stringer bell

Mateo offers outstanding speed and defense and I would expect him to get plenty of playing time if he were playing for Rocco. If his salary is half of Castro's, he might be worth it. Soto looked like he could emerge to be very good while he was with the Kitties. He hasn't taken that step for the other teams he has pitched for.

It's about upside IMHO. Keep Henriquez, Topa and Headrick, drop Tonkin.

Yes, they are similar, but not redundant IMHO. Both are left handed hitters whose power is their best tool. Both are corner OFs only. I would wager that if Rodriguez and Jenkins progress this season, one of these two will be playing for another team in 2026, but for 2025 there is room for both and they will be among the better hitters in the projected Twins Lineup.

I think that describes Winkel and he spent the whole season at Triple A. While adding a decent third catcher to be at St. Paul and ready to step in and actually play if one of the catchers on the roster went down. However, a Rule V selection has to be on the major league roster for the entire regular season (barring injury) or be offered back to the original team. I would really like to see the Twins acquire a young good defense catcher with an option available (preferably a left handed hitter), but I doubt there are a lot of guys available and the cost might be unacceptably high.

Or Johan Santana or Roberto Clemente.

I believe the Twins are up to 37 on the 40-man roster, which leaves room to claim a Rule V guy and also offer a major league contract to someone that might not be offered by other organizations.

I'll admit that I was very wrong about Brent Rooker. He seemed to me to be the epitome of the all or nothing-at-all guy at the plate with no obvious defensive value. He's shown he can hit at the highest level and with a pitcher-friendly home ballpark. That said, Yunior Severino is not Brent Rooker. He may develop into that type of player, or he may not, but he shares with Rooker being a high-strikeout guy who is a defensive liability. It seems Josh Winder can't stay healthy and he doesn't have the upside of a Canterino or Brock Stewart.

The BBRef article said that Jax' velo uptick is more than the standard for someone transitioning to the bullpen. It would figure that Jax would maintain most of the increase in velocity he has achieved. He has also added more plus pitches even while converting to a bullpen arm. There are no certainties, but it is possible Jax could become an elite starting pitcher. The economic realities are that it would be good for both Jax and the Twins if he could become that type of starting pitcher.

Here is an odd Fun with Numbers stat. Ex-Twin Donovan Solano has a lifetime .279 average, he has 279 lifetime runs scored and lifetime 279 RBI.

BBRef has an item on this topic: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/11/twins-rumors-griffin-jax-rotation-starter.html The article makes quite a bit of sense for a team trying to do more with less money.

???—not the key, but a vital part of the team success? Isn’t that a distinction without a difference? The point here that both Willi and the team are better served if Willi is not an everyday player, but a guy who starts all over 3-4 times a week. It’s a slight demotion from the super utility role in 2024.

Castro has value much greater than $6+M, so IMHO he should be tendered a contract. As to trading him, is he worth as much or more to the Twins than he would be to another team? I don’t see many teams where his versatility plays as well as it does for the Twins, so I don’t think he should be traded.

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.