Brandon

Berrios has the higher floor since he has shown he is the more durable of the two players. Buxton has the higher ceiling. If Buxton is healthy then he is the more important of the two. He gets MVP votes in seasons with injuries. Who replaces them if they leave? Celestino in CF and we do have several high floor starting pitching prospects..... I think keeping Buxton on a 5 year extension would be great. He will be 29 so that would take him though his age 34 season. going seven or even 8 years to 36 or 37 seems like what he will be able to get and that seems a bit long. Berrios should be able to get 5 years. I think 5 years and 100 to 110 million seems fair. Going to much beyond that will get pricey. I am fine with signing both or whoever is willing to sign at a reasonable fair market price. I am not fine with overpaying either player because we do have replacements coming up the pipeline and we can sign good but not as good players for a much lower cost and we can realocate money elsewhere.

While I realize the Twins haven't focused on getting an ace in Free Agency, I was just pointing out that the only need is lining up to be just 1 starting pitcher for next offseason and we have 20-30 million available to spend to fill that spot.

Next offseason we have 6 free agents (Cruz DH 13 million, Pineda SP 10 million, Happ SP 8 million, Simmons SS 10,500,000, Robles RP 2 million, and Shoemaker SP 2 million) and a team option on Colome RP 5 million. Or 3 Starting Pitchers, 2 Relievers, DH and SS for a total 2021 salary of 45.5 million coming off the books next offseason. For our rotation we already have Berrios, Maeda, Dobnak as established starters. We only need to fill two spots. Dobnak’s 800,000 salary will likely be replacing a 10 million salary pitcher freeing up money to be spent elsewhere. Luckily Balazovich, Thorpe, Duran and others should be close enough to be ready for an opportunity. We may only need to sign 1 starting pitcher to keep our rotation deep as it is now. Our pen is likely to lose a few members, but relievers can be found cheaply in free agency so the cost to swap out relievers is going to be low or at the worst not a big increase in costs. Cruz will be a free agent next offseason too and it will be interesting to see what happens with him. Will we resign him for one more go around or is this his last season here? I doubt he would cost more than the 13 million we are paying him and more likely less with incentives. Even with the National League adding the DH next year. Regardless we have lots of options to replace him too (Larnarch, Rooker, and others). We were even set up at SS for next season too with Royce Lewis coming up but now we may have to find another SS on a short-term deal so Lewis can come up when he is ready more likely now the following season. However, we are still likely to come in under this year’s budget next season. On Arbitration only Berrios, Buxton, possibly Garver and Duffey and Rogers are in line for decent size raises. As a group I am only guessing they raise their salaries by approximately 18-24 million. If we don’t have to sign an expensive SS or have any unforeseen issues pre-emptively come up by next offseason, we are set up to pay big for an ace starting pitcher next offseason. Do we know which starting pitchers will be free agents next year? And do any of you believe we will compete and sign one? (Note: I got the salary info on this site)

The good news is we can always make a trade if more depth is needed. I do think Colina is a solid option at some point this year. Some times it takes a pitcher a few times up to figure out how to compete and the top level. Also as the year progresses we may be able to call up others such as Jax or Balazovich or Duran. So its not like we are devoid of options for the last spot in the pen. I would like us to have one more quality reliever but I guess we are out of available funds for now. So we go with what we have.

I think Castillo would be a better acquisition for us next offseason. If we loose a couple if starters and the young guys aren't ready then a trade makes sense. We have 6 starting pitchers right now with a few challenging for spot starts and a few rookies getting close. While Castillo is a 1 or 2 starter we should absolutely look into acquiring, I just don't see how we can matchup without trading multiple prospects which we may need for a future roster. Polanco is not good to trade as that would hurt our flexibility. We could trade Royce Lewis, and several prospects or get a third team involved. Maybe during the offseason I would be fine with trading Polanco but not now.

I"m gonna work backwards on this. I think he is worth 5 years and 80 to 90 million. That's 16 to 18 million per year. He is making 6.1 and next season maybe 12 million. So maybe something like 8 14 16 18 18 for a 74 million guarantee over the next 5 seasons. Maybe add some incentives for IP and Cy Young finishes. You can also make small adjustments to the annual payments but this seems like a good start.

I think Rookers spot should be higher. He had a solid floor of at least hitting in the majors.

If you are going to take Merrifields contract into the grading you need to consider Keplers 5 year 35 million extension as well.

John Bonnes, you should retro post on occasion some of your early articles. Same with Seth, Parker, and Nelson..... Flashback Wednesday or Something. Just a thought.

With the prospects we have and the ability to sign complimentary players, we need several prospects to pan out to keep costs down. Luckily our OF and middle IF will be low cost for the forseeable future. The one exception would be a Buxton extension. C will also be low cost. Those positions will be good through most of the decade. Also we have lots of pitching prospects and Dobnak may make it as a 4th to 5th starter as a low cost option. Others are on the way and some of those starters may make it in the pen like Rogers, Duffey, May. Keeping pen costs down seems likely. It seems we may only need to spend on a position player or 2 and 1 or 2 starting pitchers. And what I mean by spend is 10+ million per season contract. Anyway we should be good through at least 2026/ 2027. By then we will need to start seeing the next wave of talent coming up....

These grades need help. I would give Detroit a C / C+. When you get league average /solid both defense and offense for just 5 million is a solid grade. Kansas City B- Benentini can be anywhere from done to near allstar level. With the expectation he will be above average. Cleveland B Rosario has his warts but he can also hit and comes at a reasonable price. I wouldn't blame a B- grade either, but a C is league average baseline. White Sox is A-/B+ it depends on just how bad his defense really is and if he can take that next step. Minnesota C+ / Incomplete We don't have a set LF at the moment. We do know we have a lot of potential options who should develop into above average and all star level players but rookie seasons can be a developmental season and not give us above average production. I guess with Arreaz getting enough time with his batting title bat in the lineup can push the grade to a B- with enough time there....

What do they project the division standings to be? The Royals did get better with the trade yesterday for Andrew Benintendi and with Carlos Santana and others they have a decent offense. Will they have enough pitching to be a .500 team? Can they catch Cleveland?

nice points good idea. I am surprised the Twins haven't made a trade. I do think the Twins are concerned about a potential work stoppage after next season as they are not signing anyone beyond next season at this point.

This trade is a win win in terms of what each club accomplished. I think in terms of value in a vacuum the Twins come out on top. But for the Dodgers the value comes from getting rid of a potential headache/ nightmare. Having an SP from overseas not happy in LA could make it harder to recruit more SP or players from overseas if they did not handle it well. Also benefiting the Twins is the success and happiness that Maeda takes back to Japan and tells Japanese players that Minnesota is a good place to play. While Maeda has struggled pitching further down the season, I think he was still a solid 5 inning starter which is all Falvey and company ask for. So lets see how this season plays out and I am glad to have Maeda on our team. Last point on Maeda, even if he struggles down the stretch, a SP with an ERA around 4.00 with 170 innings pitched is worth far more than his contract. As far as Graterol is concerned, I can see him becoming an elite reliever. he has the fast ball and I think his slider is good too. he just didn't have a third pitch if I remember correctly so starting wasn't a real option without that.

If Rooker takes off hitting then what, as far as Killeroff is concerned?

I think he is a fun guy to have on the roster. Unless he is hitting the snot out of the ball, I would be fine as long as he gets less then 200 ABs this season and Catches less than 25 innings. He also needs to start less than 15 games at both 3rd, 1B, and 10 in LF.

If the Dodgers use this as an opportunity to buy prospects, I bet both teams can find common ground to make a deal work.

Darius, I think the article was about negotiating strategies. Not bidding against themselves to get their player. The article was not about whether that player had risks or was a risk to sign as all players are risks.

As much as I would like to have Escobar back. Its fun to see how long the Aj Pierzinski trade from back in 2002 will continue to have an impact on our roster. In that trade we got Liriano who we traded to get Escobar and now we have 2 good prospects who will have a roll of some kind the next 6-8 year....

I think Wade is a solid 4th OF Seems like this pitcher is a solid depth piece. So its more of a win win trade for both teams. However since Wade can play all 3 OF positions I figured he would replace Cave on the bench at some point.

Better get your spring tickets quick.

So are we done or do we sign Clippard and a starter?

Dang Soria signed with AZ for 3.5 million. I think we will be fine if the Twins go get Clippard and Rosenthal or the other Alex Coloumbe. That would be a good enough offseason for me. If they add Paxton on top...wow...

looks like Clippard or Kintzler for a bullpen role. is Rosenthal even a possibility? And that should wrap up the offseason. I am glad to have Cruz back for at least one more season. Its fun when we can see how great our team should be this year.

We could sign Cruz then make a low cost offer on Archer and sign a reliever like Kintzler or Clippard on the cheap