Doctor Gast

Lot of hope has been placed in Kirilloff. Hope he really turns it around. We don't know how much his reoccurring wrist problem will be and how soon he'll adapt to MLB. If he really turns it around and set the MLB on fire by 2025, I can't help but think the Twins may trade him. Because of his agent Scott Boras, the Twins won't be able to afford to extend him. Just saying we have to keep this in mind when we want to trade our present to hedge our future. Plus the added 40 man krunch due to the flood of new prospects.

Unfortunately we did lose Colina off the bat. I'd rather lose Cave much more than Colina. Again an evaluation problem.

Thanks Nash, all 3 I'd like to have. Of the 3, I like Manaea the least, mainly because of the 1 yr but also I'd prefer RHPs for this division. Montas, Bassit then Manaea

We have a lot of corner OFs, if his glove can be decent enough to play CF (better than what we have to back up Buck) and have aspirations to play there. I'd say yeah, go for it, otherwise no.

I think you meant that the Twins didn't repeat the same mistake again. Yes I agree protecting Enlow was definitely was the right move.

It makes perfect sense to trade Arraez for pitching so you can bet that they're not going to it. So we won't sign Goodrum, they'll more than likely put Polanco back at SS because nothing they do makes sense.

Really sad to see. South American ball can be pretty explosive. I suppose frustration of the moment a long with the long term frustration of being release got the best of the fiery Astudillo. I still don't condone his actions by no means.

I thought the same thing when I saw he was available. If Simmons is available and cheap at SS that would be my 1st choice, I agree with pundits that he will bounce back. But even so Goodrum would be an excellent back-up SS and a super utility player if he can play CF. If they indeed trade Arraez, Goodrum and Gordon would be 2 very good utility players that would add much needed depth at needed positions.

I really like him too. OAK & MIA are the most motivated trade partners that are out there. He's one of best and most attainable pitcher of all of them, I think even this FO should be able negotiate this deal. But that's what I said about Musgrove, even after they were approached.

Seth, I was wondering if there's a deadline for these unprotected prospects to get claimed?

Thanks Seth but I'm not worried about FAs or just cutting dead weight later but protecting our good potential prospects now.

Thought as much. they should have held onto him longer

I agree with the priority of the prospects selected but I'm worried about the next bunch of prospect that are unprotected. I believe that there's more dead weight to be cut and be more active in trades that can create more space on the 40 man.

Makes me wonder, Cave had a couple of good years with his bat in the beginning but he has always been a well below average CF. My wish was that they dropped Cave 1st with hope of the possibility that he'd be picked up. Even if didn't get selected, I surely didn't want them to sign him because Baldelli stick him CF. He has to be related to someone in the FO. FO said they'd be retooling if they had any sense of evaluation, you'd throw away your useless tools 1st. that would be Cave. I have given up all hope that this FO will change. If this FO stays the hand writing is on the wall and it's not good

If you can't see the eye test then the only real stat that is really important in judging Cave is Wins/Lost games in CF, I don't care any metrics you come up with. The odds of us losing the game with Cave is very great. The only way we can win a game w/ Cave in CF is if we have great pitching, great hitting that overcomes the deficit in CF, a bad team having a bad day or any combination of these factors. I don't know what you consider as 5 tools but mine is glove/ speed/ arm/ hitting for power and average. Buxton I consider as a 5 tool player. Broxton reminds me of Buxton, the only difference is Buxton had Rowson to help & defend him during his rough time hitting and Broxton had no one. Broxton was finding himself at the plate during ST it was a perfect opportunity to show confidence in Broxton and watch him blossom into the next Buxton. But they couldn't see anything beyond Cave and missed that opportunity to find a capable CF back-up Buxton. I advocated the Twins to take advantage of PIT motivation to move players. I indicated Musgrove- SP, R Rodrigues- closer and B Reynolds- OF. They all had a very good 2021. The FO missed another opportunity. They instead spent $ on FAs Happ and Shoemaker which I didn't like and they didn't pan out. In the beginning of the season in how they evaluated their LF and CF back-up and how they were using their pitching. I said they would have a terrible season unless they changed their mindset and turn the ship around. They stayed coarse and had a terrible season. No one knew how good Badoo was going to be but I knew he was good enough to protect. They decided to go out get another DH type player (Garlic) which is not essential and we have in abundance and let go unprotected a very good CF which is very essential and in short supply in our organization. IMO that's not very good evaluation of need and potential. I'm not saying studying stats isn't important, I'm saying observing potential while taking in factors, conditions and need is more important. Try not to get locked into mindsets. If your metrics tell you that Cave is a suitable CF, I'd throw your metrics out in the trash.

Thanks Jaime, to me it's common sense, but I tend to think out of the box too. I've been a Chris Taylor advocate for yrs. I wanted him in both the Dozier and the Graterol trade, IMO that would've been a better time to obtain Taylor because they still had Kiki Hernandez. Now that they're both gone and the next crop isn't stepping up, I see LA wanting to sign him. LA values defense with depth especially at SS and CF (unlike MN), LA loves Taylor and Taylor loves LA. LA will have the opportunity to match any offer. Wendel is another good choice. Although Wendel would love to play fulltime in one position, I believe TB won't let him go. TB (like any good team that want to compete) values depth in defense in key positions. I don't see TB giving up Wendel even if they get over paid. That leaves Ahmad, which is IMO the best option. If ARI goes full rebuild, trading off all their veterans and willing to tank the next few years. My guess is they will. Mondesi (KC) has been mentioned but KC loves him and will move him to 3B and have him available to help out at SS.

I'd love to have Chapman but the timing is off. If we had solved our SS/2B problem earlier and not courted Donaldson, then yes. But now we have Donaldson, who's a pretty good 3B and up and coming Miranda, so no. We have more pressing needs to take care of than 3B

Your reasoning totally lines up with mine, Top Gun. Where you target both the OAK and MIA, both are motivated to trade pitching and you addressed their need. I'd also target Lopez because I think he'd be more accessible (but I'd settle for any of them) and I'd also headline Jeffers, addressing their need. Trading Jeffers won't hurt us as we can pick up a Castro type for a year and Rortvedt will be ready. We are deep in catching in the minors where we can draw from when Garver moves on. Only I'd like to keep Woods and Larnach but we have other options we can draw from. Trading from our depth to supply to our weakness, makes total sense. With OAK, I'd personally go with Montas because he's a RHP (which he'd fare better in our RH dominating division) and 2yrs. control. I like your trading pieces but I think OAK might want a pitching prospect in exchange. These are minor tweaks. Our proposal doesn't hurt us one bit in what we give up but it would immensely help fill our hole in our rotation, w/o hurting the Polhad's pocketbook. Congratulations, well thought out. Hope FO would act on this no brainer.

It was great having Cruz around these last few years, we'll really miss his bat and leadership. But he'll be too expensive for us and I really like the idea of a rotational DH, as was discussed last year. It keeps us more healthy, flexible and deep. I'm against going out and luring a traditional DH, for 1 thing they'll be too expensive and 2nd it subtracts from the benefits of the rotational DH. I'm counting on the DH to be adapted in the NL. This will open opportunities to move some of our DH types and add to some packages to get pitching.

I like Palacio also, he was a very good hitting SS when we traded him to TB. It was strange that when he was traded he stayed in the same Florida league but yet his hitting crashed. My take is TB has poor hitting instruction at that level and he couldn't recover his swing. He returns and he's starting to find it again.

Sorry, I took so long to comment. Detroit has been rebuilding the last few years, they evaluate their players and have been doing a pretty well in selecting from the draft. They been holding the team together with Gardy and a few good solid Twins rejects like Scoop and Cron until recently. Last year they made some good choices in HJ Hinch as manager and picked up Akil Badoo from MN in the Rule 5 draft. This year they are making a move by obtaining Eduardo Rodriguez early and have been rumored of having an inside track on Correa. MN made some mistakes last season by leaving some very promising prospects unprotected, mainly Badoo (that got selected by DET) and Miranda (which didn't get selected). While keeping dead weight like Cave and took on another DH type, Garlic. They have shown that they have poor evaluation of players. Twin have been in desperate need for a real CF back-up for Buxton. Broxton was a walk on in spring training. He's a 5 tool CF who has been slumping but came alive during spring training and extremely overshadowed Cave in every category. Yet they sent Broxton down to cool off and tank while taking Cave with them and Cave bombed. 2021 we were suppose to win the division with hopes of finally win a post season game. You would think they'd go out and get some bon afide #4 & 5 starters. They got Happ & Shoemaker instead, which I didn't like from the start and they bombed Coming off a short season, you'd think they'd set up a good group of long relievers to take up innings to keep the starters from getting over stretched and take off stress from the BP which was terrible in spring training. They end up putting all their confidence on their weak rotation and failing BP while using their little long relief to mop up games. Dobnak was a ground baller and with this new and improved infield he was destined to succeed but the management decided they wanted to transform him on the fly to be a strike out pitcher. That didn't work out well. Basically poor evaluation of players.

Thanks Seth for this in-depth article. We have a lot of good undeveloped potential, I'd like to keep as many as possible, that means drop as much dead weight as possible starting with Cave and hope he gets picked. I'd rather hold onto Colina than Cave. Then I'd warm up the trading machine to get rid of nonessential and redundant players. I don't know about some of the younger talent that might get DFAed. But I think Bolt from OAK could eventually get DFAed and I'd be interested in him

I'd be devastated. IMO it's a no brainer to sign him. With a base salary you get Buxton at where he is right now, when he exceed these expectations you pay accordingly. If he maxs out his expectations you get him for around $100M and that's a bargain. How can you be worried about what it costs us if he's winning MVP and put us in a situations to win games. His injuries right now isn't a negative. W/O his injuries we could not afford his $250M price tag. Quit being stupid, ask Buxton for forgiveness in how he has been treated and sign a reasonable base/ incentive extension.

How about an early Black Friday special

Thank you Nick, I'm very confused also especially now with the Berrios extension. It was presented that Berrios was unreasonable and that he wanted to become a free agent and get the big bucks, so I wasn't surprised when he got traded. But when the Twins played Toronto, I had the impression that Berrios wanted to be back together with his old team mates and that he really didn't want to leave MN. What surprised me was that Berrios took Toronto's 1st offer and didn't really want to hold out for FA. My take on this is that this FO is low balling in their negotiating player's extensions. When Berrios finally got a reasonable offer he took it. I feel that they're doing the same thing with Buxton. The fans want Buxton and I believe, like Berrios, Buxton and even more so wants to stay with his teammates. I feel (and I hope I'm wrong) that this FO is lying to us and have been jerking around and low balling their players. This is degrading and makes me angry. Suggestions of base salary with incentives has been around for awhile why haven't they come up with a reasonable offer? They seem like intelligent people. What is the alternative to signing him, we won't get anything in trade, other teams will out low ball them. FO quit playing around before it's too late, finally show confidence in Buxton and finally give him a reasonable offer. Forgive me that I'm coming across harsh but I'm very frustrated right now. I have seen many things that this FO have done wrong and spoken about it this last year and many fans have countered me. I believe that many will finally wake up and there'll be a revolt but it could be too late.