Riverbrian

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.

I like his progress. K Rate Down... Walk Rate Up... Home Run Rate Up. Exit Velo still in the upper echelon of MLB despite a drop in hard hit percentage. His BABIP has always been high and it was going to come down. This year his BABIP is really really low and it's going to come up. Wallner isn't Gallo. Wallner isn't eligible for Arbitration until 2027. He will cost us the minimum next year and he can still work on things, while Gallo cost us 11 million dollars and he wasn't going to be back. Stick with Wallner.

Can they develop players at the level of their peers? That is where the "Any Reason to Believe" rests. We picked up a lot of prospects in the deadline trades. We can win those trades if we are able to develop who we acquired and develop those already in our system. Can we make them better baseball players? It all rests on the development of our young talent either recently acquired or those who are in the system. If we can develop talent... we are in better shape right now than we were before the trade deadline because we cleaned the slate and added talent. We could be back to a playoff race sooner than a lot of you imagine. I'm not talking about Jenkins alone. We will need Jenkins and other young talent contributing. A lot of others. If we can't develop talent... If they don't believe in their own farm system production and end up filling roster space with cheap one year vet filler instead. We are in worse shape after the deadline and this could take awhile. If all we can do is add a Keaschall to the mix and that is the extent of the yearly harvest. This will take awhile.

The Blue Jays have 10 Pre-Arb Players. The Twins currently have 18. The Jays are 78-56 and the Twins are 60-73.

Timing is right? Well... in regards to having nothing to lose for the rest of the season. The timing is right. The timing has been right for a few years now. They are behind the curve. Many teams have kicked their baserunning aggressiveness into high gear. I'm all for getting these boys on the roster playing full tilt baseball. I've grown tired of station to station. I've grown tired of outfielders laying up instead of laying out on sinking liners within reach. Get these boys running the bases hard, get these boys laying out for some diving catches. Let them try to nail runners at the plate. Let them bunt when the shift opens up a dead spot. Let them bunt when you'd like to get a runner advanced in a key situation. Bunt in April and May and June and July instead of waiting until their backs are against the wall in September so it doesn't look so foreign to the player all of sudden asked to bunt because desperation for run production all of sudden caused a strategy change. It's nice that Rocco is going to let them spin around the bases. I applaud it. Just wondering why it ever stopped in the first place.

From a simple curiosity standpoint. Yeah... It'll be interesting. No matter who it is. I don't expect a rise in payroll.

Agreed... I'd love to get on the Tait bandwagon but he's in the low minors. I'll wait and watch in the meantime. Right now... I'm more concerned with those on the actual 40 man. or about to be placed on the 40 man. The players who need immediate assessment. Plenty of turtles hatch... very few complete the trek across the beach to the sea. The majority get picked off by Birds, Crabs, Raccoons, front office executives and coaches. What the Twins have to do now... right now... immediately is remove as many birds, crabs, raccoons and front office executives from their path to the sea.

Can they compete in 2026? Yes they can... they gotta rebuild the bullpen but that can be done. I think we will be strong in the starting rotation and I'm hopeful that we stay away from the cheap one year vet to fill position player spots. If they choose to spend some money... we have some money to spend now. Don't know if they will choose to spend money. But, they got the money to rebuild that pen now. .

You want an original copy of what is... Old News? Just an unbiased opinion. We will have to use plastic silverware for a bit until we find genuine imitations of MLB capable ball players that can cut meat. Even odds on if the front office can stop with the soft rock and raise this thing to a dull roar.