Doctor Gast

Which competitive team would be interested in Captain Jax? I'd hope MN. I'd consider Jax as part of the core, We have a very good core, stop trying to be "creative" & continue to compromise it. We have a very good core & a top farm system & a lot of good valued young players that are not IMO not part of the core. That spells a competitive window, take advantage of it. Stop hoarding prospects, and forget about creative trades that'll continue to compromise the core while gorging out our farm with redundant prospects. I'd be tempted to trade Jax for Teal but I'd rather trade someone else who I'd not consider part of the core.

Thank you so much Jason for making my offseason. It should be illegal for LAD to pick up another Japanese superstar. I wish we still had Meada around to speak in Sasaki's ear about how evil LAD is & how good it is MN. Besides LAD, SD has Yu Darvish, who Sasaki looks up to. We can still hope. Sasaki could add so much to the Twins, not only 6 yrs. of talent but also revenue from added ticket sales also added Japanese revenue in merchandise & TV rights.

I'm all for giving players an opportunity to shine. Overall, I'd like to see if they can make an impact at AAA 1st, which none of them have. I would have liked to have seen Keirsey given the chance to see how much of an impact he could have had, after making an impact at AAA prior. The only player who might make an impact this season is Emma, like I said with Brooks Lee. Even if he'd have a good spring training. I'd still like to see him prove himself at AAA. The rest I could see a late call-up to get their feet wet but that's it. I still like to see where Keaschal's arm is at before making a better judgment. I've been criticized for advocating to have had Kiriloff stationed at 1B so it'd be easier on his body & chided that 1B is no different than any other position. So tell me why Keaschal, after the discovery about his arm, was placed at 1B, where he had never played before pro, & was a waste of his talent if it was not because it was to preserve him? Why not keep him at 2B & OF?

If 1B was such an important need & Santana was the answer we should have gone further in the postseason than the year before? But in reality, Santana's glove didn't even get us to the postseason, with Santana we were able to achieve 4th place in AL Central. That's how important Santana's addition was.

Zoll being part of LAD org. I'd have high hopes for him. But his time at LAD was short & his time under Falvey's wing is extensive. Anything good he might have picked up at LAD, he has lost sitting under Falvey's philosophy & supervision. Many high picks of college big bats & weak gloves never made it out the MiLB. Focus on primarily developing HRs hitters, they have screwed up a lot of promising young hitters. Hitters that rejected this philosophy have done well. Hitters that have made it to the MLB Sano, Jeffers. Larnach, Wallner & Julien that adapted to Falvey's philosophy have had to revamp their approach to stay up. Jeffers & Larnach have adapted, hopefully Wallner has, Sano has not & Julien, I have serious doubts. We are way behind in defense & baserunning. In our system we have too many psuedo SSs & CFs & real ones are ignored or traded. But our greatest need & my greatest concerned is if Zoll is able to initiate & finalize essential trades. Zoll has been sitting in some of Falvey's transactions so Falvey has mentored him in the art of "creative" trade, What a laugh, a creative trade, needs to be initiated, have a positive effect & of course be creative. That said, Zoll isn't qualified to be a GM. It took Falvey 3 yrs. to come to the revelation that Cave could not sub Buxton. It took them 2 yrs to discover that Polanco's ankles couldn't stand up at SS. It has taken them 6 yrs to hopefully discover that focusing on drafting & development for HRs while neglecting defense & basic baseball fundamentals was wrong, I want a GM who is 1 or more steps ahead than a GM who is always 2 or more steps behind, When are they going to discover that our catching situation is terminal that putting a bandaid (Vazquez) on it might mask it but hasn't fixed it? Falvey was hired to establish a pitching pipeline & that's taken to fruition. My guess is that we are now behind maybe only ATL, LA, TB, CLE, MIA & SEA as far as developing pitchers. Great! But why can't he sees that he sucks at everything else. He has deceived himself, BSed a good portion of the fanbase, the ownership but he hasn't BSed me. I hate to be BSed. My hope was that Falvey would have that epiphany of that he sucked at a lot of stuff & what the Twins needed to be GM, was a man (or woman) that is able to be who he couldn't be, not another hand-picked yes-man clone, who majors in weird analytics. Now Falvey has fingerprints all over the Twins, which I'm afraid will be the touch of death. No wonder Levine got out when he did, he didn't want anything to do will the Twins downfall.

I believe that St Peter was more involved in marketing & business end & never poke his nose into what the philosophy should be, who to sign, who to trade, who to play 2B etc. (operations)

Many fans are up & down but I've maintained all along that we have a great core, A great core isn't a guarantee for a successful season. The core talent & chemistry needs to be maintained & the essential holes are recognized & filled in order the team can sustain any success they have throughout the season. If they don't, any success is short-term.

St. Peter had nothing to do with the operations of how to run the Twins. That was my hope that Falvey's promotion would entail. Falvey's less involvement with the decisions of operations of the Twins, would vastly help the Twins. But your quote: "that Falvey is the top baseball decision-maker—will remain the same." Has further my distaste for the Pohlads. To be fair Falvey has done a good job of eventually establishing a pitching pipeline, a job that he was hired to do. But IMO after the Bomba Squad '19 Falvey got a lot of acclaim & it went to his head & he started to take over areas that he wasn't capable of doing. He has no vision beyond pitching in how to run the other end of the game. He developed the "all or nothing" hitting philosophy after the juiceball ended. Where HRs were everything- hitting, defense & baserunning were counted as nothing, Falvey had terrible player evaluations of putting players where they didn't belong, picking up players that had obvious injury problems. Never admitting mistakes but always doubling down on them hoping to get out of it. that never worked out but hurt the Twins. But worst of all Falvey knows only how to make bad trades & can't initiate essential ones. If Zoll has better player evaluations & negotiating skills or they can bring someone in who has these skills then I'd be OK with it, But if it's another ego trip for Falvey, then we have failed.

For the last 3 offseasons, we have had a great core to work with the 1st brought us postseason success, The idea to progress from success is to keep the talent & chemistry of the core intact & add to it. So the 2nd offseason we lost Gray so that means that trading from our prospect surplus & some expendable young players to obtain a frontline SP along with Ober & Ryan taking a step forward, Buxton, Correa, Lewis, Polanco, Miranda & Kiriloff entering the season healthy, With promising young well-deserving rookies ready to step up to fill in where needed. W/o touching anything else (except maybe cutting some fat like Paddack & or Farmer) we be adding to the core not subtracting & still meeting the budget. But Falvey's "creative" maneuvering subtracted from the core, failed to fill our major hole, frivolously spending our allotted money on players that didn't add to what we had & some subtracted from what we had. Falvey's "creative" moves caused a motivated postseason contender into a 4th place AL Central pretender. Failing to build upon our core we enter our 3rd offseason with a core compromised in talent & chemistry. IMO we can still pick ourselves up with the remaining yet still very good core. Return to filling our need at SP, Give our players opportunities to grow, cut fat not muscle & stop spending our allotted money on frivolous players & expensive FAs. Save that money to extend important core players like Lewis. We can't take any more of Falvey's "creative" ideas. All that said is to show how ridiculous it is to trade Lewis. Trading Lewis is completely giving up on this core. A great core with a farm packed with great prospects. That is an open window to take advantage of, not to destroy this core by trading away Lewis for a bunch of prospects to further gorge our farm. Besides I'm not interested in any of these players in any of these trades. This isn't a good time to trade Lewis because his value is down but it is a good time to extend him if we can stop spending & scrap up some extra money.

Cave, Gordon & Celestino we are talking about CF. That is an entirely different animal. CF is a premium defensive position, 1B is the least important one. At a defensive premium position, Twins showed their priority of bat over glove in running Cave out at that position year after year. 1B is the least important defensive position, where the priority is bat over glove. Miranda has shown a good glove at 3B where the transition to 1B is easier, much like the transition from CF to LF. Where the transition from LF to CF is more difficult, 1B to 3B. At 1B it is obvious that they can be more patient with Miranda.

FO creativity has killed us. This means that the other teams dump off players they don't want or can easily live w/o to get what they need. Falvey isn't able to initiate this kind of move, he's always on the other end. I disagree with you that 1B is a priority & Diaz will not be cheap in players & salary & we'd have to trade away someone who we'd need more to afford him & after 2yrs he's gone! After that, we are in the same boat as now when Santana left. I rather invest in our own players at 1B. Santana has had what? 15- 20 yrs. at 1B, he should be good by now. Give Miranda a full year, we know he can hit, and his glove should be adequate until he improves when he is given enough time. Lewis could be an excellent choice to play alongside Miranda. There are a few options there so we don't have to go down that painful route.

It's hard to find a SP that'll come in to help as a SP, most of the time you can find some RPs. The only name that stuck out on the list was Brendan McKay (LHP). He had promise back when but have no idea where he stands now.

Even though we have a worse core than we had last season, we still have a very good core. A core like last season has only one main hole . This season they have to do a lot better job of recognizing where the priorities are. Last season they felt that the priority was back of the BP so they loaded up the back of the BP (none of them worked out), they figured that they had a hole at subbing Buxton & couldn't trust Keirsey so they picked up Margot a player LAD wanted to unload. Instead of making us stronger they made us weaker. They figured that Julien could take Polanco place at 2B & dumped Polanco , again made us weaker & disturbed the chemistry. They deemed 1B defense as totally essential to our success & neglected the offensive superiority of Miranda & Kiriloff & their need to be protected at 1B, The WAR at 1B didn't improve from '23 to '24 with addition of Santana nor has it dropped from '24 to '25 in projections w/o Santana. IMO if Miranda & Kiriloff were given 1B our WAR would have been much in '24 & '25 projections. Deadline need was a LHRP & they never came through, Twins misinterpreting our needs & focusing on backend BP, outside help at CF subbing & 1B & missing our real need for a viable SP & later LHRP. Took us from a postseason contender to a postseason pretender. The focus should be this offseason as was last off season & that is to preserve the talent & chemistry of the core, viable inning eating SP (at least), prioritize catching defense over 1B defense, maybe a LHRP, give well deserving young players an opportunity to prove them self. We have a budget crunch, forget about FA as our solution or targeting big bucks players in trades, quitting spending on frivolous players. cut fat not muscle. FO has to learn how to inniatate & close on vital trades. To close I'll reinnerate as I said last year, We have a great core & a whole lot of young players & prospects that could be & should be traded. Forget about breaking up the core to get more prospects we don't need. The core has suffered last year but it still has a lot of potential & I have faith in them.

Roster-wise I'd take ours over theirs. But how they are developed & managed is a different story. CLE has better player development & evaluations. They successfully teach their players how to play baseball not HR derby. Better evaluations, they know the value of the players they pick up(how many players do they pick up are hurt or are terrible?), they give opportunities to their own young players to get better & grow with the team. They can also better evaluate where their problem areas are & deal with it. If something is wrong they can quickly see & fix it, instead of being blind & doubling down.

WAR doesn't tell the whole story but it's the best thing we have to evaluate players. We had a very good core last offseason that thrilled us in the postseason, the main focus should have been to keep the talent & chemistry intact. The only meaningful loss was Sonny Gray. That means entering into the trade market with a boatload of prospects to land a top-end SP to fill that hole. We would enter into '24 with a great rotation with expected young SPs Ryan & Ober to take a step forward. Our biggest hole was SP, we needed at least a mid-rotation inning eater, to help take the burden off SP wannabe- Varland, recent TJ- Paddack, a bunch of rookies & the BP. That didn't happen. For a postseason-inspired team, you need to fill the real holes, add to the core not subtract, give deserving in-house players a chance to prove themselves. FO spent all of their allotted money on frivolous salaries that did nothing to help the club. That plus not filling our real hole at SP & disturbing the chemistry, I had very little expectation with the Twins entering into '24, even though we had a wonderful core. Again for a postseason-inspired team, you need to get better & better. Although we still have a good core & better w/o Margot, we are worse than last year, Because we didn't allow well-deserving in-house players to develop into their potential (last year was lost) & still have a hole left by Gray. (to be continued)

Great job Nick. Paddack is the type of fat that we need to cut. Paddack does have value & still has upside but not as much that this FO thinks. They signed Paddack to an extension, to hopefully have something to show for the wasted time, talent & money spent on him. Mets were interested in him (but backed out because they knew his arm was ready to fall off) before the Twins picked him up & invested in him. Paddack can be easily replaced & is the best place to start cutting fat. A small prospect can be added to even out the small negative trade value, that can be involved in a different trade. IMO HOU could also be a trade partner, HOU needs some help in the backend of their rotation, HOU could also be a home town team & the farther fences could aid in Paddack's fly balls. IMO he wouldn't be that hard to move with no negative effects to the team & we cut salary w/o trading someone which would be harder to replace.

A very creative trade. Ryan & Ober aren't shed salary bait & MIL isn't a team where you look to shed salary. I agree the main difference between Perkins & Keirsey is opportunity & it'd be a greater shame to leave Keirsey out to dry again. Keirsey can give you just as much value if given the chance for free w/o giving up anyone of value. You don't trade a front-line SP for a CF sub. You have been reading too many Jim Bowman articles. Maybe the Polanco trade looks better on paper but both are bad trades & add nothing to what we already have.

I was a big fan of Richardo Olivar during his '22 FCL MVP season. I was combing through the system to see if there was a catching prospect that I could get excited about. Olivar was the one, he is very athletic, moves around well, and seemed like he had the tools to be a very good catcher who could also hit. IMO serious catchers should stay at Catcher & learn the ropes to become the best catcher he can & not be moved around, Either he's a catcher or he's not, position flexibility isn't a trait I value at Catcher. I have soured on Olivar because he hasn't developed as a catcher as I'd like which necessarily isn't his fault. Due to this & him just dipping his toe at AA, IMO he doesn't need to be protected. Olivar has a lot of untapped talent that a team that knew what they were doing could transform Olivar into a very good catcher but it'd take longer than 1 year of MiLB. He's not close to MLB.

Instead of the core slowly suffering the bleeding cuts from last season & more cuts planned to the core. Trading Correa would be a mercy kill to the self-inflicted senseless death of our Twins.

You hit the nail right on the head, Cody. You can't hide a slugging below-average glove at 2B any longer since the shift ban. FO is slow to catch on. Julien shouldn't have been ever considered at 2B. He actually improved getting to the balls that normally bleed through but he couldn't make the plays & his DPs were not impressive. He was better profiled at 1B but now the league has taken away his HR advantage. he like Sano has to adjust, IF he adjusts and that's a big IF, he'll never be the same hitter. He was on my trade list last offseason but now he's a must-trade. Athletic Lee, Lewis, Castro & Martin are very promising options at 2B to start the season which makes me hopeful for much better results at 2B than last season.

With Falvey at the helm, it's hard to know what to do. Falvey was bound & determined not to sign platinum glove, fan-favorite Buxton, to satisfy big market teams by trading him, But fortunately, the Pohlads intervened & signed him to a team-friendly contract, Falvey signed Donaldson & to unload him Twins took a big hit. Falvey wanted to sign Story but fortunately, that didn't work out & Correa fell into their laps. Falvey scares me, he screws a lot of things up. Sometimes he gets lucky but IMO his luck has run out. For Falvey to be creative is to throw logic out the window. His creative thinking took a Division champs & postseason contender into a 4th place in the AL Central. I'm afraid that he'll lead us down the same path as the Rockies & CWS. I don't put it by him to continue dismantling the core that brought postseason success because he's not able to initiate an important & viable trade. There isn't anyone in NYY or NYM that the Twins need but leave it to a big market team to talk him into something. I used to love the offseason but the resigning of Falvey, I have lost all hope that the Twins will do what they need to do & become frustrated by them doing what they shouldn't.

Many rate arms by accuracy, quickness & arm strength. Many looked at Jeffers's earlier poor CS% & pop time & evaluated him as a poor arm which is misleading. Jeffers worked hard to better his pop time but his framing technique suffered. Maybe Conger's main job is 1B coach but he's also listed as Twins MLB catching coach. Twins catchers always praised Tanner Swanson when he was coach here. Jeffers has stated that he didn't get much help from coaching (Conger) but took it upon himself to better himself. I don't doubt that Conger doesn't help with the scouting & development which isn't under his job description. But those who are in charge of all of the scouting & the development of pitching, hitting, baserunning, INF, OF as well as catching IMO is very overwhelming. I hope that they should be able to depend very much on our main catching coach for direction & work together as a team.

He spent basic all last season AAA that was too much time & shouldn't have happened.

If we get a surprising offseason, that means another FO comes & drops a player we need for a player who isn't essential to us. Much like the MIA coming & offering Pablo Lopez. Last season there wasn't any FO that came & dropped a needed SP in Falvey's lap so Falvey had to get "creative" meaning trading away needed players for players who weren't able to help the Twins & be able to frivolously spend all the allotted money on players who were not able to help the Twins. Falvey said he needed to be "creative" at the deadline & they came up with Richards. Falvey's creativity brought the Twins from projected AL Central Champs, a postseason competitor to a 4th place in the AL Central. When Falvey says he needs to be "creative" this offseason. That scares the **** out of me. That means disturbing the chemistry, not trading players we should, trading players we shouldn't to pay for players we don't need & leave holes unfilled while creating new ones. Trading like Pablo Lopez for prospects doesn't makes sense to me (unless it's a high MLB-ready catching prospect) because we have a lot of redundant prospects that need to be traded w/o adding more.

I watched the interview when it 1st came out, & loved it! I was hoping that Keirsey would have gotten the nod to be the 1st backup to Buxton starting the season. Picking up Margot was a terrible call. Keirsey would have made the team so much better defensively & offensively. Margot disturbed everything. Keirsey has a small window to prove himself. I criticize the Twins for making that window smaller. As I've said before Keirsey has a lot of character as well as being a very good player. That's a very good combination.