tony&rodney

75 wins might be optimistic, all things considered. That said I would suggest that a young team trying their best suffers when the bullpen is brutal. Working hard only to see it destroyed in the last inning is deflating. The Twins should be using any or all of Festa, Prielipp, Raya, Matthews, and others in relief if they are not starting. That still leaves room for a couple of decent relievers though. Pete Fairbanks or Robert Suarez along with Tyler Rogers would be expensive and worth it if they remain healthy. No one can predict pitcher health. Two relievers would cost up to $25M a year for 2-3 year contracts. The Twins traded away 3 top relievers so we can predict they won't do anything. That, in turn, will make 75 wins nearly impossible. I don't see any of the changeup specialist as good signings.

The current roster will only compete with the Chicago White Sox. Years of sitting out the offseason, more or less, and the struggles of development has left the team with an unbalanced roster. The pitching staff is fine. Who is going to hit or catch the ball? There are opportunities to improve. We can only hope.

Now you went a little bonkers and might give Mets fans high blood pressure. Santucci and Reimer are decent dime a dozen players with skills and a future. Pena is way in the distance, not highly rated. The Mets won't trade Alvarez or McLean, or they shouldn't. Buck, Jeffers, and Ryan are only 6 years of contracts. That is a pretty wild idea that could be a blockbuster though. I love that you forwarded an idea. It might be possible to extract McLean in this deal if the others were limited to Benge, Tong or Sproat, and Clifford. Fun to think about the options. I guess the biggest concern is that the Twins let Ryan, Lopez, and Jeffers walk without reaching .500 in the next two years. We love watching Ryan and Lopez pitch and Buxton hit, run, and field. What a disaster our front office has created.

Put yourself in Buxton's shoes. How excited are you to play another season with the Twins? At some point, for almost every major league athlete, one begins to crave a role on a team that is competitive. That ship sailed when the Twins failed to properly evaluate their roster and make proactive moves following the 2023 season. Buxton is the only Twins position player that has proven they can play at the MLB level. The rest of the team is pretty much speculative or hopeful of being average. I would be surprised if Byron has not had conversations with his family about this matter. Passan may have heard something from someone but I doubt Buxton talked with him. Baseball has a protracted offseason and transactions are drawn out across the entire time. Thus writers, bloggers, and the like need to create material. Naturally every Twins fan wants Buxton to remain a Minnesota Twin and have even better seasons each of the next three years. If you were Byron Buxton where would you want to play? A request by Byron to the Twins to trade him this offseason would rattle the front office. The main brains have been totally adverse to change. A Buxton trade would almost certainly necessitate further moves ..... except for the stubborn stance by someone. Maybe this is where the Pohlads can help the fans.

The one issue I see within the article is a reference to a coach not relaying the team philosophy on hitting. The tools, the coaching expertise, and the relationship between the players and coaches is important. Where trouble may arise is when the suits are sticking their heads into the clubhouse. The front office has a job and the people in the clubhouse have a job. Baseball may have a problem with the interference between the two parties. I wonder how serious that interference was in recent years for the Twins. Will this continue?

The Mets have some interesting decisions to make. The NL East should be wide open. Cohen paid a big chunk of money for the team, but the value of the franchise has risen by nearly a billion dollars. Cohen's Mets are carving out their market and growing in revenue. It is a market that can easily double in value in a few years making budgets less important than they are for small to mid market clubs. In two years a number of Met contracts are off the books. It seems like the combination of the division open and the success thus far would predict additional spending this offseason. However, the Mets may choose to make several trades to strengthen the team while keeping the dollar ceiling around $300M. The team needs pitching, corner infielders, and a centerfielder. Do they use rookies and risk growing pains? Free agents are expensive. Trades will cost prospects. The Mets are going to be one of the more interesting teams to follow this winter. Will the Twins be a part of their plan? I'm not sure they are desperate. I see them in a position to be a bit of a bully as they negotiate.

No angst here. I watched the work in progress the last several years. Not much changed during the offseason. I'm remaining hopeful for some major changes.

Well, he has infected dozens.

The Twins would probably trade Emmanuel Rodriguez for either of Nick Lodolo or Alfredo Duno. Why would the Reds trade Lodolo though? Duno is ranked higher than EmRod and catchers are hard to find. Why would they trade Duno. FWIW, Duno is also seen as a very good defensive catcher as well as having a big bat, whereas Eduardo Tait has a big bat but his future is still uncertain as a catcher. Yes, the Twins should take either deal.

The numbers that Emmanuel puts up and how he puts them up have always been rather absurd. EmRod does play a solid defensive game and has a big arm and his throws are accurate. Additionally, he has been good on the bases. Rodriguez has also been good at every level. The injuries have been frequent, varied and held him back. I have been pro Emmanuel for 3 years now but I get the skepticism. The injuries have been super frustrating and are a concern. I want him in the lineup on Day 1, every day. My comment previously is related to the Twins making or failing to make timely decisions on young players. I respect the difficulty of the process but ER is a guy to move if the belief is not 100%. No more AAA time. You are correct in that other teams may not be willing to acquire him for a high price but there are opportunities out there. For the BBTV crowd (I don't belong) Rodriguez held a value of 47 one year ago and sits at 24 today. That is still a pretty decent mark and there are teams looking for batters. Pittsburgh and Kansas City come to mind as does Miami.

The Mets, Giants, Phillies all make sense and the Dodgers are always willing to take your best players for their extra guys. I never thought Ryan and Lopez would work as a tandem but Buxton and/or Jeffers probably is possible. The difficulty has always been in getting a decent return. The East Coast teams and their fans/writers constantly flood sites with offers of guys not worth discussing. This has been particularly true with all of the Met, Yankee, Red Sox, and Philly rumors/ideas that make it online. I guess people can't help but feel the Twins are a feeder organization, thus the S%*T offers. It is hard to gage how serious any of these teams will be in discussions with the Twins. The Twins should hold out for value in my opinion. If the player is a prospect or has minimal MLB time, I would demand a Top Twenty prospect as a start.

My reply is that if there is even a 50% chance that your prediction is possible, why wasn't he traded already? Emmanuel Rodriguez has fallen in prospect rankings due to injury, more than anything else, if one takes the evaluation reports at face value, The evaluation of Rodriguez seems extremely important to the Twins organization because holding a prospect that loses all of their value points to a fault within the system. While I'm not a fan of BBTV, they do highlight, via numbers, the relative worth of prospects that many people seem to follow to an extent. The Twins sat on the high values of Royce Lewis and Edouard Julien and time moved on. Sitting on EmRod another year is pointless. A complete miss on Emmanuel should have consequences.

My guess is that the other AL East teams see Boston adding Gray as the lesser challenge than if they had signed Cease or traded for Ryan. Boston has their work cut out for them and they either need to spend big money, trade away players they want to keep, or hope they can at least repeat last year. Boston's current roster cannot contend.

December 1, 2025. The front office is on the clock. The roster could all come together and win 75 games next season. Or things fall apart and the Twins panic/sell in late July on their way to 60 victories. There is quite a span between the two outcomes. The Twins changed the manager and added coaches. It is time to make the moves toward a future that promises 83 plus wins in a couple of years. The winter meetings in a couple of weeks should provide some direction, unless the Twins front office has already decided to roll with this roster. I'm not sure why people are not seeing Simeon in the starting rotation. He has earned a slot. I could see if the comments suggested using Woods Richardson in a transaction, but he really isn't an option for the bullpen. I would offer SWR or Ober to Arizona for Jordan Lawler, but plan for Simeon in the #4 slot now.

MLB posted record revenues in 2024 and when the numbers come in for 2025 there will be a new record. MLB attendance is strong. Nobody can dispute the financial strength of the NFL and the global strength of basketball will eventually push it past football. However, within North America, an average attendance that sits mostly around 30,000 per game for baseball for 162 games each year for every team allows it to surpass all other sports in attendance. It isn't even close. A number of teams have drawn 3 million fans. Has any NFL team ever drawn 1 million fans? Parity? Few MLB teams finish any year with records above 60% or below 40% in terms of winning percentages. The numbers just don't support one sport have better parity than another. I would suggest or guess this is due to many complex factors. The idea that each sports league should operate in the same manner doesn't make sense to me. They are different and must operate differently. They are all wildly successful.

Anyone can watch this type of baseball. Take your pick: Little League, Babe Ruth, VFW, high school, college, summer college leagues, minor leagues, Town Ball, Senior Men's League, etc. There are endless choices. I have watched baseball at every one of these levels and if one enjoys baseball it is always an enjoyable time. Sports can be enjoyed equally at any level. It is entertainment and the enjoyment is always up to the individual watching or attending the games. If one has an objection to the amount of money earned by the players, that is a different point altogether. Maybe there should be a limit to how many acres, how big of a house, total net worth ceilings, and limits to income in a year for everyone. These types of things are choices and civilizations have been shifting their ideas on that for thousands of years. Unless one is calling for an entire new social structure tearing down the "whole thing" in baseball doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Things are as good or as bad as one chooses or decides.

This is a point understood by both the ownership groups and the players. To me, it seems next to impossible that a lockout of any significance takes place, maybe two weeks delay that pushes camps and the season back two weeks into mid April. The players are well-positioned and fortified for any eventuality. The owners would lose quite a bit of money and just cause harm to the game which can always cause a dip in revenues. All in all ownership has to solve their problems amongst themselves. The player salaries are not much of a factor. A cap won't happen. Hopefully, the MLBPA pushes the narrative that baseball is thriving and their guys need to stay out of the news as much as possible. Hopefully, the owners recognize that the solutions to their issues is wholly within revenue distribution. There may be some unfortunate statements that come out by each side but the more cordial the negotiations, the better for public relations. I expect very little change to the status quo. There will be changes to revenue sharing due to how revenues are categorized and collected and perhaps a few changes to eliminate the toying around with the days players are kept in minor leagues in order to add an additional year of control.

People like to choose where they work and live. In sports players often prioritize winning in addition to location. In many cases the money is pretty much the same. Most players who get a year away from free agency have made enough money that they can afford to wait. I guarantee that i have zero idea what Jeffers will do but I'm guessing he goes through free agency.

The Phillies and Red Sox do those trades in a heartbeat, but Padres say no. I would love that SDP deal. If you suggest Joe Ryan is same, same as Walker Jenkins why not shoot higher in a trade using Ryan? Ryan, Roden, and Soto for Max Clark, a guy who is about the same as Jenkins. Jeffers might be tough to depart from .... How about Jeffers, Marco Raya plus $2M for Tre' Morgan? Whatever happens, acquire the best talent. Flood Pittsburgh with Royce, Brooks, Wallner, EmRod for Griffin. Do something this offseason.

To date, I have not seen anything that indicates the Twins are planning on playing young guys in 2026.

Nice to see people handing out extensions for Ryan Jeffers. Maybe I missed it, but why would Jeffers sign now? He is a year away from free agency. In one year Jeffers chooses where he wants to play and who he wants to play for in his (perhaps) last years. If you were Ryan Jeffers, would you sign an extension now (even 3/$36M from 2027-2028) with the Twins? I just can't see it, but anything can happen. The future-oriented path, which seemed to be a direction indicated by the late July transactions, would be to trade Ryan Jeffers this winter. Where? No idea. Would Tampa Bay trade for a one year catcher? Add someone like Kyle DeBarge and the CB draft pick in 2026 for Tre' Morgan? Other opportunities? Then again, the Twins front office has made obscure statements about holding the roster together. The Twins will keep Jeffers because they want a shot at 75 wins in 2026. That seems more clear.

The team needs change and talent must be added. This is a mantra I have pushed relentlessly, thinking positively towards the future. Perhaps, and I have wondered about this, a ton of people on Twins Daily totally checked out after the All Star Break and only followed the team from time to time. Maybe people looked at the numbers and a few videos. That is not an unusual or unreasonable thing considering the deadline deals in late July and how those months progressed. A factor that keeps people wanting to see this group do well next season may lie in the fear of two tough years with a real rebuild. Those who watched the last two months saw the distance between the currently rostered players and a respectable (say 75 wins) squad. So, a few of us have clamored for change. It makes sense that people hold on to the notion that the Twins can contend in 2026 if .... However, the "ifs" are monumental to the tune of a great fortune for those who bet $1,000. It could happen. Don't bet on it.

Think about it - a billion dollar corporation has a President of their organization(POBO), The MN Twins Baseball Club, who has no idea of a budget for the 2026 season in late November two weeks before the Winter Meetings? Is it possible? Yes it is. It really is. Is it possible that all of Mick Abel, Connor Prielipp, Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodrigues, Kaelen Culpepper, and Gabriel Gonzalez finish in the Top Ten for AL 2026 Rookie of the Year? Yes it is. It really is. I can see merit in your argument on what makes a good/best front office and how tightly that is tied to money. I can also agree that visible ownership can create atmosphere. Duties are divided between ownership and the front office, for sure. The owners pay the bills. The front office puts the team together. I'm willing to bet that Joe Pohlad cannot name all of the baseball players within the Twins system much less all of the players in every other organization. How many high school, college, summer and independent league games does Joe Pohlad attend each year scouting baseball players? The owners stand aside from the team to a great extent. This does not suggest the Pohlads or any other owner don't have a critical role. They do but it isn't in putting the roster together. Back to the first part .... How is it even possible that the POBO is clueless and waiting on a direction when his task is to choose the direction. Every POBO must make their decisions and choose their direction based on all of the available resources. So too does the POBO of the Twins. I'm not buying that he doesn't know anything.

If you are talking about payroll, the Twins are consistently around #16-18 which puts 12-14 owner ahead of them. The owners collect the money coming in and pay the bills. Seldom do owners have influence in roster construction much less who is drafted. If anyone has any concerns whatsoever about rosters or players or even style of play, your questions, thoughts, and concerns need to be directed to the front office. They are solely responsible for the product on the field given the market boundaries of where a team plays their games.

Good for Toronto org and fans. Cease is steady.