Doctor Gast

I know you are a stats-only, forget about underlying conditions guy & slugging reigns supreme for you pertaining to catching. Rortvedt is not a slugger who didn't prosper under the NYY & MN "all or nothing type of hitting philosophy. Tanner Swanson (do you remember him?) loved Rortvedt's dynamic defense & insisted that he'd be included in the trade. While in NYY he was Cole's personal catcher. Back to hitting. Rortvedt's hitting under a more friendly hitting philosophy at TB, he had a 1st half BA of .270 & OBP of .365 is more indicative of who he is than his time at NYY & MN. It's remarkable after an injury-plagued '23, he was able to be used as extensively as he was in the 1st half of '24 with TB & explains why his hitting cratered the 2nd half. Stating that Rortvedt is a 3rd string catcher is an insult & shows that you know nothing about catching. Your suggestion of moving Vazquez & putting more responsibility on Jeffers not only reinforces that idea but is also a recipe for disaster.

I'm with you TopGun, I'm ready to blow things up. But I'd go a little bit younger route instead of Profar with trading Larnach. I'd expect Falvey to again take a non-proactive approach to this offseason so I expect a worse team than last year (it breaks my heart to suggest this but I'm a realist) so why pay Correa & Lopez all that money & not even come close to the postseason. I'd take a different route than you giving all that international money to LAD to get Sasaki, I'd try to land the young Sasaki ourselves. I'd trade Jeffers & anybody else to land Keel from BOS, BOS is in win-now mode. And at the deadline trade Correa (at this time he'll be more than ready to waive his non-trade clause) & Lopez for a top-of-the-line SS prospect. Give Lewis an extension and trust that he will eventually take that leadership role. I'd keep Vazquez to mentor Keel, and use Vazquez exclusively against LHPs. Let Vazquez walk in '26 w/o worrying about taking a loss trying to dump his salary. We have no hope to go to the postseason with Falvey, hope & luck are a heck of a way to run a team. I really like Rushing but I'm afraid that LAD would again ask too much & again Falvey can't say no even though we'd again have the leverage. Even though Rushing is more of a slugger, I like Keel much more overall & lean more toward going the BOS route.

Thanks CP, I saw that article. After reading it, I'd hoped that they'd reconsider trading him. But to no avail, at least the fans still love him & appreciate what he does defensively. Rortvedt was hitting pretty darn good for a catcher the 1st half before crashing the second half. Maybe it was his knees that JM eluded to. Rortvedt can't do it all by himself & TB definitely needs someone much better to give Rortvedt more of a break.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/ There have been a few fellow TD members who suggested Stallings as a catching target. Rox didn't waste any time to resign Jacob Stallings for $2.5 M as I predicted.

1st I'd trade Dobnak, Jeffers & Gonzales for our future starting catchers Romo & Carrigg(-7,7M) 2nd Trade Paddack (-$7.5M) 3rd Sign Roki Sasaki (we can hope) otherwise Luzardo is a good 2nd option. which we add another $6M I'm $10M under budget, to extend Lewis or maybe Castro. Plus extra money if needed In an emergency DH is open as a revolving door- Julien is gone. I'm open to trade Larnach for a RH counter-part. C: Christian Vazquez ($10.00M) 1B: Jose Miranda ($0.80M) 2B: Brooks Lee ($0.80M) 3B: Royce Lewis ($2.30M) SS: Carlos Correa ($36.00M) LF: Trevor Larnach ($2.10M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Matt Wallner ($0.80M) 4th OF: DaShawn Keirsey ($0.80M) Utility: Willi Castro ($6.20M) Utility: Austin Martin ($0.80M) Backup C: Drew Romo ($0.78M) NA: Dead Money Here ($0.00M) SP1: Pablo Lopez ($21.50M) SP2: Joe Ryan ($3.80M) SP3: Bailey Ober ($4.30M) SP4: Roki Sasaki ($0.80M) SP5: Simeon Woods Richardson ($0.80M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($3.70M) RP: Brock Stewart ($0.80M) RP: Griffin Jax ($2.60M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.50M) RP: Cole Sands ($0.80M) RP: Justin Topa ($1.30M) RP: Louie Varland ($0.80M) RP: Kody Funderburk ($0.80M) NA: Dead Money Here ($0.00M) Payroll is 7.17% under budget

I've tried to trade for Rortvedt on BTV several times & every time I do, I get comments (comments aren't that common) that TB loves Rortvedt & no way they'd trade him. That said they are interested in a backup catcher. More likely a good cheap one. Myself I'd check into Joey Bart if I were them.

Luzardo would be a great addition, We needed him last season. Luzardo & Lopez are good friends & fellow Venezuelans. As value goes, Lewis is an overpay (I wouldn't trade him anyway) & Larnach is an underpay. Julien is a closer fit. But MIA isn't interested in any of them, MIA is looking for prospects. So we are looking at trading Keuschal straight up but better yet if they'd be interested in taking K Culpepper, G Gonzales & Doncon in a trade I'd be overjoyed. Luzardo has always been on my target. I'm for either of these trade options I suggested, we need to jump on them & not be passive.

It's like in '21, I was all over the Twins to replace Cave with Margot. In '21 we desperately needed someone to backup Buxton. '24 Buxton was healthier & we had much better in-house backups, Margot absolutely didn't make any sense.

TB loves their starting catcher Rortvedt, but they are looking for a decent backup. IMO they aren't interested in Vazquez.

I'm sorry Greggory, I'm not into funky. I'll hit only on one thing I don't like. If Campusano is broken Twins won't fix him & he won't catch Jeffers when he falls w/o a safety-net. Vazquez is expensive but he has a very valuable function, to stabilize the catching & pitching staff. Removing Vazquez & shuffling the expense to a less important function while disturbing the chemistry isn't worth it. It's the same creative formula that worked so terribly last season, I didn't like the smell then either. BTW I still enjoyed your article.

That is the mentality that killed us last season. "Oh! we can't make a trade to fill an important need because we can't give up "significant" prospects, We can trade important players to shed payroll, & with that savings we can waste it on frivolous salaries to pay players that do nothing for us." I'm not talking about "significant" prospects or young players. I'm talking about prospects & young players who have value who are redundant, not needed, and should be traded to acquire players who fill an important hole in our team that helps to win. What's more important? Twins winning or keep hoarding prospects in an already bloated farm? $3M is a lot of money in a tight budget with needs like extending key players. The main idea is to trim fat. You save $3M of fat (players that can be easily substituted by a cheaper player) here, $7.5M there & another $5M. Stop paying frivolous salaries on players we don't need. All this adds up so you don't have to cut muscle. To be "creative" isn't putting up a Fire Sale sign, sit back & expect to get a viable offer. Yes, this way your get offers on Paddack & Vazquez but all of them are crappy & they'll pick the least crappy and they probably won't get any offers on Dobnak. To be creative you have to be proactive, this is being passive. As I explained to DSL44, Our only hope is for this FO to be proactive. Case in point- LAD wanted Glasnow, and to get Glasnow they had to take Margot. In this case, LAD wisely didn't want Margot but they took him anyway knowing full well they were going to flip him (MN never flips the undesirable players they receive, they eat them, yet they are a constant target to be flipped to). To move Dobnak for a passive FO it's not only difficult it is impossible. That's why I'm calling for this FO to be proactive. I'm not asking MN to scam CO like we were. I'm asking MN to be proactive & offer CO a mutually beneficial offer. This is not an offer that I think this FO will do, it's an offer that I think they should do.

Bingo! Twins never approached LAD & said we really need Margot, let's make a deal. No, LAD didn't want Margot so they convinced the Twins that we needed Margot & gave a little incentive that TB gave them. From the beginning, I said we needed Margot like we needed a hole in our head. I sincerely believe that Dobnak can help CO (I always try to find out what the other teams' needs are before offering a trade). By giving CO added trade value (more than $3M) while filling their needs would incentivate them to give Dobnak a chance to help them.

Of course, no one will take a chance on Dobnak with a $3M price tag on him off waivers. But if you have an incentive to fill holes with a deficit trading value plus you can DFA him knowing no one will claim him, has it's advantages. Twins can move Dobnak if they have the initiative & true creativity to do so. But they probably have the same mindset as you. Since Dobnak is a bad investment, we can't make anyone take him. Vazquez is a bad investment why is there talk about trading him? Dobnak has some value for the Twins just not $3M worth. He has greater value for the Rox & given the right incentive, we can move him. You just have to get out of that negative mindset & try. not sit back & wait for ROX to make an offer.

Matt, I think your plan may be better than what Falvey will come up with. Last season would have been easy to come up with a serious contender, having a tremendous core that broke the postseason curse pretty intact. The only real loss was Gray, which could have been resolved by trading away very good yet unnecessary young prospects & or players for an affordable top-end SP. That plus Ober & Ryan taking an expected step forward we'd have a more superior team than the original '23 team. But that wasn't done instead they invested in dead money (DeSclavani & Topa) & became overly dependent on Paddack & rookies. The 1st big mistake was announcing that we were having a Fire Sale, come & give us your best offer. Falvey should have kept his mouth shut & actively shopped our fat & dead money, I'd go to CO & strike a deal that'd greatly benefit them, we'd receive players we need & we'd be freed from Dobnak's dead $3M (CO desperately need SPs, Dobnak would fit in there being a GB SP or RP). Paddack has value & could be shopped w/o having to pay a penalty. Paddack ($7.5M) can easily be replaced with a more affordable one via trade. Or now we can have Jax take that SP spot & find an even more affordable high-leverage RP via trade. Now that SP hole from last year wasn't filled, it still needs to be filled via trade. I prefer Castro over Donovan. Castro is a true a true super utility player that adds valuable depth in premium mid-field positions, where Donovan mainly is good on cOF & 3B. W/o Castro valuable contributions up the middle IMO we wouldn't have recovered from our 1st slump. I hate Falvey's "creativity" (creativity is proactive not passive) which means comprimizing the core to frivolously pay for players we don't need. Opting out from better inhouse options for more expensive inferior outside players. This offseason from last we have lost some chemistry, the core has been compromised, the main hole from last season is still open that needs to be filled, Our essential young players missed out on 1 year of valuable experience. Falvey's weird analytics where 1B glove trumps the bat & catcher's bat trumps the glove. I like very much our core from '23 IMO we can still salvage a winning team but Zoll needs to override Falvey's creativity. Stop wasting money in FA & use that money to secure our future key players. I have total faith in this core but I have zero faith in Falvey. Even though we have a great core, because of Falvey's creativity I see us only getting worse. That said (I can't believe I'm saying this) IMO our best solution is to blow the whole thing up. Correa & Lopez are invaluable in the postseason but because of Falvey we'll never get there, So why pay for the luxury of having them? I know our farm system is so bloated from hoarding but we desperately need a primary catcher for not only now but the future & to fill it with depth there. Either way, I wouldn't trade Vazquez (no I'm not in love with him or his money), even with an analytical-driven team, yes mentorship is still valuable. Plus we'd have to give up a lot to move him. Jeffers is not a primary catcher now or in the future, So why keep him around to tempt Falvey to extend him with an exorbitant Boras salary? There is a big need & it would be easy to move him to obtain a very promising young MLB-ready in exchange. Either way, I'd trade Jeffers.

There exists quotes to support what I said. Again you add words I didn't say, I never said he ignored the coaches input. Do you have quotes to the contrary? Good question. You'll have to ask him.

I don't care if you subscribe to mentoring or not. Serious young players seek out more experienced players who have played the game, if they don't they are at a disadvantage. Yes, there are some not-so-good mentors & there are some bad mentees who have no potential & you can't make them into superstars. I'm not talking about Pinto-type young catchers, I'm talking about young catchers with real potential that has a strong desire to achieve, When listening to Jeffers, a lot of his changes in catching has came on his own not help from coaching.

I agree that the Twins paid too much for Vazquez in FA but that's what to be expected. Twins shouldn't have to suffer because of it. Vazquez was not acquired for his bat, he was acquired to pick up the pieces after '22 Jeffers crashed & burned after being depended upon to take over primary catcher duties. And that is what he has done. He has stabilized the catching, and the pitching & is a leader. Jeffers isn't a primary catcher & I have doubts that he can maintain equal tandem catching throughout the year. Adjusting to a new team, especially for a serious catcher is something very difficult. The main focus is to zone in on & establishing relationships with the pitchers, which takes a lot of time & effort. It's not surprising that Vazquez's hitting had taken a back seat. This year his hitting has gotten progressively better & that needs to be taken into consideration,. There has been a "Fire Sale" sign on Vazquez's back, expect other FOs to offer ridiculous offers. IMO a bad lotto ticket plus $5M to boot. And to try to avoid another '22, they pick up an inferior expensive FA, but to no avail, unless you pick up a catcher at least Vazquez's defensive caliber, "22 will happen all over again. For a team that confesses that it's in a contending mode that is totally unacceptable. I consider Vazquez as part of the core, To continue on the same path of chipping away at the core to afford players we don't need will not bring us to the destination we desire. We desperately need a very good young MLB-ready catcher for today & the future. Vazquez's mentoring provides the best avenue to help develop that catcher. After this season Vazquez will be gone with his $10M salary but he'll at least will help set a foundation for our prime position catcher,

Culpepper impressed me with defense at SS, he was a lot better than I expected, He's a very good line-drive hitter, with good contact & doesn't SO much. Leave him alone, don't bulk him out & try to make him into a slugger, he could be another Correa (Correa is big, isn't a slugger or runs fast but he has excellent instincts) if he doesn't sacrifice speed he does have for bulk.

The only player clear-cut to protect is Raya. Olivar has a lot of potential but his catching development is behind, which a good catcher-developing team could pick him up as an OFer while personally developing him as a catcher. His hitting has just arrived at AA so hitting hasn't been proven yet at the high MiLB level. Olivar has the potential to be a very good catcher which we desperately need. On the one hand, I'd like to keep him but on the other hand, if the Twins can't develop him, it'd be best for him if he went someplace where they can.

Lou, I agree that if we trade Vazquez, we need to bring someone in and extend our key players. I agree with Brandon that the $2M* saved isn't worth the loss of Vazquez's projected 1.3 WAR, leadership, handling of pitchers, defense & chemistry for Stallings's .2 WAR. Plus we don't need a backup catcher we need a primary catcher. * (IMO CO will offer Stallings $2.5 M & Stallings's preference is to return there so $3M is closer to what we'd have to offer. $10M - (5+3) = $2M). You also forgot to add that $5M that was given out in the budget, The money that you are spending on FA is a waste. Bell's $7M for .6 WAR compared to Miranda's $.77M for 1.8 WAR is ridiculous, How can we pay for extending our key players (which you didn't allow in your budget) if you are wasting all of it on FA? We have to resist FA & just say NO! NO to Bell, Stallings, Bieber & Mayza. Any holes we may have we need to fill with more reasonable player's salaries via trade from our rich farm. Let's not make the same mistakes as last season

"But let me have this hook (Vazquez has caught 150 innings more in total over the last two years in the Twins alternating setup, anyway)." Let me 1st say that Jeffers is very consistent. Look very closely, when Jeffers is in a backup catcher mode, he's one of the best hitting catchers there is & able to get some of his defense aspects around average. When he is asked to do primary catching duties, he's terrible. So Jeffers is very predictable. You can look at his entire career but just look at his last 3 years. '22 he was asked to do primary catching duties- he crashed & burned. Because of that in '23 Twins signed Vazquez to do primary catching duties (Vazquez caught about 150 more innings spread over the year)- Jeffers thrived. '24 Jeffers caught 1 more inning than Vazquez- after a while he plateaus & the longer he catches the worse his catching becomes especially his defense because he really has to work at it. I'm not against Jeffers but he doesn't have the stamina to be a primary catcher & even has some problems at the equal tandem role. We have to have a very good defensive primary catcher who can hit somewhat not only now but for the future, Jeffers isn't it. If this & next season Jeffers is depended for primary duty, I can tell exactly what'll happen. Boras is Jeffers agent & he'll be asking top primary catcher money for a backup catcher. If that happens we will have another bad salary we can't unload. Should Jeffers be traded? Jeffers should have been traded last season, he still has some hype where he's worth something this season but if he's kept as primary catcher together with Camargo. Jeffers will bomb & he'll be worthless to trade. We've been very lucky that both Vazquez & Jeffers have been healthy under this situation but IMO our #1 priority is having a future primary catcher subbing for them which we don't come close to having. I've been advocating for years to obtain a very good, possible elite young MLB ready catcher.

Vazquez, Correa, Buxton & Castro are the ones who cover the prime positions. So we need them to be better but I agree that there is still room for improvement.

If we had to trade any our young SPs it wouldn't be for a hitter. IMO our greatest need is a very good young MLB-ready catcher this the only way I'd do that. The only hitter I'd consider would be Ceddanne Rafaela & that'd be only if we blow the whole thing up.

Fascinating article, Al. Kitty is a very knowledgeable & wise baseball guy. I like most his statements on the '65 team could have done better with more single-hitting guys (I assume more clutch hitting & less strike-outs) & how there too much science that removes the soul of the game. IMO the most important part of the game is heart (the love, knowledge & feel for the game) which drives the analytical part. Focus on the analytical with bad philosophy is bad baseball. He's always pleasant & humble which is refreshing. All that made for a great broadcaster.

IMO we have no choice but to make Jax happy. Give him some time to adjust & see how it goes. If it doesn't work out then he can go back to the pen. Varland could be in the same boat where he needs to be put in the BP where he can excel until he develops his stuff. When he develops his stuff he could be given a chance, Cody had a nice article on to be proactive on some pitchers to the pen, We'd need to find a way to fill that big hole that Jax'll leave. I think Varland could take that step, It'll be a while before we can count on Canterino or Priellip to fill that role.