Brandon

Noah says 👋. He is the SS prospect who won the minor league gold glove this year.

And to think the Twins have the 10th or so ranked minor league system. if this is the case and we are developing half of the leagues future 2B (Julien, Polanco, Keashal, Schobel, Martin, Lee, Lewis....) and others as well. There are about to be too many quality major leaguers that may be a way that MLB keeps salary down by shortening a players career or salary due to cost control options.

These are all expected best case scenarios for these prospects. I would recommend a range for the prospects below AA. AA players you can project will be on the MLB team within a season or two. A ball players have farther to go and it’s harder to project when a player will succeed. Case in point a few years ago Enlow was a top prospect. We would have him up by now and we would all be wrong. But he could still make it up as a reliever. Or spot starter or swing man. And it could be next year but when he was a top prospect it was 2018 and 2019with a 2 year expected arrival time when it will take closer to 5 years.

And Lewis

Since we are trying to win in 2024, we should absolutely be trying to have veterans on the bench. Maybe have one rookie they can rotate out for opportunities. But I agree with the author and having more options is good. if a player earns his way up from AAA, The Twins will make a spot for them. Next year at the major league level the goal is to take another step forward in our goal to win the World Series. Developing rookies is a subset of that goal and can take a back seat at the major league level for a year or 3. These guys will still get their opportunities, so let's be patient for the rookies and resign Sonny Gray.

I expect a full analysis of potential picks and scouting report after the selection of our extra pick here at Twinsdaily.

The good news is we have many ways to build a trade package for a starting pitcher. We have players on the MLB team, young players, and good prospects at all levels of the minors. Hopefully we can find an agreeable combo to get a deal done. As for the bench we have a desirable opportunity for back up CF to get lots of playing time on a contender so we should be able to get one. I think we should hang on to Larnarch unless he is part of a package for a starting pitcher. This should be an easy offseason unless the Twins decide to get cute and trade either Polanco or Kepler creating more holes/ less depth….. I’m just sitting back and watching this unfold.

So the question becomes are we trying to win or trying to be ok and start a new playoff losing streak?

So we enter the offseason in a good spot but we don’t have much room to improve as we have ok bench players already and we are looking to raise the floor a little, but we will also subtract Farmer. The big area to improve is a trade for a Gray replacement. This means other teams around us likely have more chances to pass us and put distance on us but we should still be competitive which is what the owners want.

Does the 6th ranking or the rankings in general include contributions from players who won’t be back with the same team or is it based off of who is under contract/team control going into the offseason? The Twins are a high floor team with little changing this offseason with the exception of several bench players and the big one Sony Gray. The key will be to see how we rank after the offseason. Will LA go get more SPs to add separation from us? Will another team come out of nowhere to buy their way up? We are definitely entering the offseason in the best organizational shape I have seen in years. I do hope we trade for a good starting pitcher. The bench seems easier as we have several options already. We should be competitive in the playoffs next year and the division should be winnable as our younger players continue to improve.

The initial trade was terrible. A move of desperation to fix the SS position. The following moves made the trade worthwhile. I would rather have Correa on the team over Garver. I’m glad Garver has had success. I wonder if we could end up signing him to be a 1B/ DH/ and 3rd C to cut into Vazquez time if he refuses to hit at all next season.

The International Class of 2009 is up to 426 career HRs. It will be hard for them to reach 500 and beyond if Polanco is traded.

Pick the one in the middle.

I read an article last night about Korean and Japanese players the Twins should target here, and I like the OF who was gold glove caliber and could be a doubles machine. I forget his name. from This article I like the idea of Hoskins who could be a 1B / DH. But in reality, I would be thrilled just to have Solano and Taylor back. I don’t think the 1B hole is as big after the news Killeroff’s surgery went best case scenario (Holy Moly, we never get best case what is that)? While there is no news yet, I suspect Buxton’s knee will improve enough for him to get back out on the field atleast half of the time. I think we just need a good bench like last season and someone who can play 50% or more of the time in CF with mega awesome defense, 30+ stolen base potential, strikes out 6% of the time to help bring those numbers down for the team and Walks 20% of the time with a .300 average and only costa 3 million or less…. Or MAT or Kiermaier will do nicely if we can sign one of them.

Castillo is owed 24.15 million in each of the next 4 Seasons. As nice as it would be to add him to our rotation, At his price we might as well sign a free agent starter.

After seeing the contract for Peralta, I gotta agree with Brock. This is the guy to target. I don't know Milwaukee's farm system but I would trade Julien or Lee and CES..... I mean ERod sorry got pitching trade PTSD going on from the Mahle trade. and maybe a pitcher like Balazovich or Winder. That is more than enough to get a trade like this done. I am sure there are plenty of other workable variations too.

Garver could be the third string C to give protection in case the guy we just added to roster can't make it as the backup and we trade Vazquez.

It’s been well documented who is available in Free Agency to replace Sonny Gray in the rotation including Gray himself. But which starting pitchers are available in trade? We have many assets available to trade for a good starting pitcher. I would like to use this thread to develop the list of available pitchers in trade and we can write articles of trade proposals later. We have all offseason. Let’s come together and figure out who might be legitimately available for Minnesota to acquire this offseason. Who do you know that is available to be acquired in a trade?

I kind of think resigning Solano and his 116 wRC+ for 4 million over Turner and his 114 wRC+ for 2 year 26 million contract will be the priority if the Twins decide to bring in more depth at 1B / 3B / 2B and DH.

Because there are not many moves to make for the roster this offseason. I figured we would plug them through free agency. But with the news that payroll is headed down. (I do hope this is a ploy) I believe the starting rotation addition will come from a trade. I can see a CF or reliever signed through FA but I think a salary will be offloaded to help cover the cost of the new pitcher. If we do go through FA for the starter then Giolito is the obvious top choice because he has the most potential and will likely only be a 1 year deal.

Solano was 1.7 WAR https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/solando01.shtml Correa was 1.4 https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/correca01.shtml Gallo was .5 https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gallojo01.shtml Vasquez was -.3 https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/vazquch01.shtml total 3.3 WAR. So you’re half right. Yes there is less than break even WAR. But way more than 2. Still not an F. Maybe a D if you go by WAR alone. But the Correa signing means a lot more than his WAR. And I think Vázquez intangibles did too. Solano was an A+ signing. I give the 2023 FA signing season a B

1 WAR is worth 10 million so if the 4 players you mentioned were worth an average of 1.5 WAR we broke even. At 8 WAR we got some excess value. How is this an F?

After the news broke on MLBtraderumors the Twins are planning to reduce payroll I am setting my budget at 135` million. +- 3 million. My first move is a trade with Milwaukee for Corbin Burnes. I send over Severino, Larnarch, Schoebel, Raya, and Farmer. The Brewers are set to start a rebuild with losing Woodruff to injury and Miley to FA. I send over 3 offensive prospects and someone to cover SS after the Brewers trade SS Adames for more prospects to help push the rebuild along. Burns gives us a Gray replacement for a season. Farmer helps offset the salary and gives us an open roster spot for our next move. Twins sign Kiermaier to a 2 year 15 million contract. The Twins will sign a reliever to a minor league contract to compete for a pen spot. The big question is will the Twins sign a 1B back up or maybe bring back Solano to play some 1B, DH, 3B for 3-4 million? or do they run with Gordon for cost savings? The roster overall is pretty well set going into next season. The big question is replacing Sony Gray and they really need to do this for just one season as next season others start getting expensive and we need that payroll space. We should have several prospects ready to earn a spot in the rotation after next season. And keeping the bench strong is a top priority. Kiermaier helps with that and CF. C: Christian Vazquez ($10.00M) 1B: Alex Kirilloff ($1.70M) 2B: Jorge Polanco ($10.50M) 3B: Royce Lewis ($0.77M) SS: Carlos Correa ($33.33M) LF: Matt Wallner ($0.77M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Max Kepler ($10.00M) DH: Edouard Julien ($0.77M) 4th OF: Willi Castro ($3.20M) Utility: Gordon ($1.00M) Utility: Kevin Kermaier ($7.5M) Backup C: Ryan Jeffers ($2.30M) SP1: Pablo Lopez ($8.25M) SP2: Joe Ryan ($0.77M) SP3: Bailey Ober ($0.77M) SP4: Chris Paddack ($2.53M) SP5: Corbin Burnes ($15.10M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.77M) RP: Brock Stewart ($0.77M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.77M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($3.00M) RP: Louie Varland ($0.77M) RP: Jovani Moran ($0.77M) RP: Kody Funderburk ($0.77M) Payroll is 11.41% under budget

Here is the link to the article. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/11/twins-planning-to-reduce-payroll.html I guess if the Twins want a starting pitcher, they will need to trade for one yet again. also, I am sure one of Kepler or Polanco is on the trade block as well. Also Gordon and Alcala will be kept due to price. Farmer is out. Well off to work on the budget tool to figure this out.

That was some lazy writing. Bundy was exactly what he was brought in to be. A .500 pitcher. Led staff in starts. Pitched 150 innings of close to league average era for 5 million. He was a floor pitcher. I know everyone is upset they didn’t shoot for better talent since so many pitchers were available that offseason. I would give the 2022 offseason a B+. Getting Correa made all the difference in moral and shifted the mindset from rebuilding to winning. while it wasn’t ideal that Archer tired and was no longer the starting pitcher we needed. It was an even bigger crime to not put him in the pen as a multi inning reliever too. And while Joe Smith was a sunk cost at 2.5 million. He did have a good start to the season being unscored on in first 12 appearances before cratering. In 2021 You can say that Cruz was an elite hitter for us again the provided long term value by being traded for Joe Ryan. Also the pitchers JA Happ and Schoenaker were terrible. Atleast Happ got us one of the 2 players traded for Taylor our CF last season. Colome….. 2021 grade D-. 2023 analysis isn’t too bad. I would say if Gallo signed for 2 million and Solano 11 million would you look at both signings positively? Correa signing signified we were ready to win. Hence some of the moves / trades that followed showed this. Vazquez was signed for defense and be near league average bat. His defense was good but his bat cratered. All in all a B.