stringer bell

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.

Polanco has a long enough career that his career stats are more telling than platoon splits in 2023 (half a season) IMHO. In his career, Polanco is a far better left handed hitter. Farmer, last year and in his career, has been a far better hitter versus lefties. If I were to bet, I would bet that Farmer has better numbers versus lefties in 2024. It is interesting how much or how little certain teams face left handers and left handed pitching in general. Atlanta faced less than 20% left handed starters (32 of 162). Cleveland faced almost twice as many left handed starters (59 of 162) despite having the Twins in their division, with their rotation of five right handed starters.

There's always the Injured List, I sure Santana could have a turned ankle or infected toe. IMHO, whoever the Twins would acquire should be a regular (130 games or more), not just a platoon bat. If the guy isn't good enough to be that, go with the guys in the organization.

You took the words out of my mouth until the part of your post that I quoted. What good does it do for the Twins to reveal more to the public about "the state of Twins nation"? Will it sell more tickets? Allow the clubs to get a better TV deal or acquire better players? Yes, I'd like to know more, to be an insider on future moves, but IMHO it doesn't serve the team to publicize what they might do, hence they do not reveal these things.

No TV deal as of today, right? I think the Twins are keeping their chips tight until they have some idea of how much to spend. They appeared to be comfortable with $120-125M, which is where they were before dealing Chulo. From what I can see, they only want to spend the $5M they netted in the Polanco deal. That doesn't make for much high impact--Solanco, maybe or someone like Duvall or (mentioned elsewhere) Carlos Santana. I think the Twins should get a good enough hitter that the guy is a starter, not a platoon piece, or not even go there. As far as a playoff starting pitcher, I don't see them competing to get Cease, Burnes or any other top starter, certainly without a TV deal. Maybe they can find an undervalued asset from a bad team or someone coming off an injury, but not someone who was healthy and productive last year. Polanco netted a good prospect (I know TINSTAAP), a reliever coming off a really good season, but with a questionable health history and a perhaps serviceable starter. Kepler, with a year less of control, would net less IMHO. I don't see the Twins as having the pieces to acquire a top starter at this time. I don't like it, but that's what I see.

Santana is a switch hitter and good defender at first base. That works for the Twins. He would be amenable to a one-year deal, I'm sure, since he turns 38 on the next solar eclipse. He hits lefties quite well, both last year and through his career and he's a very selective hitter. The only part that doesn't fit is that he isn't an outfielder. With Kepler and Wallner as the regular corner outfielders, it would be ideal to have a fourth OF who hits lefties well.

I haven't seen Lee for more than a few minutes live, but I've seen the Twins sing his praises. Maybe not in April, but some time this year, I fully expect Lee to make his MLB debut. As for Martin, I expect him to debut sometime this year. I had him as a dark horse candidate to make the Opening Day roster. He has enough versatility to get pretty consistent at-bats if up for the ten days or more to replace a utility guy. Again, he might need a month or more in St. Paul.

If Correa is hurt enough to go on the IL, I think Brooks Lee is the shortstop. A Farmer injury requiring the IL would likely give us Austin Martin or maybe someone like Helman. To the larger question of freeing Wallner, Julien and Kirilloff, I hope they are given more at-bats versus southpaws and the composition of the bench may well determine that. Max Kepler had about 100 plate appearances versus left handers, I think that is the right amount of protection and rest for someone with pretty severe career platoon splits. I would hope that all three young lefty hitting guys get that much opportunity, but it will be up to them to perform better than they did in limited chances last year.

DeSclafani compares very much with Maeda going into 2023--veteran arm coming off surgery in his mid-thirties with a history of being really good. If the Twins get results similar to Maeda's 2023 for the $4M they have invested in him, I think they'll take it. I just don't think it is in the cards to get a #1 or #2 starter for what the Twins had to offer. Polanco and Kepler are quality veteran players with affordable contracts, that doesn't match up with top pitchers making more than twice as much. Trading Lee, Rodriguez or Jenkins should be off the table unless the Twins would be getting years of affordable team control on a #1 or #2 starter. I don't think Seattle was going to do that and Miami is asking for a franchise changing haul for Luzardo (IMHO). Everybody else wants to add.

Yes, I made the mistake of quoting BBRef before the updated the story. We’ve settled on $8M from Seattle to make DeSclafani very affordable and net the Twins about $5M.

fani

As to the Varland/DeSclafani question, much like Maeda/Ober, I think the veteran is more likely to grant the rotation spot. I do think there’s a decent chance that Varland will be in a multi-innings role with the Twins, especially since both Paddack and DeSclafani could be innings limited.

There is a chance that DeSclafani is being underrated here. To start the 2023 season, he was very effective through early May. Was the decline injury-related? We can assume that he is reporting to be fully healthy, but health has to be a big question mark with him. It is also unclear if his stuff is as good as it was in 2021 as he’ll be 34 all season, but if he’s healthy I’d give him the benefit of the doubt. Finally, his home park in SF was one of the best parks for pitchers in the NL. More on DeSclafani: He has a lifetime ERA+ of 101, with three seasons where he was significantly better (2016, 2019 and 2021). His lifetime ERA and FIP line up. To me, that profiles as middle-of-the-rotation starter. The last two years cast doubt that he’ll be that good. The contract he signed after 2021 also was for better than “innings eater”.

Oops! I believe BBRef has changed content in their trade story again. It now says the Mariners are sending $2M plus the $6M that SF is paying for DeSclafani. So this edition says the Twins are netting $5.25M, putting payroll around $120M. Perhaps another $5M will be spent by the Twins, so we can lower our sights on any free agents.