Brandon

To protect his knee Sano will move to DH. He will take AB from Sanchez mostly. If he continues to not hit he will get released. Probably after 50 AB. If he hits he can either be traded or he will play out the season as a DH occasional 1B and be let go after the season. Any way you look at it the Sano era is coming to a close. I guess Sano could slug .700 when he gets back and get his option picked up but I doubt it.

There is some value in a veteran hitter hitting .300. Its sure not 32 million. But isn't he getting paid now for past years production? Plus he is probably their best draw right now as he climbs statistical milestones. He could be over 3200 hits by the end of next season and over 1900 career RBIs.

Nice player to target but I would not include Winder. Reconfigure your trade proposal and resubmit your offer is my take.

If we are doing the extension now I think it’s pick up the option and add a guaranteed season and then add an option. That guarantees him 2.5 seasons with an option for another year. So maybe 12 million. 14 million with 15 million option with 2 million buyout.

Looking back on the 2009 International Signing Period, We signed 3 really good productive players who are all still with the Twins today. While that may change soon. Here is some fun with numbers to show what they have done with us. In 2009 we signed Polanco, Kepler and Sano. Sano was the star of the entire signing period and there was much debate over his actual age that teams were scared off from signing him and we were able to get him for 3.15 million. I think Kepler got 800,000 and Polanco I think got 700,000. feel free to check those numbers. Polanco was viewed at the time of the signing as a defensive SS with his bat the concern. Kepler was seen as a 5 tool player with minimal baseball experience. As we get closer to some of the players moving on I thought it would be fun to see where they are as a group and where they will likely be when they leave. Sano currently has 161 HRs with the Twins and he is off to the worst start of his career and injured. He should be back soon and could be released or be given some time at DH to see if he could build some value before the deadline. If he could come back and hit close to a .750-.800 OPS for a few weeks we might find a team we could trade him to for basically nothing and while we would probably have to throw in some salary, We would still get some salary relief from his contract and not have to pay the 2.75 million buyout. That would leave Sano's career with the Twins at 161 - 165 HRs I know I was hoping for more from Sano with something in the neighborhood of a few 40 HR seasons. I am also surprised he regressed so fast as I expected solid production from him into his age 32-33 seasons anyways with all of our young options at this point I think its time to move on from Sano and I also think that is the consensus here as well. Kepler is currently at 127 and should finish the year around 140 +- a few. Kepler has 1 more year guaranteed and a buyout. I can see the Twins going either way on the buyout so lets assume they keep him that season. Kepler tends to hit around 20 HRs a season. so with both seasons, he would end up around 180-185 HRs Polanco is at 89 HRs and is all over the board. He has 3 seasons after this one including 2 option years. I expect the Twins to pick them up if he is healthy. To project his level of production is hard so I am going with 20 HRs per season. with 11 more this one. That puts him at 160 HRs at the end of his contract. In Total there is a fair to good chance that these three players who signed for less than 5 million will produce just over 500 HRs for us during their careers. I hope to see Kepler and Polanco extended so they can increase that total. It is definitely fun to follow.

He seems to still be on track to win his 100th game at age 30 and 200 before all is said and done. While he has given up more HRs and hits. I think we should wait. it is unusual for Berrios to falter before the all star break. Maybe you are right and the new pitch sequencing isn't working out the way it is meant to. He will probably have to make more adjustments.

and its fun to play arm chair GM and or building a consensus in the process.

most baseball revenue comes from TV, internet and other such broadcasting. not from attendance like it used to be back in the day. but to offset fewer attendies you will have higher game ticket prices. especially in concessions. Also when using streaming services baseball is a less expensive luxury then so many others. Are you going to cancel cable? Also I guess I should also qualify the higher contract of say 50 million per year may be less total dollars then today comparatively speaking. the average salary could be significantly higher as a result of inflation too. its all relative....

With inflation where it is now. a 30 -35 million in year 10 will not be worth as much as you think. maybe Correa decides he would rather see what happens with inflation as a 50 million contract may be what the average starter is making by then,

I think your grading is a little harsh. Endow is more of an incomplete with all the time missed. Anyone who is a MLB regular starter should be at least a B. Maybe give Jeffers a B - for being a crappy hitter but strong defender. The entire 2020 draft and Cavaco are the only decisions that were absolutely regrettable. overall great article I give it a A-

I think we could do the contract. I think an 8 year 280 million or 9 year 300 million is the ballpark of a solid contract. Remember to add 1 year and 35.1 million to your contracts to get to where he was trying to get to last offseason. Now for the fun part. We have lots of cheap talent so we can afford his salary. What about 4-6 seasons in when everyone else gets expensive. We could bow the contract so we have more money during those years. season 1 - 42.5 million season 2 - 42.5 million Season 3 - 40 million season 4 - 25 million Season 5 - 20 million season 6 - 30 million season 7 - 40 million season 8 - 40 million season 9 - 20 million 9 year 300,000,000 contract. Opt out after season 5 and 8.

I’m in the don’t trade Correa camp. I would like to see an 8 year 280 million extension for him. Or 9 year 300 million if that 300 number is that important. They could get creative and frontload the contract while these rookies are pre arbitration and go down in years 5-7 when everyone salary rises, then go back up at the end…. Kepler and Urshala are high floor guys who contribute. I would rather they be on the roster and rotated to a platoon/ bench role if someone can consistently outplay them. We can trade them in the offseason. I am sad about Sano. I really wanted to see him, Kepler and Polanco combine to hit 1000 HRs for the Twins in their careers. They are close to 400 right now. Just a couple of big years from everyone and we are almost there….. we could trade Duffey and Theilbar as change of scenery trade. I am not opposed to trading anyone just that we are in contention and you go with the team you have and try to supplement the roster.

I doubt he will spend his whole career in Minnesota.

Gordon was taken with a high floor low ceiling outlook but with the ability to likely remain at SS. Greg Gagne was a comp. I think Gordon was viewed as a future SS with a .270 ave 10 HRs and 10-15 SB. It seems likely Gordon will have a 5-10 year run and accumulate 2000-3000 plate appearances. That is my guess anyways.

I think if Maeda comes back this season it will be in relief. He can set himself up to be back in the rotation over the offseason. If he is back by late August/ Early September then he would have time to build up in relief for the playoffs and show he is ready for that. I think we will have to wait and see if he can contribute in the postseason therefore it makes sense to not count on him at this time. So at the trade deadline we should make moves as if he will not be here this year. But he could be our World Series Closer too.

In the playoffs we should have Maeda back and he will likely be in the pen as a lights out reliever. Also if we can acquire a starter like Montas or Castillo then Archer will be in the pen too if he is not the 4th starter which I doubt. So I would focus on getting a playoff caliber starter then maybe a playoff caliber reliever. As long as we don’t have any more major injuries, we shouldn’t need anything else.

You could write an article on our bench. Our bench has been light years ahead of what other teams benches are doing. Compare OPS+ from our bench to others.

And because of this the Twins can go ahead and sign Correa to an 8 year 290 million contract extension. They will have plenty of money in the budget for the first half of the contract and they shouldn’t have to juggle too much the 2nd half of it. And if we can win the World Series so what

If we trade for Montas, I doubt we trade anyone on the current roster who is contributing. I think a package of Steer, Martin, and Balazovich would be a good start. Steer and Martin are good prospects that don’t have a spot on our team. And Balazovich is a good prospect but struggling this season. We might add another prospect and get Trevino in the trade.

I think if Bundy has 4 innings and 2 ER or 5 innings and 3 ER against the Yankees, I would consider his night a success.

Let’s be accurate on Bundy. He had 9 starts with 3 awful ones. 4/29 6 innings with 6 ER. 5/4 3.2 innings with 9 ER 6/4 2.1 innings with 5 ER 12 innings with 20 ER. His other 6 starts are for 30 innings and 6 ER. While Bundy is walking a tight rope he is decent more starts then not. The implosion starts are a problem but if he can keep it to one per month and be solid the rest of the month, we will come out ok on his signing. While I do think he is the 5th starter at this point, he hasn’t pitched himself out yet. His start against the Yankees needs to be watched closely by Rocco and a quick hook like the one he gave Smeltzer in his last start may be needed. I expect Bundy should be able to go 5-6 innings against the Mariners. I expect Bundy to get more starts unles both Yanks and Mariners clobber him before 3 innings. Health and the ability to go 5 innings will buy you an extra 5-6 starts into July. I don’t expect Bundy to finish the season in the rotation.

Also I think there will be some playing time opening up at 2B for Arreaz to get some games if Polanco doesn’t improve his results soon.

I think a demotion to low leverage only situations is in order.. I don’t see the Twins releasing him either but there are better options internally at the moment.

If the Twins get in as a wild card they will not be playing the Yankees thus improving their odds of ending their playoff loosing streak. I prefer the win the division but just sayin.

If we still had Berrios we would probably still have Rogers too. The thing of it though is we followed Berrios since he was drafted as an 18 year old. It would be fun to have him spend his career in Minnesota. It looks as though Martin is on track to being a super sub player. The question will be can he hit enough for average or will he develop enough power to be productive? He gets lots of walks now but when he comes up and hits .250 how many walks will he get? a .315 OBP is not good enough to start if you do not hit 25+ HRs. Richardson-Woods seems like he will be a good starting pitcher for us. Rosterman is right in that Berrios won the trade. I think we lost it a little because we would have qualifying offers on Rogers and Berrios and would get draft pick compensation for them when they left this offseason and we would probably be a better team with them on it. But the final outcome is to be determined.....