Riverbrian

You either sign, trade or develop to raise the ceiling. Luck is always necessary no matter the path chosen. It could be said that Correa's REGULAR season was not luck based on his struggles at the plate... although his signing was an attempt to raise that ceiling higher. Last Off-Season. The Mariners acquired Teoscar Hernandez coming off 3 plus years of .800 plus OPS for Erik Swanson and some lefty in the minors. That's one example off the top of my head of a recent trade that raised the ceiling or at least tried to. In hindsight... Teoscar had a down year for the Mariners but it was an attempt by the Mariners to bring in a game changing player to add to the depth they had assembled.

The definition of big is obviously subjective. Big Lake Minnesota is on the shores of Big Lake. Somebody named it Big Lake so somebody at one time thought it actually was a BIG Lake... hence the chosen name. However, if you look at the numbers and compare those size numbers with other lakes in Minnesota. Big lake ain't that Big in comparison. 😉

Sonny will do what is best for Sonny and he deserves that. I'd love to have him back in our uniform next year but the right to become a free agent takes a long time in the baseball industry. He can honestly say that it isn't about the money and I will take him at his word. He can honestly say that he has enjoyed his time in Minnesota and I will take him at his word. However... In my opinion... if it was me. Regardless if money isn't the most important factor and regardless if my experience with the Twins was a good/great one. There is no way I'm giving up the opportunity to consider all 30 teams. I'm not giving up the opportunity to choose. It takes a long time to earn that privilege. I'm a free agent unless the Twins offer a ridiculous amount of money to return and not become a free agent. However... Sonny is saying it's not about the money so it may not be possible to offer enough money and money is what it would take to give up that privilege. So... reading between the lines(which no one should ever do). Sonny is going to be a free agent.

This was a well researched post. Anybody on the team is tradable. The Twins have a lot of possibilities in the trade market. However... in the context of sell high. The first guy on my list would be Jeffers. Not that I don't want him on the Twins... I think he was fantastic for us last year and I think he will be fantastic next year. However, in the context of sell high. Catchers are always an over pay and catchers require rest so they play less. For example... According to baseballtradevalues. Ryan Jeffers to the Marlins could bring back a couple of Minnesota Born players in Max Meyer and AJ Puk. Not sure that the Marlins would do that but the trade would be fair value. I'd make that deal on the Twins behalf. Jeffers to the Rays could bring back Siri and Springs? Fair value according to BTV. Springs is coming off TJ but is suppose to be back mid 2024. He was a fantastic SP prior to the injury. Siri a great defensive CF with power and speed. I don't make this trade because Siri strikes out way too much making him the wrong type of player for us to target but he does check the defense, power and speed boxes. You could trade Jeffers straight up to the Red Sox for Jarren Duran according to BTV. Duran can play CF with tons of speed and 15 home run potential that could increase to 20 plus. I'd make this trade. Yes I know... We would need a catcher to replace Jeffers and that hole left behind is a consideration but what you get back in return would make the overall team better. With all that said. I will be more than happy to see Jeffers wearing #27 for my ball club next year. Just saying... if you did. Jeffers could be justified under the sell high consideration.

The lack of depth cost us in 2022... Having depth saved us in 2023. With depth obvious for all to see in 2024. Now it's about taking the talent level up a notch at the upper end. You pull from the bottom and add at the top but you keep that depth at all costs. I don't want to rearrange similar pieces. Changing the names of your depth doesn't improve the club. IMO... This off-season should be about adding difference makers.

I'd strongly advise against looking at it from a starter/utility guy standpoint because that will lead you to the lesser player every time. And it should be obvious to all of us that injuries are going to occur. This team is going to have depth in 2024 with or without Polanco or Farmer. With the depth box checked... you can't improve the team with more depth... the team needs to move to the next phase which is choosing the better players... not what you have termed utility players. I don't want to come across as negative toward Farmer because he doesn't deserve that but between Polanco and Farmer... Polanco is the better player. No matter if you see a decline in Polanco... it's really hard to argue that Farmer is the better player. 115 OPS+ for Polanco last year compared to 97 OPS+. 111 OPS+ Career compared to 88 OPS+ career for Farmer. Polanco is 29 compared to Farmer at age 33. Granted Polanco will cost 10.5 and Farmer is estimated at 6.2. Polanco is 4.3 more but from a value standpoint 6.2 is a lot money for what you term as utility. Now if you want to trade Polanco to acquire even better talent like you suggest... OK. That's a reasonable game plan for roster building. If we are concerned about who will play SS in the case Correa needs some time off... I can see some logic in that. However... simply choosing Farmer over Polanco for utility purposes is a huge mistake in my opinion. If given the choice between two players at this stage... you always choose the better player. Polanco is the better player. Whoever is rostered... they will play and they will play a lot. If they don't... they are not needed. The depth box is checked. This year should be about adding higher level talent.

OK... That's much different. No Venn Diagram needed. As I age (I am getting older at lightning fast pace it seems). The conditional probability of my becoming President obviously increases while the conditional probability of my dating Taylor Swift decreases.

Agreed The front office doesn't need to consider him for a 26 man spot out of camp unless they deplete other options and it would be extremely aggressive to deplete other options forcing you to use your safety net without a safety net. I'm willing to bet that infielders Lewis, Correa, Polanco, Julien, Farmer are all players who will not start at AAA next year. Having Miranda as a safety net waiting in the wings is wonderful.

I have not forgotten about Miranda. I think Miranda has the talent to be an important part of 2024. I'm willing to bet on him. He has an option remaining. He can start in AAA. If he hits the ball in St. Paul they will bring him across the river because injuries will occur that require his call up. If he performs decently with the Twins... He will probably get to stay and be a part of the future. With that said 2024 will be a huge year for him. Because once his last remaining option is used. He shall then be judged and he will want a good 2024 to present to the court as exhibit A. In the same vein... 2024 is big year for Larnach as well.

Since you used "Or".

Love what you wrote. I agree that K's are not the be all end all. However in the case of our Twins... nothing wrong with trying to achieve more balance. Too little K's is not the cure but too many K's is a disease that we suffered and that disease is crippling without the OBP medicine that you mention. In the small sample size of our current playoffs. We struck out 73 times over 6 games. The Rangers have struck out 69 times over 7 games. That's about an extra strikeout per 9 innings. However... the Rangers also produced 66 hits compared to our 37 over those time frames and the Rangers produced 27 Extra base hits to our 14. Your point stands loud, clear and accurate in my opinion. I worry about the strikeout totals of Larnach, Gallo, Buxton and Taylor because they came with an OBP of .311, .301, .294 and .278 and those strikeout totals and low OBP surround each other, hug each other, they become synergistic when they combine into a big blob of togetherness. I do not worry about the strikeout totals of Julien and Wallner as much because they came with an OBP of .381 and .370. Bottom line... We can all look at every stat in the universe, over focus on one or two or three and a lot of us tend to do that in the name of simplicity. You or I or others can pull out our favorite stat when the mood or context hits us but there is one stat that trumps all stats... One stat that can swing the percentages of success and failure in enormous proportion. That stat is... The OUT. We get three of them to play with every single inning. The longer you delay making outs, the better you are offensively... the quicker that you can produce them... the better you are defensively.

Hats off to the author of the article Ben Clemens. I thought his thoughts were thoughtful... he pointed out his side of the coin while also trying to examine the other side of the coin. The world painfully lacks this sort of balance in the presentation of the information we receive from the wide variety of sources that we receive information from. The disease of acid filled opinions that many of us hold are ultimately formed from the typical lack of balance. Ben Clemens and the style presented in this article is the antidote.

Agreed It's a good thing that isn't the only option. Trades, development or shifting players to CF are also possibilities.

7. I do not want the Twins over paying for a catcher via free agency or via trade. Catcher are nearly always over pays. Therefore... I have no problem with Jeffers and Vazquez back next year. My concern is going to be #3. It was nice that Jeffers and Vazquez were healthy all year but I don't think it's wise to expect that to happen again. We will need a capable #3 down in AAA. Whoever the #3 is... I'll be willing to bet that we will be getting significant work in the majors in 2024 due to injuries. I don't know if Camargo is that #3 but if he is. He needs to be kept. If he's not... I don't have an answer. Teams need to develop backstops. I hope Camargo is that #3 and I hope that #4 whoever he is... arrives soon. 8. Kyle Farmer... Good question. He was a good player but he wasn't Eureka lets stop looking for something better good. I guess it depends on the comfortableness with others to play the SS position. Someone has to be able to step into the SS position when Correa needs a day off or is hurt. Do the Twins trust Castro to play for a day or two or three if Correa is unavailable. Will the Twins slide Lewis over to SS for a couple of days if necessary? Gordon? If there is a long term injury to Correa... Will Brooks Lee be ready for that call up? If the Twins have comfortableness with others to play in case Correa can't. Farmer can be traded for really young guy with some upside. If they don't... Farmer gets a roster spot and he will be part of the roster next year. Farmer is a good question. 9 - 10. If it were up to me. Jorge absolutely bring him back... Kepler... Nope. I know that many see a log jam of sorts in the infield and yes I can see it but I don't worry about log jams. If we are 5 deep in the infield... that is a good thing. There are enough AB's and positions to go around. We need to keep our best players and Polanco is one of our best players and I believe that Kepler is not one of our best players. I know many are going to disagree with me on this... Kepler was wonderful to close out the year but there is no way that I am going to look past the 2.5 years of not being close enough to good enough. If the front office brings him back... he will have my support but if it were up to me... he would have been gone in June. 11. They have to reduce strikeouts. The front office can't have it both ways. They can't develop and acquire strikeout pitchers (They have) and then pretend that strikeouts on offense don't matter (They seem to). I hope for offensive additions to the club mainly at OF or 1B. I hope that we acquire hitters who actually put the bat on the ball at a much higher percentage than some of the others that we are counting on. 12. You can't pick a starting 5 and call it good. You need 8-9-10 quality starting pitchers to get through the season. If we can't bring Gray back... we need to find someone Gray like. It'll be hard but yeah... they got to find that guy via FA or Trade. No more Bundy types please.

1. Byron's health is going to determine how much Byron and where. I hope and pray that he is healthy enough to play CF and I hope and pray that if he isn't healthy enough to play CF that he doesn't roadblock that DH spot. We will have too much depth to not have the DH spot available for utilization across the roster. Buxton is going to be on the roster and I am very happy that he will be because the guy is a game changer when healthy. but... please... Healthy means being able to play CF. If he can't... He's not healthy and he needs to spend time on the DL until he can. Sign or trade for a CF that can capably man the position in case Byron can't. If Byron can... There are no issues having two capable CF'ers on the roster. 2. I don't like hearing anything static coming from Rocco in regards to a Lewis and 3B... it sounds like lack of consideration of the unknown future challenges that will occur. I like hearing the possibility of fluidity coming from Falvey because it sounds like... we understand that the future is unknown. WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE WILL NEED when injuries or Gallo type performances rear their head. The context of the team may abruptly change and now Lewis might need to be moved to the OF. There is no room for definitive answers when the questions are yet to be asked. 3. Sign or Trade for a good CF. Having two capable CF's on the roster is wonderful and should be strived for... especially when one of those CF's has been a career long injury issue. If both are healthy and performing... one can play LF or RF. Depth is never a problem. Not having Depth is always a problem. 4. I didn't expect Correa to sign with us and he did. I don't expect Sonny Gray to sign with us and... umm... let's see what happens. I hope he comes back. He's a great pitcher and there is room on this roster for a quality pitcher and Sonny is quality. If he signs elsewhere... I won't blame him. He finally gets a chance to choose. If it was me... there is no way I give up that opportunity to choose. 5. I think they need to add a big bat. 1B or OF are the positions that you concentrate on for this big bat... whoever it may be. We want to be better than we were last year. Offense is the most obvious place that requires betterment. 6. I don't care where payroll is. If it goes down... it goes down. We have enough young talent on our roster that we should be able to throw together some money for some one more costly.

It can't be ruled out. 😎

I can't be absolutely sure. I also can't rule out the possibility of becoming President or dating Taylor Swift.

Hope she lands on her feet somewhere. Her time in Miami has been successful. She is important... She needs to keep blazing that trail.

“That’s a reality of our offseason. It’s not just for us. It’s for other clubs, too. That’s a piece of information we’re going to have to navigate. It’s a factor that there’s lack of clarity on TV revenue. That’s a fact, that’s no secret to anybody. That plays a role (with payroll), just like all of our revenue sources play a role to some degree.” – Derek Falvey When Falvey says this sort of thing. I believe him. I'm not worried about it. There is plenty of talent coming back. Ohtani isn't coming.

According to reports... the surgery being done is to "Excise Plica". I've asked someone who understands what Plica is and this is what he told me. 1. Plica is leftover knee tissue from when you were a developing embryo that didn't reabsorb back into the body. 2. Not everyone has Plica. 3. For those who have it. It can be a source of pain and swelling after knee injuries or overuse. 4. Plica doesn't show up on a MRI 5. Plica is pretty much useless to those who have it. You don't need tonsils... you don't need plica. 6. It is typically something they look at after they look at everything else. 7. Looking at point #3 again... It can be a source of pain and swelling. Here's to hoping that the excising of Plica makes it better.

I was sleeping in med school but your quoted sentence is where I lay my head these days. He can't block up that DH spot anymore. The damage of a struggling every day DH is never contained to just that position... it will bleed into other spots in the lineup especially if you are building proper depth.

They have to play somewhere. 😉

We were hitters short of perfection. I never expected perfection.

I don't have an opinion on the players under consideration but I was curious to see what everybody else thinks since the roster building of 2024 kinda begins with these decisions. I must say that this thread has been the most enjoyable read on the site in the past couple of days.

Gray Hot Dish is perfect. Everybody knows that the cream of mushroom soup... looks Gray after cooking.