Brandon

is there a link for this? I still don't get DFA Cotton when Smith has been so bad for a while now.

surprised if they DFA's Cotton. He was one of our better relievers. I would think Smith would be gone in this scenario.

Gibson Sawyer-Long was traded in this deal.

Its ok to feed the greed once in a while. lets get one more shut down reliever to shut down the Yanks offense in the playoffs....

Its like getting Mahle, Gray and Lopez in the draft and instantly established in the majors. Anyone should be thrilled with that type of draft......

While the cost is high at least 2 of those picks were at a position of no need. We have plenty of middle IF depth so now Steer can go and replace Drury who was traded and be up in the bigs at any moment. Encarnation-Strand would be blocked as well plus our first round draft pick will be able to replace these guys as future depth piece while Polanco, Lewis, Arraez, and Miranda all man 2B, SS, 3B ..... Hajjar could haunt but that is the price to play. I am totally happy with this trade from this perspective. if we can get one more reliever that is good then we can win this deadline and at this point we pretty much have based on the caliber of players we acquired so far.

I think the Reds want several low cost players who can make it to the show. With lots of low cost players you can supplement with a few low cost free agents and a medium and high cost one and be competitive kinda like the Twins. And when you sign that one big free agent it says your all in without being all in. The Reds have Hunter and Petty, they just got 2 IFs I don’t know what else the Reds have but if they have any more pitching prospects with another hitter and they won’t be far away from being competitive if they play their cards right. I think a package of Steer, Varland Moran is a good one for a starter either Mahle or we pivot to Miami and go with Larnarch and Steer with a minor leaguer or two for Pablo.

To make this believable they throw in a third team is in on this deal.

This is my concern with Bard.

Yep

With us being in contention Correa is not getting traded. And I don’t want him to be traded. We will get some pitching at the trade deadline. So this post season will be fun. I hope we do try to extend him this offseason. If nothing else then to help him make more cash at the new place. But an 8 year extension is reasonable. If we go longer the AAV needs to drop in years 9 and 10. And with the way inflation is going how long out do you want your contract?

It’s clear we will acquire a reliever or two at the deadline for minimal cost. The question is will we spend for a bigger acquisition. Note that if we are spending a lot of prospect capital we will likely have several years of team control. So I am not concerned if we do this.

When you think of players on the bench, usually there is a reason they are on the bench. Usually the bench players can field really well but not hit, or they hit and can't field, or they have severe platoon splits. Whatever the reason its there, they are not able to be successful enough as everyday players. Looking at our bench we have players that fit that mold in one shape or another. but when you look at the production we are getting from our bench players you have to take notice and appreciate the job they are doing. Gordon is a player that appears to be just shy of being good enough to be an everyday starter. not enough walks and not enough power and just low enough batting average to keep the obp low. but he has speed and has taken well to playing the OF. He is even OPS+ 104 as of today. with 16 XBH in 193 AB he is only -3 in what I consider average power. (1 XBH per 10 AB) Garlic has 7 HRs and an OPS+ of 148 Killeroff and Miranda are raking and now OPS+ 107 and OPS+ 111 after really slow starts. Gary Sanchez is a league average hitter for a back up C with an OPS + 96 Celestino has been slumping lately but was hitting over .300 for most of the season and is at OPS+ 94 Celestino is also the only bench player with little power at all with 8 XBH in 147 AB as a -6 or -7 if you round up. Compared to other play off contenders: The Redsox have Refsnyder off to his fast start and Duran as the only 2 OPS+ 100 or more players on their bench. in fact Cordero at OPS+ 90 is the next best and there is a drop off from there. The Rays have 2 OPS+ 130 players in Paredes and Margot (on 60 day DL) and no one with any serious playing time is over OPS+70 The Yankees are getting production from their bench but dont really use them that often. Marwin GOnzales is league average at OPS+100 Matt Carpenter is hitting HRs like Garlic, and Hicks and LeMahieu should be starters are both over OPS+100 On the Whitesox bench the good players are hurt, or do not have much playing time while the bad players are getting the bulk of time at this point and they are not hitting well at all. Houston's bench is their achillies heal as well theyhave one player at OPS+104 and no one else over OPS+95 Cleveland's bench is bad too. So if you are looking for an area where we stack up better than the rest of the league (Maybe the Yankees are as good if not better). Look no further than our bench.

We've been stuck around .500 for a while now meaning since we were 8 games above .500 we have played .500 since and that has been for quite a while. If we want to win in the playoffs we need to get a few players. I doubt Bell costs that much. Maybe a solid A or AA ball prospect Montas will cost more and I am fine with most trades for him. I would be good with Larnarch in the trade or also including someone like Ober who is a low cost controlled starter that can plug into the A's rotation. (We seem to have several averagish starting pitchers and if we are getting one it makes sense to send one). There are lots of ways to structure a deal for Montas. While I am not as big on getting Bell. I wouldn't mind seeing us make some improvements and go for it while we still have Correa.

When writing these articles you should calculate how much payroll was reduced. also this trade deadline did nothing for the future other than the Zack Littell spurt.

Looks like we acquired 4 players who will contribute for several years or even more. Alcala, Duran, Celestine, and Smeltzer. The Twins clearly won the trade deadline deals that year.

We have a top ranked offense without a clear need to upgrade. Trading for an offensive upgrade at C is interesting but then they have to learn new pitchers on the fly while preparing for the postseason. Our current pitchers like throwing to Jeffers and even Sanchez has been better than advertised on defense. Our bench is stronger than most teams. Gordon is even +105 OPS. We could use some shut down relievers. Our pen isn’t as bad as everyone here is clamoring. With our pen throwing so many innings there will be more blown saves. But getting a pitcher like Rogers from SD would be a big help or I am sure there are others we could target. I think 2 would position us well for a short series.

The core …. How bout Ryan, Winder, Ober, Buxton, Arreaz, Killeroff, Miranda, Jeffers, and Duran. Why stop at 4. I can see Polanco and Correa getting extended if the front office will pay.

Sadly I had to heart this cause it’s true

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.