tony&rodney

This idea is suggesting collusion of a fairly deep level. While I tend to doubt this, collusion is not uncommon in business. Remember it was major collusion that allowed the Twins to some extent to win in 1987 and 1991. We just don't know what is going on. I'm not sure you are wrong, meaning you could be correct, when you state that the current situation holds down valuation of some franchises. I just don't know though.

It is complicated and as I stated in a comment previously I'm not that interested in going full research into the CBA to produce a full article/answer. I hope my admittedly weak response below makes some sense. My initial thought that birthed the "squeeze" statement regards the current $1 billion+ that the Dodgers have in deferred payments. While the Dodgers have seen their franchise value more than double since the current ownership group purchased the team, those deferments alone are near the worth in value of several clubs. How do the owners negotiate a new set of agreements given the realities of the Dodgers process. Can Milwaukee defer $1 billion in salaries? How does MLB maintain the stability of franchises. More or less, this is what I meant. The start of any conversations cannot repeal contracts made under a previously approved system which puts the Dodgers in the driver's seat in any discussions. I'm not sure where this is headed and I do believe the Dodgers and Yankees could run $500 million payrolls for their players and still turn a profit. Does this bring in Saudi, Qatar, UAE, or other investment groups? It seems MLB is headed for some type of confrontation. FWIW, I don't believe previous commissioners would have been as absent, but I do also recognize that Manfred is an employee too who may have restrictions not held by previous holders of his position. Does any of this make sense? I'm still wondering myself where this goes.

We often hear from both the writers for this site and in comments about players (example-Yandy Diaz) or types of players (example-RH OF/1B) that the Twins should acquire somehow. It would be much more interesting to see more suggestions of actual ideas, similar to what Big City proposed. In all cases, it is realistic to put yourself as a fan/GM of both sides of a suggestion. Occasionally I will peruse BTV and find 90%+ of the suggestions have zero of the needs or financial realities of individual teams. One cannot just unload fodder for a top ten prospect or an All Star player.

While some people are really tired of trade talk and/or suggestions, I find it mildly entertaining chatter that keeps me far away from the dire state of other affairs. I like this idea. The question is whether the Mariners prefer Casas, which leaves the Twins on the sideline. Either way i think Ford is more my personal target than Casas. Casas goes to Seattle for Castillo and Ford goes to Minnesota for Miranda and Julien, which may be a stiff cost. The Mariners need bats, that is for sure. Good start for ideas Big City. I will add a somewhat risky proposition of sending Brooks Lee to Milwaukee for Jeferson Quero.

..... or that I only have one beer .... now and then ..... on special occasions.

It is totally a long shot, perhaps similar to Crochet. I have no idea how Prielipp will do but his pitches should play if his health holds.

Deferred money is hard ink in the CBA. It seems the players are for it because it takes away from the average roster cost towards the CBT. I'm not too sure why the players are keen on anything deferred past a half decade. Tax rates are at historic lows for upper income earners. The rates can only go up, so I don't get that tactic. Perhaps those are take it or leave negotiations. Seems like bonuses should go on year one if paid in that year and all contracts should be averaged over the length of the contract. Using Blake Snell as an example the CBT should read $76M plus the fair market monetary value of his perks for 2025 because he received $52M today (1/20/25) plus he is due a salary of $26M for this season. Snell has a CBT figure of less than $32M. I understand that the CBA governs these details but it is a clear example of where those owners who argue for some type of means to check the few teams at the top are asleep at the wheel or DWI. If a realistic / sensible system was used the Dodgers might have to think twice because all of these salaries would need to be paid times two to account for the CBT penalties. Of course, the Dodgers can likely afford a $500+ M roster. What am I missing?

Nash Walker has a video blurb up on Connor Prielipp suggesting his use in the pen, or at least positing that it may be a solution of sorts. The Twins have been a little stubborn about keeping Matt Canterino in a starting pitcher role but I think there is a chance to use Prielipp. FWIW, he has great stuff in the half dozen outings I saw last summer via milb.com

Call the Brewers, call the Pirates, call the Mariners, call the Braves. What do they want for their young catchers? After acquiring a player who can catch, then the Twins can discuss deals for one of their two current catchers.

Good series - thanks.

Manfred is going to go down as a poor commissioner. He is an idle paycheck. When he acts or speaks it is usually not in the best interest of baseball (using a super ball, ghost runners, etc.).

I tried to watch any game possible when I knew Prielipp was pitching .... so I saw most of his innings. He is, as you state, filthy. The Twins will always have their own agenda and personal beliefs, which we have seen with the repeated attempts to use Matt Canterino as a starting pitcher. However, perhaps a light goes on and the Twins put Prielipp in the pen. I agree and argued elsewhere that this guy is a possible bonus in the bullpen, an X factor for sure. I hope Connor Prielipp can stay healthy and get an opportunity.

High school, college, amateur, and minor league catchers never catch five games a week. There are 27 plus weeks in a season and Spring Training. We are more likely to see starting pitchers throw 300 innings than have catchers start and catch 140+ games. The Twins have been reasonably fortunate with their shared catching routine. Yes, Vazquez could use a new bat but Jeffers would absolutely break down catching 120 games. The Twins need to make some moves this year for next year as far as catching. Adding Cartaya is a start. Now go after Harry Ford, Jeferson Quero, Endy Rodriguez, or somebody. Buy high. In the mean time we should hope the Twins can get by on Jeffers and Vazquez another year.

My immediate thought is that I have no idea if Gasper can catch. Farmer was the Twins 3rd catcher as were a couple of utility infielders in the past. None of them ever caught a pitch for the Twins that I can recall. Has anyone actually been to several games where Mickey Gasper was the catcher?

A few teams have declared bankruptcy in the last 40 years (I think 4), but MLB has more or less controlled how each filing played out via a forced sale. There is a "constitution" that somehow rules MLB ownership and therein may lie an answer to payments of salaries. Thus far MLB has avoided the question by forcing a sale of teams via something where three fourths of the total owners vote in favor of "kicking out" an owner. This most recently happened to Frank McCourt in a messy dissolution/sale of the Dodgers. As long as there are people willing to pay the price for an MLB franchise I don't see how bankruptcy will affect lost salaries. Like most of the corporate world there are layers. The questions/surveys on mlbtraderumors of whether people support a salary cap/floor and subsequently are people ok with missing an entire season of baseball are interesting to some extent but MLB is unlikely to respond to public concern. Only the owners' concerns about their individual pockets is going to affect change.

Yes, we don't know. To be fair and factual this is true. I had posited that MLB guaranteed all salaries but found nothing in writing. I was going off what I was told from someone who should know, but that is different than factual evidence. The part that is setting up a debacle for the next CBA negotiations is how effectively and blatantly the Dodgers are using the obvious weaknesses or holes in the current agreement to a point where there it is going to be difficult to claw back on a number of items. Purely from a personal point of view it seems like MLB could have, at the least, not allowed deferred money or signing bonuses to be discounted on present CBT counting. As a counter, that also may have not had much of an effect. In the final analysis the revenue gaps have just become too humongous. Despite the public not having all the numbers to make clean comparisons, it is generally accepted that there are teams whose complete revenue sources are less than the payrolls of a few teams. I'm not sure where MLB goes from here. Interesting to remember that Bowie Kuhn stepped in and voided transactions which threatened the landscape of competition when Finley tried selling all of his players. All of this makes one wonder where baseball is going as a business.

I agree which is why I was initially thinking this was a proposal that could greatly benefit the Twins down the road. It is an idea that might have merit in another time. However, the Twins need to spend their time thinking about 2025, not rebuilding. I like Peete though.

Can I suggest that baseball has way, way (1K ways) less nepotism than any other major business, including politics. I can't think of a single player in MLB who gets to play in the 162 game season that has my talent, but this is not true for a large number of other businesses. Just saying. Mauer's brothers both played minor league baseball after college. One of them went into coaching for a bit. Is that the reference? This report by Jamie Cameron is outstanding and I thank him for this work. The time to compile all of this information had to be Each team signs enough players to field a team in the Dominican Summer League. It is heavy on development. From there the better players go to the rookie camps and league hoping to get a shot with the A teams (Ft. Myers), and advance up the ladder. In some ways many of these Latin players are taking the place of guys once signed in the draft rounds #25-50. The setup is cost efficient for MLB teams because the entire bonus pool and cost to run the team is less than Walker Jenkins signing bonus.

Let me correct my wording ... The players have contracts with individual clubs under the agreement between MLB and MLBPA in force at any given time. I believe MLB has something in place to guarantee salaries. I'm not sure where to find it. Four teams in the last three decades have declared bankruptcy including the Dodgers (2011 if I remember) but no player lost a penny from those procedures. It is complicated and frankly beyond my interest. Like all legalese ... tough to decipher exactly, which is almost always the point. It does feel like the Dodgers are gaming the current agreements in a manner that will make it quite difficult for MLB to gain balance in the next agreement. The Dodgers among a few other teams have outsized revenues where their payrolls eclipses the revenues for nearly 20 teams. While I don't care much for this facet of baseball it does seem like the future of baseball becomes more of one 10-12 league setup with another league of 20-24+. I actually would not have a problem with that. Of course Congress would need to remove the insane anti-trust exemption and that would be more difficult to accomplish than a revised revenue system. So back to square one, it is easiest to just ignore all of the financial stuff. It is all insane and I'll stick to what trades, blah blah blah. Sorry for upsetting you.

I responded today on another post that the Dodgers are using the system and squeezing MLB on future CBA negotiations. I don't know what the MLB rule is for deferrals but I believe it requires setting some amount aside that cannot be accessed. If teams could defer salaries without specific rules in place there is nothing to prevent someone from going crazy which results in bankruptcy. MLB contracts are guaranteed by the league not the team. So there must be fairly significant rules. The Dodgers are making it very difficult for MLB to engage in future revenue sharing negotiations because their future responsibilities are tired to the current rules. It is rather absurd to think that the league can continue long with the present disparity in revenue for clubs. As many as 20 teams may have less revenue in total coming to their organizations than the payroll alone of the Dodgers. We should expect the Mets and Yankees to follow suit as well. The solution is pretty simple. All revenues from games gets split. Teams can make additional money through stadium ads and ballpark development which is separate from contests. Even then a few teams will have much more revenue but not to the degree as the current setup.

Curious about how you felt about Griffin Jax as a 26-28 year old? These decisions are tricky with relief pitchers and I'm not sure fans can have access to whether a guy is salvageable or not. The changes are quite subtle for many. Griffin Jax has adjusted. Tyler Jay is still trying to figure it out. When I watch Louie Varland throw the ball, either in the bullpen or on the mound, I want to ask him a few questions and wonder if he could change this or that. Right now Varland throws to the barrel. Tomorrow Varland could be really good and he is isn't young any more either. I'm pretty sure a couple of teams have asked Falvey about Varland with a belief that minor imperceptible changes boost his effectiveness wildly. That's the fun ... we shall see.

Agree. Thinking further, I'm not too interested in trades that don't clearly help the 2025 team.

Seems like MLB has some rather stringent rules in place for deferred money but I have not seen it since the last CBA. If teams could just defer money easily, this could potentially lead to some bankruptcy problems down the road with all of the other teams on the hook. The larger issue is revenue from media deals. No league can exist without teams to play each other and thus the revenue from all teams should be shared. The current system is (crudely) akin to some trucking companies only allowed to use county roads, other companies using county and state roads, and a few companies allowed to use ships, barges, airplanes, trains, freeways, state, and county transportation. Caps and penalties for going over the CBT are clearly unimportant. Fans from major markets point to cheap ownership refusing to invest, but a payroll beyond total revenue is clearly not tenable. The competitive nature of athletics and individuals competing to earn huge wages means that baseball will continue to hold interest but the Dodgers are using the rules to put it to other teams. It is incredible ironic that the LAD mastermind is a former Tampa Bay Rays employee, a team that is forced to squeeze every dollar bill.

These ideas are both well conceived. My only comment would be questions of whether: Willi Castro is needed on the Twin Roster; would the Brewers even consider trading Hudson; and despite liking Peete as a prospect, can the Twins pry away Harry Ford. I would consider either trade despite feeling that Castro has high value to the Twins. Tai Peete is a high ceiling, low floor outstanding athlete. This type of acquisition often brings a huge gain down the road. Who fills for Castro in 2025? Concerns about Castro were a part of why my blueprint called for a major trade for another prospect of high value, Jordan Lawler, and a promotion of Emmanuel Rodriguez to the lineup. When we hear/read of a big increase in conversations from numerous clubs interested in trades in a recent Falvey presser, one wonders where the Twins are headed.

The Twins will need to consider options when they choose their Opening Day roster, largely because the team will need some of those players who begin the year in AAA once injuries occur or pitchers prove very ineffective. I wish they could take the best players north but it doesn't work that way. Players develop at widely different rates and pitching is particular tricky because of the subtleties within the mechanics of pitching. Justin Topa (he will be 34) had a pretty good year for Seattle as a 32 year old rookie. Topa has been in professional baseball since 2012. Louie Varland entered last season with a shot to hold down a starting rotation spot. Despite the ups and downs a number of these pitchers that we discuss still have a decent shot at decent careers. Maybe looking back at Caleb Thielbar is worth remembering. Michael Tonkin was in MLB as a 23 year old with the Twins. He is still viable. Cole Sands was close to being forgotten until last year. Griffin Jax was a failed starter. Varland can tweak his pitches and Henriquez is still a fair pitcher. Let's hope that the competition is strong in March and that Falvey makes the best decisions about who stays and who gets cut.