bunsen82

I agree a lot has to go right, but if it did, it would fill a big hole.

How many people would have said that about Brock Stewart?

You are going to need a few relievers that can eat innings. At $1 million to $2 million depending where he lands, that has value. If we know we have a reliever that can give us that upside while guaranteeing us 50+ innings great. I just don't see that many relievers out there that we can replace Topa with at that range. He will be one of your bottom 3 relievers. With better infield defense his numbers would improve. This isn't a question of having Jax money. The issue with Jax is he was fed up with Twins (deserved or undeserved) and the Twins were willing to flip him to a team in exchange for a starter that was also becoming difficult with his current team. It was a swapping of disgruntled assets. For the Rays they only make value on the deal if 1. They trade fairbanks and Jax becomes their starter 2. They convert Jax to a starter the final 2 years and think he can be a #2 or better starter. The Twins see the gamble as getting an asset with more time and more upside. That trade was a no brainer in my opinion. The rebuilding of this bullpen is going to very interesting this offseason. Currently I would only plan on retainging 4 - Sands, Funderburk, Topa and Laweryson (the last 2 could be flipped). We will have 4 openings for either converted starters, trades and free agent signings. My one dark horse to take a spot if healthy would be Canterino. He has the ability, he has not had the health. Can the tightening of the ligaments create a scenario where he is healthy again - similarly to the Buxton procedure or Stewart suddenly becoming healthy for longer stretches.

A few of those names will be kept for the bullpen. Personally I like those 2 the best of the bullpen names in there for the back end of the bullpen.

Depends what we do at 1st. If you can solve that position with a good player things can fall into place. Let’s say they use some money to get Naylor. Keaschall and Martin are OBP guys. I think Gonzalez will be the LF. Another high OBP player. Throw in Jeffers and Buxton and you have the solid making of a lineup. Can Wallner be his 2023 or 2024 version things get better. I should have said good lineup and not real good line up. It’s amazing what happens in a lineup when you remove the 2-3 black holes that are automatic outs. We had way too many holes in the lineup in a daily basis.

First I am not going in with a premise of underperforming position players. I think we are SS, 1st baseman and LF away from having a really good lineup. You have Culpepper, Gonzalez, Rodriguez Jenkins likely coming up or traded in the next year. You will get much more value from Lopez if he performs well for the next year and a half and either keep him all of 2027 if competing or trade him at the deadline. Odds are he will still get you a comp pick. The value is being a steadying pitcher and giving the young pitchers an example of being a professional. That is worth the money we are paying him. Bradley is the one pitcher that I hope he can rub off on. If he helps Bradley become our next Ryan or Lopez that will be worth any salary we pay to Lopez.

I would consider more cuts but yes as stated will most likely have to trade some prospects. Players I would consider cutting- Adams, Cabrera, Hatch, Laweryson*, Miesewicz, Raya, Ohl, Tonkin Topa*, Fitzgerald, Gasper, Julien, Miranda Kiersey, McCusker, Outman, Larnach. I have 17 names right there. Laweryson and Topa I would have in the bullpen. We have a lot to add but lots of wood to chop. I do think we will be trading some prospects as well.

"And you gotta keep moving forward, and trust that you’re making the right decision." Joe Pohlad If you are correct yes they keep trading but its not 4-7 trades. Its really 1. Ryan, which if that was the case they should have traded him to the Red Sox as you would have gotten more value at the deadline theoretically plus you would have ripped the band aid off all at once. We got a 72 Twin team because 1. we tanked at the end of year 2. Pablo got injured 3. We did not have enough contact hitters on the team that got on base enough. Otherwise we were on pace for mid 80's win total Tony. You need at least 1 vocal veteran on any rebuilding team for fielders and starting pitching. For the Twins I think that is Buxton and Pablo. You won't trade Jeffers as we really don't have anyone to replace him with. The only reasonable trade is Ryan, which as stated above I question the timing and value of not trading him at the deadline. As to getting solid performances from multiple inexperienced players it is not unheard of. Just look at the Orioles from a couple years ago or Detroit. I think people will be surprised how easily the bullpen can be rebuilt in the offseason. If you can get a couple more hitters on this team in the vein of Keaschall yes the offense becomes much more potent and dangerous. I guess its the timeline. No they won't compete for a World Series next year. Could they get to the playoffs, absolutely. As constructed yes this is probably a 70 win team. I anticipate significant rearranging of the team, 1st in free agency and trades, and utilizing some of our excess prospects to supplement the MLB team. I think once all said and done we will be in the 75-80 range with upside potential.

I will begrudgingly agree unless someone is willing to massively overpay. The strength of the Twins right now is the starting pitching. You have 2 #1 pitchers when they are healthy and pitching well. Due to the injury you would not be getting full value on a Pablo trade. You are better to keep him and then trade him at the deadline if you are wanting to try to get full value or keep Pablo. I continue to stand by Pablo is the pitcher the twins are building around for the next 2 years. He is the ultimate professional.

Tony - curious if you were able to watch Tait and Jimenez more and what you thought, specifically on the defensive side. As to miracles, I stated before we don't need miracles we just need players continuing to improve. Both Abel and Bradley showed their upside in each of their last starts. Tait - appears to have a very nice swing with immense power. Jimenez with more of a power profile looks like a legitimate catcher option. Throw in Mendez and Rojas. In my opinion those are the 6 players that will have a long term affect for this organization. Anything you get from Roden, Horn, and Gallagher is gravy.

I know this is satire, but we traded Bader whose contract has ended for Mendez. You have Abel and Tait while Phillies still have 2 more years of Duran. Whether we have like the specific trades or not, they have added value and pieces to the organization.

Dump him - we have no less than 10 legit prospects who need to be added to the 40 man. They actually have value that can be used in a trade. Those players in question would be Rosario, Mendez, Fedko. Any of those 3 would bring back a better reliever than Tonkin.

But is the point to compare an illness to ebola when it may just be the flu? The overdramatization and perpetual and doom and gloom gets a little over whelming. The majority of the articles of the last week have extrapolated a single quote from Joe Pohlad - "The goal is to win a World Series. That doesn't mean it doesn't come with some pain in the short-term." "You now what? We've got to try something different. And not everyone is going to like it." "You've got to own it. Fans are going to be upset. They're going to say what they're going to say. And you gotta keep moving forward, and trust that you're making the right decision." I have said since 2020 we should do a tear down and rebuild. We have been in the level of mediocrity with slightly more positive than negative years really since 2018. The tear down at the deadline, resulted in some decent pieces for the future, and a high draft pick (and remaining picks) in what should be a pretty strong draft. So the question is the short term pain is it over? Personally I think it is 50/50. Wow way to go out on a limb. I have said in other articles Falvey has an incentive to have a strong year as I am not sure he gets another year even if it was the plan. For example, I am sure Baldelli was told that the Twins were going to lose a lot of games after the deadline, and the Pohlads had him tossed to the scrap heap after all those losses whether to qualm some fan dissent or for legitimate reasons. So it is in Falvey's best interest to have a good team this year. Lets say they don't. At most the Twins could benefit from tanking for 1 more year. That is it. The Twins cannot get back to back lottery tickets for more than 2 years in a row. It is also a question of how good will the draft be in 2027 This current one is being viewed fairly positively. So is it truly worthwhile to tank for another year? That is an unknown. So was the short term pain this deadline with the start of rebuild that culminates with a competitive team in 2027? Or a continued tear down that the rebuild begins in earnest in 2027? Houston and currently Baltimore are teams that have tore things down to the studs for a couple years and rebuilt with varying levels of performance. Its a model that works. It however is not a guarantee of success demonstrated by the Pirates. So that leaves us with where are we for 2026. We have gotten GM speak from Falvey before, but his statement was he intends for this team to have both Pablo and Ryan. He could have easily said we want to keep all players, but we will evaluate each situation and offer that comes our way. That would have been a perfectly fine response. He didn't say that though - He said its his expectation they are on the team, but granted it was not a certainty. Yes it leaves him an out, but that is a pretty clean and clear statement of where he wants to go with this. Most likely the high point to trade Ryan would have been at the deadline. So ultimately I am being just as wish washy as Falvey and interpreting Joe's quotes, but ultimately I do think they try to roll out a good team for next year.

Can I call an article stupid? The premise is he doesn't don't like that the Twins tanked at the end of the year so will compare them to the worst franchise in baseball. Did I get that right. Are there issues yes. We have had competitive teams for the most part for the last 8 years, absolutely. There are some things to like in the minor league system. Ownership I think is an issue that will resolve itself in a couple years. If declining attendence occurs until the next wave comes that is to be expected.

The most I see in the offseason is trading away 1 of Pablo or Ryan. With the most likely being Ryan due to his value. The theory being you need at least 1 veteran to lead the starters and I don't think I would put Ober in that category. You get salary relief and a moderate prospect with Pablo, you get a massive return with Ryan. I don't see the Red Sox being a good fit unless a 3rd team comes into play as they don't have any high end prospects that will add up to Ryan. Tolle would be the best I would consider and he is a 1/3 of Ryan's. We would be taking on 3-4 prospects and personally I think our system is prospect heavy. I suppose you could get a veteran SP in one of the 2 deals to offset if you did trade both. Unless there is a massive talk with Buxton - Buxton will be remaining with the Twins. Jeffers will remain as the veteran catcher with Pereda as his back up (he truly earned the role). Lewis unless someone wants to overpay is also likely remaining a Twin hoping he bounces back. Larnach is gone. We have young outfielders who need an opportunity. I don't see doomsday occurring here. I do feel the return back in the trades is much better than most are willing to acknowledge. The last start for both Abel and Bradley showed their upside. Tait performed well, Rojas struggled but is so young (22 AAA), Mendez becomes a legit prospect if he unlocks just a little more power, and Jimenez went from a who is that to either our 2nd or 3rd best catching prospect in the minors. Gallagher has some upside will have to wait and see. The goal was to tank for this year, which they did. Throwing away beef stew for a throw away toy is what we did. We wanted those 2-3-5 extra losses this year. They achieved that goal. We will see what the outcome is with the lottery. You have an 80% chance at a top 5 pick in a year where we had the 4th worst record. Odds are we end up with a better pick than our record placement. If you can get another prospect on the level of Walker Jenkins it was worth it. I think I have a pretty good grasp on what they will do but it all comes down to the owners and its clear they told Falvey to tear it down at the trade deadline. I do think the short term pain they were referring to was the end of the season. Falvey will be incentivized to put a good roster out there next year for job security. I don't see an additional tank year. My personal gut feel is the pitching in the minors is going to shine next year. You are going to have a lot of talent up and down the rosters. Healthy Soto who was pitching well before he was injured, Dasan Hill, Priellip who did well in his first full season, Rojas (how will he improve), Lewis, CJ Culpepper and and Jones - Bohorquez, Gallagher, Horn - then the pitchers drafted last year - Quick, Ellwanger, Reitz and Barr, let along the mid to late round pitchers that we seem to hit on every year. AAA will most likely have 2 of the following as well - Festa, SWR, Matthews, Bradley and Abel. 1 out of the box idea would be trading SWR. I think he performed very well this year. I think you would have some teams willing to give a decent return for #4 starter to supplement the team or a prospect. I do think we have too many Starting pitchers going into next year. Falvey needs to show his new drafting philosophy since 2021 of drafting players with better hit tools (Lee, Jenkins, Keaschall, Culpepper, Houston) and acquiring in trades (Gonzalez and Mendez). These players need to start succeeding otherwise I agree with most here that his tenure here will be short lived. Next year is his make or break year.

Winokur, Mendez, and Amick all on the same team. Get them all some more at bats. If Mendez begins to hit a few more home runs his profile really starts to get interesting. 1st game in the fall league is a good start.

Top 7 names currently on betting sites Gardenhire 2/1, Conger 3/1, Hunter, 5/1, Hyde 6/1, Shelton 8/1, Ross 9/1, Pierzynski 12/1 Of those options 1. Hyde (experience and success and led a young team) 2. Shelton (experience but not given the tools to succeed) 3. Gardenhire (cheap last option)

Culpepper is the long term solution. Lee is playing to become the long term 3rd baseman or utility player.

My personal guess is $105 to $110 million. Twins are in a tough spot of extreme fan indifference with not a lot of hope that they can truly compete in the next year. 2026 will be a transition year. How can you improve the product, while either cutting costs - reallocating costs and setting the organization to make another run. 1. Trade Lopez - Lopez would get back decent a mediocre prospect or player while opening up $20 million of salary. There is an aspect the team could get better by redeploying this money elsewhere. I personally would keep Lopez and see how the team is performing and whether his performance is similar to what it was at the beginning of the year. 2. Trade Ryan - This would result in a massive return. The twins got back an aggregate value of around 25 on the trade calculators for Duran. Ryan is worth an aggregate north of 50. It is much more difficult to find a team willing to give up that much value though. Buxton is not getting traded its not even worth hypothesizing about. His family is rooted in the Twin Cities. 3. Trade from position of strength (not Lopez or Ryan) to rebuild bullpen or get a 1st baseman. We have a ton of depth in starting pitchers. Effectively going 9 deep of players that should be at MLB level. A. Ryan 2. Lopez 3. Ober 4. Matthews 5. SWR 6. Bradley 7. Abel 8. Festa 9. Morris - They may also be willing to dangle Hill or Soto if the return is good enough (ala Petty for Gray). 4. Utilize $20 to $25 million or by some combination with trades to find 2-3 relievers and a starting 1st baseman.

If you think they are just going to screw it up then why do you stay a fan? Seems pointless unless a masochist. Everything in baseball is odds. We need to find ways to increase our odds.

We had the 4th worst record. Odds are we end up with a pick as good as our record or better. Odds are 80% or higher we end with a top 5 pick which was the goal of the tank. We want another Walker Jenkins type prospect.

Is he slow though - he has a 50 grade on running. He had a .900 OPS at Wichita with a .460 OBP - for the year a .400 OBP. The defense has been Ok but we do seem to be trying to plug people into our 1st base hole. To me it seems we could use several good bats in the lineup. Are you stating we have enough quality bats on the MLB team - because that seems to be the biggest concern I have heard.

The question is are we trading for veterans, or purchasing in free agency. Then are we getting actual decent veterans in FA or the trade market or do we get to expect more bargain basement deals and Outmans. I truly hope we will be going for players that can move the needle.

At this point the power profile is the only thing that is lacking. 15-25 homers a year would significantly increase his profile. If he continues to increase his line drive and fly ball percentage - his home run rate should increase. 1st base or primary DH and as an outfield back up would be his likely position or insurance if several outfield prospects are injured or fail. Combining that with an elite OBP would be a very good offensive profile.

Of the top group only Klein would need be the only one not added. Next tier, Fedko Rosario and Lewis. I’m also tempted to have Lawyerson in the bullpen. I think we can protect most players initially but I do think we should consolidate some of the 40 man in trades.