tony&rodney

Detroit identified what they wanted and could do and then did it. I have made a few lists myself and was influenced by a recent post to add Rodriguez. I wrote his salary down as $17 million. He's gone and it is reasonable to rotate to Jon Gray. Stroman and Gausman seem a little rich, but why not hold out hope for one of these pitchers. Trades are still available but I'm hoping that movement is sooner than later because so many teams are looking for pitchers, it seems like the best will be spoken for by December 1.

Nick, your post was fair and timely. The front office has done some good things with player acquisition and it should be acknowledged. Drowning in tears is not going to make anyone feel better or improve the roster. Now, the Twins are put to the task. They need to identify targets. I would argue they need to expand a little. It is understandable that many are not in favor of trading any prospects but other teams will only consider a few Twins players as worthy of an exchange. Free agency should be useful for a player or two, but it is essential to add at least one or two decent starting pitchers to lead the Twins young starters in their initiation into MLB action. Many have suggested a contract for Jon Gray and we now have an example of what it will take to sign such a player. The Twins could offer Gray exactly what Rodriguez just received from Detroit. Gray, Pineda, a trade with Miami, Oakland, or another team - the time is ripe. Great back and forth conversation by TD readers.

My hope was to pry away Alcantara and Meyer by enticing Miami with Lewis, in addition to Larnach, their choice of catcher, Canterino, and Strotman or Vallimont. Miami is not likely to give up Alcantara and the Twins do not want to part with Lewis, so the trade above by TopGun#22 is a huge boost for both Miami and Minnesota. It is cost effective for both teams too and allows both teams to consider buying a free agent or two. Suddenly, Gray, Pineda, and possibly Stroman are fits in a fair budget. The post was asking about Jeffers though and he is going to be a very decent MLB catcher. I have no concerns about his bat and am sure he will continue to improve as a catcher. I'm a little confused how someone can be down on him after just a year and a half. Catcher is far and away the most demanding and difficult position in baseball and he has held his own as a young player. If he remains a Twin, I am excited to see his continued growth. I will add that I may be higher than some others on Ben Rortvedt, especially his glove and arm. BR does need another half to full year of development however.

This is exactly what I was thinking. All of the reports were positive and incentives should be a win, win. My addition, totally speculative, is that Buxton wants to see what the Twins are going to do this offseason to address the team. Again, I just threw that out there. Sometimes there are players who want their contracts completed by Thanksgiving. This clears the holidays from distractions, questions, and allows for a breather in what can be a long year.

Excellent debate and good comments as well.

Ok. Thank you - you are correct. I guess I was caught remembering an article that MLB would reinstate their February 2020 decree of 13 person pitching staffs that was delayed due to Covid concerns. The CBA will sort this out, we hope.

S. Marte will be very expensive He will be expensive. Marte can play a really good LF and with him on base in front of Baez and Buxton people will tune in to the games and want to be at Target Field. Like everyone else, i play around with rosters from $100-150 million. Marte is a perfect fit for my expensive team on a 4/$80 contract, though still at $145 million. Marte is not on my team at $100 million.

Yes, a larger pitching staff could help with the plan. The CBA will have language on roster size and I believe MLB currently caps pitching squads at 13. Going to larger numbers may hurt more teams than it helps as better financed teams could stash more players than they currently do. In any event, it is complex and the idea is evolving. The Rays had so many young pitchers this year and this accounted for some of their usage patterns. The Twins might see that pattern as beneficial to introducing Duran, Winder, Balazovic, and more. Time will shape the reality, but I'm still in favor of 25 man rosters.

Great post Andrew. St. Peter has been a good community citizen and his story is encouraging to all young people.

Agreement on this priority is nearly unanimous; I agree too. However, Byron Buxton just watched his favorite team (as a kid) win the World Series. He is one year out from free agency on a team that has many questions, held him back to control his time, and knows that no matter the outcome of his own 2022 season that he is set for life financially. There are very few incentives for Buxton to sign a long term contract. The terms would have to meet his every wish. The Twins are in a tough spot with Byron. How high can they go, knowing the injury history? 7/$175? If the Twins decide to trade Buxton, there will be the inevitable backlash. Who specifically can the Twins get in a trade that makes it worth a trade? If San Diego would ship C. J. Abrams ... ok, but extremely unlikely. So it is a rock and a hard place scenario. Buxton is the Twins main priority. Maybe just letting him play it out is an option and then surround him in a way that a Twins contract looks more appealing later. If all else fails, Byron is healthy and playing well and he must be traded on July 31 or miss any return .... Well, play out the season or trade Buck then. I would start by signing Starling Marte and Javy Baez. Baez might just be a one year contract, if he is open. This would be followed by making several aggressive trades to bring in starting pitchers. The one lesson learned from the entire debacle surrounding Johan Santana was that it is an option to just let an impending free agent play out their contract. We all want to see one year of Buxton playing 150 games like his April and September from last season. He is just so damn much fun to watch.

Seems like this is likely. The best outcome is usually 20 games of decent starts (Pineda), which is quite useful. When $8 million becomes the price of a gamble on pitching, some teams pay up. At least it is a good thing for those guys getting the contracts, such as Happ, Pineda, Heaney and so forth. The alternatives are risky expensive outlays for middle to top free agent types or trades. Trades seem to be largely discounted by many readers of TD, and often for solid reasons. The most common names floated, Arraez, Larnach, Kepler, Garver, and Jeffers all have potential to be more than average players. Additionally, top prospects are often deemed to be off limits. The Twins have gone the route of signing pitchers from the "bargain bin" and have rarely stepped into the risky exchanges of more valuable names. Maybe it is time for the Twins to look hard at their duplication of player assets and step boldly into the high end trade market. The bin has not been too kind to the Twins.

Ok. Clear now. Thank you.

Signing Starling Marte would improve LF. I know, I know ..... money, etc. Just saying. Shane Mack played a good LF - I would like to see a solid LF glove out there, thus my wish.

Fair assessment here. If signing these pitchers is an "add" to the budget, no harm is done. They are all decent #4/5 pitchers potentially at this point in their careers. Certainly worth a call.

Thorough explanations and rationale makes sense - good job. Segura has a good bat. Are we confident in his glove? I didn't watch much of him last summer, so I cannot comment on Segura's defense. E-Rod seems poised for a big year.

Thank you Seth. What a well-spoken, intelligent young man. He just looks like a pitcher - big sloping shoulders. When Josh used his hands while speaking a couple of times I couldn't help but notice the size of those mitts. It also made me curious to know how he or other pitchers gripped their various pitches. Finally, it is interesting how pitchers will often have success with a pitch (curveball for Winder) when young and then need to rediscover that pitch as they develop in the pro game. I never understood that. I had a fantastic curveball as a kid and a mediocre fastball and never got that curve back even though i pitched into my 50s with minimal success. Fun interview.

The owners make their money and that is fine, good for them. Manfred needs to think in terms of MLB as a product to gain consumers, such as in attendance at games, watching on TV, listening to the radio, reading online/newspaers, subscribing to game services (mlb.com), and like kind. The players should consider the younger players and milb to some degree. 27 is a reasonable age, 29 is not. A more simple solution might be to reduce the years of control from six to five and get rid of the bogus rules that hold a player in the minor leagues until May 15 or June something. If you spend 30 days on the roster, that is Year 1 and so forth. A strike into March or later will be deleterious for the game, both the owners and the players.

Do it today.

Baseball has had some serious setbacks with Manfred at the helm. Football shares most of the money, blah, blah. Baseball has tried a number of ways to help smaller markets but it isn't necessarily the market that causes a problem. Stadiums, ownership, and media contracts have left us with some rotting franchises. Tampa Bay is a large thriving market with a team in an unfortunate location and owners who rightfully (to an extent) just seem to wait out the Trop contract. Maybe Florida cannot support an MLB team, but the Rays should not receive money unless it is earmarked for players and that will not happen. Oakland is not the pit of the world but their stadium is in a difficult space and their owner has a vision that only he has seen. Another team in a large market that is taking up space but not contributing in the fashion commensurate with their area. Maybe Oakland should just move to Portland. There are a host of small issues to address this winter between owners and players. A hard ceiling (suggest $220 million) and a hard floor (suggest $100 million) seem like a beginning. Owners did quite well when players made nearly 54% of revenue (Forbes) and this has gone down since 2017 and 2018. Players can get a DH in both leagues and keep the 26th man on the roster (I prefer 25). The owners would suffer no loss to reduce free agency requirements by a year and eliminate the compensation. Most of these issues are really smaller than they appear because any ownership group will adjust their spending to suit their needs, preferences, budget, and plans. It is not like any owners will go bankrupt once they are accepted into MLB. The CBA needs to grow the game not reduce the appeal. Oakland and their current shenanigans are just the latest example of some systemic problems with MLB.

Ron Davis was a godsend for beer sales at the Metrodome. I remember selling beer in his tenure and people just wanted to drown their reality.

Jeffers is young and a full season of MLB is a beast coming from college and the minor leagues for any young player. A catcher has more responsibilities, by far, than any other player on the field and the preparation is massive and exhausting for a young player. Jeffers will be fine. You also asked about whether the Twins should trade a catcher. I say yes and I think quite highly of both Garver and Jeffers. Although I have not seen anything specific, I believe there are a few other teams that also think very positively of both catchers. Additionally, while I am aware of how overmatched Rortvedt looked at the plate, he also is good behind the plate and rebounded at St. Paul in September. The only concern was the concussion late in the year. I'm a believer in Rortvedt right now and could see a good pitcher coming back for Garver.

This was not worded very well. Sports teams use their players in a way to maximize their success with their rosters on any given day. The better pitchers can go 5-7 innings. The Twins currently are without any experienced pitching and posters are searching for ways or strategies to offset the shortcomings of the Twins pitching staff. Thus, I can see what the post seek to accomplish and responded too quickly, perhaps harshly, although no one has called me task. A specific problem that I see with the proposed use of the pitchers concerns the effective management of arm wear and tear. Some pitchers struggle to throw in back to back games or three times in a week. Relief pitchers usually have relegated to the bullpen because their repertoire of offerings is limited and ineffective beyond a few hitters. The staff is stretched that way. Tampa Bay is often used as an example but they indeed have a number of traditional starting pitchers and they ran into problems in the playoffs with tired arms. I'm holding out for at least three decent starting pitchers to allow for frequent but sometimes limited outings from a number of the prospects.

Royce Lewis has been out for awhile and it would be miraculous if he wore a Twins uniform before next June or even July. Polanco has moved to 2B. It sure seems like the Twins were clear on Nick Gordon as a shortstop for the last few years, but maybe that can change now. Given the work that Simmons put in last year (good defense), it might be ok to use Gordon and Lewis in 2022. I might prefer Javy Baez and someone else might prefer Trevor Story or others prefer Mondesi, Galvis, or Inglesias. The post is wondering about just using what is already on the roster and it may work. This would allow for a stronger push for pitchers.

Verlander is so much fun to watch, but he has his list and it is short. He would be a treat though.

Trades are incredibly complex and the best trades can be risky. We can propose transactions all day, watch them go sideways or worse, and then go - "Well, what do I know." I know I have mentioned a few potential player moves and the responses are less than a full glow. Falvey and Levine are baseball executives whose livelihoods and reputations ride on their acumen at running the player side of a big business. I may not agree with their choices and wish they would take a few chances and be risky once in a while, but I'm a Twins fan either way. I guess that means that we don't really have much choice except to be more or less supportive while still giving our thoughts. The alternative is to be in a situation like the Mets. I played ball with a die hard Mets fan who grew up in Queens and he mostly just shakes his head. The Mets are like Richard Cory - they have everything anyone could ever want and .....