Brandon

Clemens is clearly locked in to the lineup next season. He has earned it. like Keaschall but for different reasons he gets placed at ?? position. The Twins were 2nd in the league in scoring and they have improving players so its not like big changes need to be made. Here are the major ?s for the offseason on our offense. 1. Do we offer Jeffers a QO (Yes IMO) or do we sign him to a long term contract? I am fine with either. Since the Twins like to platoon C anyways they will probably platoon Lackey when he comes up anyways. 2. Do we retain Bell? maybe. He isn't a bad option for 8.75 million decision. 1.25 million is already guaranteed. I would expect 20 HR and 70 - 80 RBI next season not 96 RBI. 3. Do we keep Lewis? I am fine if we do and I am fine if we don't. Right now C and 1B are the major holes in the lineup. We even have bench guys already Kreidler, Martin, Roden, and Alex Jackson. The good news is we have options and money to spend. OF has Buxton, Keaschall, Jenkins, Rodriguez, and Martin or Roden. IF has Kreidler, Lee, Culpepper, Clemens, and ??? and C Jeffers / Cartini or Cartini / Jackson with one more player to roster.

If you see how the Twins are typically built for winning you will see a lineup stacked 1-9 or 8 with 1 week link. But the lineup is full of guys who can drive in 60-80 runs a season. And they have 1 or two all star.hitters and the lineup is a top 5 because of the depth. If you notice this season the Twins were 2nd in runs and built that way. Ty France would fit the plan. He hit 20 HRs this year. And he is a good defensive 1B.

The 2027 team on paper doesn't have many holes., meaning the Twins have players pegged for the roster already . I can see us spending money on a Minter contract (2year 18 million?) or we sign a 1B like Ty France again 1 year 8-10 million?). Maybe we sign another reliever or branch player. We have starting pitching to trade and Larnarch coming off the books or moving to 1B...... The real investment is extensions for the core players and front loading some of them. Signing Jenkins to a 10+ year contract would be great. Maybe Brooks Lee signed a 4 year deal at a level cost. Keeping Joe Ryan is a significant investment for next season too, he will cost around 12-14 million. Maybe they extend one of Lopez or Kramer for 2-3 years for rotation stability. There are many ways to significantly invest in the team. I can see payroll in the 130-150 million especially if they paid off all the debt they said needed to get paid when they brought in additional investors. Also they could be planning to increase payroll for a 2.2 million fans hoping the number comes in around 2.5 + million. I almost forgot, the other significant investment could be resigning Jeffers to a 4 year 72-76 million deal. If this is the off-season, I will be happy.

I am sure that with repetition and work, Keaschall will be passable in the OF soon. Koskie went from awful to gold glove contender and there are many more examples. Also your point comparing grades for Keaschall and Larnarch are spot on and I missed that.

29 RBI in 173 AB is not an F. maybe a D+ as Gray didn't hit with power or average or on base either. I wouldn't project this type of production moving forward either. but you do have to give credit for all of the runs he did drive in with his chances. Gonzalez also grades better with plate discipline shown with a few walks in 8 ABs and that's all the nit picking I have here. I am excited to see Culpepper, Jenkins and Rodriguez have good solid debuts this year. Paired with Keaschall, Clemens, Lee, and Buxton is a good large core moving forward. Add in Houston next year and maybe Clemens becomes our 1B next year at some point. back to grades. The rest of your grades were spot on.

If we don't bring him back, then we have another hole at DH half the time. While I do not expect Bell to drive in 96 runs again. I do think he can drive in 75-80 which is what he was expected to do this year anyways, I would say the Twins find someone else but there are not many options on the market. If we can bring back Jeffers, I would be totally fine moving on from Bell.

9 starting pitchers is a good problem to have. The Twins now have a good floor pen and could use another elite arm or two Lewis doesn't seem to be a good long term bet anymore. Keeping him for next season is a coin flip. We have lots.of options if he fizzles again. We really don't have much at C without Jeffers. We do have a low floor but compared to Jeffers and his bat..... I hope he accepts a QO for next year. I'm really excited about our OF and MI and 3,B.. With 1B and C a hole the Twins should bring back Bell. And the most important question left off the list. Who will be the Top Prospect.once ERod, Jenkins, Culpepper drop off the list?

I think the off-season moves will depend on the outcome of the next CBA. If it's done quickly with the requirement of a higher floor payroll then expect hood moves. If it drags into the season with minimal changes I expect we will go with the same roster. This is definitely going to be an interesting off-season. Our biggest need is 1B where we have 10 internal options but nothing too exciting and we have an army now of floor relievers and could use a few with a higher ceiling. So the pen is halfway there and again they could stand pat there too. We do have extra starting pitching to trade (Ober and maybe Mathews). Obviously not trade both.... Internal 1B candidates include: Sabato Wallner Mendez Gonzalez Roden Tait at some point Clemens Keaschall Lewis I feel like I'm forgetting someone.....

I agree, The Twins were 10-17 or around that in August.

And we can't forget the contributions of Rojas and Roden as both had an overall positive contribution small but still good.

It's not that the Twins were better than expected but more that the league was so bad that the Twins actually had a chance and went for it.

Does anyone know the front office heirarchy? Who all works in the front office and what do they do? Are these guys who are leaving being replaced? I am way too underquoted to evaluate all these front office moves. All I can say is I've heard of these guys before.

It's about fielding the best team. I don't care if it's on budget if they are good. In 2027 let's look at the roster and see. Rotation where money will be spent. 1. Lopez is 20 million. 2. Ryan will be 13-15 million 3. Bradley will cost less 5-6 million? 4. Kremer 7 million? 5. Matthews/ Preliepp 800k Bullpen : 1. Gomez 1 million? 2. Morris 800k 3. Banda 2 million 4 Hoffman 7 million, 5. Adams 800K 6. Funderburk 800k 7. Adams 800k. 8. Sands 1,200k or Rojas, Raya and others in the mix as well. Do the Twins find a way to resign Jeffers? That is the real question. That is where the increase in spending goes. Clemens, Keaschall, Culpepper, Houston, Lee, Jenkins, E Rod, Martin, are all near league minimum. Caritini and Jackson will be an 8 million cost C tandem maybe 9 million. Buxton is 15 million, If we keep Lewis he won't be more than 5 million, Kreidler will be around 2 million to be a backup. If they keep Bell it's 10 million maybe they trade for a 1B or reliever or resign Minter but I don't see where big money needs to be spent next year outside of maybe a QO for Jeffers or a long term deals for him which I don't see.

The Buxton injury killed our post season hopes. The trades for these pitchers gave us extra time with hope. My grades for the trades. Minter was an A. Billy Amick is not going to be a starter here. He could be a bench player or platoon bat maybe. He is a 3 outcome hitter. Agbayani is only interesting because of his father and more so for the Mets. We got a top notch lefty reliever. He gave us best possible outcome. I hope he liked it here and we resign him for the pen next year. Nance is a A-. We gave up a 21 year old A Ball C at Fort Myers. We have plenty of A ball C now. Nance would be an A or A+ but he had some moments that didn't go his way. Kremer surprised and pitched way better than expected. He is either a trade candidate or back of rotation arm for next season. Either way it's a good value for an 18 year old prospect with a high upside. He seems on track for the majors at some point. But good starting pitching is hard to find. B+/ A- Hoffman trade is a bear to grade. He pitched great and we have him for next season with 4 million of his 11 million salary paid by Toronto. However, Dasan's control was vastly improved with Toronto If he makes it up and becomes a star, what a deal for Toronto. I am not sure where to grade this one. On one hand a A- for the creativity and he is back with us next year for .65 cents on the dollar.. On another, Toronto had Dasan was pitching closer to what we were hoping for which makes this trade an incomplete. Since The odds of Dasan becoming a top of rotation arm are still pretty low, I think a B-/C+ is in order until we have more certainty how good Dasan will be.

See Chili Davis. He was ßigned for 1991. On the cheap after an injury in Anaheim the year before.

If they keep Lewis then no. If they don't keep Lewis for next season I am fine bringing him back. I do not expect him to be as good. But this is an 8.75 million decision for the Twins. And I doubt Bell would opt out. I think he likes it here and will not likely do much better on the open market. Unless he thinks he can get a 2 year guarantee. I put the odds of a return at just over 50%.

I think we either sign a 1B or throw all of them in and see who sticks. We currently have Sanato, Wallner, Keaschall, Lewis, Clemens, Mendez, Gabriel Gonzales, Larnarch (I'm sure he is gone after the season but potential option now). That's 9 options and we can add Tiat at some point as well. On the plus side, Cartini shouldn't be an option to play 1B ever again for the Twins.

How poor is this author and can he step up to write a better title for his articles. This comment comes from why are you framing and calling the Twins core poor? Wouldn't it make more literary sense to have a neutral title and ask a ? And write the article talking the pros and cons of the core and let the audience decide Or do you think we are not smart enough to figure out for themselves Or is the goal clickbate?

I was thinking 🤔 the same thing. Would rather see more prospects higher up go.

Don't forget Culpepper. He has a 96 mph fastball and has pitched well at AAA as a reliever this year. He should be protected And I think Raya deserves more chances to make the bullpen.

I think with 4 OF who can start next year we should rotate several players in and out of DH throughout the season. I think Buxton should DH a little more but not much. He hits better when he is out on the field. 40-50 games at DH max and 80-100 games in either CF or RF. He should get time in bot CF and RF.

If Buxton wants to finish his career here, he will likely be the 4th OF in terms of games.played. probably 10-20 in CF and 60 in RF and 40 DH. For his age 35 and 36 seasons. I would only offer a 2 year contract at the end of this one. I would have agreed with you on your contract proposal before this hip injury. I think this is his second hip injury. He will likely retire young. He might play at 37 and 38 and we can resign him again. But for his 35 and 36 year old seasons I would sign him to a 10 million base and have incentives at 85 and 120 games played to get to 15 and 20 million and 5 million more with a top 10 MVP vote. Buxton and the Twins can negotiate the details but Buxton should be signed as a 4th OF / DH. CF has almost always been a strong position for the Twins since I started following them at age 12.... Conveniently 1987. We had Puckett, Hunter, Span, Buxton and now coming Jenkins.... Also pointing out his one or two decent seasons of Rich Becker and Otis Nixon in the late 1990's

Maybe he fixes the Twins offense and they average 9 runs a game as they win the rest of their games and sqeek into the playoffs off of Rodriguez.500 OBP and 6 HRs. It could happen. I'm glad he is finally getting his chance. I do hope he sticks and hits well here. And doesn't get hurt in 2027 as he battles Jenkins for rookie of the year honors.

Hey it appears that I was right. He was called up yesterday after the Twins lost again and are likely waiving the surrender flag and playing the future now.

I agree. I doubt revenue sharing would go up enough to make that work. The 50/50 only makes sense at a revenue point. Ia 100 million payroll with 100 million for stadium, draft, scouting, and operations can make sense but why would a 200 million payroll need 200 million for the same expenses. Wouldn't the expenses be similar for all teams. Around 100 million for example?