Seansy

The fact we have 9 playoff caliber relievers in our bullpen is pretty insane considering how bad our bullpen had been over the last decade or so. I would slide Rogers down to 5th or 6th and try to save him and Thielbar to use against LHB. Romo in the 9th. The rest are fungible.

A healthy Yankees team is better than the White Sox, Rays, or As. I would rather play the worse team, regardless of the history.

https://www.mlb.com/prospects/twins/ 9 of the current top 30 twins prospects on MLB.com were acquired by the previous regime. When you consider how long it typically takes a player to develop in the minor leagues that they have been able to keep supplementing the big league roster with talent and develop another wave of talent to follow so quickly speaks well to the farm system development over the last few years. It's not just the development of players in the minors but also how they keep improving once they reach The Show that determines the quality of a MLB organization. Just look at Shane Bieber's growth this year and all of their other pitchers over there in Cleveland that we are starting to develop here in Minnesota now. The whole reason they brought Falvey over from Cleveland was because of how he helped them develop their pitchers. So far so good with Canterino, Balazovic, Enlow, Duran all looking very promising and all the other relief pitchers and starting pitchers that have/are coming up in the system. When you factor in the explosive growth in the Twins' offense and pitching last year and now their defensive improvements this year when they were able to put in place the coaching staff they wanted as opposed to inherited it is mind boggling to me that people don't realize how lucky we are to have them leading the organization. For some examples to remind everyone: Duffey and Littel became relief aces last year when our pitching coach (more like pitching whisperer) Wes Johnson advised them on things to work on when they went down to Rochester. This year Thielbar and Wisler have become two more set up quality pitchers that Falvine got off waivers and near retirement for Wes to work with. Maeda has gone from a very good pitcher to an actual capital A - Ace pitcher after they changed his pitch mix. Dobnak was an undrafted free agent that has a 60+ GB% and his slider has become a real weapon this year. Cody has illustrated well with his examples how well Falvine have done with the early returns from their drafts and trades so far. I've never been more excited as a Twins fan regarding the direction of the organization. Cheers!

Given Kiriloff and Larnach haven't played at all in AAA I would start them there next year and the player that does the best out of the gate gets called up to replace Jake Cave in LF sometime in 2021. If the FO doesn't want to do that try to trade him to a NL WC team like the Marlins or non AL central WC team at the trade deadline that needs a corner OF for whatever they can get. No sense messing with things this year though. There is no guarantee the prospects light the world on fire in 1 week this year when playoff rosters get locked on September 15th. Best case is Rosie or maybe Rooker gets hot in the playoffs.

They have proven themselves to be reliable set up quality relivers imo. Wisler gave up two solo shots for his 2 ER. Thielbar gave up his ERs in his 3rd IP. If Wisler cuts down the walks better he will be a major weapon with that slider of his. How long have Twins fans been desperate for a good second LHP after Rogers? This FO went "dumpster diving" and struck gold twice again this year after doing so last year as well. Oh yeah, this is Wisler's first year of Arb and Caleb's 2nd prearb year this year so they will be around relatively cheaply for quite a while too

You called it right early

With Mookie moved to the NL only Judge really stands in his way as the most notable opponent for a GG. Given Judge's health history I think Max has a good shot at it!

The more the merrier!

*The May and Odo extensions include this season.

If we could keep May, Odo, and Cruz on reasonable extensions I would. Maybe add a team option to Cruz's contract with a 1-2 million buyout for next year. Ideally it would be 2-3 years for May and 3-4 years for Odo depending on how negotiations go. The biggest thing for me is if what I have read about Odo being open to an extension are true AND he added another 1-2 mph again on his fastball than the Twins should be working HARD to extend Odo IMO. Obviously Buxton and Berrios should be extended if possible too but otherwise I think those 5 are probably the most likely/most promising extension candidates.

I think the difference between catcher and right field for Houston versus the Twins and Yankees edges them down to 3rd place for me. 1) NYY 2) Twins 3) Asterisks

The reason Romero was moved to the BP and is unlikely to ever move back is because he doesn't have a quality third pitch. Unless you are Rich Hill with his insane CB and good command virtually all SP have at least 3 usable pitches. Typically that is a fastball, some kind of breaking ball, and a changeup. Since Romero does not have a usable changeup they moved him to the BP. Could he theoretically develop one still? Yeah, but given how long they've tried to so far that's a pipe dream. That's why Graterol could still (and should) transition to a starter in the future. In addition to his FB, and SL, he also has roughly major league average changeup to use against left handed batters.

I like your choices. While I'm not sure how "under the radar" Littell is he could take another step forward. My pick is Sean Poppen. If he improves his command it could all come together. His FB has a lot of movement with good velocity. Excellent break on his breaking ball too.

I like the idea behind this trade scenario but it 1) Has basically zero chance of happening because of how much it increases the Twins payroll and 2) the prospect cost for the Twins is WAY too high. For starters, it is a good idea to package Betts and Price because they basically offset each other in value. Price is -55, Betts is +50 and Rosario is +13 on baseball trade values. Throw in a couple low ceiling prospects from the Twins so the Sox can claim they are "rebuilding their farm system" and the Sox make up the difference by paying down A LOT on Price and Betts contracts. https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trade-simulator/ Worth mentioning the Sox have to cut 30 million in payroll to get under CBT per Fangraphs. Betts and Price are 59 million and Rosario is 7.75. 59-37.75= 21.25. Have the Sox kick in roughly 18 million for this year and 10ish million a year for the next 2 years for Price so they have a little wiggle room. That leaves us with roughly 175 for 2020 payroll and the best chance to win a WS this year in forever. https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/red-sox Mind you, this has about a .01% chance of happening but this is the most reasonable way to structure a possible deal imo.

Do a deal for less prospect cost and more money taken on with Price over Sale or do the Archer trade. Not a fan of the other proposals.

Definitely prefer Ryu over Madbum. As Tom showed Madbum is more name than anything else right now. I would start at 3/66 but willing to go up to 3/75 to make sure they land him.

I would be interested but probably not at those numbers.

I would rather the Twins focus on Ryu and then Pineda. Not a fan of MadBum given his road numbers and his post injury numbers overall.

Rijo and Javier are unlikely as they both finished at Low A. They are too far away to know if they are worth keeping in the majors all year unused to send back to the minors and occupy a 40 man spot. Jax on the other hand seems the most likely to be picked although even that is fairly unlikely given his struggles at AAA and low upside.

Don't cut Cron. He had a 900ops before he got hurt. Trading for Boyd in the division will be tough, skip that. Sign Wheeler instead. I like Chris Martin but would prefer a 2nd lefty like Drew Pomeranz. Will Harris is another solid RP target. I LOVE going after Ryu, great pitcher on a short term deal. Same with Pineda at his expected contract years/amounts. Bringing Romo back seems like a no brainer. We will see what happens!

I love it! It will almost assuredly never happen but we can always dream right

Good looking plan. I would just mention my preference would be to bring back Romo and Pineda if possible (over Hamels) but you never know where players end up going /shrug. Really like Will Harris as a relief target. Hopefully the Twins are looking at him in addition to some top flight SP.

I really like your blue print. I would do the same thing except maybe a couple of things differently. 1 quick correction. Marwin is only owed 9 million this year. They paid him 12 million for 2019. I don't want EE at 1B for 14 million for 2 years. People forget Cron had a 900 OPS before the thumb injury, better than EE, better defense at 1B, and on a 1 year deal for half as much. Stick with Cron until one of the kids are ready. I would use that money saved on EE and the correction in Marwin's salary to bring back Pineda and Castro. Castro is good defensively and as a LHH he complements Garver perfectly. Willians can be a 3rd catcher for the 26th spot still for Garver to PH on days off in close games and added versatility. Pineda on a 1 or 2 year deal at 7 or 8 million AAV pushes back Dobnak/Smeltzer to the 6th spot when an injury inevitably happens and he looked really good before the suspension. I would also keep Thorpe as a starter in AAA and look at Diekman or Pomeranz as a second lefty BP guy. This would likely bump up the payroll to ~$155 million assuming the Twins actually make all of these moves but the upgrades are well worth the cost IMO

One hundred percent yes. This is almost a no-brainer to me given the reduced cost for his suspension at the beginning of the year and that we are pretty confident he wasn't cheating given the reduced penalty.

This is the big thing that I believe was missing in the article. That and what kind of numbers to offer Pineda for a contract. You don't get your suspension reduced from 80 games to 60 games with an arbiter for the first time in the history of MLB's drug testing program because they actually thought he was using PEDs. He was just stupid for taking something without asking the Twins about it first. Given that he expressed contrition for the error and wants to come back to the Twins the FO would be foolish to not explore bringing him back. 2 year deal at TBD dollar amount with some kind of vesting or team option would be ideal.