Riverbrian

I am under the impression. I may be wrong... I may be right... but I am under the impression that Joe Ryan has the highest trade value of any player on the current 40 man roster and that's why you trade him. I am also under the impression because of money owed that the trade value difference between Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez isn't close. Therefore because of this impression... may it be right or wrong. Joe Ryan is the guy you trade in an attempt to bring back higher quality young talent. If you are going to trade these guys... Let's not mess around with marginal attempts at talent acquisition.

I'd prefer lefthanded. I don't even want to consider platoon specialists at all so his splits are encouraging in order to remove any manager temptation to whip out the platoons and compromise developing talent. Nobody should feel he is overrated. Anyone who was released and DFA'd by two clubs in a 3 month span should never be considerations for any type of over rated designations or those foot stomping hand clapping over rated chants from the crowd. Yes... He costs too much and that's why he is available. The Nats couldn't trade him and the Red Sox couldn't trade him because he costs too much. Now that he is a free agent. He goes straight into the pile somewhere between O'Hearn and France. He should find his correct level. Where will that level be? Can the Twins afford it? This Year Yes... Last Year No. It's a matter of should they? I'm going to stay consistent. No more one year contracts? We have to stop this never ending chain of low dollar one year contracts at the 1B position. A two year contract could be considered but... free agents sign for the most dollars they can get and most teams have developed a young 1B so it's not a position of scarcity. Therefore whatever Lowe signs for... he will be value maxed out and have NO TRADE VALUE unless he gets playing time and goes nuts. If Lowe goes nuts and plays better than what he was with the Rangers. Maybe... Maybe he could be traded at the deadline for a Mendez size talent for a Bader type resurgence. However... right now we are still talking about someone who was released by the Nationals because the Nationals felt it was more important to commit that roster spot to the development of youth despite the Nats owing 10.3 million in full. And that is where the Twins should be in 2026. Full commitment to the development of youth. So I'm out. 😉

It was a Good Year... Not a Fire Stone.

When it's time for the call up. I believe it is best if your best player has multiple paths to the major leagues. If the guy is playing SS exclusively in the minors and hitting the ball. Does he have to wait until the SS and the SS only gets injured for the call up? If he can slide to 2B or 3B or even CF... He gets the call when the majority of players are injured instead of waiting for one specific spot.

I agree the Twins are extremely light in this department. However... The league really has to do something about the IFA's. These kids are being signed at 16 and clubs have 5 years before they have to make 40 man decisions and this puts them at age 21 come decision time. A 21 year old who is worthy of 40 man spot is generally a pretty special player. Erod is only 22 and has already burned an option. GG is 22 years old and he has to be given a 40 man spot and start burning options. On the other hand. College players drafted at 21 or 22 can be held in the organization for 4 years until they are 25 or 26 before a 40 man decision comes a knocking and that's going to get the Twinsdaily crowd saying things like too old to be a prospect. When Erod and GG are given 40 man spots... They are the same age as Wallner after his 4 years at Southern Mississippi. 21 and 25 is a big difference. The players who get protected are top of the pile and the really special players like Juan Soto,,, They reach free agency at age 26 and those players get those 13 year contracts. MLB has to figure out how to balance this better. If they find that way to do that... I assume that we would see even more players from the Dominican or Venezuela in the majors because they'd get that extra bit of time to mature.

Julien has me perplexed. He's out of options so... he's on the edge of whatever reality is about to face him. Anyone can argue with me but 2023 was a good year for us because Julien was great that year. Julien had as much influence on that winning season as anyone. .263/.381/.459 in 408 AB's in a rookie season is incredible. You hate to let that go but... he's out of options and he's had 448 AB's in the past two years of well below average. He seems to be our version of Outman. Julien has better career total overall hitting stats but Outman has defensive skills and can take a base. Outman produced .248/.353/.457 in 483 AB's in his rookie season. 23 Home Runs and 16 stolen bases is a toolsy player. The problem is he's out of options and his past two years have been 270 AB's of not well below average like Julien but well below well below average. If you are trying to unlock Outman... might as well try to unlock Julien as well but... you just can't give them much rope. Julien and Outman are just a couple of reasons why you need to be careful with how we feel about Keaschall at the moment. After all Keaschall was .283/.382/.445 in his rookie year in 182 AB's and we declared Julien King with those numbers... even better numbers and we are declaring Keaschall King going into 2026. All of this is part of the reason why I'm insistent on talent accumulation beyond a starting 9 because some are just going to fail and who is impossible to predict. The Twins have an opportunity to just load up on youth and let them show you who wants a longer term job.

Hey, anything worth doing is. And we're gonna teach you.

13 Millions is a decent price for what Ward produced last season. However... we are still talking about the Orioles and 13 million is 13 million that can't be spent elsewhere and their pockets have always had limitations. PItching has been often quoted by many as the primary need in Baltimore so... everything just loudly points to what is wrong with Grayson. Currently Baltimore has Ward, O'Neil, Cowser, Beavers, Kjerstad, Taveras and Trimble for 40 man OF options. None of them are decent CF candidates too my knowledge. My guess is that Baltimore could be headed toward some decent size turnover this off-season.

Can Morel play 1B? Does Foley have any arm left? Morel has certainly got pop. The rest of his everything else has been pretty poor but there was a time when Morel was supposed to be a talented upcoming young player. Is there anything to rescue? I assume that nobody took him in trade offers? Minor League Deal?

OK... So they do need to hold cutable folks. Next Question? Are teams required to roster 40 players on the 40 man? Can they roster 39?

Relief pitching options is what I would be searching for. In regards to McCusker and Keirsay... They confuse me a bit and I assume that I have to get a better understanding of the process. Do you need to roster players for future designation purposes?

Hard to say where the problem lies but it's easy to say that there is a problem because offensive prospects are crashing against the major league shores. Other than infrastructure suggestions that I'm not qualified to suggest. Development needs to go from zero to sixty by yesterday. My suggestions... Fully commit to development at the major league level instead of fully committing to Ty France and Manual Margot types in an attempt to mathematically squeeze out marginal advantages. If you are playing Ty France every day because you believe that the product you are developing will lose games if they play instead of France. You need to stop and think about what that is telling you. If you have 3 left handed hitters on your 26 man roster and you are looking for right handed bats to complete your 26 man roster. Stop for a second and think about the damage you are doing to the future value of the young left handed hitters whose parts are being strip mined. Actually think about future value of your prospects in the process of making utilization decisions. Start Right Now!

My immediate thought is: How bad is Grayson's arm? The medicals have to have a question mark. Pre-Arb with 4 years of control traded for an OF with 1 year of control left at 13 million?

Agreed Mendez has to be our Hatteberg. Just a mere rumor of it combined with a hard to explain acute need at 1B combined with 47 bodies to climb over in the outfield and I'm calling him 1B before he even picked out the mitt. The presence of McCusker and Keirsay remains a curiosity.

If everybody goes to sleep this off-season. Here's your infield. Lewis - 3B Lee -SS Keaschall -2B Clemens - 1B Julien - 1B/2B Kreidler - SS/3B/CF

And here we go. 40 Man is full. Additions will require subtractions. 19 Pitchers 12 primarily considered to be starters - 7 primarily considered to be relievers. 21 Position Players 3 primarily considered to be Catchers (Stashing Gasper into this bucket). Because you have to stash him somewhere. 8 primarily considered to be Infielders (Stashing Mendez and Kreidler into this bucket). I'm going to assume the rumors are true and they will move Mendez to 1B and Kreidler can play anywhere defensively. 10 primarily considered to be Outfielders

One way or another. 26 men will head North out of Ft. Myers. Who Knows... New players all over the place. This might be fun!

I'd be shocked. For the all reasons you mention. Then again... in consideration of recent history. I might be Captain Louis Renault shocked.

Personally... I'm not that concerned about who we lose. I'm concerned about who we add. That speaks the loudest. It's the starting point of the 40 man roster taking shape and where it goes from here.

3 Hours and 17 minutes until the deadline. Pretty Quiet out there.

I will lose my mind if they are free agent outfielder shopping. We both know that if they are shopping for an outfielder... they will be shopping for a right handed hitting outfielder. They will have potentially 11 Outfielders on the 40 man after tonight. They don't need another outfielder. The only reason to shop for an outfielder would be to find a short side guy to pair with the many left handed outfielders on the roster. Larnach, Wallner, Outman, Rodon, Erod and Jenkins are all left handed hitters and let's throw in Keirsay since he is currently on the 40 man all though I doubt he remains. 2026 needs to be a complete... full commitment to the identification and development of younger players not strip mining them for parts. Now... if it's a clear upgrade... that's different but it would still be hard to explain spending limited resources on a position that is already overstocked on the 40 man.

That's where I am with Outman. He's got a lot of tools. He may have worked through his major league kinks already with other organizations. Being a member of the Dodgers organization is tough when they have little room for a player working out kinks. With that Said... I'd give him this off-season and until June to start showing something. He is out of options and we have choices coming behind him. His clock is ticking very loudly.

If Derek Falvey threw ownership under the bus saying... I really don't know what ownership expects trying to field a team on a shoestring budget. He wouldn't have a job much longer. If Derek Falvey said budget was set at 100 million. The Fans would tear those comments to pieces. If Derek Falvey said the budget was set at 140 million. The Fans would tear that comment to pieces if they only spent 120 million. If Derek Falvey said that they were actively trying to trade Joe Ryan. What happens if they don't get a decent offer for Joe Ryan and they don't trade him. I don't think it's sensible to just toss names around on possibilities, considerations or hypotheticals. We want information and we don't know how to act with that information. We... us... you... I... are why public relations graduates are pouring out of universities across the country, finding work to help corporate America manage messages because we don't react very well to the answers. We want the truth and we will kill anyone who tells the truth. Falvey is doing the only thing that is sensible to do. Say something without saying anything. It's the public relations playbook that's been written based on years of trial and error dealing with all of us.

Someone wanted Laweryson at least temporarily. So... I guess that means there is another team out there in worse bullpen shape than us?