MackMan

Well sadly, in today's game, contact hitters aren't as high demand. The market will dictate what is offered to him though. Especially considering his past injuries, he may not garner the amount he thinks he's worth.

I'd down for a reunion. Maybe we give him something incentive laiden. Something of like $13million/yr with incentives to where he can earn an additional $2-$4 million for escalators or something.

Here's the real question. Who do you bat #1 or #2? I like Keaschall as our leadoff because he has double damage and base-stealing potential. Pair that with Arraez being able to get on base by slap hitting or soft liners over the 2B or SS says runs score quite a bit. But if we also have Arraez leadoff and he gets a hit most of the time, that give Keaschall the ability to drive him in with his doubles or hard hit singles.

You know what. I'll put a wrench into things with this comment. Let's add DeBarge to the 40-man and have be our starting 2nd baseman, move Clemens over to 1st, and run from there. Worst case scenario, we option him back to AAA if he doesn't perform and let him continue to work the kinks out. Now, of course this is all banking on us not signing a 1st baseman for the 2027 season.

I think the MLBPA budges first and foremost. As an owner, they have been prepping for this for a while. Sadly, with the proposed Floor and Ceiling it is going to help the players that are pre-arbitration eligible, and the lower echelon of players. Yes, it might hamper the higher end earners (Ohtani, Harper, Tucker, Trout, Soto,) from earning long-term expensive deals, it is going to help the players that might be the above average players in a less-than-stellar situation earn more and stay relevant for longer. If the lockout goes as we expect, I wouldn't expect the season to start closer to July or August if at all for a 2027 season. Also on another note, a lockout might actually be a good thing for a team such as the Twins. It may create a suitor or more to escalate a sale in the team.

Well I mean we got Correa as a 3rd consolation prize when he opted out and failed the physical with the Mets and Giants. I mean, it was an expensive contract, but it was still a fairly cheap compared to what it could have been

I almost any deal for $50million gets it done. 3/$50million I think would get it done for a hometown discount. Otherwise if a more readily playoff team offers 3/$60million gets it done for them. Sadly, I feel as there are 2 playoff teams that are gonna be able to offer Jeffers a bigger contract: Yankees and White Sox. Those 2 teams have some holes to fill. Also, with a veteran catcher, it is definitely going to help their pitching staff, on top of having another dangerous bat in their lineup.

I would not go after Chisholm for 2B. He made WAY to many boneheaded moves to be a reliable source of defense from that position. Maybe he has a bounceback year next year, but he has a slow first step and he gets caught watching the action going on around him instead of playing the game. There's a reason the Yankees didn't offer him a QO because he won't get that much as a FA and the Yankees didn't want to risk him accepting that and being on the hook for a player who plays subpar defense and has an average bat. I'd be willing to take a shot at Gleyber Torres though. His bat is decent and his defense is serviceable, since moving to 2nd. But that limits him completely and his probably going to demand to get paid like a SS. But he definitely ain't out hustling anyone with his slow speed. Arraez could be an interesting reunion though. Bring him back on a 2-3 yr deal where he can split between 2nd, 1st, and DH. I know his defense is less than stellar, but his bat is a lot like Keaschall's. Too good to leave out of the lineup. He gets on base via hit, doesn't strikeout a ton, but also doesn't walk a lot, doesn't hit a lot of extra base hits, doesn't play the best defense, isn't the fastest player out there, but he does get on base. He puts the pressure on the defense by forcing them to make play by putting the ball in play. On top of that as a veteran player, he might be able to teach some of these younger players a good approach to the plate. Heck, he might be a perfect person to help teach Houston, who a glove first SS, just how to hit for average and make himself more marketable.

I think he'll be non-tendered and potentially brought back on a Minor league contract w/ a ST invite. To go with that I'm sure they're be some opt-outs to go with that contract that way he feels as if he's getting a fair shot at playing.

I think this is a huge step forward for Clemens. This could potentially be used as a leverage in a trade situation if the team feels they can trade him for something. I mean, his average and OBP wasn't that great, but he does have some clutch factor and his versatility is a huge plus. Be able to play multiple positions, and have a decent bat in the lineup is something that the Twins have struggled to get out of players.

Not particularly. There is a reason these players have passed (at least the younger ones) thru Rule 5 draft in the past. As for the older, more experienced players there's always a reason they haven't been picked up by another team when they get DFA'd and sent back to the AAA affiliate and choose not to elect FA at that time.

I'm not opposed to a reunion with him. I was scrounging the FA list when I saw him name pop up. I think a good salary would be a $25million 2 year deal with a base salary of $12-15 million for year 1 and a $1.5 million buyout after year 1. That way if/when he struggles we can pay him and he is no longer our problem. With high risk, high reward relievers I think this is really the only way to do these type of contracts.

The issue that the Twins had is their 4 seam FB weren't very strong. They struggled with the tunneling factor. Or teams were able to pick up on the difference in arm slot when they threw something different. I remember growing up and our coach always told us, "Everything starts with the fastball." If you can't locate your fastball, hitters aren't gonna swing at the off-speed or breaking balls. And the Twins straight up struggled with locating a good fastball. They were throwing meatballs or non-competitive pitches and getting punished or walking the batter. That later created a sliding effect where hitters were able to lay off the fastball and punish the curve/slider/sweeper because they were able to predict trajectory and break. The only real pitcher that benefited was Bradley because he had 2 pitchers that looked the same coming out of his hand: Cutter and Slider.

And that's a perfect model of demand and supply. This year is a weak FA market, especially given that there aren't very many catchers worth their own weight. Good catchers get snagged up pretty quick and usually locked down long-term. That is why the Twins are willing to overpay for a premium position that is usually defense first. Now the other argument can be made because he's a Boras client.. Boras himself is gonna argue that he deserves more because he's a bat first catcher that can bring your team X wins based on the current market, WAR and WPA, or whatever he'll use to best leverage his client. And some team will pay him for his services, the biggest thing is just how much is going to be shelled out for his game. And if it comes to a battle of bidding, I feel as if the Twins are gonna lose out, regardless of what team is bidding.

Yeah sadly, the art of pitching is disappearing now. And Falvey made that very apparent. Like you said, he found an "inefficiancy" that he tried to exploit. By making every pitcher add 3-6 mph in velo he turned them all into max effort pitchers, which in turn caused them to lose command of their pitches, which caused them to be at 75-80 pitches by the 5th inning, which caused little innings eaten and injuries increased. But at the same time, every team is teaching this method. Every pitcher is pitching at 100% for every pitch for their 5 innings of work. Yeah it's cool seeing a 100mph heater blow past the hitter, but when everyone is doing it, its not as exciting. I'd rather see that slider/sweeper start at the hitters hip and dance and move so far out of the zone that he's questioning all reality. Also, I miss seeing the mind games that pitchers used to play with hitter back in the day. Johan Santana was a master at pitching. Throwing his fastball around 91-93 then dropping that changeup at a wicked 70mph was just diabolical. What other pitchers could do something like that and get away with it?