umterp23

Jeffers had quality at bats. Didn’t chase anything outside the zone to draw the two walks. 1st at bat was very high fly ball onto warning track. Slight elevation change on that trajectory would have been 1-0 twins in the first. Dribbler happens to even out hard hit balls that are outs, so good with his effort. Button only at bat was to swing at first pitch for a ground ball out to start the game. 1stmpitchnof game and you swing you better not make and out. Correa had to talk about not worried about spring training results went he went 0-for, I guess when you are pulling in $30+MM, results be damned. Julien proves he can’t field. Now field may have been sloppy but he still made an error. always tomorrow, go twins

Vázquez has smarts? How do you say that or measure it compared to Jeffers not having them?

Voters dictate starters and so twins players will have to go the route of of selected and not auto vote in. Fan vote has skewed the game on occasions as with every other all star game including awful skill flag football pro bowl. I like our chances with a couple guys being included.

People talk of salary relief if trading Vázquez. The assumption is we aren’t eating any of the salary to move, which is what Twins would have to do. Most likely teams are going to ask twins to eat $5MM and what relief is that? I don’t see twins trading Jefferson unless it is a sizeable offer in favor of twins, not sure FO has ever won on sizeable offer though. What team is going to trade for Vázquez and also give us a joint ready MLB catcher, not happening. $5MM to spend on FA catcher won’t get us much I don’t think

Blinded by the signing dollars and opted for shades for indoor picture. Too cool for old school

How many trade a catcher articles will be written? Break glass if necessary depth what we have at AAA, not ready ply 81 games like Rocco wants.

AAAA and High Leverage situation verbiage getting used makes me laugh. Last time I checked AAAA doesn’t exist. AAA minor league deal would be fine and if anyone makes a case to be on 26 man than they are a major league player not some made up A status. bullpen and being brought in to do your job is do your job. Any relief pitcher is in a leverage position except a position player

It's truly a damn if you do and damn if you don't time for Lewis. I don't slump comments truly shouldn't have been uttered last year and then truly slumped for last few months. He is good, but can't get past the injury bugs year in year out. If you backload the contract sure I would do it, but hasn't been a full year guy. If Mgmt claims they are severely cash strapped, then there will be more rookie salaried players on 26 man which hurts team as well

Lewis can be a really good player... but... as comments have shown, injuries, lack of quality defensive chops and a arbitration eligibility for 3-4 years to come I can't think why you extend him now. His first cup of coffee for arbitration projects to be $2.3MM for '25 season. Why would we throw out there an example of 8 year $70MM deal concept at him. Would he most likely sign it? Absolutely he would but now you are cash strapped for all your arbitration players this year to get them signed. His locked up deal would have to be escalator driven for early years to have higher number in later years and no way it should be a full no trade clause contract. Would give him an opt out after year 4 before higher backloaded money kicks in. Just don't think it is necessary prior to him playing at least 125-140 games with 80% defensively and not a crap ton of DH games

Something really satisfying to me when a teams make the playoffs and make a run with payrolls lower than then the big markets. Billionaires can do what they want, can't control that, but players playing on the field for teams that shouldn't be there makes me root for them even more.

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.