bunsen82

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/02/twins-claim-jackson-kowar.html Full circle - Twins claimed Jackson who was DFA'd after Twins traded Pereda for cash. Couldn't we have made this a simpler transaction?

Do I win a candy bar? So we really needed to net that extra $50k didn't we? https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/02/twins-claim-jackson-kowar.html

Hell, why not pick him up and horde low end backup catchers. Someone is going to need one sooner or later. I wouldn't be surprised if someone trades with the Reds.

I can't argue with that take one bit. I feel like we have a mashed up roster anyways this year, if he is the extra bat we are carrying so be it.

Jackson has more value long-term than this year. The Twins have control through 2028. I just don't see why you would want to carry him through this year. I still think Jackson is flipped for something useful. I could see him and a minor prospect being flipped for a decent reliever for a team in need. We need a 7th inning, 8th inning guy. Can we find someone we would match up with that may have a significant injury with minimal depth. maybe.

https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/latroy-hawkins-says-tommy-kahnle-one-of-the-worst-teammates-ive-ever-had-in-my-life Granted, this was almost 10 years ago, but I doubt Kahnle will be signed with Latroy being the bullpen coach.

I will bet $20 neither Adams or Klein are on the opening 26 man unless there are injuries. They have mentioned or implied to 2 more additions to the bullpen. I guess if they sign Kahnle we can see some blowups with Hawkins LOL. Needless to say I doubt either party is interested. But that cuts the options down by 1 and this is as Robertson has retired. Suter, Kopech is my best hope now.

The majority of the underperformance came from not competing in the 2nd half of 2025, otherwise they would be at .500 but your point stands. My concern isn't so much that Falvey new he was going to be fired at some point so they mutual agreed now rather than continue the charade for 4 more months, its that Joe claims they are winning. I was semi optimistic after the Rogers signing, but was imperative that we signed Dominguez. In my opinion he was the last closer option with significant experience. If you got him and 1 more reliever of the Kahnle, Suter, Sewald level, I could see a decent bullpen, with them supplementing through the season with young players. You were at the last options, you had to capitalize. At least with Falvey I felt there was a plan. It may not be great but there is a sound well developed plan. With Joe all I get is hope. He thinks he can turn a .10 cent bullpen into a playoff caliber bullpen because he wished it.

We have an extra spot, it is a no brainer move, why they would do it now with us having an open spot is odd.

We were unwilling to meet Joe Ryan in the middle until push came to shover over 500k, but we can find the money to Valdez, why don't we just extend Ryan?

He thinks 95% of the problems were related to Falvey. Thats at best what I can figure, and that Falvey was holding up improving the team, even though that was going to be the only way he could keep his job. Its some pretty convoluted thinking. It just shows how much Bean disliked Falvey.

Polanco - 1.3 WAR - he was resigned last year and now a new contract For Desclafani - 0, Topa .6 War, Gonzalez #4-#8 prospect (fringe top 100 guy), Bowen 24 year old 5 ERA at AA, fastball 94-97, good sweeper (30+ prospect) This is probably a top 10 move on Falveys record as of right now.

So you agree then Toms expectations is unreasonable. Thats all I was asking for. Thanks. As for half measure owner, we now have an owner with no experience and a GM of baseball ops that has 1 year of experience. Sure seems like a 1/2 measure. An owner who has unrealistic expectations and Zoll who has been thrust into the roll after gaining his role last year. Another 1/2 measure, what has Tom done about that bullpen?

I would argue the Correa signing was the worst thing The Twins and Falvey did. It put a noose around their neck. I would argue 1. It forced us to try to move Lewis around the field rather than leave him at Shortstop that caused 1 major significant injury. 2. The salary is what limited other moves to help the team in 2024 and 2025. I said resigning him to the longterm contract would be the Twins undoing. The Sonny Gray trade is #1 in my book, directly followed by the Pablo Lopez trade as the best trades. Those were taking current assets and turning them into Pitching where we were extremely weak. My biggest concern is always willing to have a good team. We were never willing to go through a rebuild and try to really stock the system and go for it all. When it actually looks like we have come to our senses, we reverse course again.

Then he should have been let go in November. He wasn't. It appears Tom is a micromanager. Quote - Joe had trust in Falvey would let him operate, now with a new manager, new scrutiny is necessary but it goes beyond that. Tom came in to pick a fight as you said to show the rest of the family he wasn't fit. You can talk of the faults, while ignoring his .520 winning percentage. If Tom says its the family's fault for pulling back on salaries and not investing that caused the underperformance, I think you have to acknowledge the family/ownerships effect on the last 2 years. If you want to parrot the family's case be my guest. Its not say Falvey couldn't have done better, but have the Pohlads been a positive impact on the Twins winning, I think everyone will admit readily admit they have not. Falvey didn't get fired. Period. Was he on thin ice yes. He said I am done I am not playing the game that Tom had set up. I don't think you understand the term mutual decision. That is not a firing. Falvey was willing to step away because most of the stink is not on him. He can easily get another job. Individuals like you and a couple others have disliked Falvey for years. Fair enough. Lets not create things, or ignore the reporting that has occurred. If Tom has set the Bar - you think Falvey failed to adapt or took his ball elsewhere - will Tom hold himself to the same bar he just set. Here's a bet then Bean, will Twins have a winning record. Since you are team Tom you seem to think they can win? I will gladly take the bet they are under .500. See this is the whole game, Tom says they have to win yet no rational person, no betting site, no baseball individual says this is a rational goal. But you seem to be arguing that it is. So if thats the bar a .500 season are you willing to take the bet. @USAFChief you can get on the bet as well if you wish.

Anything is on the table. Tom still insists they need to win. I do think he will be more than willing to listen to Zolls ideas and assist him, as currently Tom and Zoll are bearing the brunt of Tom's expectations, rather than Falvey.

So Tom comes in wanting to prove Falvey isn't right for the job - and likely making his life difficult and goals unachievable, to ultimately fire him. I think you are missing the story, Tom made it clear to Falvey he wasn't going to last in the position, but Falvey is the one who pulled the ripcord and Tom gladly accepted because he didn't have to do the dirty work. When you come in with the goal of firing someone, the other individual has 2 choices, quit or wait to be fired. FYI that is terrible management practices. Set achievable goals and expectations, if they can't achieve then fine. However now, all the onus is on Tom. Is Tom going to fire himself if the Twins don't win. Not likely so why isn't he holding himself to the same standard.

To be fair it is being said, Tom has said he is unwilling to trade Ryan . . . hence what the Rays, Brewers and Indians do. Follow the dots, he will plummet the value of 2 superior assets for longterm viability of the organization to try to put more buts in the seat for a year or two. What experience or knowledge of Tom, Shelton and Jeremy Zoll tells you they are going to 1. Be able to win this year (still haven't addressed the bullpen and there are no high leverage arms left - except for Kopech who comes with his own risk) 2. Be able to steer this organization to future success. If they do it, it will be on the back of the players Falvey has brought into the organization. The true impossible task was to change Toms opinion of Falvey. It was clear Tom wanted him gone, and there was virtually nothing other than going very deep in the playoffs that would have forced Toms hand to keep him. No one wants to work in that environment.

The theory would be with also removing Correa you had ample salary to rebuild - you would have reloaded the system with prospects, gotten the #3 draftpick, and you could have rebuilt a bullpen if you wanted to remain competitive. Also if you wanted to remove the closer you could have done the rest for $18 million. The post I responded to said you couldn't rebuild a bullpen. To be fair I think your post acknowledges thats not a bad bullpen. Granted had we gotten involved, the entire relief market salaries goes up due to additional demand. The divorce isn't over the budget, its over the control and vision, are we trying to win a few more games in 2026 or trying to set the Twins up for the longterm, and its apparent no matter what happened in 2026, Falveys tenure was ending. Tom acknowledged as much. If that is the workplace environment no wonder Falvey said I am ready to go.

6 weeks later, you have hit the nail on the head. Nothing more has been done on the bullpen front and we are now without Falvey because Tom insists that we must win this year, but has put 0 financial resources into rebuilding a bullpen. He is effectively saying he knows more that Falvey, and that is dangerous. The sad situation is Tom is effectively our GM and Zoll will just be executing the vision.

He gave Falvey an impossible task - be competitive with minimal resources. Tom's focus isn't on the longterm value of the Twins. Say what you will that was Falvey's focus. Tom is focused on maximizing the sale price of the team and he doesn't care about 2028 moving forward.

This is awesome work by Froemming. This is a month old. But wow. 1st at bat is the second worst hitter in all of baseball 2nd at bat - top 15% at bat Does better against relievers and better pitchers that weaker and poorer pitchers. Is making too much contact on pitchers pitches as I had mentioned earlier. Better than average #'s high leverage and teams above .500 records. I really do think he has a good chance of doing very well this year. He does well against better pitching, portends he can figure out what to do well pitchers with less stuff -trying to induce weak contact which Lee has been doing.

I disagree, had you spend $30-$35 million you could have rebuilt to have an effective bullpen. Nothing great but effective. Saurez 15 million, Dominguez, $10 million, Armstrong $6 million, Rogers 2 million Throw in Sands, Funderburk, Topa Festa. That would be a pretty effective bullpen that i think most would have been ok with. Their issue is they are stating they want to win, they aren't willing to spend and not trade significant assets. We traded Kisting for Orze. This bullpen will have arms, but not high leverage arms. I extremely question the philosphy. For this I will agree with you about the deadline trade implosion. What we have seen since, is that the Pohlads have pressed the gas pedal and stopped multiple times in the last year. They were finally willing to sell off, and now they want to reverse course on a rebuild, and act like everything is fine and they are set to compete again. Tom is telling bigger fairy tales than I told to my kids back in the day. If the plan was to compete, they should have kept Duran, Varland and Stewart. I am ok trading Jax as he was disgruntled. The only way it works is someone like Festa takes a Duran path, and you sign someone like Kopech and he suddenly has health and dominant stuff. Then the rest of the bullpen could fill their spots and maybe you pick up a reliever at the deadline. The odds of this is like below 3%.

Robertson retired and many of the options discussed intitially have signed elsewhere. We did sign Rogers to $2 million, but also traded away Ohl who I likely would have had in the bullpen. So what is the current bullpen as constructed. Currently it appears the Twins will have not signed or traded for any high leverage reliever. RP - Sands, Topa, Funderburk, Rogers Orze, Klein, Festa, FA/Trade Free agents still available - 1. Kopech - ??? - Last remaining reliever with high fastball high upside, but injuries and underperformance. he had nearly 1 BB per an inning. Small sample size. 2. Kahnle - $4.8 million - stats not great last year, very good 2 previous years 3. Suter - $4.4 million - similar to Suter struggled last year, pretty good the previous years 4. Sewald - $4.3 - 2 years of underperformance 5. Coloumbe - $4.3 - not sure he is an option now with rogers. Another lefty but I do think he can give you innings. Struggled with Texas 6. Paddack doubt we would have a reunion especially after his comments last year 7. Chafin - $4.1 million low ERA last year high whip Maybe they convert a starter. These options are not great, the only one with a high ceiling is Kopech, but are bringing in an arm with his injury history to hold down a spot. This is the Brock Stewart template though. If things went right, he could be a high leverage reliever. He has the experience at the MLB level. They keep talking about adding multiple arms. So at this point I think we have 2 arms being added and then Klein goes back down to AAA. Kopech and 1 of Kahnle or Suter would be the best outcome of the current situation. Thats not to say I think this is good. We need more reliability. Edit: Hadn't see it earlier but the #2 option remaining option is likely gone. Hawkins stating Kahnle is the worst teammate he has ever had is likely a no go.

In theory the bullpen should be the easiest to fix. I think your assessment of the players as constructed currently is fair. The future depends highly on Lewis becoming a star and maybe he can follow a Buxton Path, I just don't see it. If he does, you could have Lewis, Culpepper, Keaschall, 1st, Buxton, Jenkins, Rodriguez, and Caratini Yes its counting on 4 prospects and Lewis becoming a star, that is still has some high upside potential for 2027.