umterp23

Monopoly money being thrown around year after year by select few who are "buying" championship opportunities. I'll continue to root for teams with modest payrolls all day long.

If we think trading Vazquez is ideal to get some money relief, let's look at todays catching news. Danny Jenson signed 1 year deal for $8MM + 2026 option and $500K buyout, Played 91 games, hitting .205 with 9 HR's and 24 RBI's with 324 plate appearances. His only calling card was blocking pitches.

If Kiersey's benchmark is Margot, the only thing he has to do is get a base hit pinch hitting!

Easy change that could have been made was to end the game in a tie after a normal 10th inning of baseball. Ties aren't a great thing or a bad thing. Football games can still end in a tie at the NFL level, used to end in a tie at the college level. Hockey can end in a tie. Next thing we know the guy will be put on 3rd base to start the inning vs 2nd base and you get one shot to bring him home. Batter scores on fly out with 1st batter up, you win. Batter Strikes out or force out and home team gets on shot to win it. Neither score in 10th then be done with the game. I don't like extra innings format, so just end the game in a tie and move on. Players don't like extra inning games, too hard on their bodies over 162 game season. Guess what, play less games in regular season and don't play 25+ games in spring training. Argument will be made that players need time to ramp up in spring training so play the whole month of March to do that. Come to camp in shape and ready to go to start the season in Mid-April by starting spring training Mid-March. Later start to season gives northern cities who play outside better chance of warmer weather. End season Mid-September before crappy weather happens more often in northern climates. Worn out bodies through the year, change roster size from 26 in spring and make it 35 for first 30 days of season and last 35 days if we are worried about guys getting hurt when not ready to play more than 4 innings at a time or fatigued at end of the year. Baseball Pastime doesn't exist the way I grew up with and I never complained about how long a game took. Baseball was baseball. Instant gratification world is upon us and will only get worse.

So a scenario of what ifs was played out I think in a The Athletic article that said what if you are Bobby Witt Jr gets the golden bat to start the 9th inning from a poor 9th in the lineup hitter. He either strikes out or gets a base hit. Now lets say he gets a hit, a double. They pitch run for him and guess what he is back at the plate as the leadoff hitter. Gets 2 for the price of 1 plate appearances. Or he strikeouts but still stays at the plate to take his normal turn. Next thing you will get is team A has hit too many homers and the next one is an automatic out when they blast one. Beer softball leagues here we come under this clowns leadership.

So for all the articles, comments that he is not very good and time to trade him, let's look at this quick FA recent signing. Travis D'Arnaud, 36 years old who got 2 years $12MM deal with Angels as a backup. Trade Jeffers and now you are relying on Vazquez and Camargo as your backup or you have to spend more than Jeffers new salary in FA or strike a no-brainer deal for a new catcher that most likely is competing vs AAA Camargo to be on the big club. Not sure trading makes sense unless you get a steal in return coming back.

If we are looking to move Castro, throw in a Zebby or Festa along with Lee/Julien and go after Matt Shaw with the Cubs. Shaw was a stud at Maryland in college as a SS but very easily could slot over to 2nd base to solve our need there since no one believes either Castro there full time or Lee, Lewis, Julien in near term. Don't have a numbers/value idea if that would work but can't hurt to poke the cubs on what it might take. Most likely a front line starting pitcher but not sure I would want to give up our top 3 established guys

A trade like this all comes down to optics. Does it get categorized as a salary dump or a mega deal of Correa for 3, 4 or 5 parts to the puzzle of having high quality at multiple positions of need. Not opposed to the idea and while yes he was good in '24, he was good for barely half the season on the field. Open to any and all trades that could give the team financial flexibility, but that has to mean they will invest dollars in new assets and not pocket the financial gain of such salary traded. Not sure we win in any of these scenarios

How many times do we have to use financial constraints in articles before it falls on deaf ears? I think everyone is aware of the Budget, call it what it is, the Budget for 2025. What the Front Office does with the budget outlined for them will be difficult, but not impossible. Bonehead trades for injured players for one has been major factor, our faces of the organization injured for almost as many games played vs not played is a factor and the list goes on. FO needs to assign highest to lowest priorities and money allocations. If he means a trade, so be it, if it means playing our youth to see what you have so be it. This year seams like a lame duck year with potential sale of team and having a strong financial balance sheet for prospective owners. I expect trades at trade deadline being more realistic than any flashy off-season moves

Whether we believe it is Miranda or not for 1st base, trade market might be more reliable. We talk about having some depth in minor leagues for multiple positions, why not throw a package together and take a swing for Mountcastle with the O's. He seems like he can play first, O's are looking to move him according to some of my MD family as they need some pitching to help solidify their youth balanced team.

I like Jeffers, don't dislike Vazquez as DocBauer points out there are may debatable ways we can say who is the guy. Jeffers from all-star break '23 to 1st part of '24 was very, very good for the Twins. Dog days of summer kicked in back of half '24 but I will give him a pass for one reason: The family tragedy of losing your 2nd child during pregnancy stage in March when your son would have been born in early July from what I could gather timing wise. I would think mentally that takes a toll and physical it can show up in ways we try and define by performance. Baseball is hard, life can be harder. Looking forward to #27 in a Twins uniform in 25

Players grind to get the bigs, stay there and be successful. Hard work can be rewarded but it also can take a toll. Good luck to AK in the next phase of his life/career.

https://www.mlb.com/twins/news/alex-kirilloff-announces-retirement

Baseball Savant would say otherwise for being poor throwing out runners https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/catcher-throwing Pitch framing depends on a digital box and what umpire is behind the plate to get a call or not get a call. Irritating stat to debate but it's a stat people care about. Different look by ESPN on catchers https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/seasontype/2/position/c/sort/gamesPlayed Jeffers .169 CS % to Vazquez .159, so basically a wash DWAR both 0.5 So, my point is depending on what stats we want to believe in and who does the calculating, narrative isn't one guy superior to the other or vice versa Twins overspent on Vazquez for 3 years to address a need. Can't move him based on money spent

So 270 reasons to be specific. One of the stats pages listed I was looking at was a point in time which I didn't realized. Pretty much the same result though, not not he field enough to be the faces of the organization.

The 4 game Guardian series in September was the death nail. Twins were 2 bad innings away from being up 3-0 in the series but lost by one run in all 3 losses. Tough to watch and tough pill to swallow. Jax gives up 2-run bomb in the 8th in game one and Henriquez blow 2-run lead in extra innings in game 3. Other contributors over 162 games for sure, but that series was final straw so to speak

All good on comments but I want to point out that I agree on lack of veteran leadership even though many people praise so and so is a great clubhouse guy, leader etc. I kind of always chuckle when I hear that because I'm not sure that can be measured. When your two highest paid players are hurt for majority of the season, multiple seasons, assumption is they are supposed to be the leaders. Not sure the team has veteran leaders and then the finger pointing starts. Clubhouse chemistry when things aren't going well shows what kind of team you are. Maybe we now know we have a bunch of individuals and not a Captain

3 "Faces" of the organization as proclaimed by many do not play in a combined 216 games of the regular season. Buxton 60, Correa 76 and Lewis 80 Not one single moment can be sole reason but 216 reasons are high on the list

Batting avg only for a comparison doesn't tell the picture of the type of player he is. He has no power, not that I am a believer that every single guy on the team has to hit 20+ HR's to be part of the team. Let's look at Avg. OBP, SLG & OPS for measurable. The only players he out performed were Vazquez, Julien, Margot and Farmer across all 4 stats for the player you singled out for just avg comparison. He doesn't have a strong arm defensively. Pretty decent speed but only had 20 XB hits total, so once again, doesn't hit ball hard enough to take advantage of speed. Martin on most every other team in MLB would still be in AAA but Twins rolled the dice and he played in 93 games. That is more because of injuries once again to Buxton and others.

The Sporting News had an article yesterday talking about trading Buxton to Houston in a 3 team trade that ended up with Mountcastle from the O's coming to Twins. Interesting article and they did point out the no-trade clause for Buxton, so that will be the hurdle. The no-trade clause to me is let Buxton listen to what Twins want to do and where he would like to go. He has the control to play for championships for back end of his injury plagued career. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/twins-land-valuable-orioles-slugger-proposed-three-way-blockbuster/a27e96328ae89592fd3f6b1c

Next up in the should we trade someone because of .... take your guesses. Mine is Brooks Lee

Short recap and initial thoughts: CATCHER: $10MM in savings if Vazquez is fully moved and all of his salary results in no 2nd catcher in system to go 50-50 with Jeffers. What quality FA catcher can you get for <$5MM to use the balance to address a need somewhere else? 1st BASE: Kiriloff isn't the answer here, injury prone like Buxton, terrible in the field and Santana age is a major concern. Miranda is shaky at 1st at best, no to Julien. Lewis position change makes sense here. 2nd BASE: Julien is front runner here. Let him play there and you live with great moments and no-so great moments. Castro if retained could be your starter and give him enough reps that he is the main guy and you move Julien as a trade filler. If we can't trust Julien in late game situations, then why would he be on roster SS: $30+MM man needs to be on the field for 80% of the games. Lee backs him up and Castro if kept can man 2nd base. Julien if he stays can part time 2b and maybe 1st. 3rd BASE: Lee takes over for Lewis as Lewis is 1b main guy LF: Right Hander needed in lineup. Imagine Brent Rooker here CF: Buxton leading the team with 87 starts in '24! Need I say more? If I have to, Kiersey is the backup RF: Wallner yesterday, today and tomorrow. Let the kid play. SP: Hold on trading the top 3 guys as I'm not sold on Mgmt utilizing any cost savings if Lopez is booted in trade. We have some depth and if '25 Ober and Ryan light it up, you can move Lopez $$'s at deadline if team isn't good or after season. RP: Need a quality left hander in the pen.

out of curiosity, looked up sprint speed via baseball savant. Buxton not surprising top of the list for and Vazquez last on the list. Competitive Runs is non-HR balls hit but are home to 2b or 3b and 1b to 3b or home. The don't calculate 2b to home when an extra base is the batted ball for them score on. So basically any 2 or more bases from home on batter ball or running on 1st base on a batted ball. So with the that stat, top 5 are Castro, Santana, Miranda, Correa and Jeffers I guess Santana wasn't brutal as some come to think. Castro no surprise there, Jeffers as a catcher is no base path clogger like others. The Bolts category is anytime you topped out above 30ft/sec.

So, we have had 4 or 5 trade so and so articles to now an energy article. Next up: Twins appear to have great clubhouse guys, but do they? Off-season at its finest thus far.

Not this year as the alienation of the fan base and this message board would explode. The next narrative will be we are the A's of the midwest and $$ dumpster fire. Zebby/Festa aren't ready for starting 5 to start the season and if the front office can't find $8MM to keep these two then you writing is on the wall '26 the payroll ship might blow up and everyone is gone