Cory Engelhardt

There is literally no con to Alan Roden. They certainly found space for Larnach, and Roden is a better defender than Larnach was. I don't know that he will play 162 games next year and get over 600 at bats, but he'll have a role somewhere. 1B and OF. Frankly, all of Buxton and Jenkins and Rodriguez have had injuries in their history, so assuming they are all healthy and able to play the field for 150+ games is also most likely naive. At worst he is our 4th outfielder and 1B. That probably means he'll get 450 at bats next year. And based on both his AAA numbers and his savant page, I'm actually pretty interested to see how that plays out.

How many people would have guessed that Vlad would have only hit 9 homeruns in 2026? That is SHOCKING to me. And he still played in 144 games. It just makes no sense in any way

Also, should add, I LOVED your write-up. Thank you for sharing it. Well thought out.

I think they do keep Paredes and Festa, but I could be wrong, I'd be more aggressive with the other names though, like why keep Gray and Ross? Kreidler (for now) is set to backup SS and even CF a bit if other guys don't make it, but he isn't a must keep for me either if they find someone else. That said, all of this comes back to, do they HAVE to prepare for the rule 5 draft and protect guys? I'm not certain a rule 5 draft will take place if there is a lockout. Was there a rule 5 draft in 2020? I don't THINK so?

He was traded to the Nationals last offseason for reliever Jose Ferrer. Ford mostly had a pretty subpar year offensively at AAA for the Nationals. I don't know if his defense is elite or not, but I'd be open to trying for him too if he is available and they think he can help.

Yup, Davis or Freddy Fermin of the Padres or Pedro Pages of the Cardinals. Someone with a decent glove and throwing ability who has a starter ahead of them on their own team so they won't (probably) cost all that much to acquire. That sounds good to me.

I agree, I don't see any free agents or trades that have more than 2 years on their deal coming here. But if they can get a trade for a good defensive catcher who would be here for 2027 and 2028 I'd be ok with that. Otherwise one year is fine with me. I don't know that I trust any of the catchers in our system, other than Lackey, to be above average defensively. It'll be interesting to see if Diaw can push to get to AAA at some point in 2027 and still be behind the plate. I expect Tait and Tinny to be more 1B type, but they could certainly surprise.

See, I’d prefer to trade for a solid backup who is even average on defense. Doesn’t have to be amazing, but can hold their own. And hopefully Lackey or Diaw or others can help in time. Go from there

Fair. I want more than Alex Jackson. That's what I'm getting at. I want someone who can be better than the worst in baseball at throwing out runners, like Caratini and Jeffers were. I think if they are a serious team, and they actually want to try in 2027, they will. Heck, Cory Provus' interview (there is another thread with this) he stated they HAVE to upgrade there, in terms of controlling the running game from the catcher position. If he is saying that in an interview, it's 100% being talked about in the front office.

Caratini looked unplayable the last few months behind the plate. His bat fell off too. I don’t know what they will do, but if they are expecting him to be even an equal share, woof

Good question. I guess we'll see if Zoll in charge of an offseason is any different. Hopefully also with a clear picture from ownership. There shouldn't be excuses like that now. We'll see.

I wanted to start a new thread here, as I am going in with a couple of assumptions here for this offseason. They are... 1) Ryan Jeffers does receive the qualifying offer and 2) Ryan Jeffers declines the qualifying offer. Jeffers then signs a 3-4 year deal with someone, and will make in excess of 50 million for that contract. That gives the Twins a good pick in the 2027 draft, and also leaves a pretty massive hole both in the lineup and behind the plate. With that, I think at the catching spot, the hole they'll try and fill is the "behind the plate" part more than the hole in the lineup part. My question for you is, who are some catchers either on the free agent market, or via trade, that would be strong in controlling the run game that you like? Admittedly, Jeffers was well below average on this, and Caratini was worse. I also am going into this with thinking that Lackey will probably debut at some point in 2028, but I'd rather not play Caratini a majority of the time and just let other teams steal at will because of how bad he has shown to be at controlling the running game (even if both he and Caratini are both fairly solid at controlling the strike zone. I don't think Cleveland would trade Patrick Bailey here, but I would love him and his defense here for 2027 and to eventually pair with Lackey. That said, there are other options. Here is what Savant ranks as the catchers in terms of "caught stealing above average" runs. Basically, this list is the order in 2026 for how good catchers were at catching runners trying to steal. For comparison's sake, Jeffers was -6 runs worse than average, and threw out 9% of baserunners. Caratini, in less time, was also -6 runs below average in terms of throwing out runners. I HAVE to think even getting to average, or zero, will be a massive improvement behind the plate. They are 70th and 71st respectively, out of 72 mlb catchers. Only Ivan Herrera of the Cardinals graded worse. So what say you? Who do you like on this list as either a free agent addition or a trade target? And when I say trade target, one that is maybe realistic. I posted everyone that was average/zero or better. Rk. Player Team SB Att. (All) Catcher Stealing Runs Catcher's CS Above Average CS CS% Est. CS Est. CS% CS Above Avg. / Throw Runner Speed Exchange Time Arm Strength 1 Mack, Joe 60 5 8 16 27% 8 13% 0.13 28.6 0.59 80.7 2 Valenzuela, Brandon 57 5 8 18 32% 10 18% 0.14 28.7 0.63 82.4 3 Fermin, Freddy 62 4 6 19 31% 13 20% 0.10 28.7 0.62 82.0 4 Rutschman, Adley 47 4 6 17 36% 11 24% 0.12 28.4 0.66 81.6 5 Bailey, Patrick 62 3 5 19 31% 14 22% 0.09 28.2 0.58 81.6 6 Dingler, Dillon 52 3 5 13 25% 8 16% 0.09 28.8 0.62 84.2 7 Contreras, William 54 3 5 15 28% 10 19% 0.09 28.7 0.60 79.2 8 Campusano, Luis 36 3 4 13 36% 9 24% 0.12 28.3 0.67 79.1 9 Torrens, Luis 30 3 4 10 33% 6 20% 0.13 28.7 0.58 80.8 10 Susac, Daniel 28 2 4 9 32% 5 19% 0.13 28.7 0.61 81.0 11 Navarreto, Brian 22 2 3 8 36% 5 21% 0.15 28.8 0.66 82.6 12 Heineman, Tyler 44 2 3 11 25% 8 18% 0.07 28.5 0.56 74.3 13 Stubbs, Garrett 17 2 3 6 35% 3 16% 0.19 28.4 0.61 82.5 14 Realmuto, J.T. 66 2 3 14 21% 11 16% 0.05 28.8 0.61 82.6 15 Moreno, Gabriel 45 2 3 12 27% 9 20% 0.07 28.4 0.61 79.5 16 Durán, Rodolfo 21 2 3 7 33% 4 19% 0.14 28.6 0.64 84.7 17 Davis, Henry 25 2 3 10 40% 7 28% 0.12 28.5 0.63 85.8 18 Langeliers, Shea 37 2 3 11 30% 8 22% 0.08 28.6 0.63 84.0 19 Pagés, Pedro 48 2 3 15 31% 12 26% 0.06 28.4 0.63 81.1 20 Hicks, Liam 50 2 3 10 20% 7 15% 0.05 28.6 0.67 79.3 21 Teel, Kyle 26 2 2 8 31% 6 22% 0.09 28.5 0.68 81.6 22 Jensen, Carter 43 2 2 12 28% 10 22% 0.05 28.5 0.66 81.9 23 Basallo, Samuel 39 1 2 11 28% 9 23% 0.06 28.7 0.70 84.8 24 Bart, Joey 35 1 2 9 26% 7 21% 0.05 28.7 0.67 80.4 25 Díaz, Elias 26 1 2 7 27% 5 21% 0.06 28.5 0.62 81.6 26 Perez, Salvador 20 1 1 6 30% 5 23% 0.07 28.8 0.60 76.9 27 Alvarez, Francisco 44 1 1 10 23% 9 19% 0.03 28.4 0.64 82.9 28 Romo, Drew 47 1 1 12 26% 11 23% 0.03 28.2 0.60 80.5 29 Trevino, Jose 39 1 1 9 23% 8 20% 0.03 28.4 0.60 74.6 30 Rogers, Jake 33 1 1 7 21% 6 18% 0.03 28.2 0.58 76.5 31 Escarra, J.C. 17 1 1 5 29% 4 25% 0.05 28.7 0.61 78.5 32 Cavanaugh, Drew 38 0 1 9 24% 8 22% 0.02 28.1 0.61 80.4 33 Fortes, Nick 75 0 0 15 20% 15 19% 0.01 28.4 0.61 79.0 34 Haase, Eric 21 0 0 4 19% 4 19% 0.00 28.7 0.68 81.1 35 Diaz, Yainer 62 0 0 13 21% 13 21% 0.00 28.2 0.68 83.6 36 Rushing, Dalton 28 0 0 5 18% 5 18% -0.01 28.4 0.61 79.1 37 Amaya, Miguel 30 0 0 7 23% 7 24% -0.01 28.6 0.64 80.0 38 Narváez, Carlos 49 0 0 10 20% 10 21% -0.01 28.5 0.61 74.5 39 Quero, Edgar 28 0 0 6 21% 6 23% -0.01 29.0 0.58 77.8 40 Smith, Will 41 0 0 7 17% 7 18% -0.01 28.6 0.66 79.4 41 Sánchez, Gary 19 0 0 5 26% 5 29% -0.02 27.9 0.72 83.4 42 d'Arnaud, Travis 17 0 0

This is awesome as laid out. Thank you!

I mean, I'd prefer to extend Gilbert instead of Ryan. But I don't know how much faith to every put into bleacher report. Plus how does any reporter state that adding Gilbert to Lopez and Ryan to make a big 3 when Taj Bradley was arguably as good or better than all of them in 2026? Gilbert probably had a slightly better season than Taj, but Taj was miles ahead of Ryan, especially in the 2nd half, and Lopez is coming back from injury.

The Cubs (or Red Sox, or other team) trading for Ryan certainly would push to extend him then no?

He is at best their 7th best defense outfielder at this point, with Buxton and Jenkins and Keaschall and Rodriguez and Roden and Martin ahead of him. I’d play Clemens in the outfield over him too but I suspect Clemens plays more infield. He also hit righties well for 2/3 of the year and then dropped off. He can’t be trusted to hit lefties with any authority. Wish him well. I wouldn’t tender him as I would worry no one would want him.

So, it works?

If everyone is healthy (and that’s a big if always) and you have Bell, that means every single game one of Buxton, Keaschall, Jenkins or Emma won’t play. I like that less than keeping Bell.

Lowe will probably have the QO attached

Why not Michael Busch of the Cubs? He is from Inver Grove Heights, and his minor league hitting instructor from his time with the dodgers was current Twins hitting coach Keith Beauargard. He was really good in 2025, he still has 3 years remaining and getting back with his former coach while also playing for his hometown team could be a good match right?

You may be right. I just found it interesting that he announced they would trade veteran starting pitching in his postseason presser. Why make that announcement if you are truly only going to deal Dean Kremer? That told me they are open to trading Ryan. They certainly have listened before.

Ok, I pulled some data on some recent trades of pitchers traded in the offseason and comparing the previous seasons' baseball reference war, fangraphs war, and the respective returns. All of these pitchers had one year team control remaining, and I ONLY counted the previous season's worth of data. To be clear, almost all of these guys had had better seasons than the one prior to being traded, and arguably some I would take Ryan over now even if some had higher WAR numbers (Sean Manaea at the time comes to mind, as I think good Joe Ryan is better than good Sean Manaea was.) But also, here is the data I found; Pitcher Year FWAR Bref WAR Return Corbin Burnes 2024 2.8 3.5 Joey Ortiz (#63 prospect at the time MLB) DL Hall (former 1st round pick and former top 100 pick) and comp round A draft pick Freddy Peralta 2026 3.6 5.5 Two top 100 prospects in Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat Dylan Cease 2024 3.6 2.2 4 players, headlined by #85 overall Drew Thorpe, and an immediate arm for the bullpen. The other players were #5 and #7 in the Padres system Tyler Glasnow 2023 3.2 2.1 Current major leaguers Ryan Pepiot and Johnny Deluca, both had been top 100 guys. Chris Bassitt 2022 3.3 4 JT Ginn (near top 100, #4 in the Mets system) and Adam Oller Sean Manaea 2022 3.2 3.3 Euriebel Angeles (#12 prospect in Padres system according to mlb) and current young major leaguer Adrian Martinez Sonny Gray 2022 2.5 3.1 Top 100 prospect Chase Petty Pablo Lopez 2023 3 3 Lopez came with two prospects, Jose Salas and Bryan Chourio, for Luis Arraez Joe Ryan 2026 2.5 2.1

He has more strikeouts in 59 aaa games than games played. That’s kind of a non starter for me. He is also the 14th ranked prospect in a bad giants system. He is someone who I would probably take for Royce Lewis, but I’m not sure of that. He isn’t the next part for Joe Ryan with Henry Lalane for me. I know Ryan was great for 3+ months and really bad for 1+ months, but the twins can and will get more for him if they do trade him. Otherwise they hold onto him

I REALLY wouldn't take that deal from the Giants. LaLane is fine, but Harbor is markedly worse than Lewis was at AAA. WAY more strikeouts and WAY less power. I don't know what to think of Lewis for next year or not. But this deal is one that I just wouldn't do. The twins don't HAVE to trade Ryan for this. IF they do trade Ryan, they'll get actual value back.

Here is what I had as a text chain with a buddy of mine... AL East = Toronto AL Central = Royals AL West = Mariners Wild Cards = Red Sox and Astros NL East = Mets NL Central = Brewers NL West = Dodgers Wild Cards = Cubs and Reds WS = Dodgers over Mariners in 6 AL MVP = Vlad Jr. NL MVP = Ohtani AL Cy Young = Hunter Brown NL Cy Young = Paul Skenes AL ROY = Kevin Mcgonigle NL ROY = Konnor Griffin I had the Twins optimistically winning 83 games, and this was done just prior to opening day, so I had known that Pablo was out. Makes me also glad that I don't gamble on sports :)