arby58

'Live up to (Kepler) expectations?' His OPS+ last year was 91. Larnach and Wallner were 116 and 149. For his career, Kepler is just about average as a hitter - OPS+ of 101. Larnach is 102 and Wallner 139. I'd say they'd have to live DOWN to Kepler's expectations. If all you have on Kepler is he's better defensively: I've never heard a team constructed around great defense in the corners. C, SS, CF, sure, but RF, if they're great defensively it's gravy, but it's not the primary concern.

Kepler had 368 ABs last year to 'accumulate' a WAR of 1.0; in what should be a power position, he had 8 HRs. Wallner, in 220 at bats, had a WAR of 2.2 and hit 13 HRs. Wallner can improve his defense - it's pretty clear Kepler can no longer improve his offense.

He played on a winning team in 2023, and the epic collapse at the end of last year doesn't erase that. Did the players that signed with the Royals (or Tigers) last year do it because they wanted to play on a losing team?

I believe it highly unlikely that any from this group pitches for the Twins in 2025.

That would be an interesting tree, given that the Twins also got Joe Nathan and (less importantly) Boof Bonser. I'm sure the WAR from that one worked out pretty well for the Twins.

Nearly impossible to trade Correa because of his no-trade contract. His agent says he likes it here. Because of that leverage, I doubt they could get full value for him, as the other team would likely have to 'sweeten the pot' contract-wise to get Correa to agree to lift the no-trade clause.

Don't blame it all on the manager - he's trying to win ballgames and 'in the moment.' The bullpen was a mess the second half of the year, with few alternatives due to injuries to expected high leverage pitchers (particularly Stewart and Topa).

Yes, for the Phillies. Signed for 1 year, $10 million. That's not a lot, which suggests MLB thinks of him as a marginal starter not worth more than a 1 year contract.

Lewis has the talent, but his injury history makes Buxton look like Cal Ripken Jr. You know the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I expect Lewis to get hurt a couple times a year (preferably not on opening day) and play around half the games in a season.

Excellent points. It's too early to judge that trade. SWR is 24 and Berrios 30. Regardless, last year SWR had a 2.0 WAR, and Berrios was 2.2 - hardly anything to differentiate the two. There is also a major difference in salary, and if the Twins had re-signed Berrios they probably don't have Lopez - and Lopez' WAR the last 2 years combined is 5.8, while Berrios is 4.6. Finally, SWR wasn't even the trade centerpiece for the Twins. While I'm not a big Martin fan, he may still become a serviceable MLB player.

Of course, it depends on what you get in return. I tend to agree with the recently written comment that the only 'untouchables' are Correa and Buxton (because of no-trade contracts), Lewis, and Jenkins. Everything else is negotiable.

AND injury prone. What's not to like? 😉

You'll always have more at bats against right handed pitchers, as there are more of them. 108 at bats over what are parts of two seasons isn't 'scattered' - it is 20 percent of his at bats to date. Why do you think he will get any better at it? Larnach hasn't, and he's had far more at bats.

In MLB, he's got 108 PAs versus left handed pitching. He has a .144 BA, .510 OPS with 43 Ks. He hasn't shown any ability at the MLB level to perform against LHP. MiLB numbers don't mean anything until you prove it against big league pitching, and Wallner hasn't proven it.

You only have so many spaces for left-handed hitters, unless they can show they are capable of hitting left handed pitching. For Larnach and Wallner, that has not been proven.

That's two big ifs - but since they are all left-handed hitters, . . .

Wallner's ceiling is higher, so I'd trade Larnach. Agree it's unlikely to be happening, though.

Chourio played 6 games in AAA.

This is what is known as cherry picking.

They did win. Jones has three Super Bowl titles, and even lacking recent success, he is 16-15 in the play-offs. For all the Vikings love directed at Zigi Wilf (and I do like him), the Vikings play-off record since he has owned the team is 4-8 with no Super Bowl appearances. Davis also won a Super Bowl - not so much for the Vikings. So yeah, I'll trade some ownership meddling for a Super Bowl for the Vikings or a World Series title for the Twins.

While I agree in spirit, I would also note that all three won the Super Bowl or World Series during their reign.

The Twins lease has a non-relocation clause that is effective through 2039. Seems highly unlikely that a new owner who wants to relocate the franchise would be buying now to relocate in 15 years.

My take on the 7: Boswell was good, not great. Chance: 3 years, even if 2 were exceptional, isn't enough to qualify. Erickson and Grant: mostly remember for one really great year. Just as Roger Maris isn't in the baseball HOF, I wouldn't put these two in the Twins HOF. Golz: This is a tough one. There are currently 9 pitchers in the Twins HOF: Blyleven, Viola, Aguilera, Radke, Perry, Pascual, Guardado, Santana, and Nathan. Probably the best comparison is to Radke, who was 148-139 in his career, entirely with the Twins. He had 1 20-win season, 1 time All Star and 3rd in Cy Young voting his 20-win season. He had a career WAR of 45.3. Golz was 113-109 in his career, the first 8 years with the Twins, and his production fell off after that. He also had 1 20-win season and was 6th in Cy Young balloting that year. Golz' career WAR, though, was only 23.1. I think there are more worthy candidates. Perkins was only middling as a starter, but he was the Twins' closer for four years, and he was an All Star in three of them, putting up over 30 saves in each of those years. His WAR is not impressive (8.9), but he had 4 excellent years as a closer and another very good year as a starter. Reardon is a tough call because he was only a Twin for three years. Yes, he was fabulous in 1987 as the closer on a World Championship team, but there are already plenty of players from that team in the Twins HOF. For me, another 'small sample size' contestant. Worthington: Last six years as Twins closer, including the 1965 World Series team. I'm old enough to remember him, and five of those six years were really good - in an era where closers were not valued the way they are now. You can line his stats up with the other relievers in this class, and he looks good. His WAR over those five excellent years was 10.2. By contrast, Reardon's three years produced a cumulative WAR of 4.4, and Perkins 5 years as a closer was 7.5. My picks: Worthington clear number 1, Perkins gets a not-as-clear number 2.

From the end of the 2023 season through the start of 2024, the Twins traded Jorge Polanco, Noah Miller, Nick Gordon, Niko Goodrum and Matt Bowman. Which of these was 'needed players?'

It's becoming clear that baseball needs to do something ala the NBA, where there isn't a salary cap, but there are limitations on teams (and not just a luxury tax) that go over certain player salary thresholds.