Riverbrian

As always... You are a pleasure. We don't always agree but I always know that you are researched.

Believe me... please believe me... I Fully understand the CBA limitations. I understand each timeline every step along the way. I understand how long an organization has with a high school draft pick and how long an organization has with a college draft pick before they must roster them on the 40 man roster. I understand that a 16 year old IFA worth his salt must be placed on the 40 man roster at a much much earlier age which probably causes a lot of crash and burn and also causes the talented IFA's to typically be the ones who reach free agency at a young age and end up with the monster 10 year contracts. I understand options and I understand Arb 1, Arb 2, Arb 3 and free agency. Culpepper came out of college so we can theoretically keep him off a 40 man roster until he's 25 years old. Then they will have 3 option years. Then they will have 6 years of service time. In theory,,, if the Twins choose to do so... they can keep Culpepper from reaching free agency until he is 34 years old. And of course if the Twins attempt to maximize the on the farm seasoning of Culpepper. He will be 28 years old when he runs out of options and we have plenty on Twinsdaily that will be saying he is too old at this point and not worth the time. Let me be clear... They won't do that... I'm just illustrating this to show that I understand the process as outlined in the CBA. However, the most important point is this. I'm not offering a strong opinion on Culpepper. I'm only talking about Culpepper because you brought him up. You like Culpepper eventually... you don't like Lee. Got it. OK... hope your right. I don't have an opinion... other than I'll take anyone who will be back the following year over the parade of one year guys who are filling the holes they couldn't fill internally. Tait? Same thing. I'm not asking for TAIT TO BE UP TOMORROW! I'm not going to get passionate about specific players no matter how hard you try to make me. I'm asking where is our catcher produced from our system. 3 Years of Vazquez and nobody can do what he did? I'm upset that nobody from our farm could be developed to the point that they can match his defense and also not hit for 9 million dollars less per year.

I haven't learned how to separate quotes easily so I'll just do it this way. First Statement: That's subjective player opinion and I won't go there because it leads to missing the point. There is no guarantee on Culpepper either. So tossing Brooks aside just to bide additional time with IFK waiting for Culpepper to hopefully be the man in the 2nd half only solves things on paper. In order for me to support this plan. I'd have to believe that you got this down pat and if you have it down pat... I'll will nominate you to be our GM next year. Currently... I don't believe the front offices of all 30 teams have the ability to nail these types of future calls because they miss frequently. Do I support Culpepper over IKF... Yes I do. Sight unseen... I support Culpepper over IKF because Culpepper will be back the following year and the year after that and the year after that. Call him up... let him break camp with the club if you feel this strongly about him. Let him grow through his pains. One state over in Milwaukee, the Brewers identified Brice Turang, they endured 1,000 AB's from him in 2023 at 23 and 2024 at age 24 of 61 and 86 OPS+ and are enjoying a 122 OPS+ in 2025 at age 25. BTW... they won 92 games in 2023 and 93 games in 2024 with a 61 and 86 OPS+ dragging them down. Not to mention Sal Frelick who is the same age in 2023. And many others. Chourio at age 20... leading to 17 Pre-Arb players in Milwaukee. For me... this isn't about 1 specific player in regards to Lee or Culpepper. 1 player doesn't fix our development issues. It's about multiple players rising up from the farm. Culpepper will be 23 next year. Call him up instead of signing IKF. 2nd statement. We can cheaply Myles Straw our way into a defensive 2026 roster to support our pitching. We could probably bring Vazquez back for a pretty low dollar figure on a one year deal. We could fill the roster with defensive talent and do it cheaply. I don't disagree that the defense and offense needs improvement which goes back to the crux of my opinion and attitude. What's the problem? Why are the Twins in the position? That's what needs to be solved. That's why I'm struggling to support this front office. Paving over this problem with one year contracts just keeps the problem going. It has to stop. IKF keeps the problem rolling. Enough with the temporary fixes. Why are the Twins lacking in position player development... Why are they behind nearly everyone? I don't know but it has to be fixed.

Someone will play SS. Someone will play 1B. Someone will play C. If you are looking for the greatest defensive team in the world. You could scrape that together on the waiver wire but you got to hit the ball in this game as well. Please understand that I'm not going to get into any debates over Brooks Lee and I'm not going to let opinions on Brooks Lee get in the way of the most important point. I understand that there are some who feel that Brooks Lee is not worthy of further investment at age 24. That conversation doesn't interest me. My opinion on Brooks Lee isn't worth anything and yours isn't either. None of us have the ability to predict what Brooks Lee will be at age 26. It's really simple... We have a budget. Any thought that they are going to keep raising payroll is not going to happen. Development is everything. We can't sustain our team with a series of one year contracts. Not producing a significant number of pre-arb talent leads to the wall we just hit. We need to be cranking out enough major league talent that makes the minimum like Milwaukee, like Cleveland, like Tampa so we have the money to spend on extensions or better free agents. We could be like them with 40 million extra dollars to spend and we won't get there with IKF followed by IFK doppelganger followed by IKF doppelganger. The next argument is... Well... who do the Twins have in the system right now. I don't know... Don't care... If they don't have someone who can field the SS position and produce a 77 OPS+. The front office needs to go. I'm not asking for Bobby Witt Jr. I'm asking for someone who will be back next year and could get better incrementally so the farm production is incremental as well which will eliminate the need to do it all at once like we just did at the trade deadline.

With all of the complaining that I've done. I have never asked for the firing of Falvey or Baldelli. I've reached the point of expressing a lack of confidence lately but I've never typed the words Falvey or Baldelli must go. If they sign IFK... that'll get me to type those words.

In my opinion. The Front office and Rocco is how we got here. If they continue doing what they have been doing... they will fail. If they would rather sign Ty France and play him every day because the farm can't do produce equal to or better. They will fail. They will not be capable of getting us back. If they would rather bring in recently DFA'd players like Bride and Clemens instead of turning to players produced out of their own farm system. They will fail... they will not be capable of getting us back. If they continue to rely upon players developed by other organizations instead of the fruits of their highly ranked farm system. They will fail... They will not be capable of getting us back. If they continue to staff the 26 man roster like the Yankees staff their 26 man roster without Yankees type money. Meaning instead of 100 million dollar free agent going with a one year 4 million guy. They will fail... They will not be capable of getting us back. On the other hand... If they do a 180 degree shift and work on development to the point where they trust the product coming out of their system over the players coming out of other systems. Then Yeah... They can do it. If they stop strip mining young players for parts in the name of development instead of trying to cobble together a patch work handcuff. Right now... the answer to your question... in my opinion of course... Is... No they can't. Yet... They can but they got to commit to it.

I don't know if they could or couldn't. I honestly can't say what approach I would take this off-season because the Twins are in an interesting situation right now with paths to choose from. My personal feeling at the moment. A. If they are going to deepen this sell off in the off season which can certainly be justified. Then DEEPEN the hell out of it. You trade your highest value players such as Joe Ryan and acquire a bigger better more awesome young 1B. B. If you are going to take your starting staff as something to build around... that could also be justified. Don't fill gaps by creating more gaps by moving players that are exhibiting better talent than the ones you are keeping. This means you keep Larnach and Wallner and attack the bottom end until there is less of a bottom end. Which direction would I take. I really don't know... both could be justified and I won't argue either approach. The one thing that I won't do. I won't say we are overstocked anywhere at the moment. I won't declare any positions of strength with excess. That includes left handed hitting outfielders. When you consider the group of Larnach, Wallner, Outman, Roden, Erod, Jenkins and Mendez. Granted that's a lot of names and a lot of potential but only Larnach and Wallner have performed above average at the major league level out of that group. We need to add to the above average pile. I'd keep them until others join them.

Do we win a prize for that?

Minor league deal for sure. This off-season will be interesting.

Cull from the bottom and be very careful on who you declare is at the top. In my opinion, that's how you get better quicker. Martin, Wallner and Larnach are nowhere near our current bottom and we only have two position players who I think should be in the lineup nearly every day... those two players are Buxton and Keaschall. Even those two will need occasional rest and the present of Keaschall is still small sample and his future is still TBD. Everybody else can compete for playing time. Martin, Wallner and Larnach can compete for playing time with others rising through the system and let the players decide through performance who gets more playing time and eventually who stays and who goes. Austin Martin is nowhere near arbitration, Wallner will be pre-arb with both making the minimum, they don't need to play every day unless every day playing time is earned by either of them. They do need to play enough to compete for more playing time, they need to play enough to develop, to become worthy of every day playing time. If they get by-passed by others, they get by-passed by others but the by-passing needs to happen on the field. Larnach is a little different than Wallner and Martin because he will cost extra money next year in his 2nd year of arbitration. 4 million? I don't know but he made 2 million this year and arb raises are typically double the previous year. After the deadline deals, budget isn't much of a concern now. The Twins have room for 4 million for a player that will be potentially back for in 2027. Spending 4 million on Larnach is 100% better than spending 4 million on a one year contract that won't be back the following year. Decision time on Larnach comes when the budget is tight, it's his 3rd year of arb with 8 to 10 million the payroll expenditure and he becomes a free agent the following year making it likely he won't be back. If Larnach has a nice year in 2026... maybe he provides more trade value and then you can move him at the 2026 trade deadline or off-season. Bottom line... They don't have to move Larnach and I hope they don't and I don't care how many left handed corner outfielders the Twins have on the roster. It's about those left handed corner outfielders competing for playing time and earning it and right now... nobody is out playing Larnach out of the current available options... no matter how many Clemens, Roden, and Outmans to join the hopefully upcoming Jenkins, Erods and Hendry Mendez's of our weirdly constructed farm system. Trade Larnach now? I don't know what he brings back. Could we fill the massive hole at 1B or SS or even CF with corner OF trade? Maybe... but the Twins haven't done him or Wallner any favors in regards to improving their trade value with their strip mining them for parts over the past 100 years of their development. Right now... Larnach is on my 2026 roster and I'm counting on him to help us turn this thing around... along with Wallner and Martin. Somebody from the system has to actually out hit them first. Cull from the bottom before you move on from those not at the bottom. In other words, Keirsay loses his 40 man spot, McCusker loses his 40 man spot first since they are not getting major league opportunity anyway. If for some reason, we collect enough talent in 2026 to force Larnach, Wallner or Martin off the 26 man roster because we are just plum out of space and we are brimming with talent better then those 3. Good for us... we should be winning a lot of baseball games if we reach the point that we have a team full of players who are playing better.

The Twins sure invested a lot of development time into Miranda. Over 1,000 AB's. IMO... They tend to invest in one stock instead of a more diversified portfolio. If that one stock craters... Ouch. Good Season, Bad Season, Good Season, Bad Season and now the clock is ticking and running out of ticks with CBA limitations about to make it really hard to invest anymore in Miranda. The Twins will have some interesting 40 man decisions to make this off-season. I'm not sure Miranda can survive it. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The front offices of all 30 teams often get it wrong and in light of how often they get it wrong, the cockiness to place all chips on one player blows my mind. We still need the farm to produce a decent MLB 1B. I'm assuming it won't be Miranda.

Michael Helmen appears to be the current starting CF for the Rangers. Hit a Grand Slam last night.

Exactly. You see it. Incremental. Consistent. And a probability that this could have been avoided. Instead... the path chosen produced a high probability that this was inevitable. Now we get to see what they can do with the... umm... All at once method.

The Twins are in a 5 game losing streak... I've seen 5 game losing streaks before. The 350 million dollar Dodgers are currently in a 4 game losing streak. The Dodgers have lost 6 of their last 7. The teams the Dodgers have played over the 7 games. D-Back, Pirates (Swept by) and Orioles for one game so far. Baseball has always been baseball and it will continue to baseball.

Great article. Necessary article. I've been looking hard at the budget. I honestly don't know what I would do going forward. I'm not sure they should spend a dime until a younger group of players show themselves. At the same time... I'm not sure they should be deepening this rebuild by trading Ryan and Lopez because the rotation has the potential to get them back to where we need them to be quicker than most of us imagine.

Tanking is marketing term that has is often used and often used succussfully. I remember a few years back when a bunch of free agents were unsigned with spring training underway. 2017-2018?. I remember reading a ton of articles all with the term tanking prominent in each article with the MLBPA and Boros quoted to keep the message resonating in an attempt to get the fans on their side to put pressure on MLB front offices to sign Mike Moustakas. Every CBA the tanking articles come out in force... it's coordinated and it takes practically no effort to crank the tanking engine up. It's part of the sports vernacular... It's an easy word for all to grasp. It's got a melody that the fans can sing to. The problem is that there really isn't an equal marketing catch phrase to represent the other side in these situations. Rebuild should be a positive term... Let's rebuild that chair. That's a positive phrase. In the end you get a better chair. Unfortunately... rebuild in sports implies losses with no guarantee of a better chair. The Twins are certainly going to absorb some short term damage to the reputation of the organization. Long term damage? I personally doubt it. In 1986 the Twins averaged 15,499 fans... They ranked 13th out of 14 American League teams in attendance by 1988 the Twins were averaging 37 thousand and ranked 1st out of 14 AL teams. I don't know what happened... perhaps that world series in win in 1987 helped. I agree with you... this rebuild was necessary. I was shocked by the depth of it but it was necessary. Was the degree of it necessary is worthy of debate... did we get the right return is worthy of debate but a new direction was needed because they ran out of road. The organization is going to have to sleep in the bed they made and absorb the blows. If they can develop... don' t know if they can... but if they can. The blows will stop or at least come at a lighter frequency if they can develop.

There are two complaint boxes and I'm not sure what box this one goes in. The "do we have the right 18 to 20 pre-arb players" complaint box and the "left handed hitting" complaint box. The do we have the right 18 to 20 pre-arb players complaint box is on your left and the left handed hitting complaint box is on your right. Yeah I know... I admit that I need catchier titles for the boxes. Outman, Keirsay and Julien do one good thing though. They make it impossible to platoon Wallner because left handed hitters make poor platoon partners with left handed hitters. And Lo and Behold... Turns out Wallner may have never needed to be platooned in the first place.

I want them to compete as well. There should be room on the 26 man roster for vets but we need better vets or at very least... we can't treat everyone of them like they can't be replaced regardless of the performance they are providing. I don't have a magic number of pre-arb players... 18 is fine... 15 is probably OK but I do know that I have a magic number of Dylan Bundy or Ty France type vets. That number is zero. We can't be 8 or 9 years into a regime and not have major league ready talent from the farm at the C, 1B, SS and CF positions. I truly believe the Twins front office hit a wall. It was a wall that I've been pointing at for a couple years now. There was a bill that would come due for the year over year parade of cheap one year vets that was sustaining them. They were going to run out of money this off-season and payroll wasn't going to go up... we all know that payroll wasn't going up. 7 expiring contracts were going to need replacements just to field a roster in 2026. Arb raises were going to eat the majority of money available from the expiring contracts and leave barely enough money to barely address the 7 expiring contract spots. Luke Keaschall by himself as the lone farm system representative wasn't going to be enough to comfortably fill those 7 expiring contracts. If this 2025 team was competing and we didn't sell this past deadline. We would have had to do some selling in the off-season... the bill was due or past due because they were not producing enough major league minimum major league talent. In order to prepare for 2026 and replacing those 7 expiring contracts, the off-season would have required a trade of significant salary (Lopez or Correa for example) just to raise enough money to fill those 7 spots with low budget one year guys again for another year of holding the farm back... just sustaining the problem for another year of it. 8 spots actually because you will have to include the guy you traded to free up cash or 9 or 10 spots if its multiple guys traded to free up the cash needed to continue down the highway they chose. A highway chosen either out of necessity of farm system failure or out of necessity due to a questionable faith in the one year vet 4 million dollar vet. I don't what the issue is... just reasonably certain that there is a major issue. The Twins put themselves in this position... it was unavoidable on the highway they chose to drive down. The trade deadline freed up cash. The Correa trade freed up cash, The trading of Duran and Jax removed a couple of significant arb raises. But... we are now in the position to seriously consider if we should actually spend that freed up money next year. I don't know the answer to that and it is certainly debate worthy. In regards to weather they should spend money this off-season. I'm not sure what I would do as the GM. On one hand... I think the team is closer to contention than most of us feel right now. If they hang on to Ryan, Lopez and Ober with Matthews, SWR and with the additions of Bradley, Abel and Rojas, plus any kind of progress with the group of Morris, Raya and Lewis types. The team has the makings of a decent competitive starting staff with decent necessary depth in 2026. Offensively, I don't think that we are worse off after the deadline than we were before the deadline. The loss of Correa was a potential blow on paper but he hadn't been producing offensive numbers that much better than what a struggling still learning Brooks Lee is currently producing. Willi Castro was a nice player, Bader was a nice player but they were gone after the season. The Bullpen... that's another story. The bullpen is perhaps the easiest to fix but how long will it take? I don't know because we really did a number on it. In order to justify the blowing up of the bullpen... Development will be the key. We got to turn Abel, Tait, Bradley, Outman, Roden and Rojas into something or the trading of Duran, Jax and Varland was completely unnecessary. It's harder to turn them into something with Dylan Bundy and Ty France types limiting their exposure needed to eventually become what they need to make Bundy and France unnecessary in the first place. So far... what has the farm done in the past few years on the offensive side of the ledger? Larnach, Wallner, Kirilloff and Julien kept firmly away from left handed pitchers. Bride and Clemens chosen over farm system talent. Royce Lewis in a year long slump despite being paid arbitration money. Jeffers and nobody else produced at the Catcher position. Ryan Fitzgerald at age 31 the only SS option for the current roster after Lee. No 1B... CF needing recently acquired Rodan or Outman to give Buxton a breather. I don't care who the owner is... I don't believe that a new owner is going to raise payroll significantly and even if a new owner raised payroll significantly it won't be enough that it will lessen the need for development. An extra 20 million spent will not lessen the need for better development. Without development, the players will eventually price themselves out. The Bill will come due, the money will dry up and the wall will be struck head on like it just was. I've just come to the conclusion that this organization (and many other organizations) can't sustain competitive baseball without massive improvement in regards to development. My jaw is still on the floor over this deadline. I don't disagree with it... it was necessary but the depth of it shocked me. By Depth... I mean the near complete dismantling of the bullpen was the shock to my system. Even after the mass exodus of players... we still don't have a major league ready C, 1B, SS or CF. I don't know if this front office can do it but I'd like to see if the Rocco can start placing more faith in players that will be back next year instead of more faith in the players who won't be. Let's start there.

Nothing new. We might be at 18-20 pre-arb players currently but it doesn't mean that the 18-20 pre-arb players are the right players. It doesn't mean this front office won't spend 20 million in the off season on 7 low value 1 year contract free agents and go right back into the same ditch. I want the development bottleneck cleared. I want the reason for the bottleneck identified and addressed. If the system isn't producing players the manager trusts. I either want a new front office that can guide the organization toward sustaining development or I want the current front office to change priority immediately and simply succeed developing players that the manager will trust or I want a manager that WILL TRUST. Other teams are doing it with much greater success. I want the bottleneck identified and cleared, I don't want them spending a dime until they figure out what is wrong in the system... or a new front office that comes in with development as the #1 priority. I don't want to end up in this position again. It's 2025... We don't have a catcher, 1B, SS or CF near major league ready. We are largely dependent on players developed by other organizations. I don't want to end up in this position ever again.

Just making up numbers to make up a point. No need to take the numbers seriously. Pre-Deadline: The Twins were about a 40 on a scale of 1 to 100. Post-Deadline: The Twins are about a 38 on a scale of 1 to 100.

Baseball is a funny game. Since the deadline... They started with three very competitive games against Cleveland, They won a series against the Playoff Bound Tigers, They won a series against the playoff contending Royals, they won a series from the playoff bound Padres, They were a decent bullpen away from winning a series against the playoff bound Jays and they were absolutely destroyed by the lowly A's and White Sox. As much as we like to look at records and say we should beat these teams and lose to the teams... baseball is a funny game and it just doesn't work that way. There are 23 games left against a variety of opponents we will all see how it finishes. The month of August wasn't a great month record wise and that isn't surprising because the bullpen is in tatters. For the rest of the year... I believe the bullpen is going to be a problem but in the end it doesn't matter what happens the rest of this year. The goal for the bullpen is to find one or two arms who might be able to contribute in future bullpens. I'm just going to ignore it and whatever happens happens. With this bullpen... The Twins were 11-17 in August for .393 winning percentage. Not good, not surprising but not the worst month of baseball this year. The worst month was June with a .333 winning percentage or a .667 losing percentage and that team had a bullpen full of talented players that other teams WANTED and gave up players to acquire. The team has an OPS of .708 for the year... The august team OPS was .695 for the month. Not much different on that end just some different names to watch at the bottom of the order. On the other side of the coin. The ERA for the year is 4.51 and the August ERA was 5.09 and that's pretty significant. I'll keep watching... I'll stay loyal.

Winning ultimately is the primary vehicle to fixing the current issues but winning alone won't do it. Marketing and PR? Both are important because we are all capable of being manipulated and that is why marketing and PR departments exist in the first place. I use the word manipulated not in the negative sense that is associated with the word. I mean manipulated in the sense that is what Marketing and Public Relations is at it's core. It's manipulation and if the organization finds itself in a position where marketing isn't working and public relations is in a negative hole, they need some fresh blood with fresh ideas. I don't have the answers like more bobblehead giveaways or something stupid like that but I think we can all agree that marketing isn't currently working and PR is at low point. Post trade deadline... which is also post fan attitude collapse (I know that we've been collapsing for awhile now). I'm hearing the same ads that I heard back in April. The context has changed drastically. There should be new production to reflect the new reality to help guide the organization out of this hole. But, ultimately... We need better players that fans appreciate watching play the game, players that the fans will be proud to buy a jersey with their name and number on the back. And Ultimately, they will need a team that is contention in as many Septembers as they can muster.

I've gotten what I've asked for. I wanted more pre-arb players. Right now after the September call ups... There are 20 on the roster... so no complaint from me... maybe not this many but I don't have an exact number of pre-arb players to strive for but I knew that the Twins roster needed to resemble what Milwaukee, Cleveland and Detroit started the year with to free up money to spend on BETTER free agents than Ty France. I have finally got what I have been asking for and I've been asking for this for a long time. I will live with whatever happens for the rest of this year. The one big complaint... rather than it happen all it once with a massive sell off... I would have preferred this to be a yearly influx of talent driving the number up so we didn't end up in this position in the first place. I wanted more left handed hitters in the lineup instead of limiting the number of left handed hitters as they searched for vet right handed platoon type guys. There are currently 7 on the roster... which is more than Rocco can platoon. So no current complaint from me. 75% of pitching is right handed. League wide in 2025 thus far. Left handed hitters have a combined .660 OPS against left handed pitchers... that is a statistical platoon advantage against 25% of pitching. League wide in 2025 thus far. Left handed hitters have a combined .750 OPS against right handed pitchers... that is also a statistical platoon advantage against 75% of pitching. More left handers in the lineup is how you play the platoon because significantly more pitchers are right handed. Strip mining every young left handed hitter is not how you play the platoon advantage because it's playing the low end not the upper end. More left handed hitters is what I've been asking for. I've got it at the moment so no current complaint from me. The one big complaint. It might be too damn late for some of our players. They have spent the last 3 years providing no opportunity for any of our left handed hitting developing prospects and that develop time is gone as prospects have reached arbitration or about to reach arbitration. The decision makers in an attempt to go for it must have felt that the team was better off with Margot types taking those AB's away from them and I really think that was the wrong approach and I believe it why we are here right now with this sudden massive all at once correction. Every single young developing left handed hitter was strip mined for parts and kept away from left handed pitchers for the past 3 years as we kept the left handed hitters numbers down and constantly searched for lower dollar one year contracts to right handed hitting handcuffs. Not one left handed hitter was allowed to hit against left handed pitching. All teams will platoon but none of the other 29 teams did this so 100% to every single left handed developing prospect. Not one. I wanted some experimentation between the 5 to 6 inning starter and the 1 inning bullpen guy. I'm getting that it with Ohl and Adams. I don't know if these are the right guys to experiment with... I don't know if it will work out in the end but I appreciate the attempt because I'm pretty convinced that in the future there will be something different than a 5 man rotation and 1 inning bullpen guys. I don't know what that will be but something will be different and maybe the Twins could be that team to lead the way. In the end... I'm getting what I asked for so no complaints. I'm pretty convinced that the team's budget was maxed out and the team was going to run into a budget wall needing to fill at least 7 roster spots with maybe 10 million to work with. They had no other place to go. What they do from here will depend largely on one thing. DEVELOPMENT. We will find out if we have the right guys.

Yes... They can build a decent bullpen... Time Frame TBD. There will be trial and error until the bullpen gets to where they need to be. The next decent bullpen will contain some names that nobody is talking about right now and I won't even attempt to figure out who the next Brock Stewart is. There will be risers who impress and then fall and players that stumble out of the gate and put it together later but in the end... they can build a bullpen. The best bullpen in baseball this year belongs to the Padres. The Padres are not the best example because they invested a lot in the building of that pen... at least at the top of the pen. We all know the names at the top of that pen. Saurez, Mason Miller, Jason Adam. However... Go deeper... Jeremiah Estrada is 26 year old waiver claim that the Cubs DFA'd. Morejon burned all of his options until he became a left handed all-star. Wandy Peralta is 34 once DFA'd by the Reds at age 27. David Morgan was undrafted in 2022. At age 25 he has been pretty damn good as a rookie since being called up in May. 43 Innings with 1.19 WHIP. The 2nd best pen this year belongs to the Giants. Like the Twins... they also traded away bullpen talent at the deadline but look at the names they are working with and ask yourself who is Ryan Walker drafted in 31st round in 2018 and how did he become a bullpen stud at age 27. How did a 34 year old submariner Tyler Rogers become what he became at age 30. The 3rd best pen belong to the Red Sox. We can all see that Chapman has been really incredible in the closer role this year but what about the rest of the pen. Whitlock, Weissert, Berandino, Wilson and Slaten. Who are they, how did they combine to be the 3rd best bullpen in baseball. Yes... they can build a pen and it can happen quicker than many of us imagine and it's rather pointless for us to scan the free agent pool and say if we spent 20 million on these three players that we have heard of. Yes they can build a pen. Here's what it will take. DEVELOPMENT. Coaching, Learning a new pitch, Improving an old one and it will take opportunity and right now... opportunity... There should be plenty of that. Yes the can build a pen... Time Frame TBD.

I've said this a lot and I will say it again. Catchers are consistent overpays. 122 Players have over 400 AB's so far in 2025. Only 7 catchers of them are catchers. Catchers sit frequently and they cost as much as SS, 1B, 2B, 3B OF players that don't sit frequently and typically have much larger offensive numbers. Rutschman will probably be around 10 million in ARB 2. Maybe as high as 20 million in Arb 3. And the price you pay in players for: Two years of Rutschman 30 Million in payroll 60% playing time Would probably be equal to the price you pay for: 4 Years of Westburg (For Example only). 95% playing time. The Twins really need to sleep in the Catchers bed that they made and not over pay to correct their mistake. If they have players that will secure a Rutschman in a deal... They should take those same players and get someone else for that package... someone that plays any other position and not in a position of scarcity. I am 100% against trading large amounts for a catcher. I am 80% against trading small amounts for a catcher. The Twins should be developing their catchers and trading them to take advantage of the market demand.