tony&rodney

Louie Varland likely needs only a slight adjustment on finger pressure and release to leap toward an elite level relief pitcher. Too many of his pitches are center cut and needing just a little more movement. He can do it. I'm a little surprised that a few teams who have great expectations for 2025 have not coerced Falvey into exchanging Duran for a position player. These teams may regret their inability to deal and I'm pleased the Twins still have Duran. Michael Tonkin has often been mentioned as a player to DFA, but my gut tells me that his value as a veteran and as an effective #8 fellow in the bullpen is more valuable than people understand. A rubber arm is needed in every pen and he is it for the Twins. The #3-7 positions are open for a host of other relievers.

The data from games at the lowest levels for pitchers is only minimally useful. Development is the idea and only those on the ground really know how the pitchers are doing. Scouts watch a ton of these games and try to ascertain who could be pilfered from another team as an additional body of a larger deal via trade.

Worry not, the Twins are not even paying attention to the payroll at this point. The team is for sale. Unless something catastrophic happens (U.S. gov. implodes) the Pohlads are not paying salaries for the 2025 team. All decisions related to transactions of player personell are strictly according to Falvey's plans for the team.

Julien had a bad year last year but was pretty solid the year before. The same statement is totally true for Lewis. It is at the very least a bit odd that Julien has been totally trashed and cast aside as a player of any worth while Lewis still has a brilliant shine to his name here on TD. I'm not promoting or damning either player because it isn't that unusual to see young players struggle at the MLB level. Even a supposed superstar like Julio Rodriguez has had a bit of a slide the last two years from his brilliant 2022.

Highly doubt whether either Duran or Jeffers are remotely interested in signing extensions. They shouldn't be if they trust their talent. Both of them have already made legacy money and unless they have pissed it all away they know they are set to make a bundle down the road. I would advise them to go year by year. The last paragraph largely accounts for why many folks do not want any more worn out veteran players.

If any of those guys will sign a ST invite that provides a $2M contract if they make the team, sure ok. Otherwise forget about it.

Sorry to interrupt the conversation between Riverbrain and DJL44, but after looking back (again) at the free agents available (not Alonso or Bregman) I'm left wondering who a person should be interested in. Who?

I'm also fine with the current group of pitchers. I would like Paddack to be used in the bullpen. If he is put ahead of any of SWR, Festa, or Matthews it will be a poor end result. Spot starts as needed, ok. I'm not sure what trade value, if anything worth pulling off, Paddack or Vazquez have across baseball. Dan Hayes wrote the article to suggest that a little extra money made a trade for Cease possible without having to balance salaries. Cease fits as a good starter. His rental status makes people nervous because of the player cost. Hayes suggests SWR/Matthews, Larnach, a mid level prospect, and likely Castro. That is a huge collection for San Diego and fits all of their needs more or less. Perhaps the Twins can tweak that through including either of Miranda or Julien instead of Larnach and subbing in Cory Lewis or C. J. Culpepper plus a CB draft pick instead of Matthews. The options are there for Falvey and Preller to get what they want in a deal. I'm fine with what the Twins have now for pitching.

The Twins have a good pen and both Jax and Duran are really good.

Every team needs somebody to help catch bullpens in Spring Training. If Gasper isn't gone before April, he is fine as a guy at AAA. If Gasper spends time with the Twins take the under in Vegas for Twins wins.

Going back to the actual article, the Twins are not tied as tight to Twins Daily's $130 million as touted here all winter long. That sure doesn't register as news for me. When the music stops and everyone has a chair in St. Louis, the 26 person payroll will be somewhere from $120-140M, about what was expected last October. Spending $5 million on a tired vet just to spend the money doesn't excite me at all. If it excites others ..... ok.

Looking at multiple guesses across several sites or even making my own lineup for projected players as a starting lineup, I have not seen anyone use any of those five players as starters. Its ok if you want those five to start. That is your choice. I won't argue. If you are trying to suggest that the five names used will be rostered at some point and actually play in games, I won't argue with that either, but wonder why you state them as guaranteed starters. Teams use as many as 50 or more players in a season and the Twins have used at least 20 position players each of the last two years. So taking that information we need to flesh out who are the other half dozen starters, in addition to your five, for 2025 that does not include Jeffers, Vazquez, Miranda, Lee, Lewis, Correa, Castro, Larnach, Buxton, or Wallner. We know all of those guys will start a ton of games. I will guess Camargo, E. Rodriguez, L. Keaschall, P. Eeles, W. Holland, and C. McCusker. I'm not too confident that all of those guys will wear a Twins uniform but history tells us that 20 position players will start games.

I was wondering which of Helman, Julien, Martin, Gasper, or Keirsey Jr. were "currently GUARANTEED a spot in the starting lineup"?

This is a bigger deal than is often thought. I'm a diehard baseball fan and specifically a Twins fan since the first game of the 1961 season. However, my fandom is not exclusive to just the Twins. I was a huge fan of Koufax, Mays, Aaron, Spahn, Stengel, and others. I love watching good baseball and have never hated or despised any teams, not even the dreaded Yankees, although I didn't even try to catch the home run that Mark Teixeira hit to me in the right field seats in the 2010 playoffs because it was such a downer. The game of baseball is nuanced and I'm fascinated by VFW games as well as MLB. It hurts to see St. Louis come down even a bit and Pittsburgh fans are suffering. The massive dose of media money has caused a huge separation in just the last half dozen years and the collapse of the RSN has only hurt the smaller markets. This cannot be a good development for baseball in general. Concentration of wealth is always deleterious throughout human history. In baseball we have recently seen huge contractions of minor leagues that cost communities and individuals joy as well as some employment. The cost to MLB was pennies. The cost to the quality of the game is being debated quite a bit among those who scout and report on the development of players; its a negative in every way with no positive outcome except to put another Snickers bar in some owner's pocket. Sadly I don't expect change for another decade. Meanwhile I will go to college, high school, youth, and senior baseball games as well as watch some minor league games. Retirement is great. I regret not coaching any longer and my body is long since trampled from playing. Life is good.

Forgive me because I have commented on this previously with you. Emmanuel is a better fielder than Keirsey Jr. as an example and I like Keirsey Jr. People tend to be skeptical of a really muscled up guy maintaining their speed and quickness and this will be an ongoing question for Emmanuel Rodriguez. From my perspective Emmanuel is a true centerfielder and I'm not alone, "His reads, routes, instincts and ball skills in center are all spectacular, and right now, he has the foot speed to play there." - from Fangraphs. I guess we shall see soon enough and I hope this happens from Day One of the 2025 MLB season because ER is ready. AAA will be pointless, which many people will disagree with because they look at his stats but haven't seen him play.

I wish numbers weren't retired, for any team. When I think of the Hall of Fame I am reminded that #3, #6, #29 will not be on the back of any present or future Twin. I think Joe Mauer would love to see Walker Jenkins slashing base hits to left field on outside pitches.

Mike Cameron was a really good baseball player.

Since the statements last Fall that the Twins were not going to make further cuts to player payroll, my take is that the budget was at the very least a bit fluid and not anything to get all crazed about this offseason. The primary issue as far as the Twins roster is concerned is and has been a question of what Falvey views as the best combination of players. The hesitancy to complete trades can be seen as fear of failure (not a good thing in baseball), which seems unlikely, or that Falvey has a high degree of confidence in the team currently assembled. I just looked again at the list of nearly 100 players still available as free agents and cannot justify adding any of them ahead of our current team. I do feel that there are possibilities for transactions with other teams and if the Twins trade away more players than they receive the need or use of one of the available free agents can be revisited at that time.

Hope. Faith. Have faith in the possibility of change and hope it works. The Twins have a shot if some things change. If not, tune into watching Bobby Witt Jr. and the minor league games.

I thought we already had several articles which identified the Twins bullpen as the best in baseball. The bullpen looks good right now. If a big trade occurred with a team and the Twins were able to scoot off with a really decent arm that is on a reasonable salary as a part of the deal , sure add a guy. Otherwise, we good.

Hard decisions to make and Falvey gets the big bucks. Sounds more or less like what has already been discussed at some length - Cease for 1)SWR or Matthews, 2)Larnach, 3)a prospect like Raya or K. Culpepper, and 4)Castro. Can the Twins substitute Julien or Miranda for Larnach or Castro? Same questions apply: Do the Twins feel Emmanuel Rodriguez is ready now? How confident are the Twins in receiving production from Brooks Lee and host of others (Lewis, Miranda, Julien, Eeles, and Keaschall)? Preller knows he isn't getting the top 3 prospects or either Ryan or Ober. The discussion with the Cubs contains mostly top 100 prospects with high risks. That doesn't help the Padres whatsoever. Likely everyone just rolls with what they have into the season.

Please no Laurenao, Grichuk, Rizzo, Canha, Turner, Merrifield, etc. None of these guys will suddenly be the 2019 versions.

Before the advent of big media money there were a number of ways teams could compete in theory, whether via attendance, sponsorship, or energetic management. Think St. Louis. There are 30 teams in MLB and the rough average metro area is around 4.6 million people. The metro numbers vary from place to place but I used very conservative figures. Half the teams are above the line and half below. The current world is hyper related to marketplace and thus those teams in smaller market cannot do anything more than tread water to compete. This is admirable but teams like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh can and will eventually be buried if all media monies are not shared; system stays relatively the same. I'm not sure a salary ceiling is needed but a salary floor would absolutely be required if revenues are shared in order to stop hoarding of dispersed money by owners. Some of the benefits the Dodgers are benefitting from currently are due to their astute management, but it is also true that they benefitted hugely from MLB decisions. Among a pile of other dysfunctional decisions, the Manfred era bailed out the Dodgers in 2011 by an agreement that placed a value far below the eventual media deal and made percentage agreements as part of the 2011 bankruptcy. This served to basically give LAD somewhere around $600 million in profit above if they were playing by the same rules as the Yankees. So, yes, the Yankees are not happy right now with how this development has turned out. Fixing Manfred will be a Herculean task, unless ..... unless ...... Manfred takes some Draconian actions. What? Not likely to upset the status quo too much.

I was going to add this on my comment above. Both fanatic Twins fans and casual fans are generally not too excited by the team. Why is that missed by the owners and front office? I go to games and am put off by a lack of fundamental execution as much as the boring station to station play. Then there are some mind numbing substitutions in the 4th and 5th innings which wind up being awkward in the late innings. The noise from the PA system is just intrusive for this old man, but I have been asked by people in the 20s and 30s why the Twins pump so much pointless noise into the game. Between the lack of actions by the team and the unusual public relations a new ownership group cannot come fast enough. I'm expecting sweeping change in the next 12 months. The Twins are the guy who lives next door who never painted his house or cleaned up his yard for years and then put the house on the market and still made a decent profit. Many of us are eager for a new neighbor.

Well said - uninspiring.