umterp23

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

A great clubhouse guy, intangibles can't be defined and I agree has no merit on what a player brings to the table for the team. Performance on the field speaks volumes. Great clubhouse guy mantra is tiresome. Plus what Twins teammate in today's world in public is going to say anything negative about a teammate. So and so called a great game today, always has. Pitcher never bashes his catchers in public. Guess the catcher is a great leader and clubhouse guy for instance. Just an example not picking on our catchers. A great clubhouse guy, doesn't super slow jog to 1st base on ground balls or think they have jacked one out of the ball park and only get singles instead of a doubles off the wall. That is lead by example and we have too many slow joggers look at me types of guys on this team. One of the best moments this year was Lindor blasting a Grand slam for Mets to get to the next round of games. He didn't pound his chest, showboat up the 1st base line. Just ran the bases, low five a teammate or two and walked back to the dugout. Post game interview as about the team and not his moment. Leadership at its best.

David St. Peter says "This will eliminate all blackouts as we've come to know and hate them." MLB press release quotes Noah Garden below. Blackouts are the worst and I understand why they exist to theoretically force people to go to games in person, but that concept isn't bullet proof. “With the media landscape continuing to evolve, Major League Baseball is committed to serving our fans by ensuring they can see their favorite Clubs, removing blackouts where we can, and ultimately growing the reach of our games,” said Noah Garden, MLB Deputy Commissioner, Business and Media. “We are proud to bring Guardians, Brewers and Twins games to their passionate fan bases with the same high-quality production that we have demonstrated in Arizona, Colorado and San Diego.”

I don't think the Cubs who have money are just going to eat all of Vazquez contract along with just Jax. So let's throw some more stuff at it. Matt Shaw to me would be an awesome get. He was a short stop I college at MD, may alma mater and I got a chance to see him play plenty during his days there. Think of Brooks Lee but better. So with that being said, you want to make a splash, throw in Lee or Julien into the trade, along with a top 20 prospect and see what you can do there. Now do we really believe that ownership group is going to take $13MM and invest in more broken pitchers to come our way and now another catcher to split time? Seriously doubt it. 2 MLB players for 2 prospects and we don't have to eat some of Vazquez contract, Cubs will laugh at Falvey and say thanks but no thanks.

I chuckle when I see Garver and Rortvedt as who should have stayed to man the position. Twins who wouldn't pay Garver $MM's in his early 30's to stay healthy and play the position and was actually right in that trade, who doesn't play the position hardly ever wasn't the guy. Then there is Rortvedt who couldn't get on the field for the Yankees and then put up these awesome numbers last year with Rays WAR 0.9 hitting .228 AVG .303 SLG .621 OPS w/ 3HR's and 31 RBI's while committing 9 errors catching and throwing out 16% baserunners. Jeffers with WAR 2.1 hitting .226 AVG .432 SLG. .732 OPS w/ 21 HR's and 64 RBI's while committing 6 errors and throwing out 17% baserunners. Rort and Jeffers don't light it up on defensive side of things compared to top end of league. I'll take Jeffers/Vazquez any day of the week as you know what you will get. Trading either one is the least of my concerns for building a better team when owners won't be spending to do it anyway. No depth in minors knocking on door. Carmago with a couple drinks of coffee in bigs this year was there as a need not a playing necessity.

Gone will be guaranteed contracts that tie up $100's MM per player unless it gets a Bonilla/Ohtani retirement structure. Yearly opt out clauses could be the new norm and players will fight for earlier arbitration structure that gets them out of baseline MLB minimums and 6 year team control. More and more minor league teams could fall victim as well based on not having enough money. the Players Union and or Owners could be headed to a lockout scenario if the TV revenue explodes that way it could in the next 3-4 months. There is roughly 5,600 professional baseball players across all levels of MLB/MiLB today. I could see short season minor league teams falling off the cliff after the college draft takes place. The draft could go down to 10 rounds vs 20 rounds and opportunities to play at the next level be truly harder and harder. Many high school talent could be college bound except for elite high school guys will be impacted. Let's see how good Manfred is for all of baseball to earn his salary paid for by the owners

Playoff Teams compared to Twins in '24 payroll and allocated $$'s: # Ranked High to Low / Team / Payroll / 26-man active payroll (% of remaining payroll injured, retained or buried) 1. Mets / $317MM / $186MM (41%) 2. Yanks / $309MM / $260MM (16%) 3. Astros / $255MM / $174MM ( 32%) 4. Phils / $247MM / $226M (9%) 5. Dodgers / $242MM / $171MM (30%) 6. Braves / $236MM / $156MM (34%) 15. Padres / $171MM / $143MM (17%) 19. TWINS / $130MM / $102MM (22%) 20. Royals / $122MM / $84MM (32%) 21. Brewers / $115MM / $71MM (39%) 22. O's / $109MM / $65MM (41%) 23. Guards / $106MM / $50MM (53%) 26. Tigers / $98MM / $33MM (67%) Top 6 teams have big payrolls and huge expectations year in year out. You can throw Padres into that conversation at 15th position, but 8 teams missed playoffs that have huge substantial payrolls and expectations clearly not being met. Twins bottom half in payroll and expectations not being met. Guards and Tigers outperformed everyone with low payrolls, more dead money vs 26 active man roster than everyone else, but exceeded expectations. They proved it can be done to get to playoffs, winning in playoffs will be a tall task, but they have just a good a chance as anyone else in the field. Weakest division conversation last year was AL Central, but this year is the strongest in numbers, not financial but seats at the playoff table. Twins very lopsided in high priced players to MLB minimum type of fillers of the roster. Comes down to developing your youth to supplement and be stars vs injured/aging stars carrying the weight. Twins don't have that balance compared to other teams

How does lewis go from $740K this year to $2.5M in '25 under the category of team control? Team control should equal mlb minimum increase to a Julien/Wallner level. Maybe just a type typo. 10 arbitration guys coming up will be painful to the wallet.

Pitch framing as key measurable for a catcher is quite laughable with plate umpires and inconsistencies are so varied. The strike zone box is stagnant, doesn't adjust for player heights for one, so low strikes may be somewhat consistent, but high strikes can be all over the map. Plate umpires from game to game can be tight strike zone, loose zone, pitcher wildness, etc. Focus on caught stealing, errors, passed balls, wild pitches, etc. Then the complaints come from throwing guys out, but that can also tied to slow to home by pitchers, what pitch did they run on, game situation, were they going to throw to 2nd with guy on 3rd, etc. Passed balls/wild pitches/errors are a scoring opinion by a stat guy in the booth. What we thought back in the day for us old guys isn't quite the same today with stats being called today. Human judgement of defense is subjective, hitting a baseball is pretty easy to figure out. Way too many statistical elements being introduced into the game is tiresome. Give us 2 guys behind the plat that can hold their own both offensively and defensively, which I believe we have them and move on to more pressing needs