TwinsAce

Losing Keaschall to the injury this spring might have been the difference between playoffs and selling off. (Plus Lopez.) He seems to bring the speed as well as solid hitting that this team was missing for so long. I know I have to pump the brakes in my mind, but like you said, he just seems to have an "it" factor. Fun to watch and excited to see next year as he continues to get healthier!

Walker JenkinsLuke KeaschallKaelen CulpepperEmmanuel RodriguezConnor PrielippDasan HillMarek HoustonGabriel GonzalezCharlee SotoRiley QuickBrandon WinokurMarco RayaKyle DeBargeAndrew MorrisRicardo OlivarBilly AmickQuentin YoungCJ CulpepperJose OlivaresPayton Eeles

That might be true, but also if Detroit lost Skubal for two months, I would venture a guess that they would start to taper off their current pace.

Walker JenkinsLuke KeaschallEmmanuel RodriguezCharlee SotoKaelen CulpepperAndrew MorrisMarco RayaConnor PrielippDasan HillBrandon WinokurKyle DeBargeRayne DonconBilly AmickYasser MercedesCJ CulpepperCory LewisEduardo BeltreDaiber De Los SantosCarson McCuskerRicardo Olivar

Looks like a few more picked up on this (Tony too), but I was going to mention this too. Why compare a stud OF and a strong runner to an infielder who has never been "okay" with the glove and is pretty slow? I'm excited about Emmanuel because of all of his tools, not just his hitting. (Although his hitting does look pretty good, potentially in a Wallner mold for early impact as a rookie.)

I think Kepler might be our best example of what Rocco does if he gets a lefty hitting OF who provides great defense, right? If so, I have hopes that both of our top 2 prospects will get longer looks compared to some of our other young hitters.

IMO, the Correa deal is still a win by the Twins. He's provided elite defense and leadership from SS and has hit (especially this year) at an elite level. The injuries hurt, so future years will still dictate this as a win or a loss, like you said. However, it looks a lot better if his deal is part of a $150 million roster instead of a $100 million roster. Especially if that $100 million roster also has a $22 million pitcher (which is necessary IMO). Curious what will happen this offseason...

I'm not sure why Maeda is being touted as a bad trade now? (Seems like that trade did about what we hoped out of it.) And it seems misleading to ignore the Ryan, Lopez, and Gray trades since without those, we would have been so much worse. Topa IMO doesn't deserve to be on here too (at least in regards to dent in future rosters), since we got rid of Polanco and received a decent prospect and Topa back for more than one year. You are missing the Jorge Lopez trade though, which was the result of trading for a top BP guy. I'm guessing that trade made the FO a bit more timid to trade for top BP arms during the year. I do agree that trades (or draft picks) for pitching can be pretty painful at times. Just take a look at the Dodgers trading for Glasnow or all of their injured starters at AA or MLB level. Long term, the Twins have some pretty good pieces in place due to the same foundation you mention. (Rosters are built via: Draft choices, Trades, FA signings, Waiver Wire.) The painful part will be if they continue to decrease the payroll after giving a taste of a higher $$ roster.

I won't be able to change your mind. To me, I would much rather watch the current version of the playoffs vs. the playoffs of the 60s-80s or even 90s-00s. It keeps more teams in it and seems to give more opportunities to mid-market teams that have developing teams throughout the year.

The Twins have been weird this year. They have beaten up the really bad teams, they have stunk against the best teams, and then they somehow hold tie-breakers over most of the teams around them in the playoff race. (Which arguably is a good sign!) IF Royce Lewis was hitting, Ryan was pitching, and one of our bullpen arms (Topa or Stewart) came back, I think this team had a decent chance to make a run in the playoffs. Hard to see it now without Lopez, Ober, Jax, Correa, or Wallner carrying the team if we make the wild card spot.

A few other deck chairs: Alcala (I didn't trust him after watching him blow game after game lately), Thielbar (as much as I wish he was still in peak form), Varland, Winder, Irvin, etc. Tough to manage when you only have 2 arms you trust and another that in theory you should trust (Duran). If the offense showed up and actually scored more than 4 runs, we might have fresher arms at the back end of the bullpen for games like this.

He's only played 94 games. 🙂

Yeah, pictures of minor league players (or even major league sometimes) without name captions makes it rough to really learn who the players are without clicking into profiles, etc. Seems pretty easy and straight forward...?

Looking at the bullpen chart and also the expected return of Topa, I think the Twins had two hopes for the game last night. Either Lopez deals a gem and pitches 6-7 innings of amazing ball or they can use Dobnak to soak up all of the innings in a losing effort. If Lopez does a gem, then you look at Sands for 7th and Jax/Duran for 8th and 9th. (And by doing so, you no longer have them available for Thursday.) Winder and Dobnak will be going back shortly (if it hasn't already been announced already). Hopefully the bullpen is better setup now for Friday's double header against Cleveland.

I think it varies by who writes these articles up each day, but most of the time they only show the players who played that day. So in other words, if someone is not pitching, they aren't included. Or if someone has a day off, they would also not be listed. So thankfully not that many injuries. Hope that helps!

I'm either looking at the wrong rankings or unaware of some injuries. 1 is Jenkins and 2 is Lee, which makes sense. 4 is Gabriel which seems temporary and not really an issue. 5 is Raya - I think I missed his injury? When did he get injured? He's active and was just pitching recently, so I think he is still healthy, right? 6 is Festa - He just did his 10 strikeout game, right? I'm not seeing any injury news on him either. 8 is Cory Lewis, which has been a sad loss with his shoulder injury. 9 is Soto - I'm not seeing any injury news on him either? 14 is Culpepper and he went on the temporary inactive list. But I didn't think this was used for injuries? So wouldn't this be something else? 17 Canterino was unfortunate. 18 is Prielipp and also unfortunate. 20 is SWR. He just pitched and last I knew wasn't injured? So 1, 2, 8, 17, and 18 are injured, but the others I'm either unaware of or they aren't injured or were only out a few games.

Arguably the one aspect I did feel like they handled right was the bullpen. At least that has been solid so far with Varland looking like he is heading there...depending on how he does at AAA.

Missed an opportunity for a grand slam valentine for Lewis. 😅 These are always great though.

You mention this slightly in the OP as well as others in the comments, but Correa in the playoffs was everything we ever asked for. Without Correa, I don't think the Twins would have won a playoff series this year. It might not be captured in WAR values, but in almost a Mastercard slogan in reverse, Correa's contract was priceless because of this. All of the youth and pre-arb / arbitration contracts will be fun to see impact the team over the next few years. There will probably be a few mid-range contract extensions (similar to Kepler or Polanco) to help keep costs standard and there will probably be a few that they end up trading or not signing further because of the cost. At this point though, I'm not too worried about long-term budget issues for the Twins.

For #4, are you saying that you would trade Festa, Rodriguez, Polanco, and Gordon for Devin Williams? I get Devin is good, but this seems like a strong overpay. Maybe you meant Polanco + someone? If Festa + Rodriguez are going in a deal for someone, it would be a top pitcher like Mitch Keller.

I decided to look up what Fangraphs said for ETAs on the same players. (Some of them were updated in June, so not as recent.) The only one that stuck out was Tanner Schobel where they had a 2 year difference. Otherwise, most were the same or similar with the draft picks from this year typically being 1 year after the ETAs by Cody. (Plus Martin did not make it to MLB level this year.) Either way, I'm excited about these players. I'm also hopeful (similar to @chpettit19) that Jenkins pushes up this timeline by a year. The screenshot below again emphasizes how many top prospects made it to MLB this year too. Such a fun year!

I think you are right about the cost, although I wish it was cheaper with a lot of incentives. If it happens, I guess we know where Frankie is. 🙂

In my third edition (after warming up to the idea of Gurriel), I have Polanco traded (along with prospects) for a pitcher. The three I have listed all make $5 million and less from what I can tell. If it wasn't a trade, I would look at signing a pitcher for $15-$20 million. However, if the budget is $135 million, this would require a trade of Kepler. Farmer is also gone due to the price tag. My OF is feeling pretty great right now Kiermaier and Gurriel signed plus Castro/Martin helping cover as needed while also helping cover the IF. (Martin could also end up Miranda, Severino, etc. but probably end up being a pre-arbitration player.) I would push to have Julien and Gurriel ready at 1B as needed as well, but Severino would be a fallback option for depth. Similar to other blueprints I've done, the bullpen seems inevitable to end up with a smaller signing in the $2-5 million range (Pagan?), 1-2 from the younger batch (Sands/Moran/Funderburk) and potentially 1 minor league deal. While I would love a top pitcher in the $20-$25 million range, this was my version to focus on the bats a little more with Gurriel / Kiermaier and just a trade for SP. C: Christian Vazquez ($10.00M) 1B: Alex Kirilloff ($1.70M) 2B: Edouard Julien ($0.77M) 3B: Royce Lewis ($0.77M) SS: Carlos Correa ($33.33M) LF: Matt Wallner ($0.77M) CF: Kevin Kiermaier ($10.5M) RF: Max Kepler ($10.00M) DH: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) 4th OF: Willi Castro ($3.20M) Utility: Lourdes Gurriel Jr (1B / LF / DH) ($15.00M) Utility: Austin Martin ($.77M) Backup C: Ryan Jeffers ($2.30M) SP1: Pablo Lopez ($8.25M) SP2: Joe Ryan ($0.77M) SP3: Bailey Ober ($0.77M) SP4: Chris Paddack ($2.53M) SP5: Trade - Edward Cabrera?? Mitch Keller?? Freddy Peralta?? ($5.00M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.77M) RP: Brock Stewart ($0.77M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.77M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($3.00M) RP: XYZ Pitcher - Pagan ($3.00M) RP: Sands / Moran / Funderburk ($0.77M) RP: Minor League Deal ($1.00M) Payroll is 1.84% under budget

What's the plan with Varland, Paddack, and Cabrera? I'm all for trading for Cabrera, but wouldn't it be for the intention of starting him? Varland also sticks out as the most likely to go to the bullpen IMO, but curious what your thoughts are. Are you hoping for more piggy back type roles for 1-2? Of note, your 2nd baseman says Polanco, but is Julien based on the trade and $$. 🙂

I know the new budget might make this a little trickier, but I think this still applies. I think they ideally would focus in one 2-3 players to distribute most of the remaining budget to with the remaining spots focusing on depth / minor league type deals. And then what is more likely is that we see 1-2 of the Farmer, Polanco, Kepler trio traded to help offset.