tony&rodney

Gary Sanchez has struggled mightily as a catcher. We can hope that he is able to improve in small ways behind the plate. He looked a little bit more fit today than I remembered him from all of the times I saw him last year. that's probably not true but I'm going to hope he does well. The article was very positive.

Getting two major league pitchers and giving up only one pitching prospect would be the steal of the century. Not going to happen. Position players who aren't up-the-middle are over valued in MLBTV. What if the Twins added Duran and Strotman in a 6 for 3 trade? Is that fair or realistic. I haven't thought about this too much.

Boras is an agent who works extremely hard for the players he represents. I really doubt he worries about his cut because he has proven himself thoroughly for many years to be the real deal. Boras knows that he will make money because of the players he has under contract. Is he perfect? No, he is human. Does he have an ego? Yes, all humans do. Boras is not an issue, at all. I have never known him to force a player to take a contract against their wishes. The Twins have some real options ahead of them. The unknown is how another team views any of the players who might potentially be exchanged by the Twins to gain a pitcher (or two). Larnach, Rooker, and Garlick are rough in the field and Arraez, Urshela, and Miranda do not really have a position either. I like how Miranda has developed into a player who attacks pitches but still maintains control. Kepler is a hard one to judge from any side and it is doubtful that either Sano or Polanco are going to be involved in a trade, albeit for different reasons. Martin and Lewis are athletic wild cards and I'm hoping they can escape all trade scenarios. I am amenable to trades of pitching prospects despite my interest in all of their futures. Duran, Woods Richardson, Strotman, Sands, Enlow, and Varland are some of the prospects who I could see going in a trade, maybe even Ryan in the right trade. Ober, Winder, Balazovic, and Raya - I want to hoard these four. Hopefully, a reasonable trade occurs that benefits both teams. What a difference in attitude and belief one addition (Correa) can make to a franchise. This sells tickets.

Yes, this. Josh Donaldson was a force always pushing everyone especially himself and despite many fans being put off at times by his aura, players liked his energy. Correa is a star player with panache, like Buxton, and this raises the bar for the entire team. Great signing, no matter what happens.

A wonderful signing. Correa is a shortstop. This is all so confusing .... when you look at the Twins roster on November 1 and then compare it to March 17, it is difficult to comprehend what was going to be a positive outcome. About a week ago I had heard that Story was not interested in the Twins unless there were two strong additions made to the roster. Today we learn that Correa had used WAR to ask one team where they were going add to become competitive. BP and Fangraphs had the Twins around 80-84 wins this season, which meant that Correa could see a light going to Minnesota. This was not on anyone's radar. I have not heard nor read a single link (0%) connecting Correa and MN. This completely changes the course of this season. Correa is a tough out and has a beautiful glove. A question which has dogged me all winter and returned pretty much zero interest from those on Twins Daily has been the eventual budget for the Twins. I initially believed that $140-150 million was a solid number that built in a decent profit for the franchise. TD used $130 million. The recent moves, suddenly, made me question all previous speculations. This was particularly true because all of the free agents that would cost any money were gone and there was the whispering that Story had pushed the Twins aside. Correa was not in any iteration ..... .... until today and this is wonderful. Next? This signing, much more than if Story had been signed, opens up any number of options. Yes, Montas and Manaea are still being talked about, but the Twins could still entice the Reds, Marlins, Orioles, or another team with various offers. One pitcher could make a huge difference and two could mean fun comes to Target Field. The Correa addition means that the next move might be impossible to predict as well, but also mean that the Twins feel comfortable pushing their budget beyond $130 million. Correa, as someone else wrote, is a sugar boost. I love sugar.

Unless several surprising developments occur soon, this will be a question many ask. Sano, Polanco, and Kepler must be thinking a little too.

One thought, which is neither what I can really imagine nor accept, is that the Twins already are finished putting together their 2022 roster. Everyone keeps saying this will happen and that will happen, for sure, but so far ...... Perhaps everyone has been totally off base and this is exactly the team Falvey wants for this season. I mean, we have to consider past moves as well as past non moves and look beyond our thoughts.

Did not mean to discourage anyone .... just wanted folks to know that the Twins cannot just release Urshela and Sanchez to save some more money, as it seemed some may have not been aware of the rule.

The contracts of arbitration players are now guaranteed. The Twins will have to trade Sanchez, Urshela, and others to get out from underneath their salaries.

?

Sano is a better athlete than Sanchez but he hasn't tried his hand at catching .... yet .... hmmmm.... could he block balls in the dirt?

To be fair, the kids in CA, FL, TX, and warm weather states get many more repetitions than those in cold weather states. This means, primarily, bat and arm speed as well as experiences running routes and fielding. Of course, there are players that excel from colder climates (Mike Trout), but the edge is real obvious and fairly dramatic. This is drawn from personal experience, coaching in both Florida and Minnesota, as well as time spent watching games in person. The skills are better watching American Legion in late July than watching the high schools in May. Weather does matter.

Sigh.

I will take the over at 130 games.

The TD chart below shows where the team sits now. Adding Story, Manaea, and Montas would all fit beneath $130. At this point, one must consider that the new budget is $100 million or less and this makes additions complicated. Sano, Sanchez, Gray, Bundy, Rogers, Duffey, and Thielbar can all come off the books at the end of the season or sooner. Polanco, Urshela, and Kepler could return some decent prospects in trade. Buxton has a no trade in his contract but could be tempted by a move to Atlanta. A large number of posts have commented on the need to let the prospects pitch and mentioned that it was fully necessary to clear JD from the books. Perhaps the Twins need to be as savvy as the A's and move their players now in order to become more competitive in a new window, 2025-2027. Unless the Twins add the players in my first line, the team looks to be setting up for difficulties. My larger point is that our view of a budget may be off by $30 million or more. There are realistically very few players left worth trading for and really only one free agent still available. We will find out soon what The Plan was all along.

Are Randballs Stu and Falvey one and the same person?

I agree, most of the time. Story was not happy with the moves in Colorado. Some players are different.

We are going to find out. Would you sign with the Twins if you were Story? I'm retired now but had a couple of occasions in my life where I turned down a much better paying job because there were clear issues within the hiring organization that would affect my quality of life. Trevor Story is going to make money but if I had a guess I would guess he has not signed yet because he wants to see the Twins provide some evidence that they will be a competitive team. But I don't know and will hope that something positive emerges from the disaster that has been evident within the franchise in the past year. I'm generally a positive person and a little uncomfortable being critical of a sports team.

Rortvedt and Sanchez do not play the same position. Rortvedt is a catcher and yes, he needs to improve his hitting. If you look around baseball a number of teams have used catchers who have lower OPS numbers and so forth but are great with the glove. My opinion, and the Yankees agree, is that Rortvedt has a future as a catcher. Sanchez is a DH who was used behind the plate because he mashed, until it finally became untenable. The Yankees were pretty sure they could unload him because of the DH being instituted across baseball. The surprise was that he wound up on the Twins team. He has enormous power, very similar to Miguel Sano. People have asked what this means for Kirilloff and Sano. Sano likes to be in the field but his defense is poor and he was slated for DH duty for the most part. Kirilloff was slated for first base and is almost adequate in the outfield, but it looks like with Sanchez at DH, the Twins will use Sano at 1B and AK in LF. The trade weakened the team at four positions. Thus, one should not compare Rotvedt and Sanchez as catchers. FWIW, I would definitely take Sanchez at DH over Rortvedt.

The Twins do not have a chance to get Trevor Story unless they first add at least one pitcher of note (Montas, Manaea, or unlikely ... Lopez). Montas price has likely risen since last weekend to now cost something like Lewis, Duran, Rooker/Wallner, and Sands. A rock and a hard place. Ironic that Colorado signs Bryant to a big contract.

It's getting late early. If the Reds are really taking both Mahle and Castillo off the market, the prices for both Montas and Manaea just went up and pretty much every team is talking with the A's. Pecota and all of the projection systems aren't worth anything without pitching and defense. The lineup for tomorrow's Spring Training game might be the roster with a couple tweaks (Kirilloff, Palacios) unless the phones start working.

Can you imagine the look on Arraez's face when he was told he would play outfield. Sometimes a player who is very athletic can make the shift (Gordon boys), but it is usually a bad idea and some players have caught enough fly balls growing up to be mediocre. Arraez is an infielder though and i always felt for him when he was pushed out there, similar to the experiment with Sano in RF. Arraez should be fine at 3B. Miranda? Maybe he is going to Oakland - who knows.

Yes, Rortvedt is actually a better catcher and it isn't even close. The Yankees were forced to change their thinking on catchers last season .... by their pitchers. There is nothing a pitcher can do to succeed if they cannot throw the ball in the dirt occasionally and trust their catcher. Sanchez is no more a catcher than Sano would be. He has awesome power and may be great DH. The Yankees never trade a player because of money, they trade players because they lack the skills needed to help their team win games. The Yankees only care about winning.

Agree, and nothing to lose.

Never say never (you did not), but the past and current practices of this franchise make any free agent signing unlikely that requires years and money. Subsequently, a free agent and their agents would have qualms about the Twins unless all of their demands were met. The Twins have dug a hole for themselves by eschewing free agents. Still, I have always maintained that there is no obligation by anyone to doggedly repeat their bad habits of the past. A positive future relies on current actions which hopefully include a rejection or just release of poor practice in your past.