tony&rodney

Fantastic for Jorge Polanco. Two years at $20M per year is amazing. Sure hope Polanco has a fabulous couple of years in New York.

The dispersal is a repeat of the last few years. France, Coulombe, and Bader last year performed way above the expectations but those guys didn't move the needle and we saw the results in the win-loss column. Adding to the bullpen with active talent seems like a good idea. Then you realize that $20M doesn't bring in much and if the Twins wanted to they could have just kept their relievers from before the purge and saved $10M. The trades are water over the dam, but there is no way the team spends any money worth an article on the bullpen. It is much more likely we see Festa, Matthews, Prielipp, and Raya join Sands, Topa, Orze, and Funderburk. There remains a entire raft of options for improving the quality of the team but it is mid December and we are in the process of witnessing a Falvey Threepeat. Remain hopeful for change. Don't be disappointed or angry. It's all good.

Jose Miranda? I can agree with that. I'm hoping Royce Lewis is healthy, happy, and productive all of 2026.

My using Julien and Larnach was roughly based on what others have stated BaseballTradeValues.com has for numbers. I don't subscribe to BBTV and see issues with some of their numbers which people use in comments on this site. Low value for Lopez and Buxton are examples. However, it is always worth giving space to the system, just as so many do to the various and sundry analytic numbers. I guess the numbers are just a rough guideline and as such they are fine. As far as first base goes, there are ways to make a few moves that improve the team. The past practice of signing "value" veterans who might return to a past performance that was acceptable seems less than ideal.. Of the lot, Ryan O'Hearn is clearly the best player for now, but he will be a 2-3 year contract at $12-15M per year. Is that what the Twins want to do? It seems unlikely that Baltimore would trade their catcher for Lopez, but that would decrease the Twins current roster payroll by about $13M to $83M total. Given the recent statements by the front office indicated an ability to spend to around $110-115M, a contract like Bo Bichette works (8/$200M) if Lopez is moved. Additionally, the Twins could move Larnach and Ober for further financial room without hurting the team too much, especially if the returns were decent. In any event, I'm not tied to any series of deals. My comments are merely to say that there are a host of possibilities to improve the roster without resorting to the past prospects of signing guys on the downside of their careers.

There can't be a thought that the Twins have too many shortstops and need to acquire a C or 1B. San Diego has former highly rated shortstops playing RF, CF, 3B, 2B, and SS. The goal of every organization should be to acquire as much high end talent as is possible. Currently the Twins have guys in the correct position given the options. Lee would probably be best at 3B where his lack of foot speed doesn't hurt him as much. His arm is not top notch for third but his first step, instincts, and quick release would serve him well. Royce did improve last year at 3B. We can hope for further improvement. He has looked like a guy who should play 1B before last August and September. Lee is easily the best shortstop until someone else moves in. He can improve and his bat will determine his career. Keaschall hasn't had enough time to fairly evaluate. He is quick and covers ground. He could be ok or even decent at 2B. Maybe the Twins sign Bo Bichette for 2B and Luke plays first base. Clemens looked like a fair utility player and is the first baseman until someone else comes aboard. The big concern seems to be first base. I would suggest that all of Royce, Brooks, and Luke could be decent first basemen but the Twins would need to acquire someone to push them off of their current spot. Get the best possible athlete/hitter.

Agree with your basic position. There are a couple of brief thoughts that come to mind. The baseball business benefits from a strong positive public relationship with their audience. This is complicated and we could discuss it endlessly. Few businesses succeed without experienced people leading the way. These folks don't need to be the most talented but have knowledge to pass on to those new or in need of experience. That is how i see the need for Correa, etc. There really can't be a way to determine how trades will work out in baseball until a couple of years have passed. It's possible that Duran, Varland, and Jax are all out of baseball soon or they pitch another half dozen plus years. In the same manner, guys like Abel, Tait, Rojas, and Roden could be mainstays on a team or struggling to get any time on a MLB roster or out of baseball altogether. The future will give us an answer. The current conversations would be whether these were the guys to target to lead the team in a few years. I hope they do. Last, the future of the Twins is not much of a concern to me because it is out of my control. I want them to do well and see possibilities for that to occur. That is where Twins Daily comes in. My preference is for watching well-played baseball games. Physical mistakes happen and a few mental blunders are inevitable as well. My own personal problem with this current era of Twins baseball is tied to the excessive number of careless plays which is a philosophy of a playing style. I'm a hopeless optimist but also a victim of my own life, one that necessarily required critical thinking. Thus I support the team since 1961 and still yearn for excellence.

Not really rejects but rather boring additions. Ryan O'Hearn is almost certainly the best of those players who play first base.

The best change artists have more than one way to move the ball. The fade, break, roll is late and often unpredictable. A good change is often a pitch that results in low exit velocities and poor barrel numbers for the batter. Sitting on a change doesn't necessarily help. I don't know what is the max number of consecutive changeups thrown by Tommy Kahnle but it must be near 40 or at least 30.

That is exactly who I was thinking about. Kahnle could hit triple digits and sat upper 90s with his rarely thrown fastball. Fastballs, even big numbers, that are flat and visible gets hit. The changeup that moves real late can be almost like a knuckleball and very difficult to square. Most pitchers struggle to throw a real consistent changeup and the weak ones don't come back. I like Ohl and the way he sees the game.

Goal was to stay below $115M, gain some speed, improve defense a bit, and add a professional hitter. Free agent signings: Caleb Thielbar- 1/$5M, Pete Fairbanks-2/$25M; Bo Bichette-8/$200M. Trades: Bailey Ober, Justin Topa for Coby Mayo; Mayo or Matt Wallner plus Cody Lewis for Jared Jones; Joe Ryan, Kendry Rojas, Kyle DeBarge for Leodlis De Vries. Payroll = $114.50 (includes Correa) C: Ryan Jeffers ($6.60M) 1B: Luke Keaschall ($0.80M) 2B: Bo Bichette ($25.00M) 3B: Royce Lewis ($3.00M) SS: Leodalis De Vries ($0.80M) LF: Austin Martin ($0.80M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.20M) RF: Walker Jenkins ($0.80M) DH: Matt Wallner ($0.80M) 4th OF: Alan Roden ($0.80M) Utility: Brooks Lee ($0.80M) Utility: Kody Clemens ($0.80M) Backup C: Alex Jackson ($0.80M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M) SP1: Pablo Lopez ($21.50M) SP2: Jared Jones ($0.80M) SP3: Taj Bradley ($0.80M) SP4: Simeon Woods Richardson ($0.80M) SP5: Mick Abel ($0.80M) RP: Zebulon Matthews ($0.80M) RP: David Festa ($0.80M) RP: Connor Prielipp ($0.80M) RP: Kody Funderburk ($0.80M) RP: Eric Orze ($0.80M) RP: Cole Sands ($1.30M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($5.00M) RP: Pete Fairbanks ($12.50M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M) Payroll is 5.00% under budget

Move Luke Keaschall to first base and sign Bo Bichette to play second base, problem solved.

Good article. Ohl has a chance but he might need another pitch so that players cannot sit on the changeup. I will say though that a really good changeup is hard to hit on the sweet spot even when you are looking for it.

They have.

Lopez or Ryan for Mayo? Did someone mean Holliday or Henderson? Mayo may be rated higher than a Alan Roden but he will not be rated as high as Emmanuel Rodriguez. Baltimore wants pitching and Bailey Ober must have about the same or slightly more value than Mayo. Mountcastle? I'm guessing Julien or Larnach are similar in value.

Well, one must accept the GMs being disgusted with an offer but it never hurts to try. The offer to Arizona could be Ober, DeBarge for Jordan Lawler. I actually moved away from that thought a while back because I wanted to use Ober in a separate deal. A trade with West Sacramento might be more difficult to pull off. The target is Leodalis De Vries and again I use Kyle DeBarge (remember I cancelled the previous idea) and added two pitchers; Kendry Rojas and Joe Ryan. We cannot know how these ideas would be received but it might be tempting for the Athletics to have a TOR starting pitcher, a solid SP prospect, and a promising athletic utility infielder. If the A's were looking for something else, I might offer Brooks Lee or Royce Lewis and Zebby Matthews or Taj Bradley for De Vries. I don't really want to trade Lee or Lewis though. More importantly though, what ideas do you have for fixing the Twins or do you think they are fine as is? That was the rumor. Don't you think that Rocco and Jayce talked all the time about the yoke of the front office? Looking at both guys' past histories tells me that their (neither RB nor JT) preferred styles were not in play under Falvey. When Levine was shown the door there were many comments that he would be in a front office within a couple of weeks or months at the longest. Levine is a good baseball guy; he is doing podcasts or fooling around like us. Meanwhile both Rocco and Jayce get picked up right away after sifting through a pile of offers by two of the prime franchises in all of baseball. Past is prologue. All that said, I like the new coaches quite a bit and expect we shall see some changes. I also like Derek Shelton. He is a strong baseball guy.

If forced to pick between them, I would refuse. JK. Mountcastle has talent, experience, and is what the Twins do most of the time. I'm taking Nancy Reagan's advice and just saying no. Coby Mayo is without a defensive home, has big power, and wants a couple of thousand plate appearances. The upside is there and Mayo is a gamble. Trade Bailey Ober and Justin Topa for Coby Mayo. Baltimore would be open to that idea. Maybe the Twins add Tanner Schobel. Once Mayo is onboard, trade him and Cody Lewis for Jared Jones. Add Trevor Larnach or a lower level guy from the DSL. I like Bailey Ober a bunch, but if the Twins can turn him into a healthy effective Jared Jones ..... that's good. Hey, BBTV likes the moves except for it looks like I made the Twins pay too much twice. I'll take it anyhow. Edit to add - pay no attention to BBTV concerning either Lopez or Buxton. Plenty of teams would love to have those two players.

I'm a big fan of having an established regular at each position. Sometimes reality intervenes though. Austin Martin has had a tough time getting playing time at a single position in his career. Will the Twins allow him to start and play as the leftfielder based on his performance in the last two months? Some versatility is a good idea. I don't have an answer for how much. When mid August arrived last season Rocco was given the word and we saw quite a few changes in playing style as well as player usage. My guess is that while the manager actually runs the game, playing time and position usage ideas have come from above. I sure hope that changes this year with Derek Shelton in the dugout.

This is a thoughtful post that does a good job of developing the author's viewpoint. If you like to read about and discuss baseball, you should appreciate reading this post. I appreciate the author's work. The Twins have a direction according to some people but it escapes me. I'm fine not understanding. When I look at the Twins middle infield I think I see something different. Luke Keaschall does look rough at second base in the sense that he is herky-jerky in his actions and often looks uncomfortable with his throws. My rough evaluation is that his throws get guys out but I do hope he improves. The turn at the bag on double plays is pretty quick. Where I see Keaschall as a strong second baseman is in his range. LK has quick feet and covers quite a bit of ground. I could see him being a good stalwart at 2B. I could also see him being moved to 1B and being successful. Keaschall would also, potentially, be really good in left field. Right now left field looks like it has Austin Martin, Alan Roden, and either Jenkins or Rodriguez. My preference is to sign Bichette for 2B and move Keaschall to 1B. Brooks Lee is pretty slow and does not have a rocket arm. He does have a reasonably decent first step, good instincts, and is smooth with the glove (sure-handed). Lee is not a good choice at 2B because his range is poor. Ideally the Twins would have someone who covers more ground and has a big arm for shortstop. Until such time. Brooks Lee will be fine. The options are to trade for a more talented physical specimen or take a closer look at Kaelen Culpepper in March. The decision to put KC in St. Paul in December is safe but putting limitations on talent is not a good idea. Let Culpepper (and others) show whether they are ready. Brooks Lee would be a fabulous guy to start at all four infield positions when a player needs a day off. Lastly, there is the totally unlikely scenario where the Twins gamble on acquiring unproven high end talent. This could be a trade for Jordan Lawler or going after Leodalis De Vries. The Twins could entice the Dbacks or A's with handsome players. I think the infield will be old free agent or Clemens at 1B, LK at 2B, Royce at 3B, and Lee at SS. Would an infield of Luke, Bo, Royce, and Kaelen or Leodalis with Brooks rotating everywhere be an option. It can be.

This is true to an extent. Many Twins fans and some within the organization struggle with those large contracts. At one time the huge numbers were 10-20 times the minimum salary, but now the factors are much larger. Signing those large contracts is a gamble. I never object to a few large contracts. I recognize the limits of a Minnesota roster budget. Correa, Donaldson, and Mauer were all reasonable gambles. Something that gets lost is that these players take on a responsibility to show how a professional baseball player goes about their days. There are always going to be differences in appreciation of the guys who make the big bucks. A more visible impact is that a team has a player to count on day to day. Again, injuries and poor performances raise questions among the public but the example in the dugout carries value. Pablo Lopez is the clear leader of the pitching staff. Correa was a key leader of the position players and Buxton will take that position. A team can benefit from more than one big name. It reduces the pressure. Ryan and Ober are those guys who can help Lopez for the pitchers. The position side could benefit from adding a player like Bo Bichette. To each their own. My thought is that there is room in a $115M 26 person roster budget for two major gambles on the position side. Maybe Correa was too large of a contract or too volatile for the Twins. Can't say on that. To me a gamble on Bichette (I thought Naylor was worth $25M-he gone) would pay off. Some shifting of players would be needed to stay beneath $115M, but it can be done. The Twins plans are not discernable, at all, to me. That doesn't make any difference but I sure hope to see much better baseball in 2026 from the Minnesota Twins. I think the product will be better even if the record might be the same. I can live with that much easier than a repeat of the 2025 product with a few more wins.

IIRC there was a vague statement about not following club policy in all instances. In other words, someone up in an office didn't feel that the dictated directives were being taught as directed. Joe Madden has thoughts on this modern concept, which is starkly ironic because there are people who identified Madden as the first new age manager.

There are likely quite a few teams willing to pay (in prospects) big for Buxton. I'm not sure where the fit in a return is though from other teams to benefit the Twins. Byron would leave a big hole. One wonders what type of return Joe Ryan could deliver, especially if the Twins enticed a team with a couple of good prospects. Would Ryan, Kendry Rojas, and Kyle DeBarge for Leodalis De Vries be good for both teams? That is a big price to pay for a young player. I was disappointed by the return for Jhoan Duran and yes i know he is just a relief pitcher and only has two years left before free agency.

Nice work LA Vike Fan. My only disagreement with ownership is that they do not have a hold on how their POBO operates with the resources given. In the current front office era, the Twins have outspent their ALC foes as well as Milwaukee and Tampa Bay. My guess is that the Pohlads really like Falvey. He is probably a really good guy too. Unless and until the team is sold, the new normal will be lower roster payrolls. The roster is unbalanced a this time, which should mean some transactions. However, the POBO comments lead us to believe the same roster that closed out last season can compete with a newly signed first baseman from among a somewhat tired looking group, although it is possible O'Hearn or another might pan out. To be fair, perhaps no team will negotiate with the Twins. We cannot know how other teams see the Twins players. An Ober for Coby Mayo trade seems worth a call. A trade of Pablo Lopez and Alan Roden for Jonah Tong seems worth a call. That alone frees up enough money to sign Bo Bichette. We all know that isn't happening. The point isn't trading Ober or Lopez, the point is that within a $100-110M 26 person roster budget there are possibilities. The front office needs to engage and take a couple of wild swings. One would think that a guy who values home runs and could care less about strike outs would take a big hack this offseason. Yes, this could also mean trading away a prospect such as Emmanuel Rodriguez and naturally that decision could come back to bite badly. The status quo though just doesn't cut it. Or, because the Twins have the 3rd pick next July ... Can this current roster really win the 2026 World Series? Sweet.

C'mon dude, you do the same thing, a ton of times. You put both Joey Gallo and Kyle Farmer, both fine folks, in the Hall of Fame nearly. I'm not giving the dumb thumb, which says nothing, but responding with what I have read on here from you.. A few opinions aren't harmful. I kind of enjoyed how loyal you were to Farmer. All the comments are just by degrees. There isn't any reality to it. It is just a place for people who prefer thinking and talking about baseball rather than hearing or reading or listening to the piracy, drug running, and assaulting of common working laborers 24/7. Baseball is pretty nuanced. Our comments are just inexpensive entertainment. You said yourself on several occasions that you make comments based on statistics without ever having seen a guy play. Every single one of us is guilty of bias, which is more kindly looked at as point of view. You want to read comments that trash people, go look at a Mets site, where a number of people are melting down right now. Be careful in Queens. I look forward to you promoting more rookies. It's all good, even for us really old folks.

FWIW, I have never made a suggested trade or even commented on a player that I have not personally watched at least a couple dozen times. The last couple of years i have been watching a ton of baseball, most of it via mlb.com and milb.com. I have seen a number of high school games in person that include players drafted or soon to be drafted in Round 1 when traveling. Because I'm retired I can whatever I want whenever I want. This was never the case when I routinely put in 12+ hour days for work. One doesn't need to have seen a player many times but merely using stats doesn't cut it. That said, I respect it when people make a specific suggestion or attach names to their thoughts. We all should know that everything written about and commented on is just entertainment and our speculation. I never take myself seriously. Life is way too short for that.

Thank you. There isn't any mention of this that I found. I appreciate the correction of my mistake. I have generally used Fangraphs for roster salaries.