bunsen82

We had 1 million remaining, in general they keep around 250k-500k for the rest of the year to see if anything pops up. We still haven't heard about Angel Ozuna. We supposedly were going to sign him to 500k deal but he never showed up on our signing list. If that deal fell through and this was the money used, I really don't have a qualm about using the money to get a reliever. Remember Angel is the prospect that lied about his age and is closer to 19 years old. Still good athlete and a good bat, but no longer the upside originally projected and although his parents and handlers did it, there is some questions about his ethics ect. For our purposes it makes this really clean. Would anyone have had a qualm about trading Angel Ozuna for Banda? I don't think so.

It was more the call we should get him that I made last Friday. Lets be clear what Banda is, he is a pitcher absolutely maximizing what he is to be a consistent mlb reliever and has been outperforming on an ERA basis vs his actual stuff. If he continues to be low 3 ERA reliever for the next 2 years its a no brainer. I expect to use him in a similar type situation to what he was used last year. Maybe the Twins can find a bit more in him, but effectively I think he will a 3.8 ish reliever. For me he is on a level of a Kahnle. So lets be clear I am not stating he is closer material. He is a solid reliever. For a bullpen of suspects he is another good one to add to the group. This move raises the offseason from a D to D+ so I can like the move in and of itself and still acknowledge the Twins haven't near done enough. Kopech is the only player who I would raise to a C-. They needed to be willing to spend 20+ million on the bullpen to have what would be a strong competent bullpen and they just didn't do it.

I am wondering if there is a secondary trade coming.

At least you are consistent. Banda was obviously in decent demand to get 500k in international money. These types of relievers just don't fall out of trees like you stated (fyi I haven't seen another reliever of Banda's level get dfa'd in the last week, still waiting on these relievers dfa'd all the time) and I do think the Twins are going to tryin to improve his arsenal. In either case he was utilized in more leverage situations and other than Sands - and previously Rogers no one else is likely fully up to the task. In my opinion we are up to 2 leverage arms, assuming a step up by Sands. In my opinion you need 1 more and I would prefer to take the chance on Kopech who can be your high velocity closer. Its a chance but at this point, this is a bullpen that can be decent and possibly overperform.

They have stated they were willing to add 2 additions to the bullpen and were willing to spend up to $10 million. I still think there is 1 more reliever yet to come, and with paying minimal for Banda, I think Kopech is the target.

Someone that the Twins likely wouldn't have access to. More likely than not, Dodgers will move one of their signees that qualify for the 2026 year rather than run them through their 2027 allotment. It was 500k, which was higher than I expected. In either case we had 4-5 signees this year for that amount I would have traded for Banda straight up.

I understand the theory, but we didn't use our full allotment.

To be fair we got a lot more in return than a little international money. It appears though that itch hasn't been fully scratched for you yet.

Granted its self inflicted, but he goes from being the #4 LH although 1 of them is purely due to money, to likely being the #1 left hander for the Twins. That pecking order could change.

The Twins already signed their players Rigby. If its the 2026 allotment which it should be there is literally zero downside, unless you miss out on someone late in the year. You picked up a legit reliever with 2 -3 years of control and only costing $1.6 million. If we are trying to compete this year, this trade is a necessity. If we are tanking then no.

Boom. Told you guys. Now we will see how much. This is a nice addition to the allotment of arms, and logistically it cost us zero (excess international allotment).

First off, a FIP of 2.99 - wow I didn't realize it was that low, fielding must have been terrible for him. What I do remember was he was having some location issues in the first couple of games, and he was tipping the secondary pitches. The hitters were spitting on them and not respecting the secondary pitches and just sitting on the fastball. That last game shows, when teams have to respect the secondary pitches that fastball really plays up especially at 98mph. Abel has legit stuff. He is still young and it was his first experience also with lots of changes from the Twins https://www.mlb.com/twins/video/mick-abel-s-nine-strikeouts-six-scoreless-innings Go watch that. So he got 9 strike outs - he made them look silly. When he has the command, the velocity and the seconday pitches have to be respected, he can be a #1 type pitcher. He can be a very good #2 pitcher and there isn't much imagination needed.

Tampa has historically tried to trade for closers, but in this case, I think they were more willing to just be done with Bradley and extract the most value they could. Odds are Twins win this trade, and they could massively win the trade if Bradley performs like a #2 or #3 starter.

D - Its only because I think the performance will be better than what we currently have listed for the bullpen. However they did extremely little to support the Pen. This had always been the Falvey way, so will this continue. For this year it sure looks like it. There is 1 more possible closer if everything went right in Kopech, and 2-3 reliever arms left that could be nice depth pieces. Lets say we end up with a Kopech and Banda or Kahnle- I may move it to C+. You rebuilt a bullpen but you just got it back to suitable. Which we have lineup that is ok, and then the only strength is the starting pitching. Not changing ownership, really messed up this season in my opinion and the long term of this team. Ryan should have been traded no questions asked. If Buxton was ready to be traded, trade him as well, everyone feels like this is a subpar team, might as well gone all the way and rebuilt with a young team, and taken our lumps. I don't want to be told we are competing with a very slim shot of being able to do that.

Most of it is people just upset with the trades. It would be like saying Joe Ryan should have been flipped to the bullpen. They haven't even given him an offseason to see if they can continue to make some mechanical adjustments, making sure the pitches are tunneling - not giving tells (I am almost positive the white Sox had something on him - they crushed him every time they saw him) then improve the control and ride on the fastball. Yes there is quite a bit of work, but there was* some pretty good stuff to work with even a year ago. The stuff was already improved by the end of the year.

FYI - I am not aware of any information stating SWR is uncoachable - I think the opposite is actually occurring. From the limited interviews, he seems to be someone who is 100% committed and lives and breathes it. His issue his stuff just isn't quite as good. He came in with an expectation the Fastball velocity would increase and it actually decreased a bit until last year. Last year and I think a little bit the year before they worked on increasing his velocity. Thats quite a difference than Bradley admitting he effectively did no homework or prep for a game start. He showed up each day and that was that. I will agree with you, there is a concern this could be a significant issue, but I will say I was impressed with the changes he made.

The offseason program was going to be very important for both Abel and Bradley, and Festa and Matthews for that matter.

@jmlease1 - I fully agree. He has a wide variety of performance ability, you still wonder how Tampa who a couple here want to tout so much, let his arm mechanics get so far off. Losing velocity and performance. Bradleys first year in the big leagues - he came in with a higher velocity fastball - then it began to pull back 3 mph to the lower 90's. As I said there is a lot of low hanging fruit - mechanical adjustments, pitch mix location, doing the necessary homework. You start getting more performances like the last one, we should be pretty happy. The 7 run outtings need to be few and far between. Even though last year was more of a work in progress situation.

No - he has better stuff that Joe Ryan coming over. Ryan averaged 91 mph on his fastball when he came to the Twins. Bradley was averaging 93 and they increased it to 97 mph. Just like Ryan the fastball has excellent ride. If you want my personal opinion, Tampa is not great at maximizing players that have a fastball that carries. With the Fastball becoming more effective, utilizing the curve, and maximizing the use of the splitter and slider - he has a pitch mix that could be pretty dominant. I think the front office was just not seeing it with Bradley anymore. Gave up on him for the Twins disgruntled Jax.

This really comes down to making the fastball more effective. They have experience with a rising fastball with Ryan. I am sure they will work on the shape. All players that effectively come over are hype and hope @whitey333. https://www.mlb.com/twins/video/taj-bradley-s-nine-strikeouts-x4204 They made some significant mechanical changes with Bradley. He averaged 96.9 mph on the fastball - the highest for a month he has his entire career. He increased strikeout rate while decreasing his walk rate and ended on a really strong note. There were also thoughts he would increase the splitter use with the Twins. He kind of stated that hadn't used as much, and part of the reason he didn't have much control when he came over. What are the knocks I see. In his career he has too many blowups. When things are not going his way he really struggles to limit damage. I do think with better stuff and more confidence the performances would go up. I got roasted a bit for this take, Personally I think Taj hadn't put in the effort necessary to be successful at the big league level - more so on the homework or mental side. Prior to coming over to the Twins he had never gone over scouting reports of the opposing team. He effectively relied entirely on the catcher. But even with that - he never knew to say avoid the inside fastball on on a player or always miss away. He rose up the system purely on talent, at this level he is going to have to work more on his craft to be a successful pitcher. I really want him and SWR best buddies, as SWR has an incredible amount of knowledge for his age, and puts in a ton of work on the research, history, analytics and report side. Next to Lopez he is probably #2 in our organization. There is quite a bit of low hanging fruit in my opinion to improve Taj this year. As of now my baseline is a a #3 pitcher with upside to be a #2. I think the Twins will make that fastball a pretty effective pitch just like they did with Joe Ryan. Throw in the splitter, slider and finish with the elite curveball. That can be a pretty dang effective pitcher.

You still don't have a cogent argument that he wasn't good at trading players. I bring WAR into the equation. You state that doesn't work. Then you state need to get the best player in the trade. Thats what the Twins did in the majority of the trades. Just acknowledge he had some good trades and move on. On a strictly WAR basis yes the Pablo trade was basically a wash. There is some additional value that may or may not be extracted. Fair enough? The Arraez tree has ended.

Nope had surgery to tighten up the shoulder. They are hoping it reduces the constant muscle strains in the shoulder. I give it 20% chance of working similar to a Buxton issue. Sometimes the procedure makes a massive difference.

How many think Orze, Funderburk, Sands, Topa, and Rogers will make it through the season with ok to good stuff? I expect 3-4 to be able to make and 1-2 will struggle or get injured. Even with young arms we need 1-2 more options reliable or not to add to the mix. My preference would be 7 relievers with experience then rotating through 1 spot with young relievers or the AAA invitees. There is no fireman or closer in this group. Sands has the best potential and Funderburk flashed. Orze may be able to give you some innings. Beyond that there isn't much that gives me confidence.

What do you need from a bullpen - you need them to provide innings, and then you need 1 to really good arms that can get you out of jams and possibly a closer. We have 5 bullpen arms, all of them with questions. I could see 2 fall apart and I don't think anyone would question that. We need more arms including the younger ones. In my opinion as said above - if we are going with a bullpen of suspects we might as well increase our odds. Its why I see Banda as a valuable arm - but by all accounts many organizations feel the same way, initial reports are several teams are working with the Dodgers on a trade. There is 1 mention above, and its a true flyer, but its a flyer with upside. Canterino. I was beyond surprised to see him added to spring training. He had surgery late last march with an anticipated recovery time of 12 months and potentially 14 for him because he throws hard and has had a such an injury risk. If he is a healthy - major if but on the level of a beef stew, he could legitimately become a closer or set up man if the shoulder and elbow can hold up. The early converted arms and bullpen arms are Klein, Raya, and Adams. Maybe Raya can figure it out, I just don't have much hope for him. Festa and Matthews seem like your best arms that could really become elite bullpen arms. For Festa it may be his best option. They can come up with a solid bullpen but its definitely going to be a work in progress. I don't think they found the 1 elite arm they really needed to hold things together. At this point even though they keep saying they are involved with big trades I am not seeing it.

My issue is they claim to want to be competitive, they know they need more relievers - stating they need to acquire at minimum 2 more. They supposedly have $10 million potentially more available, and so far we have gotten nothing. You affectively have to sign Kopech and hope he is healthy and affective.