matter what happens, Buxton likely increases his value to the Twins front office with more time on the club this year. If he plays in more games, it increases his trade value and if he's unable to play more, it likely increases the likelihood he signs provided the Twins are still interested in extending him.

Craig Kimbrel to White Sox for Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/white-sox-to-acquire-craig-kimbrel.html I'd bet money the White Sox are in like Flynn on Story now that the Rockies have dropped their ask.

On a different note, article title says 7/27 instead of 7/29. It's all those trade rumors messing with our heads!!!

Interest in Byron Buxton Picking Up The Twins have already traded Nelson Cruz and Jose Berrios, and they’re surely not done for the day, with several other players to shop to contending clubs. Center fielder Byron Buxton’s market has picked up steam since last night, tweets Dan Hayes of The Athletic, although it’s no sure thing he’ll be moved just yet. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Phillies “love” Buxton and are one six or seven teams inquiring with the Twins. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/byron-buxton-trade-rumors-twins-phillies.html

Because Lewis may not be a SS and will start next year in A+ ball. Lewis will have missed 2 years and struggled in 2019.

Low A ball is two levels below AA. The two biggest steps in the minors, in my opinion are Low A to High A and High A to AA. This is especially the case after the restructuring. The competition level for Hassell is dramatically lower and he's probably an ETA of 2024-2025, cup of coffee in 2023 probably at the earliest. An .807 OPS in AA from a first year pro as a potential shortstop is way more impressive than a .855 OPS in Low A from a first year pro as a potential center fielder, even with the age difference. That said, Martin might have a tough row to hoe in becoming an MLB SS so that might slow him down a bit. He was primarily a 3rd baseman at Vandy before this past season when he saw more time in center field. His fielding percentage at AA SS lines right up with other Twins prospects at the position (which is to say very bad). Right now, I'd say Toronto is trying to maximize his value to the club by pushing the shortstop plan.

Tough to gauge true competition level at the Olympics, but what a great experience for him!

To play devil's advocate, Shoemaker bought into the Twins' idea to ditch his curveball and pound the zone with all his pitches sharing the same general location. He got shellacked when it wasn't working and rather than telling him to switch back, he was DFA'd. He knew the season numbers had killed his value so the likelihood of him landing on another team was weak. He took the demotion to AAA in order to prove he still had some gas in the tank to demo for an opportunity back at the MLB level either with the Twins or another team willing to trade for him. If he had declined the assignment to AAA, he would have been under the gun to latch on to another team and rebuild some semblance of value. Why not take the guaranteed opportunity to try and rebuild value?

Simon-Richardson was one of the big pieces in the Mets Stroman trade a couple years ago. 4 pitch pitcher. Fastball, chaneup, curve and slider. Seems like he ran into pretty massive, and unexpected, control problems this year, but he's a 20 year old pitching at AA after the lost 2020 season. A very nice write up on Simon-Richardson https://jaysjournal.com/2020/02/15/blue-jays-2020-top-prospects-4-simeon-woods-richardson/

I honestly don't think the Twins have been at all unlucky in 2021. They're just a very bad team. Not much stands out in terms of bad luck. Pythagorean, divisional records, 1 run games, extra inning performance. It all looks about how their record looks. I think the Twins went incredibly cheap in regard to both the rotation and bullpen, signed a tier 3 shortstop and had a few injuries. From what I saw, the Twins' injuries weren't nearly as bad as a lot of the competitive teams in the league, but I just don't think the Twins had any wiggle room. It feels like they built a team which was designed to compete when all the competitors in the division were still awful.

Santana was shut down early in the seasons to receive minor things like elbow chip cleanups when it wasn't necessary for the Mets. These kind of optional shutdowns happened multiple times. Santana remained one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball for them until the shoulder capsule, failed surgery and never ending rehab. In any case, it's not possible to view Santana's trade assuming the Twins would have been the same team in the future. Moreneau, Nathan and Cuddyer were all extended because the Twins had the money to make those extensions when Santana was traded. The lesson, to me, is not to overplay your hand. The return for Santana was very low and it was expected the Twins had received much better offers than what they finally took. Just like the Blue Jays' return for Stroman to the Mets a couple years ago. Piss everybody off, let your market dry up and then desperately pull the trigger. It's a bad look.

At a glance, it looks like they had him drop his curveball according to Baseball Info Solutions data. That said, it was a pretty rare pitch for him previously. His pitches all seemed to be more in the meat of the strike zone this year and previously, Shoemaker threw his 4 seamer and sinker up high, splitfinger fastball and curveball low in the zone and his slider in the center. Not sure if the Twins wanted him the pound the strike zone rather than work on the edges or what. Seems odd to want a guy to groove all his pitches right down the middle. Could just be a marginal guy on his last leg trying to blame somebody else for his decline. Still, awfully rare to see this kind of criticism.

Well, I can't disagree that everybody is probably sick and tired of the Dodgers at this point, but they've honestly only replaced the Giants as the NL West juggernaut. The Dodgers television deal was insane and unfair for the rest of MLB. It grants them an enormous competitive advantage. Their farm system has declined quite a bit in recent years, though, and the Dodgers just gave up their top pitching prospect. Their window may be closing and they've already got roughtly $150MM potentially commited to next year with a lot of rotation questions. Making the playoffs 9 years in a row is a problem for sure, but a lot of that stemmed from playing in a division with the Rockies, Padres and Diamondbacks coupled with a lot of NL teams sucking. All three of the weak division rivals were low budget and pretty awful most of the time.

They're trailing the Giants in the division right now and the Padres have a heck of a roster right behind the Dodgers. It's all but certain the NL West will have the Wild Card team. Also, with Bauer unlikely to show back up at the teams facilities and Kershaw on the IL, the Dodgers rotation was getting very thin. Picking up Turner probably doesn't make them a whole lot better than how Chris Taylor has been playing at SS so far. The Dodgers have some weaknesses.

Yeah. The place is other teams don't want to go for it. Too many teams are trying to be the Rays and they're no good at it.

Kepler was also playing a little beat up for a while because of other injuries. A lot of Kepler's value in 2019 came from him playing so much center field. I'd expect Kepler to play a bit better down the stretch and post a 2.0 WAR season or so. I think everybody was hoping Kepler was going to be a perennial All Star, but the Twins certainly aren't paying him for that level of production. It would have been a Christian Yelich style steal of a contract had Kepler taken a major step forward.

Red Sox aquire Kyle Schwarber from Nationals for pitching prospect Aldo Ramirez. I do not like this much. I wouldn't have been surprised if the Ramirez was part of the Berrios negotiations. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/red-sox-to-acquire-kyle-schwarber-from-nationals.html

It wasn't finalized until like 9:30pm our time, I don't think. But yeah, huge deal. The good news is it probably heats the Padres interest up in Berrios. If the Giants make a move, the Padres will be desperate haha.

I don't feel bad if guys were picked up from the waiver wire. That means another team wanted to assume their control/obligations. I just really find it unacceptable to see a guy be under team control until he's 35.

Agree entirely. If I were a betting person (which I'm not cause it's boring to me haha), I'd wildly guess some places like this: Verlander - Tigers Kershaw - Dodgers Scherzer - Giants Greinke - Dodgers Syndergaard - Mets Stroman - Red Sox Gausman - Giants Gray - Tigers Cobb - Yankees Cueto - Twins Morton - Braves Kikuchi - Mariners Duffy - Royals Pineda - Twins Arrieta - Orioles Hamels - Rays Lester - Retirement Please keep in mind, I hate the names chosen for the Twins here.

Yeah, that's utterly horrible. I'd be eliminating that in the next CBA hands down if I was the MLBPA. https://www.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/free-agency#:~:text=Definition,the two parties can agree. "Players become free agents upon reaching six years of Major League service time or when they are released from their organization prior to reaching six years of service time. A free agent is eligible to sign with any club for any terms to which the two parties can agree. If a player with fewer than six years of service time signs with a club, he remains under the control of that club until reaching the requisite service time to reach free agency -- even if the contract he signed does not cover the remaining years until that point."

I definitely understand where you're coming from on the advantage for the Twins, it's just Berrios is going to make maybe $10MM next year. If the Twins had offered him 5 / 125 or a 6 / 150 including an option, including a replacement of his 2022 salary, I just find it hard to believe Berrios wouldn't have jumped at it or at least we'd have heard about it in a leak. Of course, the fact we've heard a lot on Buxton's situation and nothing on Berrios may just point to Buxton or his agent being the leak.