stringer bell

Lineup vs. RH starter: Julien 2b, Correa ss, Lewis 3b, Kepler rf, Buxton cf, Kirilloff 1b, Santana dh, Wallner lf, Jeffers c. I'd say that's pretty deep. Not sure who plays and who sits out versus lefties, but probably insert Castro and Farmer somewhere. Two of Julien, Kepler, Wallner and Kirilloff sit.

I will say that both veteran guys they've gotten this week (DeSclafani & Santana) for a total of $9.25M should not be given too long of a leash. It could be that players within the organization can supplant them, but like Wallner, it might not be until the second half of the season.

Santana is rated good/very good as a defensive first baseman. That is a plus despite him playing almost all of 2024 as a 38 year old. I wouldn't be comfortable with Miranda/Severino at first base in the event of a Kirilloff injury offensively or defensively, so I don't mind this move. If, like Gallo, he's in the lineup after struggling for weeks, then I might want to change my tune, but for now I think it is a decent low cost, low risk move.

I don't expect the Twins to seriously pursue either Montgomery or Snell and I think that's the right call. I think free agent pitching is outrageously overpriced and unreliable. A trade for a younger starter might be possible, but I still think they start 2024 with what they have for pitching.

Pretty much takes Donny Barrels out of consideration. On the position player side, adding a MAT or someone like him could happen, I guess. The largest hole in the position player side is a right handed hitter OF capable of playing center. Castro is a switch hitter and was pretty bad versus left handed pitching last year. Signing another OF would pretty much eliminate Gordon IMHO.

The update at mlbtraderumors.com now says Smooth will get $5.25M, about what they saved in the Polanco deal.

The team will now need to take someone off the 40-man roster. Duarte?

Anyone remember when Santana came up as a catcher? Then they moved him to third base before finally making him a first baseman.

Acceptable spending of the Polanco savings, I guess. I have read that each club that CS played for wanted him back, although he has moved through several in the last third of his career. I am wondering if this is protection from another injury filled season for Kirilloff or if maybe it's a message to him that he needs to stay on the field.

Ant and KAT are All-Stars. Will Rudy Gobert also get invited (as an injury replacement)?

How often is a pitcher traded three times in one off season? I find it unlikely that DeSclafani is traded again. I also believe there might be something pretty good if he is fully healthy. Looking at his game logs for last year, he started out with five good/excellent starts out of six, so maybe then his elbow started giving him trouble? After his first start in May, he was 3-1 with a 2.13 ERA, 3 BB, 30 K in 38 IP.

Well, I won't go nearly as far as you. To me, the Twins are trying to fill an inside straight, figuring they'll have enough to win the Central and then compete in the post season despite not having the best roster. They haven't let things "fall apart" but they haven't addressed losing key pieces from last year, either. Building a team that is "good enough" isn't the same as building the best team they can. In general, I agree with the reluctance to go after premier free agents. Payroll is already top-heavy with the contracts of Correa and Buxton and adding another big salary would make it more so. They have a lot of cheap good young talent that is the life blood of those teams other than the top 6-7 spending teams. Betting on the young talent is a risk, but the investment is much smaller in $$$.

I think things will be considerably different in a year. The Diamond bankruptcy and subsequent rescue has thrown things up in the air and delayed closure until 2025. I suspect it will be pricey to stream Twins games next year (2025), but it will be an option. Other than the local teams' games on Bally, there is nothing on the "sports package" that I'm paying for that is worth seeing IMHO. I am all too willing to add only Twins broadcasts via streaming if that is the option put forward. I'm sure I'm not exactly a typical fan, as is true with most of us on Twins Daily, but we do represent the subset of die hard fans who will comparatively spend more to see our team on TV.

Thank you. I moved where I live five years ago and didn't realize until much later how lucky I was to have access to the Twins.

Here's the link from mlbtraderumors.com https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/diamond-sports-group-in-agreement-with-rangers-twins-guardians-for-2024.html

You have to have Bally Sports. I have it on DirecTV. It isn't offered on many (any?) cable networks.

So, is Cory Provus going to apologize to the fan base during the first telecast? And has the team already apologized to Provus?

I thought this was the plan from the beginning. That is, keep Jensen on the 40-man until a spot was needed and then hope to get him through to St. Paul.

I get the Twins on my “sports package” on DirecTV. I was hoping I could drop the otherwise worthless sports package and subscribe to mlb.tv. Not this year.

Daniel Duarte claimed. Imagine this, he pitched for the Reds. Corresponding move is the DFA of Ryan Jensen. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/02/twins-claim-daniel-duarte-waivers-rangers-dfa-ryan-jensen.html

Eddie is yet another lefty hitter who plays only corner OF. No, thank you.

I keep seeing Lee referred to as a potential second baseman. To my knowledge he has never played second base. I also have seen that Farmer could platoon at first base when he has started the same number of games there as he has started as a catcher. Has Royce Lewis ever played left field or second base? I think position switches like this would have to be addressed in Spring Training. Lots of players move around and change their permanent home, usually down the defensive spectrum. I'd hate to see Lewis. Lee or Julien become corner guys until they absolutely have to.

I think I'm as big a Kirilloff fan as there is on this site. Two years ago, as the season started, I said Kirilloff's floor was Mark Grace offense and Will Clark defense and his ceiling was Will Clark offense and Mark Grace defense. First round draft choice, excellent minor league number, aggressive promotion--a lot of factors that showed the club thought highly of him--but so far the injuries and frankly the performance have not matched his pedigree. I watched the games on the west coast, when Kirilloff mashed and won Player of the Week. Immediately after that he was injured, but stayed in the lineup with near disastrous results. Similarly, Kirilloff tried to play through wrist pain in the previous two years with poor (for him) results. I still believe that a healthy Kirilloff can be an elite hitter--perennial All-Star and contender for a batting championship. AK's approach seems different from most. He gets a higher percentage of opposite field homers than anyone on the team (only Julien is close) and so far seems content to get singles from pitches that are middle-in. In 2023 he was far more patient than in his earlier professional experience and I hope that continues. I do think that this slightly different approach might actually be beneficial to the lineup. I also note that AK has struggled against left handed pitching. He certainly needs to improve there soon or he will be branded as a platoon player. Kirilloff is younger than Jeffers and Larnach and only a month older than Wallner, but arbitration has started for him. He won't be a minimum wage player. If he can't be both more available and more productive, it is more and more possible that he won't figure in the team's plans. I think this is his last chance to be the unchallenged regular at first base before other options are brought on board. It will be interesting if the Twins bring in a first baseman before the season starts, which would indicate their trust in AK is waning.

Time to start a 2024 Thread of ex-Twins transactions. Cody Stashak, who pitched in parts of four seasons with the Twins, was a minor league free agent. He re-signed with San Francisco. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/giants-re-sign-cody-stashak-to-minor-league-deal.html

Are the Twins better than before they traded Polanco? This has been discussed here and on other threads. My answer is there is no definitive way to know. We can't predict future performance with precision and we can't predict injuries. If DeSclafani and Topa recreate their best year the Twins easily are better, but that is, of course unlikely. I have stated that Polanco looks like he's old for his age to me. I stand by that. He has forsaken slash for slug and if he loses just a little, he may struggle to keep his good numbers. He obviously has lost something in the field. They are different players, but Brian Dozier went from 126 to 89 OPS+ in his age 31 season. The flip side is that the two pitchers could flop or be injured and that's probably more likely than both thriving. Meanwhile Polanco is likely to put up good numbers yet as a 30-31 year old. We can speculate, but the results will tell the tale in about eight months.