bean5302

He's got no options so he'll either be in the rotation or the bullpen. It's his job to lose in Spring Training. As it stands right now, there are 4 spots which are pretty much locks in the rotation AFAIC. 1 Pablo Lopez (no options) 2 Joe Ryan (3 options has only 4yrs service time) 3 Bailey Ober (1 option has only 4 yrs service time) 4 Simeon Woods Richardson (no options) Leaving the 5th spot open for Taj Bradley (1 option) Zebby Matthews (2 options) David Festa (2 options) Mick Abel (2 options) Kendry Rojas (3 options) Connor Prielipp (3 options) Andrew Morris (3 options) SWR has a lot of fans around here with his smoke and mirrors results show. I'm not one of his advocates primarily because he hasn't demonstrated the endurance needed for a starter role despite a sizable sample at this point. That said, he got the results needed from a #4-5 arm when he was on the mound.

I am consistent because I look at more than just the numbers I like. Yes, these kinds of fungible relievers do fall out of trees. Just because Zoll was willing to give up prospect capital money to get Banda doesn't mean other teams were. The Dodgers didn't DFA Banda expecting a big payout. They were hoping for a sucker and found one. These types of relievers get DFA'd all the time. Michael Tonkin has a better track record than Banda for example, he was DFA'd about 824 times in the last couple years, and he's on the free agent market right now. Want a better reliever? Danny Columbe is still available. Plenty of relievers on MiLB contracts with better track records than Banda like Scott Blewett.

I haven't seen much supporting these kinds of assumptions, but they certainly seem widespread. As if SS is way less stressful than 2B or 3B. Same motions, just literally a couple fewer plays a game.

Jeremy Zoll can get canned any time now. Any fan in the forum is apparently just as skilled as he is at identifying talent. The maximum amount of "mid" allowed for a move I can possibly generate. Banda isn't exactly "impressive" against lefties. He was downright abysmal vs. righties. A 5.66 BB/9? That 5.54 FIP and 5.07 xFIP are generous.

Prielipp is definitely going to continue starting now that Falvey has been moved out of the way.

Canterino has almost no sample size above the low minors, he walked everybody in sight at AA and was the beneficiary of a super low BABIP. His xFIP suggests he was hardly "dominant" he was just lucky. Prielipp actually had some substantial experience at AA, and despite being his first full season back from TJ, showed far better control than Canterino, and had much more impressive (dominant) expected stats. Something which could be projected.

Prielipp had a failed TJ surgery 5 years ago which needed to be re-done. Prielipp doesn't have any injury problems.

I think Falvey micromanaged with an iron fist.

Great non-guaranteed signing. Not sure how many modern day Mariano Rivera's fans in here think are on the market right now, but it's zero, just for the record. This is the RP free agent market right now. Several are better than Chris Paddack, who just signed for 5x the league minimum despite deserving a MiLB contract, just in case anybody was checking. Hendriks needs to get some control back and an uptick for velocity. I doubt he'll be able to do it, but he's not under guaranteed contract. The upside is pretty huge, downside is negligable

I'm sure Tampa Bay's coaches were trying to encourage Taj to improve his prep, and it goes to my concern he was just arrogant and uncoachable like I suspect SWR was. Seems like the trade might have been the move that hit home for Bradley to recognize his career was trending towards ending sooner than later, just like SWR having no options and coming into 2024 as a rotation long-shot was a wake up call for SWR his career was coming to a end soon. It's actually highly concerning for attitudes like that in the long run. Players who have to be motivated by outside forces can sometimes work hard for a year or two, get the big guaranteed payday and then coast again.

Yeah, last year's 4.37 xFIP isn't good at all, but it's "passable" for a pre-arb player on team like the Twins as a #5. That said, Bradley's previous 2 seasons of xFIP were 3.62 (better than any significant starter on the Twins last year) and 3.83 (as good or better than any significant starting pitcher not named Joe Ryan last year) The far higher xFIP in 2025 is obviously related to Bradley's struggles with location. His K rate absolutely cratered and his BB rate increased substantially. Bradley needs to throw strikes, but without the strikes being meatballs.

Grade = F Standard operating procedure for Falvey run front offices. Bullpen? Not addressed. SS? Not addressed. DH? Not addressed. Bunch of depth signings we don't need? Addressed.

SWR was uncoachable until his last opportunity weeks before his career washed out in 2024 when he went to Twins coaches and asked for help. I don't know about his analytics knowledge. Your claim seems quite sensational, as if you're close personal friends with these players. In any case, if SWR can teach Bradley anything, it's to accept coaching. The Twins didn't make Ryan's fastball effective. It was his only good pitch when we traded for him. The added velocity came from adding even more extension, which was designed to improve his other pitches' performance. Tampa was in contention. They were 1.5 GB from the Wild Card. Yes, there's reason to be concerned Taj Bradley will be a Brandon Pfaadt. Very good stuff, but it just doesn't seem to convert to the scoreboard. The fact Bradley continues to throw so many meatballs and locate his stuff in the middle of the zone to get crushed is concerning. Tampa developed Joe Ryan, who didn't have exceptional "ride" on his fastball, it's performance was just attributed to being deceptive on his release point and arm angle. Aside from that, Tampa has a long history of developing high performing arms. I don't know why Tampa's front office was throwing in the towel on Bradley. Maybe he was uncoachable like SWR was for the Twins until his time ran out?

Bradley's problem isn't pitch selection or quality. It's meatballs.

Per MLBTR, looks like Verlander is headed back to Detroit. He was very good towards the end of the season so there's reason for Detroit to be optimistic about his value. At just $13MM, seems like a steal to me. Maybe he took a discount to make a trip back to where it all started for him. Tigers probably just got better, and I feel they were already favorites for the division. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/02/tigers-sign-justin-verlander.html

If it's anything like previous seasons, that's not true. The team would be about 60-40 at the deadline so Falvey/Zoll could pretend it was a playoff team before they could utterly collapse in the 2nd half as the front office does nothing. 19-43 as the worst team in baseball rolls out busted up players desperately needing IL time and big gaps in the roster they pretend doesn't exist. I mean, the Twins do 79-83 with STYLE! LOL

Paddack isn't replacing Adams or Klien, he'd be counted on to be one of the most commonly used pitchers at $4MM. 5.25 ERA or a 5.75 ERA? If a heavily used bullpen arm is that bad, does it really matter? At that point are we arguing whether the Twins win 55 games or 56?

Let me put it a more direct way. Paddack is a terrible pitcher, and not just when he's starting. The 5.35 ERA across all of last year didn't get better out of the 'pen. The guy owns a 5.23 ERA and a 4.70 FIP over the past 3 years combined. The illusion of his 5.0 IP as a reliever performance in 2023 seems to be the sample size you must be considering relevant? Paddack can't strike anybody out, he doesn't generate ground balls, he gets hit hard in general and he's homer prone. He sucks, and it's shocking to me Miami signed him to an MLB contract because he sure as heck wasn't going to get signed by anybody else.

Tom Pohlad has stated there's still payroll capacity. Minnesota's projected payroll is about 50% higher than the lowest team in MLB, but it's likely going to remain soundly in the bottom 1/3rd. Probably 24th-25th.

His 7.82 ERA as a reliever last year was definitely impressive. Probably about as good as Urshela on the mound.

No kidding, so disrespectful to Royce... or is Royce hurt? Regardless, Urshela isn't an MLB caliber player. Not sure what this move is about at all.

Falvey gonna Falvey Zoll gonna Falvey

Here's what I make of the comments. Tom wants to improve attendance and he thinks the team being competitive will do that (as a prior season ticket holder, I will say it will not). The only thing which will make a difference in attendance is leading the division decisively throughout the entire year, IMHO, and the Twins are serious underdogs vs. the Tigers at this point. One of my biggest problems with the Pohlads is they cater to the wrong markets because they arrogantly think they understand the fan base despite having every metric and indicator they do not. Want to put butts in the seats? Good giveaways, and enough of them so everybody has a chance to get one. Focus on fan experience INSIDE the ball park. The surveys the Twins have sent out always focus on the parking/transit, safety around the park, entry into the game. Never on the quality of the experience DURING THE GAME. Focus on increasing the desirability of attending Twins games for people who do have disposable income now or in the near future. Stop concentrating on making 4yr olds happy. Great, glad you feel good about yourself, but 4yr olds have zero dollars today and zero dollars for another 15 years, and by the time 10 years has passed, baseball is considered lame, replaced by cool sports. Basically, make games fun to attend for the people paying to go there... That said, the disconnect between the Tom's comments about the team being competitive vs. the same 'ol, same 'ol dumpster dive AAAA depth mountain team Falvey always builds are more in context by the firing of Falvey.

Yeah, I do not get Larnach + Bell on the roster at all. Maybe Zoll will shake things up, but I would have expected that to have already happened. Zoll = Falvey, Jr. I expect.

Nobody likes them. I don't understand how Joe Pohlad could not have foreseen the problem. Minnesota is the "North Star State" but the North Star is the primary source of night time navigation for... mariners. That's what the cap looks like to me. Mariners.