tony&rodney

My two cents: Falvey had a rough offseason and his preferred roster had an expected level of 78-88 wins. They reached their goal more or less. Falvey might want to set a more challenging ceiling this offseason.

Curious as to why. No issues with your thoughts though. Do you believe the trades mentioned are not enough from the Twins? Too much? Don't like the acquired players? Specifics? Why can't these occur?

It is hard to know that. Lee has a pretty stable floor as a guy who will field a position decently or better and who can hit enough to hold down a spot as a regular. The excitement about the ceiling stops Lee from becoming highly sought after, but stable players are key finishing touches for good teams. Lee certainly has value to teams, including the Twins.

The Twins may have had conversations about looking into bringing back Matt Borgshulte back as a hitting coach. Seems unlikely that Popkins created waves, yet it is always possible that the manager, front office, and coaches were no longer on the same page. Popkins was spoken of in positive terms by most of the players. I find it difficult to understand the type of baseball preferred by Falvey and believes he directs Baldelli. Coaches often have a closer relationship with players and are the first to get fired or not have their contracts renewed. Borgshulte probably signed a five year contract or he should have because it is clear the Twins wanted him.

Do you think there is a fit to trade with Milwaukee (Lee for Jeferson Quero) or Boston (Ryan & Topa for Kyle Teel) as a reasonable transaction that could benefit both teams?

Ok. Fair enough. You do name four players you would like to see on the roster in 2025. I believe that is a start. Why worry about what other people say, just give your views. It isn't necessary to condemn other viewpoints. It doesn't matter any way. People do not need to agree in order to get along.

Please make some specific suggestions of what you are thinking could be done instead of finding fault with the ideas of others. You lose all credibility when you just complain. I think you likely have some thoughts on who should play .... just put them down in the comments. I'm old and believe people need to move forward. The sky is not really falling down.

It seems so difficult to find a match in trades. My major issue with the Twins putting the same basic team back in place for 2025 is what I perceive as a poor defensive team that really strains the talents of the pitching staff. So I look over the ideas and try to see some benefit in each. C) Vazquez will be difficult to move. It seems like a move to add a catcher can start the ball rolling. I would ask Milwaukee if Lee is sufficient to acquire Jeferson Quero. I would also attempt to find out what the cost is for Harry Ford from Seattle. With a catcher in tow I would look to add some prospects to Jeffers and Paddack (maybe Soto and Amick) and see if this is acceptable to acquire Sandy Alcantara. I would accept Luzardo straight up for Jeffers. If either Alcantara or Luzardo is on board, maybe see if Boston likes Ryan and Topa for Kyle Teel. Infield) Correa stays put. Lewis moves to 1B where he can relax and work on his footwork around the bag and concentrate on his bat. 3B goes to a rookie, Jordan Lawler (Duran, Kirilloff).Arizona needs a closer. 2B can be Eeles, Castro, or Julien. Keaschall will be ready soon. Miranda is still on the roster. Outfield) Buck, Wallner, and Larnach return but I'm counting on EmRod and Keaschall at some point. Emmanuel is ready now, if his head is together and he is healthy and focused. Give McCusker a shot to show himself in Spring Training. Perhaps the budget goes to near $140 million, who knows. There is going to be chaos if injuries happen to the key players again but hopefully some type of change occurs. Either way, we will all still be Twins fans next summer. Four trades should be enough but it is more than Falvey likes. It is his team for 2025 though. We shall see what he comes up with this offseason.

Twins Daily is a baseball site, a Twins baseball site. It seems pretty natural that there would be a whole raft of articles exploring ideas such as who has what value in a trade or any number of other thoughts. This doesn't seem controversial. In fact it is more or less expected that there would be exploratory articles. The article questioning the role for Jose Miranda is quite fair. We should see a similar story on others: Lewis, Lee, etc. Fans don't have any say in how rosters are put together, so the thoughts, opinions, and ideas on any baseball (sports) site are merely entertainment. As such, I wish people would put in their two cents without getting upset or pushing aside an individual's article as click bait because by definition everything on the internet is click bait.

Seems like the guesses on potential trades will come soon enough with baseball closing up games in the next ten days.

Then Falvey needs to wiggle.

It might be best to assume (no matter the saying) a payroll of $120-140 million. Go from there.

This is priority number one for me. Find a way to trade for a good young catcher, even if the Twins must overpay, and then find a team interested in Jeffers. Nearly every iteration of moves I can think of involve moving Jeffers, but first another catcher must be acquired to work with Vazquez. I have no idea how other teams value the Twins players, but I'm wondering what Milwaukee, Boston, or Seattle would require for their young guys.

David Festa will be quite good in his role as the #4 or #5 starting pitcher in 2025. He is the least of the Twins concerns. The rotation is pretty good and will be much better if Falvey can find some players to catch those ground balls and fly balls that should be outs. The Twins pitchers had among the fewest walks and were #2 in strikeouts in 2024, but the porous defense routinely had the pitchers shaking their heads. I have an up arrow next to Festa.

Does San Diego need a player like Willi Castro? Castro plus $1.2M for Bryan Hoeing? I'm leaning towards an agreement that Castro may be a luxury with a $130M budget, although there is room for him at a $140M roster. Still, agree that some tough decisions will need to be made. I also like the idea of Severino as a Twin.

The Guardians suffered an abnormal number of injuries to their starting position depth this year. Some of these pitchers could return effectively. Not all of Daniel Espino, Gavin Williams, Logan Allen, Joey Cantillo, Tristan McKenzie, or anyone else will fade into oblivion. Without spending too much time looking or thinking about this, I expect the Guards to have better starting pitching next season. FWIW, they also have some good young relievers coming on, such as Andrew Walters. Are people aware that the fielding focused, astute base running Cleveland team also hit more home runs than the power focused Minnesota Twins?

You don't sound too optimistic and your #9 suggests that perhaps it is Falvey. I'm sensing that many believe in the core team and that a few subtle changes will bring different results. This is difficult for me to see. Without changes the Twins could easily slide below .500 next season. I'm trying to find out any information that ties a player on another team that the Twins could use to a player on the Twins team that that other team wants/could use to both teams better. These are challenge type trades and it is time for several of these transactions.

If the Twins had Juan Soto and Aaron Judge playing for them in 2024, with the numbers they put up during the season, then the Twins would be in the World Series. FWIW, this scenario would still leave the Yankees with a larger payroll. But you want to know if payroll will play a big roll. I would say it plays a role but not as important of a role as identifying talent, developing it, and having a balanced roster. While everyone might hope or believe that new ownership means more money for free agents and player extensions (etc.), the market does have a bigger role in how much money is available. A large media deal and a sold out stadium (3 million fans per year) would play a bigger role in payroll. If you put down $1.5 billion for a sports franchise you would hope to break even for the first five years while you make whatever changes it seems would strengthen the product and provide hopes for financial growth in some fashion. It might be wonderful but somewhat implausible that someone buys a franchise with the expectation to lose a bunch of money. The PBO/GM have more influence on the roster than the owner unless one can expect the Twins to sign Corbin Burnes and Juan Soto this offseason due to new ownerships's splashes.

This article clearly indicates the necessity of change to the roster. The only two starters among position players at the spots they played last season are Buxton and Correa and they require back ups. Sometimes a team can be tweaked with one or two moves. The Twins current roster needs shuffling and several additions. Falvey and his trusted advisors will need to ascertain which players, if any, among the prospects can be useful on the roster or whether a few might need to be moved in transactions. More importantly, Falvey needs to find fits in trades with other clubs that may cost some of the guys who were counted on in 2024. There are teams that could really use a player or two from the Twins and have a significant athlete to return in a trade. I'm not privy to how other teams view the Twins organization or which players are 100% unavailable via trade. My look through the roster sees a deficiency on defense that makes it difficult for pitchers. Others disagree with that assertion, often vehemently. Because of my view of the team, I see a necessity for Falvey to swing 3-4 trades to upgrade the roster and these trades will cost some important names.

I hope you don't lose your sense of humor or ability to be entertained.

John Bonnes or Brock will put up the calculator in November. That is soon enough. Let's enjoy the World Series. I seriously doubt a payroll beyond $140 million. More than half of all MLB teams will come in at or below that number. Everyone has their take but I'm not one to suggest the team is severely hindered by payroll. Yes, it would be sweet to have a $150-175 million payroll to afford a few mistakes and widen to scope of who is possible for 2025. However, there are legitimate trades to make and players to add along with a few prospects to test out. Falvey needs to put his golf clubs away until May and get some work done this season. A failure on his part will likely mean his career moves away from sports and toward some other big business job.

Given 2024, yes, all those teams prefer their shortstops. I say this and I really like Correa and hope he stays a Twin. Objectively, Correa does not hold much value to other teams given his health and contract.

Yes, more "stuff" in the pen and better team speed, but I'm focused on defense. Watching the Twins in the field was often painful. My offseason plans involve searching for paths to improving the defense behind our pitching staff. I'm actually less concerned with the pitching than I am with the gloves on the statues behind the guys on the mound. Of course, it will be impossible to make too many changes as a matter of reality. Still there are changes that can be made. The unknown is how other teams value players within the Twins organization and whether mutually beneficial trades can be completed.

This seems like a legitimate point. TheTwins had both Austin Martin and Royce Lewis play shortstop when an objective viewpoint indicated that neither had the skills to play the position at the highest level but both had bats to play somewhere else. Perhaps Acuna should be schooled at second base. I have never seen him play, so have no real opinion on him specifically.

The data is always worth looking at and every team evaluates their strengths and weaknesses to differing extents using data. Where the date fails is on how a team reacts to the batted ball. Cleveland catches the ball. When a pitcher makes a good pitch that winds up as a ground ball or a fly ball, it usually results in an out. Yes, some irony that Rocchio's errors made some difference versus the Yanks, but he is gobbling up balls that slide into the outfield routinely against the Twins defense. Cleveland had a pile of problems this season with their starting pitchers. I don't expect that issue to repeat itself. The Guardians also have a number of good players in their system. Expect Cleveland to have another good year in 2025, somewhere from 84-94 wins.