stringer bell

Daniel Duarte re-signed with the Twins on a minor league deal. He had a brief but successful run with the Twins until he went on the IL and then had elbow surgery. Blewett, Severino and Winder are all free agents. I'm thinking the most likely to re-sign with the Twins is Blewett, with Winder and Severino likely to take their talents elsewhere.

Buxton certainly won’t play 150 games, even without a disabling injury, under Rocco. That is true. However, without a disabling injury, we could expect Buck to play in 130-140 games. The sad reality is that escaping a season without a trip to the IL is a real long shot. His trips to the IL in 2024 included recurrence of knee and hip injuries. It’s hard to imagine him spending a full season not impacted by what appears to be chronic injuries

Will all of the question marks be answered positively? Nah, that’s why parlays pay off so well. Due to self-imposed payroll constraints, the Twins need more of their gambles to pay off because there will be fewer viable depth and “Plan B” options. With no more additions or subtractions, my current projection for Opening Day includes four of Julien, Keirsey Jr., Martin, Lee and Helman and leaves precious little depth in the minors. One can hope that the pitching is better, but there is always a risk that the plan goes sideways. I remain frustrated that the Twins choose to try to compete without spending increases, but it appears these are the cards that are being dealt.

Agree, but he really seemed lost after May 1 and never really found his stroke. As the season went on, his defense slipped as well IMHO.

I agree with almost all of this, but I think Spring Training is an opportunity for a lot of guys to win a job including Lee, Martin, Helman and Keirsey Jr. Lee could win a starting job if he looks great in the spring IMHO.

The projected contracts of all three guys are pretty minimal. If healthy, Topa and Stewart are well worth the investment, even if they aren’t available for the entire schedule. Tonkin, OTOH, is quite replaceable, probably one of 20 guys who cycle through multiple teams, get DFA’d and claimed. I don’t think he’s worth rostering.

Then is Miranda the third baseman? He has more issues defensively than Lewis. If Lewis goes to first base (something I've warmed up to), it should be done to provide Lee with a position that he is capable of being a good defender and which matches his skill set.

The Twins won the AL Central and their first postseason series in 2023. They won 87 games. In 2024, the club won 82 games, only five less, but they missed the playoffs and faded horribly in the stretch. So maybe the decline wasn't as great as it seems. That said, some things went very right for the Twins in 2023 and didn't go nearly as well this season. Is there something to be learned from the successes of 2023 and the disappointments of 2024? Or, is this just a demonstration of the randomness of baseball? In 2023, the Twins brought in veterans Michael A. Taylor, Kyle Farmer and Donovan Solano to provide depth and right handed hitting. All three performed admirably--Taylor set a career high for home runs and became the Twins' regular center fielder with elite defense. Solano logged the most innings on the team at first base and was a reliable hitter, Farmer crushed left handed pitching and despite missing time from injury, played in 120 games and logged 1.7 WAR. New guys were brought in in 2024, most notably Manuel Margot, who set an all-time record for pinch-hitting futility, logged a negative WAR and was a disappointment as a defender. Willi Castro made the team out of Spring Training in 2023 and was used frequently throughout the season. Castro set a career high in stolen bases and helped the team at the plate, in the field and on the bases. In 409 plate appearances, Willi logged a 2.7 WAR. Used almost every day in 2024, Castro had a strong first half, but faded in the stretch and had only 1.6 WAR in 635 plate appearances. Ryan Jeffers broke out in 2023. Sharing time equally with Christian Vázquez, Jeffers picked up 3.3 WAR in 335 plate appearances. Despite a hot start in 2024, Jeffers only reached 2.1 WAR in 465 plate appearances. Jeffers was used often early in the season as the DH increasing his playing time. In 2023, rookies Royce Lewis, Edouard Julien and Matt Wallner were brought up during the season (Lewis returning from injury). All three performed well, with Julien and Lewis being two of the best three hitters in postseason. All three players had more the 2 WAR is less than a full season. In 2024, rookies Brooks Lee and Austin Martin made their debuts and neither player provided a positive WAR. In 2023, the Twins got outstanding production from Brock Stewart and Griffin Jax. This year, several retread relievers were brought in and all the were acquired in the offseason bombed out. If someone is looking into why the Twins reached the playoffs and one a series, the successes of 2023 were not duplicated in the succeeding year. It seems good fortune has a shelf life and we can't continue to have nice things.

I think Castro is best utilized at multiple positions and playing a bit less than full-time. I think he is fine at second and third and left field. Moving him to those spots to cover for injuries and slumps would be the best way to utilize his skills IMHO--starting between 90-120 games. Julien may well have to work his way back from Triple A. The hitter he was in 2023 was good enough to compensate for bumpy defense. Lee is inexperienced at second, but probably has the skills to be decent there. The Twins do need to figure out Lewis' and Lee's future positions--one at third and one at second would make sense to me.

That's what I'm hearing RB. I'll carry this a bit further and say that it would be great to have a LH hitter that routinely starts every day, no matter which hand the pitcher uses to throw. I don't know if Wallner can make enough contact to stay in every day or maybe that day won't come until Rodriguez or Jenkins is ready. Having five every day players including one lefty and one switch hitter would get a lot closer to ideal. Add in Castro as a guy who starts between 100 and 120 games and the rotating catcher arrangement and then there is maybe one or two more strict platoons.

I was most interested in the last segment (a recording of a conversation with Bobby Nightengale) speculating on trade possibilities. I think there’s a real case to keep all the players on the 40-man roster. Trading Durán or Jax just doesn’t make sense to me and I see no in-house replacement for Jeffers.

With 13-man position player rosters, players need to move around. Either the non-starters have to be able to fill in at multiple spots or the starting players have to be able to fill different spots. Platooning works in general, but I don’t agree with spending precious bench moves in the fourth, fifth or sixth inning.

I think it was fair to expect some productivity from DeSclafani, but expecting a full season would be a lot. Obviously, the team got zero innings, but I would maintain it was reasonable to expect something from the veteran.

While I agree with almost all of the OP, I will point out that after a slow start, the club played very well for about 100 games. Perhaps the beginning and end were regression to the mean, Last year everyone was talking about the high number of strikeouts. The club drastically reduced strikeouts and home runs while the pitching staff was among the top strikeout units in the majors. Yet the team won six less games and failed to make the playoffs. Yes, they lack team speed, which also diminishes their defense, but one of the slower shortstops (Correa) isn't going anywhere and none of the second base candidates are above average in the field and only Castro has above-average speed. Where will increased foot speed come from? If Correa played 140 games and Buxton 120, I'm pretty confident the team would have made the playoffs. I'm not confident that either Correa or Buxton will get 600 PAs again during their respective careers. They also lost two starting pitchers during the season and one before the season started. There wasn't enough pitching depth for the club to win. The death knell for the season (IMHO) was the loss of Joe Ryan, without anyone available to step up. Trying to win with a $130M payroll (with over $50M tied up in three players) is a tough task.

My lasting memory of AK is when he was a fresh faced youngster in spring training. I went to a game in Clearwater where he and Lewis started at first and short respectively and faced Wheeler. Lewis homered and I believe Kirilloff had a single. I watched Kirilloff doing drills later and he looked smooth at first base. I became convinced that Kirilloff would be an All-Star.

Castro and Lee are almost automatically Five Guys candidates because of being switch hitters.

It’s my understanding that all five of these guys are eligible to be minor league free agents, which would mean they’ll come back to the Twins only if they believe it is best for them. To address earlier topics in this thread, Varland has shown enough promise to be hung on to, despite the bad numbers. He might be a bullpen guy going forward. Thielbar might retire or try again, but he probably won’t get any major league offers. I could see him signing a minor league deal with the Twins and competing for a spot in the 2025 BP.

Miranda worked hard and improved as a fielder at third. Many of those improvements would/will show at first base. He doesn’t have great hands, good range or a strong throwing arm, so he probably will never improve beyond adequate at any defensive position, but adequate defense plus a 130 wRC would be fine. I guess Santana will be looking for a pretty big raise after a successful offensive season coupled with recognition for his defense. He might price himself out of the Twins market and will be looking to be what he’s always been—a full time regular player. It’s a close call, but I’d rather bet on Miranda at $800K than Santana at $10M in his age-39 year.

Is vs it possible that a platoon lefty hitter could be “promoted” to one of the five guys? If not a full-fledged regular, at least not pinch hit for in the middle innings (á la Kepler). I’m thinking of Wallner or perhaps later Rodriguez or Jenkins. It would help if the player vying for this status was a plus defender. Midsummer (‘22 and ‘24) Miranda might qualify despite his less-than-great glovework because of the way he hit during those relatively short intervals and because he pounded right handed pitching. I agree that Castro shouldn’t be one of the five guys, but as a sixth, starting closer to 100 games (about what he did in ‘23), he could be a big positive.

I don't think Miranda is proven. He's shown flashes, but his overall numbers both in 2022 and 2024 were brought down to near average by bad finishes. I think he could be okay as a first baseman (league-average in SSS) but he needs to be a much better than average hitter.

Decision time for Tonkin and Topa comes when the team decides to tender them or not.

Outrighted off the 40-man today. Despite the big power numbers in 2023, I don’t think the front office is very high on Severino.

Congratulations to a real professional.

Since Correa and Buxton are about the only two players who are good defenders under contract with the Twins, this is currently a non-starter IMHO. Further I don’t think Lewis is considered a shortstop option at this point, so the job would go to Castro or Lee.

Trading any of the projected stars from 2024 (Buxton, Correa, Lewis) or any front line pitching almost guarantees a rebuild. Paying Buxton, Correa and López big bucks is a waste if they are rebuilding, so either trade none or trade all IMHO. I think the team makes minimal moves in the off season and is active at the deadline if they don't have a good first half. Larnach, Wallner, Julien and perhaps Lee would be the type of pieces to go along with all of the 1-5 candidates. Remodeling the team with more speed and defensive ability would be the goal.