bunsen82

You burn it to the ground, run a 60 million salary, replenish with prospects and get a good draft 2026 and good draft 2027. Put more money into the draft and evaluating players. With minority owners having paid the debt that should have resolved a majority of the interest payment and the income statement should be fine. Just look at the Pirates, 1 of 2 orgs making a profit. Do a multi year rebuild similar to Baltimore and Houston, and hope come out better on the other side. Now we get 2 more years of Ryan and Lopez and you better hope they don't get injured. You have 2 more chances to trade them, deadline and after this year. After that its effectively pointless, and both will get you a compensation pick most likely. You had already burned the fanbase, there were only a few like myself who thought they could still pull of a decent rebuild, but still preferred the full tear down. Fan morale was/is in the dumpster, not trading them hasn't changed it much, just go look at X posts and the response. F the pohlads, you suck, sell the team, my grandma would be better than you. I have no confidence that Tom can pull off a similar performance to Falveys 2019. Remember they spend some on that year on free agents back in 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6593081/2025/09/05/twins-fan-survey-pohlad-falvey-resulst/ 98.5% of fans wanted the Pohlads to sell the team, and they messed that up, so here we are. I can understand why Falvey and Tom didn't agree on the vision.

The decision to tear it down was the Pohlads, now was it just Joe saying yes to Falvey or was the family in agreement at the time. I think the family agreed with it. Then they got eviscerated for it and couldn't handle the heat coming from the kitchen. So they fired the owner (Joe) - replaced with (Tom) - Fired the cook (Falvey) - Fired the Maitre d - Baldelli (replaced with Shelton - worse historical record). The Sous Chef with no personality is now the chef (Zoll) and we are told there is no fire and everything will be great.

@Richie the Rally Goat - 1 other thing. I understand your opinion on Falvey maybe wasn't cutting anymore. But 1 then this analogy came into my head which we have seen happen plenty of times. New person gets the CEO job (Tom) with no experience, tells 10 year manager we are going to do (A,B,C,D) - the manager tells the CEO why this isn't feasible. CEO says I don't care this is what we are doing. Manager decides this isn't the job for him anymore if he isn't going to be respected and the CEO is going to burn the business. CEO is initially happy because he is getting rid of someone who is telling him his ideas are wrong. What we are left with is a company who has no manager and a CEO who knows nothing about baseball operations. Yikes.

To be fair he choose this. There is likely some type of payout occurring. He is still highly regarded in the MLB community and if he wants it will get another GM job or will be the #2 in an organization. Personal feelings aside, overall has led a pretty good organization that then got handcuffed by ownership. I think a lot of MLB people are going to give some leeway on the last 2 years.

Thats my stance, Ryan and Lopez have more value than everyone we traded last year combined. So if this was the purge year to begin the rebuild, and to fully stock up the prospects to give it a run, what does Ryan and Pablo give you this year, if you can't be competitive. .500 is the mark I have effectively stated. Those season ticket holders aren't coming back because you kept Lopez and Ryan. If that was his thought process, yes its clear he is not fully cognizant of the situation. Where would you personally be if they rebuilt a bullpen with 25-30 million and a trade. Raisel Iglesias 16 million Dominguez 10 million Rogers 2 million Orze Trade (needed something more) - other than Brock Burke nothing great on the trade market Sands Topa Funderburk Festa That is effectively $26 million more than we spent, but effectively you are a little lighter on the closer role, I might like Dominguez a little better than Jax, and Festa could fill in the role Varland had. They aren't as good, but that would be a solid bullpen and I think most would say they did decent with the trades, got a higher draft pick but you did rebuild the pen. At that point the position players becomes the primary focus.

I would argue 2023 was a better team. You had pitching and hitting. The depth was there on that team that was the best constructed team in the last decade. Otherwise after 9 years if you only effectively have a couple trades and prospects to show for it, granted a .520 winning % as well and 4 appearances in the postseason, there is some validity to the vision and how to get there. There is no bullpen because you traded it for some prospects. That appears to be dictated by the family but that still isn't clear. Otherwise Keashall looks pretty good, Lewis still has upside, and then you have Lee who may tap out as a 1-2 WAR per a year utility player.

Here is the other issue, The Twins under Falvey had built up infrastructure, more staff more analytics. After 2023 it was dismantled. Go look at the drafts. We were consistently hitting late round draft picks all the way through 2022, then it appears you have a 1 off in 2023, 2024 doesn't appear we got anything either. We will see. For someone who is a draft guy, I am not sure I have as high of expectations they will be able to do well in the draft. We will see, and they do have a high draft pick. I just get the sense they are not investing the resources in the front office to be successful, similar to a Pirates or Rockies situation and that is not good for the long term.

Tom is the one who changed Ownerships directions to Falvey. Tom needs to improve ticket sales, and think magically saying the Twins will be competitive in 2026 will make it happen. You either had to spend or trade money to rebuild a bullpen. If expectations were not met, then that was going to fall on Falvey. Now Tom gladly accepted Falveys resignation, but now he is bearing all of the weight of the Twins moving forward. I said it would take $25 million to rebuild a competent bullpen and maybe trade a decent prospect. 1 high leverage reliever, 2 -7th/8th inning guys (1 signed 1 traded for) then another arm like Rogers. All we got is Rogers Orze who no one is confusing as a 7th/8th inning guy. 4 players to add to the bullpen, with Funderburk, Sands, and Topa and transition someone like Festa. I do think Joe and Falvey were comfortable with a tear down all things considered. That was their plan coming into winter meetings, then Joe got kicked to the curb. That is not to say I think Joe was good in his role. I also don't think Falvey did everything right. He had faults. He also had some pretty good positives as well. You don't have a .520 winning % over 9 years without doing something right even in a weak division. I am always the guy looking at the positive side of things. This is a situation where the odds things go well are slim. They do have some young players coming up, but most likely we are out of contention at the deadline, so will Tom have the guts to trade Ryan and or Lopez? As of his press conference I don't get the sense he will.

I think you have hit this on the head. Tom wants (needs) the team to win. Falvey is saying - at some point we have to trade Ryan, we have rebuild for the next step. The issue is the Twins had a plan in place for this offseason - and I don't think it was even related to the minority owners. Joe and Falvey's plan was to tear it down to the studs and try to build for the future. Thats why they had all the trade feelers out for Lopez and Ryan. Then Joe is out, Tom is in and everything changes. Tom will acknowledge they screwed up saying they needed to spend more in 2023, the reality is the Twins can't spend. They started with $430 million debt to start the year last year. They had $40 million in interest payments (per Hays which is baloney -10% interest rate holy crap - they should easily be getting half of that 6% at the higher end) and then operations loss of 30 million effectively. Their operations and interest added 70 million to debt because they never pay their interest. I don't know who the heck set up this business model. This is the whole reason for the minority owners. Tom was frustrated yesterday about questions about Payrolls, effectively saying can't we get off this topic. Sadly no, your payrolls are dictating the success of the organization to a degree. So it will obviously be a topic of conversation. The issue is the Pohlads changed their mind. They decided it was better in their interests to take on minority owners to pay down the debt, decrease interest payments. Thats great, but if that was the case and you still wanted to win, you shouldn't have traded your entire bullpen. You want to win now, with bullpen that currently does not have the upside or is heavily going to rely on young kids, because you refused to sign anyone noteworthy or trade for anyone. Tom claims they are still planning to sign or make additions. Falvey came out and said they had effectively decided to part ways 2 weeks ago. Its also interesting at the dinner last week, that many people claim this was the most free - "loosey - goosey" they had seen him. I think Tom was sent to create change, I also think the inevitable picture was Falvey was going to be fired. Falvey could read the writing on the wall and both agreed. Its the theory an employer writes an employee up, the employee can see this is more than a write up - this is the paper trail for an end game of firing, and says you know what I am done which the employer gladly accepts. So do I think Falvey wanted out, absolutely. To be fair - This was because this was Tom's expectation and also that most likely Tom's expectations are unachievable and Falvey knew he would be the scapegoat. So what are we left with. Zoll handling baseball ops. Tom handling business ops - likely 30% or more decrease in ticket sales. Remember he is the one who has been calling ticket holders who have not renewed their tickets this year. And holes still left on the roster. Falvey can have job tomorrow, but with his contract he is likely be paid significantly for this year. He can come back next year either in a GM role for another team or 2nd in command. He trades well, overall had a good W-L record even with a challenging organization (but with the help of a weak division). For something that Tom thought initially this could bring some good will to Twins fans parting ways with Falvey, and for some I do think they are very happy, ultimately I think this is more an indictment on a total lack of consistent message or operational vision that is merely being done to try to maximize the value of a future sale. I don't see Tom achieving his goals this year.

There was a question about who initiated it. I think it was clear both sides were frustrated, but at the end Tom says this was the best decision for both people. Its clear this was Toms decision, even though he wants to be wishy washy about, So Derek was decisive that he couldn't lead the Twins??? Thats a stupid statement anyway you cut it. Just say you had to move in a new direction. Falvey is receiving an exit package so can't fully comment. "Your making it sound more interesting than it was, it was 2 people working together that didn't expect it, working of 6 weeks learning each other and best interest of twins and whats in the best interest, and this is what we were decisive about, there wasn't 100% this is what is best for both people, and he is ready for his next chapter personally and professionally." They also asked about being decisive about the future and direction. What is going to change in the next 2-4-6 months that will change the direction of the Twins???? If you had made the decision 2 weeks ago, why did you let Falvey continue to make signings (Caratini and trades). Why did you have him at Twinsfest. Additionaly, Tom said he had talked to Jeremy 2 weeks ago and then 2 days ago about taking Falveys spot. It appears he was sent it to let him go. He also stated he made the decision, but the minority owners agreed - so it didn't appear to be a minority sticking point or decision. This is fully Tom taking the reins and even stating he is basically taking over the business side in the meantime. Bonnes asked him about the timing and he said something like there is never a good time. But thats also not acknowledging that this isn't a normal decision making process. He seemed very frustrated, but what do you expect.

Here is where it gets interesting. So Joe Pohlads force Falvey to tear down the bullpen and trade Correa. Had they had a decent end to the season, Does Falvey and Joe still have a job? The process is just odd.

Lets just be clear, this isn't a mutual decision. Pohlads told him he was fired and here is your departing package if you agree and this is stated as a mutual parting.

"Leaving now is far from ideal with spring training on the horizon, but staying was starting to make even less sense. The reasons that once made Minnesota an attractive long-term project were steadily disappearing. By this winter, the writing was no longer subtle. The breakup had been coming, and this offseason finally brought it to a head." I still don't understand why now? Why do you let him go through the winter meetings, complete 90% of your team building for 2026, but January 30th you have to let him go? It makes zero sense even if the breakup was coming. Now you are putting someone in with less qualifications, no additional help - to fix it. That is beyond a hail mary - extremely poor thought process and makes me even more confused than I was before. Or, they didn't want him to somehow have a successful season and be forced to retain him. I do acknowledge most of DMAN's take I agree with.

Kopech Otherwise, Im not sure I would like it, but Paddack or Perez or another SP converted bullpen arm maybe for $2-$3 million.

Kwesi fired today now too. There may be something more at hand here which signifies the odd timing on both.

Just to clarify, you are saying Zoll was the decision maker on the tear down and not Falvey or Joe Pohlad? the Pohlads are giving constant mixed signals. Tear down, telling front office they can't even have budget and start to plan trading off Ryan and Pablo, then give them updated guidance the day before winter meetings. To now all of sudden firing Falvey. What is the advantage of firing Falvey now, what was the necessity of firing him now. Does Tom think he can sell more tickets with Falvey fired. Was Falvey unwilling to step aside from the business operations roll. What has changed in 2 months if you didn't fire him after the season. They have to have something suddenly that shows he was in violation of team policies, over stepped with another organization or incompetence became so apparent they decided they couldn't move on. Otherwise Tom appears just as herky jerky as previous iterations of Pohlad management.

My initial opinion - policy violation of some sort. I don't think this is being done for last year or ticket sales for this year. If it is for last years performance, he should/would have been fired earlier. Unless there was pushback on funds to rebuild the bullpen or promises of a better bullpen.

You have 4 teams that still need a backup. Let alone any team that has injuries during spring training.

Its why its stupid how low Soto is, he should in the same group as Prielipp and Quick and Hill. Around 10.

Jackson can be traded for someone with options and more upside than Pereda.

So what is this article - that Shelton conversed with Jeffers and confirmed that the plans as of now are for him to play 100 games. The writer stating sometimes Teams changed their mind. The writer throwing a claim in they may be lying? So what the heck are you trying to state with this article. I may need to decide which writers I am willing to even click on or not in the future because this was pointless.

Interesting enough traded to Mariners and they are DFA'ing Kowar - 97 mph fastball and improving slider could be interesting. Would be someone I am fine with a claim on though, odd we wouldn't just trade for him. Has some control issues.

Twinsdaily needs better writers, is it possible . . . I kid, I kid As to can they get a better version of Lee absolutely. What needs to occur - He used to have a great eye at the plate, In my opinion pitchers are now making Lee expand the strike zone. Effectively he is swinging at more bad pitches and ultimately putting up more weak contact - due to still being a good contact hitter. So laying off the outside pitch, the high pitch or the low pitch, if he continues a pretty high contact rate with a slightly faster swing, he could easily result in not only a much higher batting average or OBP but more damage on the hits resulting in a higher OPS. Its the same issue that Arraez is having. Ultimately Lee needs to develop the eye further to get more walks. 2024 .221/.265/.320 2025 .236/.285/.370 2026 .248/.299/.390 1.6 WAR FDGC - .252.306/.405 (steamer) 1.6 WAR Thats not outside the realm of possibility at all. I would gladly take those numbers and think they would be possible. i could also see his OBP being closer to .310 if he can increase the walk rate.

Twins officials have already stated, outfield may be a better position for him longterm. Remember he was in the infield to limit the strain on the arm due tommy john.

He reminds me of a Funderburk, some things there that could work.