Brandon

Let him hit next year and see what a full season of AB does for him. He is still in the learning phase of his game. He hits the ball pretty hard. Like top 5 in the league if I remember correctly. If you’re thinking of selling your stock because it dropped a little, I will gladly pay you Pennie’s on the dollar because of your fear of loss. if Walner gets worse and even bad we have 3 starting OF prospects starting in AAA who have all been top 100 prospects at one time.

You may be right. But he is also one arm injury away from missing out on a big contract. Maybe he signs a 4, or 5, deal. Maybe he rides it out. I can tell you that I’m not sure of what the ideal contract extension would be. I for one would not go over 5 years. 4 is my comfort level. It’s not like he has the best pure stuff. If his stuff deteriorates as he ages, It could be a big loss of effectiveness.

This is your all-time best post.

If the Phillies are looking to trade Nick Castellanos or release him, I wonder if the Twins could swing a trade and have him play 1B? The Phillies would need to pay 18-19 million of the 20 million owed in any deal. This would get us a power hitting 1B -DH. We could still offer Santana or France a million contract to be defensive specialist at 1B.

This is definitely a rebuilding year roster of players easy to jettison for sure. We have lots of prospects coming up and we are on a budget so low cost ads. My first attempt I had a better 1B and kept Ober and kept Larnarch . These players I had to subtract to make the budget work.

Ryan is not getting 6 years in FA. He has 2 years till FA. He will turn 32 the first year of his new. Contract. He will likely get 3-4 years in FA. A good guarantee now is a great idea for someone like him. Arguing for what amount and if this contract should be 5 years instead of 4 is valid.

Ryan has two years of arbitration and the offer was a 4 year deal to include two years of FA. I figured around 60-64 million for the 4 season based on 20 million per season. He might could get 25 million in FA. You could add 3 million per season to his total if you like. But I also took into account the Twins would want a discount. I figured 4 million. What do you think Ryan will make over next 4 seasons?

Since the Twins don’t have anyone else for the bullpen he obviously stays. If the Twins had say 5 reliable bullpen arms then I would think it’s a real decision. But I think he stays.

I only have them hitting triple digits as a result of paying Correa. The gamble is that enough rookies show enough promise to be a .500 team next year if they tank to low the Twins could sell off at the trade deadline. I think if their payroll drops below 80 million the union will say something as will the owners paying into revenue sharing.

The Twins have done well in the draft overall. The real way to grade drafts is to see if we are consistently adding 2-3 players to the team per season that stick in the majors. We have several pitchers that were drafted lower that are really good. Varland, Jax, Ober.... those were great draft picks. I mean the Twins drafted that pitcher with the #2 pick that never panned out 20 years ago. We drafted Gorden 4th overall and he was ok but not that good. not all first round picks make it. I think Jenkins will be really good. I think Larnarch and Lee have been the most disappointing so far. but both are still producing and hopefully getting better.

Here is my initial take on the upcoming Twins offseason. It would be nice to have the Twins Daily blueprint available to edit and post, I have one I can use still for here so I will do the best with what I got. The Twins will be on a limited budget next season, and they are bringing up several rookies next year. We need to keep some veterans to show the rookies how it works in the majors. Here are my transactions. 1. Sign Ryan to a 4 year 58 million contract. front load it. 14 million in years one and two and 15 million in years 3 and 4. 2. Sign Jeffers to a 4 year 52 million extension with 13 million each year. 3. Ober will be traded in my scenario. I tried to sign him to a 2 year deal but we do not have the budget for him. I also planned to keep Larnarch too but he too is an expense we can not keep. I wanted these two as depth to help push us over .500 next season. They can do that but we also have players ready to step into their roles. 4. My Plan was to sign a 1B in the 3-8 million range. Ryan O Hearn and Josh Bell seem like the best targets. but we are at budget so at best go cheap here and sign Santana for a million to hold the fort too, I guess. 5. We need to earmark around 5 - 10 million for the pen. maybe not 10 but .... Lets be able to sign 3 or 4 to minor league contracts with invites to spring training. and sign 1 or 2 relievers. Hunter Strickland is a decent reliever we could sign for around 3 million a season. I wonder if we could resign Danny Couloumbe or Theilbar for around 3-4 million next season. Those would be our big budget ads. then to see if we can sign the minor league contracts. I think we keep both Topa and Tonkin, provided Tonkin resigns for around 1.1-1.2 million. Now lets look at our budget. Are we a potential .500 team next year: C Jeffers 13 million 1B Gonzales .75 mil 2B Keaschall .75 mil SS Lee .75 mil 3B Lewis 4.0 mil LF Martin .75 mil CF Buxton / Jenkins 15 mil / .75 mil RF E Rod .75 mil DH Wallner .75 mil C Vazquez 3.00 1B/ OF Clemens .75 1B Santana 1 million Total offense = 42 million ROtation Lopez 21,75 Ryan 13 mil Bradley or Matthews .75 mil Woods-Richardson .75 mil Abel .75 mil Sands 1.3mil Topa 2.0 million Tonkin 1.2 million Coulumbe 3.5 million Hunter Strickland 4 mil 3 other relievers totaling around 2.3-3 million. Pitching costs: 52 11 million Correa Total cost is 105 million (I can see the Twins going to 105 to as high a 108 million) I think they prefer under 100 million and its that way if they take out the 11 million for Correa but they won't want to add the full 11 million back in. This is my best educated guess for next season and gives us a chance at .500 if some of the rookies perform. Hopefully the Budget will eventually go back up when they get better TV revenue and regain fan interest. but front loading Jeffers and Ryan help like the Polanco and Kepler extensions of yesteryear.

This should probably be a blog post but as is the rotation is pretty solid with lots of candidates to be the 5th starter. Pavlov, Ryan, Ober, Woods-Richardson, (Abel, Matthews, Bradley) The bullpen needs help big time but a few can come from within and a few low cost additions and we could have a serviceable pen. Offense has a youth movement coming in (Culpepper, Jenkins, Gonzales, E Rodriguez,). There are also several inexpensive 1B hitting FA. I think the keys are Lewis rebounding and Lee developing and One or two rookies taking off and the offense is good and we are competing. we wouldn’t be a pennant winning team but possibly above.500 it all depends on development 2027 appears to be more of the same hence the importance of front loading extensions for Ryan and Jeffers.

I would keep him for a lower contract. For Tonkin, he’s been here and there are so many openings in the pen. There is no better opportunity to stay on a roster then here….

I was thinking the floor payroll is 70-80 million. I still think the Twins can keep team as is and sign Jeffers and Ryan to front loaded extensions add relievers and Ryan O’Hearn or Hoskins or Josh Bell to a 1 year 5-8 million. This sets us up to be a .500 team and lower payroll as we get more competitive.

If we get a bump in payroll the acquisitions should be front loaded extensions for Jeffers Ryan and a low cost 2 year deal with option for Ober. Then some low cost relievers. Outside of maybe 1 bat and 7 relievers, I don’t see too much for the Twins to do.

76.3% chance we have a top 4 pick. Or the same or better pick then our record. Here’s to hoping.

Mientkiewicz!!!!!! I like all 6 of the choices above. But bring in Douggie Baseball!!⚾️ It’s a good time for Baldelli to be let go with so many openings. He could latch on somewhere and keep going. In all seriousness they do need to bring in someone with fire. Someone who can push the emotional side of the game.

I thought I heard he was a solid defensive player. If he can handle 2B, SS, and 3B defensively then we can live with subpar offense for a few years with him as a back up. But I agree he has to hit better.

If Lee doesn’t take a step forward to claim 2B, SS or 3B when Culpepper is ready to take over at SS he could get moved to utility player and if Lewis doesn’t improve he could end up platooning with Lee. The good news is next season we have lots of good hitting prospects on the way. And we will need all next season to develop an effective bullpen. Our rotation looks close to competitive but they have a few salaries so probably not….

The youth movement will consume the 2026 season too. We have too many holes in the pen. In fact we have a solid mop up reliever Tonkin, a 6th inning (Topa) and 7th inning maybe 8th (Sands). There isn’t another reliable reliever you can count on right now. We have 3 OF and a SS coming up next year so reinforcements are on the way. The Twins need one or two of their starting pitchers to develop Then it comes down to the bench. The Twins have been good at finding solid offense off the bench. Hope that trend continues. Happy that Vazquez contract comes off the books. I bet payroll sits at 90 million next season. I wonder who the Twins are planning to bring in next year.

The Twins will trade for someone who ends up closing games. Overall they will do a closer by committee approach and spread the saves around to the best matchup/ rested player available for the day.

Wallner’s average was down 50 points this season. I would like to see if he can get them back next season. He has 35-45 HR power if he can play a full season. He gets the 50 points back on his average and he is close to a .900 OPS hitter. We don’t have too many of those here. This season he was a productive Joey Gallo with over a 110+ OPS. Which is better than many of the other hitters on the team. And this was a down year for him. So let’s give him a break and see what happens next season. We can always trade him later. He is a Minnesotan. Might as well root for the hometown player.

Austin Martin is the speed guy and Rhodes or Outman with McCusker as option 3 for the last spot. Or if Larnarch or Wallner get moved to DH or 1B then 2 of those 3 start the season. I think. Walker and ERod and Gonzales are up pretty quickly and Martin could get moved to backup…..

Larnarch is a former first round pick. I think he hit just enough to get arbitration. The question with him is will the Twins trade him. Also how low will payroll go next season. 90 million he can stay at 60 million he can’t. Tonkin should be offered a contract. Something like 1 million - 1.2 million and he either resigns or is nontendered. We have no bullpen at this point and having a member locked in at a little over league minimum is fine. I suppose you offer Misiewicz an 800-850 k contract. I don’t think he deserves a spot like this. I would contender him and Hatch. Ober is the real question mark. If the Twins think he will be better next season then offer. I guess a trade is possible too. I’m sure they will offer him arbitration but the Twins have been scaling back on costs and I don’t know if they are working their way down to a 90 million or 60 million payroll for next season.

Near perfect evaluation. I thinkk McCuskin has a shot at backup OF as well and should be included in that mix. This allows for 1 of them (Rhodes, McCuskin, or Outman) to fail and we’re still good. with how the rookies played this year , am not opposed to signing a backup OF in FA as well and let those three compete for the other backup OF. for 2026, I believe the Twins will go cheap at 1B. Goldschmidt at 1 year 8 -10 million…. Not sure what he would actually make or if he would rather retire…..