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stringer bell

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Everything posted by stringer bell

  1. stringer bell
    Agree with @Riverbrian. One thing to consider when comparing to Houston and Baltimore, none of the other teams in the AL Central are big spenders who will put out deep experienced rosters capable of dominating for years. If the Twins “hit” on a couple players, they should be able to compete in talent and payroll with anyone else in the AL Central.
  2. stringer bell
    Coming off a very nice season, Emilio Pagan re-signed with the Reds for two years and $20M. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/reds-to-re-sign-emilio-pagan.html
  3. stringer bell
    Kreidler is a plus glove at shortstop. He is younger, faster and has more ML experience than Fitzgerald. I think he wins a utility job over Fitzgerald if no others are added to the competition, especially since Fitzgerald has options and can be freely sent back and forth when injuries occur, as they always do. On the pitching side, I think there definitely will be a trade of one of the Twins' established starters. Trading Ryan should get the most talent in return, trading Lopez would get salary relief plus talent. I'd rather see more talent returned, plus I like Pablo as the veteran leader of a young pitching staff. I've said on other threads that having the best arms in the majors and sorting out roles on the fly makes sense for this team, but I think there are at least eight guys who will be primarily starters on the 40-man roster so maybe Abel, Matthews and Festa spend some time in AAA and stay stretched out. If the Twins have six or seven guys who are legitimate big league starters and this is more reason to trade a high value piece to add talent where the Twins are currently lacking.
  4. stringer bell
    Taylor played exclusively in center field, so talking about him as a left fielder makes no sense. Martin missed most of the first half of the 2025 season due to injuries. I don’t think him not being in the majors was an indication of either Baldelli or Falvey not liking his game.
  5. stringer bell
    Scoring runs is often collaborative, especially for a singles hitter. The August/September Twins were without three starters after the trade deadline, so it was pretty tough for Martin to score that many runs. A guy with limited extra base sock needs to excel at getting on base, playing defense and running the bases. Martin struggled at all three in 2024, but was much improved in all facets in 2025. The margin for Martin is small. I’m confident that he will get a chance to show what he can do in 2026, if he stays healthy.
  6. stringer bell
    Martin plays one position well—LF. I expect he could be passable in center and adequate at second base. That isn’t the utility that Castro provided. Further, I would think Keaschall should get 90% of the innings at second base. I think Rodriguez, Jenkins, Outman and Roden could all be equal or better to Martin in center, so Martin playing CF, with or without Buxton on the roster could be a rare event.
  7. stringer bell
    I believe when they both played in St. Paul, Jenkins played center.
  8. stringer bell
    Lots of candidates. I can’t see how all will get a chance with the Twins. I like both Rosen and Martin as players and their skill sets fit with areas where the Twins need improvement. There will be injuries and players will disappoint, but with the number of options, productivity in left field should improve over last year.
  9. stringer bell
    Three good, but not great, teams fighting it out for the division. Detroit seems like they've lost a little of their mojo and maybe the Bears can dethrone them.
  10. stringer bell
    Looks like the Vikings are truly #4 in the NFC North. I'm pretty impressed by the Bears. They have a lot of good young talent and it looks like Johnson is going to be a good head coach.
  11. stringer bell
    I agree with your sentiment. We'll see if the Twins got value for trading Varland and Duran. It might take some time since one of the guys acquired was a teenager. Bader had probably his best year in 2025 and he'll make a lot more money than the Twins are willing to pay, I'm sure of that, so I don't think there is any way the Twins would have retained him for 2026 if they hadn't traded him.
  12. stringer bell
    I think the Falvey record on getting veteran players on short-term deals is mixed, certainly not all negative. I would count Bader, Solano, and Michael A Taylor as unqualified successes. Gallo and Margot as failures and Kyle Farmer and Ty France as mixed. You could also consider Gray as a veteran on a short-term deal although he was thought to have a lot more value than they guys I named and the Twins had two years of control.
  13. stringer bell
    Two very obscure former Twins have signed contracts: Beau Burrows (5 appearances with the Twins in 2021) re-signed a minor league deal with the Pirates. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/pirates-re-sign-beau-burrows-to-minor-league-deal.html Caleb Boushley (2 appearances with the 2024 Twins) signed to pitch in Korea. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/caleb-boushley-signs-with-kbos-kt-wiz.html
  14. stringer bell
    Well said @Old Twins Hat. I'll add that there has been plenty of (probably justified) criticism of Falvey in the past 18 months, but the big picture is much more mixed. He put together a club that won 101 games and the Twins won three division flags and won a post-season series for the first time in more than two decades. I don't think all of that was luck, nor has the three late season collapses in the last four years. Many have pointed out that there isn't much proven talent left after the trade deadline purge. I don't think there is much chance to contend with the current group, but the upper minors do have players who could become fixtures in the last half of this decade. I have repeatedly stated that the biggest black mark for both Falvey and Baldelli is that they haven't developed good to excellent players out of good to excellent prospects.
  15. stringer bell
    The current roster is pretty bad, with some rather big holes to fill. There is talent, particularly pitching talent and potential mostly in young outfielders (counting Jenkins who is not on the roster). The moves listed could lift the Twins to contention if everything went right, but the better course probably includes trading high value assets and getting a return to fill where this roster is weak.
  16. stringer bell
    It's certainly true that the 40-man roster is unbalanced right now. The Twins (rightfully) cut a number of pitchers right after the World Series, so there are a larger number of position players than they should be carrying. Secondly, they are way overloaded with corner outfielders, most of them left handed hitters. I'm certain there will be changes made. I would think they will add some bullpen guys and perhaps a couple of infielders. There are several easy DFAs and outrights on the roster. If Falvey reshapes the roster by making trades, the excesses are lefty hitting corner outfielders and pre-arb starting pitchers. If he wants top talent in return for players, it would be Lopez or Ryan.
  17. stringer bell
    I think Keaschall is part of the Twins future for at least the rest of the decade. I would like to see if he can cut it as a second baseman before handing him a first baseman's mitt. He's got good speed, which should translate to good range and I think with work he can become a decent or better defender at second. He hasn't had typical rehab from TJ surgery because of subsequent injuries. Maybe moving Martin back into the infield is a good idea and really the only position he can play on the dirt. Finding a first baseman should be a priority in the coming year and perhaps bringing Roden in from the outfield could be the answer. Regardless, having a right handed hitter to be a DH/1B makes sense.
  18. stringer bell
    There's roster imbalance here. The 40-man roster and upper minors have a lot of starting pitchers and corner outfielders. They lack even a mid-tier first baseman as well as infield depth and have at this point a bare-bones bullpen. Trading a starter and a corner OF or two to fill the large holes on the roster would seem to be in order. IMHO, whether they intend to contend this year or not, parting with one of their two top starting pitchers (Ryan or Lopez) in order to add talent without adding payroll is the right thing to do at this point. I think we'll see how complete the rebuild is by seeing what the return is for established players like Ryan, Lopez, Jeffers and perhaps Buxton. If the return is principally high-upside young guys, it's a "tear it down" rebuild, if the return is major-league guys then the front office thinks they can contend within the next 18 months. I'm an old guy. I'd like to see them competitive before I'm a really old guy, so I hope the turnover is not drastic. However, I think it's much tougher to sell off as much as they already have and try to be a post-season team within a year or two.
  19. stringer bell
    Out of the Jonah competition, but the Twins have both of the guys named Kody in MLB history.
  20. stringer bell
    Jonah Bride signed a minor league contract with the Rangers. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/rangers-jonah-bride-agree-to-minor-league-deal.html
  21. stringer bell
    I hope he earns a bunch more in ‘26.
  22. stringer bell
    Don't want to get too far off topic, but Ryan compares favorably to Gray in results in the last two years, he's six and a half years younger and will cost considerably less than Gray for the two years of team control. Ryan certainly has much more trade value.
  23. stringer bell
    As long as I'm on this thread, former Twin Scott Blewett signed a minor league deal with the Cardinals. He's mostly pitched well in his few chances in the majors. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/cardinals-sign-scott-blewett-to-minor-league-deal.html
  24. stringer bell
    Good for Gray. The Rose Hose are a much better bet to contend than the Cardinals. It also probably diminishes Joe Ryan to the Red Sox trade talk.
  25. stringer bell
    In a season where contending is a real long shot, I'm okay with giving Lee a full season (at age 25) to show whether he can cut it both offensively and defensively. Both Fitzgerald and Kreidler figure as backups. Much like the catcher position for most major league positions, I would want a good defender as the backup, so I think the edge there is for Kreidler. If Lee again flounders on either side of the game, I would hope for Culpepper to get a chance if he performs well in the minors. I didn't see a lot of St. Paul Saints games, but I saw a couple with Eeles playing shortstop and I don't think he'd ever be considered more than an emergency replacement there. Just about every throw he made was short and they didn't appear to have much zip on them.
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