TopGunn#22

Very nice article Al. I would also echo that Ron Perranoski should always be mentioned when talking about good Twins RP's. Perranoski came to the Twins in a 1968 trade with the Dodgers along with John Roseboro and Bob Miller (another effective Twins RP) in exchange for Zoilo Versalles and Mudcat Grant in what was then kind of a blockbuster trade. Zoilo and Mudcat had fallen off their previous greatness, but the Dodgers had foolishly traded Maury Wills to the Pirates and were badly in need of a SS. The Twins won that trade...BIG TIME.

Matthew, this is an interesting article, but clearly, you don't watch enough basketball games, especially college basketball, though even in the NBA a key play or two can change momentum. The play Ohtani was injured was just kind of a freak thing. The man stole 59 bases this season and he played in all 162 games and every playoff game. As it is, he probably dislocated his shoulder but I believe it's been popped back into place and that he will be right back in the lineup tonight for the Dodgers. I could be wrong, but he hasn't been ruled out for sure. It would be interesting to see Ohtani in batting practice to see how he's swinging. The Yankees have their back to the wall but the real key to this game is which Walker Buehler takes the mound for the Dodgers. Will it be the guy who has been a shell of his former self since his Tommy John surgery? Or will Buehler be able to give the Dodgers 5 solid innings, like, only one run given up. The pressure is on New York, especially Aaron Judge. If he doesn't come out of his funk, the Yankees chances are not good. If he suddenly gets hot, the entire series could change.

This is puzzling. Why would the Twins send De Andrade to Arizona if he wasn't completely healthy? They hoped he would get a few at bats?? These spots are supposed to be prime. An opportunity for a young prospect to show his stuff. The pitchers are all all no-names. TD does a great job of having weekly recaps on the farm system during the season. Doc Wu and I are saying we have no clue who these pitchers are. They've either thrown one inning or very little, so the guys running the show down there aren't impressed, and frankly, it's a rather unimpressive group. I would have liked to see Emmanuel Rodriguez (seeing how he missed some time) or Walker Jenkins (seeing how he missed some time--Is he too young for the AZ. Fall League??) or Luke Keaschall, or the 6 foot 6 kid that mashed 3 HR's in one game who plays both SS & CF (can't recall his name, it happens to us Senior Citizens...it will come to me about 2pm today)! :) It just seems like a really lackluster group of players from the Twins. Maybe Rosario will play well enough that he would make a good trade chip this off season. We seem to have a LOT of OF-types stacked ahead of him.

That's a good list Nick, with a diversity of cost. I'm not sure what Chapman would cost and he's not the elite guy he once was. But he still strikes guys out at an impressive rate and he's got tons of closing experience. If I was to give Griffin Jax a chance at joining the rotation, I'd be very interested in Chapman. On the days that Duran would be unavailable to close, Chapman could fill in. Otherwise, Chapman could fill the 8th inning role if Jax was holding down the SP #4 slot. If the Twins somehow add a SP who is talented and not very expensive (there's a very short list of these, but not even a handful of pitchers who could fill this profile) and you kept Jax as the 8th inning guy, Chapman fills the 7th inning and you've got a plethora of power arms to cover the 7th, 8th and 9th. Bummer would be the clear #2 choice for me. I think instead of signing 4 fringy guys like last season, adding ONE quality arm, especially if LH, would be a solid strategy. This way, Funderburk and Moran don't have to be counted on, but if they perform they are critical, quality depth. Someone like Varland could be groomed to be a 2 or even 3-inning guy. Sands and Alcala provide quality arms on what would be a deep BP. But it won't matter who we sign if Rocco doesn't have a bullpen plan with clearly determined roles for his pitchers. Duran only closes. Jax/Chapman close on days Duran is not available etc... Duran will never have a season like Emmanuel Clase for the Twins until we put him in the same role as Cleveland puts Clase. CLOSER !!

I will add this...I've been critical of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, often saying he does the least with the most. But I have to give him credit this season. His pitching staff was wrecked with injuries. He really didn't have a solid closer all season and yet he still led the Dodgers to a Division Championship and a World Series berth and they are currently up 2-0. Yes, he's had an epic season from Ohtani and a very good season from Mookie Betts to lean on. But Freddie Freeman and catcher Will Smith were nowhere near what a typical season is for them. He's done a masterful job of navigating all the pitching injuries. Well done Dave Roberts. Now you need to seal the deal.

There's still plenty of coastal elitism to go around but it doesn't apply to Dodgers vs Yankees in the World Series. Since 1965 the Dodgers have been my 2nd favorite team and Sandy Koufax one of my All Time favorites. I read every book I could about Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier and his Brooklyn Dodger teammates. That just carried over to L.A. Dodger teams as the years went by. Disappointed to see Koufax need to retire early, guys like Don Sutton, Bill Singer, Orel Hershiser and Clay Kershaw came along. So now that it's clear I'm rooting for the Dodgers it's time to tip our cap to all the classic battles these two teams have had. Through the 50's when the Yankees won them all except for 1955, to the 60's where Koufax dominated again and the Dodgers beat the Yanks in 1963 to the 70's when the Yankees won back to back against the Dodgers in 1977 & 1978 to finally 1981, where the Dodgers prevailed in a kind of weird strike interrupted season, it's always been entertaining. The star power of the two 2 teams always made for must see TV. Right now the Dodgers have won the first 2 in L.A. but don't think they've got it locked. They flashed a graphic up last night that I remembered immediately. The last two times the Dodgers and Yankees met, the team that started off 2-0 LOST the series. Dodgers in 1978 and the Yankees in 1981. The star power is there for a great World Series. The only thing lacking right now is Aaron Judge's ongoing post season slump. If he busts out, everything could turn on a dime.

I would move Joe Ryan and Bert Blyleven up and ahead of Tapani. Ryan had more wins and K's and a better ERA. He's GOT to be higher than Tapani. A couple other rookie pitchers that could be mentioned are Dave Boswell (1965) and Tommy Hall (1968). Ohhh, what COULD HAVE BEEN for Francisco Liriano !!

Interesting Red Sox trade proposed by JD-Twins. Even though I'm a guy who would like to see Jax get a chance at joining the rotation, his idea of making him the closer and trading Duran to get a young, slugging 1B like Casas would really be a shot in the arm to the Twins offense. I like keeping Duran, but only if Rocco decides to use him exclusively as the closer. I think Prielipp still looks like a SP to me, but I'm not against giving him some time in the bullpen to get his feet wet at the major league level. Morris has SP written all over him. He's built to carry a decent inning load. Raya could very well be a BP piece. They've handled him with kid gloves since he's been in the system. The Twins have some solid pitching prospects and the depth is improving. I think we have enough depth that a trade or two could be made to balance out our roster. Casas is a great target, but he won't come cheaply. The Red Sox are a great trade partner for the Twins and I'd like to see something happen on that front.

It was truly a "team" meltdown for the Twins this year. Starters (Lopez) were not nearly as good as we anticipated. Hitters we expected a lot more really regressed. Injuries had a profound effect on the eventual collapse, and finally with three rookie SP's in the rotation by the end of the season and a BP operating on fumes things just fell apart. It's true that the BP actually had a decent year statistically, but Duran was clearly less than we expected, although if he had been used exclusively as a closer, his stats would have been just what we had expected. I thought Cap'n Piranha had a really interesting idea, going to a 4-man rotation and keeping the pitch count to 80 or so. He laid it out nicely with what each RP's "role" would be and how the innings would be allocated. Just yesterday, Tony Clark, the President of the Players Union was commenting that pitchers nowadays are doing what their told, with Max Effort on each pitch. There is a reason SP's regularly went over 200-250 innings in the 60's and 70's, with some even topping 300 IP. Pitchers were taught to "pitch" not just throw it as hard as they could. Clark was pointing out how the "Max Effort" philosophy was leading to far more Tommy John surgeries and wasn't really in the players best interests. It's not that Tom Seaver or Bob Gibson didn't throw hard back in the day. They cranked it up for certain, high leverage situations, but their goal was not only to pitch effectively, but to get through the 7th inning or beyond. When it comes down to it though, I just don't think Rocco is capable of managing a bullpen no matter what the philosophy would be. He's never had clearly defined roles for his BP and the inconsistent usage of Duran is the best example. I think the Twins do far too much dumpster diving for pitchers AND hitters. The excuse is always budget constraints but what could they have done with the roster if they hadn't paid Farmer over $6 million? If the Twins picked a preferred target, one hitter and one pitcher, instead of "flooding the zone" with long shot relief pitchers I think they'd have more success. This shouldn't blow the budget up completely, but let's say they can make a few moves and trim a little budget. What if they targeted Tyler O'Neill as their RH hitting OF target. He can play all 3 OF spots and has 20 HR 20 SB talent. What if they targeted AJ Puk as the premium LH pitcher for the BP? I'm not sure what either player would be expected to make for 2025, but add those two players to the roster, put Miranda at 1B fulltime and Lewis at 3B fulltime, and add a gloveman like Jose Iglesias to cover innings at SS, 2B and 3B. We too often go for QUANTITY over QUALITY hoping we might catch lightening in a bottle. That strategy doesn't give you much of a chance for success and frankly it hasn't worked very well.

Tony Oliva's rookie year was really one for the ages. Maybe a better OF bench bat or possibly someone who could challenge Cordova or Hall would be Bob Allison in his rookie year of 1959. Allison played in 150 games, hit .261 with 30HR's 18 2B's and 9 3b's. He scored 83 runs and drove in 85. He also chipped in with 13 SB's. He played all 3 OF positions so other than Oliva in RF, Allison could could be considered for LF and CF. His power easily puts him ahead of Puckett, and after all, Allison won the 1959 Rookie of the Year award. He won it as a Washington Senator though, and I don't know if that disqualifies him from consideration.

Julien looks utterly confused at the plate. He takes far too many called third strikes for a guy that was the "God of Walks" in the minor leagues. He still has the potential to be a very good offensive player. He's improved slightly at 2B but he's still a guy without a position he's above average at, whether that would be 2B, 1B or even LF. Because of his offensive potential, he remains an O.K. trade chip. I've included him in trade speculation because he meets the requirement of a throw in kind of guy to get a deal done. With Castro, Lee, Keaschall and Eeles there seem to be plenty of options beyond Julien that he could be included in a trade to help the roster in other areas. Tony&rodney...I like some of your trade suggestions. None of us here on TD ever speculate as wildly on a possible trade as the "Could the Vikings trade Darnold for Stafford" type of deal. But trades are so hard to realistically imagine because like beauty, it's in the eye of the beholder. Who knows what the Red Sox, or Dodgers, or Brewers think of our players and how they could help improve their team. Baseball Trade Values at least tried to approximate what a "fair" trade could look like. But I refuse to pay for what once was free, and there are still limitations as to what that site could actually do. I agree that some young, currently in the minor leagues catcher who is blocked by an All Star type (Contreras--Brewers, Smith--Dodgers) should be a primary target, based on the lack of any catching prospects in our own system being anywhere close to ready. I also maintain that Miami had interest once in Vasquez and I think they still do. If Alcantara was the target (provided Miami would part with their former Cy Young pitcher ready to come off his TJ surgery) the salaries match up for Vasquez for Alcantara. But not having a sense of what Alcantara's current value is after missing all last season it's tough to determine what else would need to be thrown in to get Miami to agree. Your other trade...Jeffers for Luzardo straight up is also interesting. Vasquez would have to do more than catch 50% of the games. Another deal would be needed to provide someone to be that #2 catcher. The Twins would still be stuck with Vasquez's $10 million dollar contract for a poor hitter even by "catcher" standards. But, the Twins would add an electric arm to their rotation who is also left handed and retain a catcher who is far superior to Jeffers. Getting a SP like Alcantara/Luzardo and giving Jax a shot at joining rotation also allows the Twins the ability to assess what they could get in a deal for either Ryan or Ober, or, possibly trade SWR to fortify a deficiency. I'm not trading Festa. I like what I saw last year and if I had a rotation of Lopez, (Alcantara/Luzardo), Ryan, Ober, and Jax, I'd consider having Festa in the pen with Varland. This by no means would banish Festa to the pen forever. It would just mean he's there until someone in the current rotation needed to go to the I.L. and then I'd build him up and put Festa in the rotation as the replacement.

Excellent breakdown of the Twins position by position with several possibilities for each position. My take: Vasquez---First, I'm in the camp and always have been that he's eminently movable. I will once again bring up the prospect of the Miami Marlins. There catching situation might be the worst in baseball. Starter Nick Fortes hadan OPS of .577 in 2024. His backup, Pereda hadan OPH of .481. That my fellow TD'ers is putrid. They could also use a solid veteran to handle their young pitching staff. The target would be to acquire either former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcantara (who is a decent match of salary for salary with the cost averse Marlins) or Jesus Luzardo who is 2 years younger than Alcantara at 27 years old and is LEFT HANDED ! BOTH are coming off injuries so their value is somewhat depressed, but both would be a major addition to the Twins rotation. Each would need to pass a Twins physical. Maybe the Twins throw in someone like Julien. The Marlins were willing to live with Arraez's poor defense at 2B until they traded him to the Padres. The Marlins currently have a 26 y/o 2B named Otto Lopez who showed some promise last year, and he bats RH. Julien could be part of a platoon. First base: I'm willing to stick with Kirilloff and Miranda for the time being. I still love Kirilloff's swing and if Miranda won the job "full time" that wouldn't be a bad outcome either. Take the "win" on Santana's age 38 season and forget about his age 39 campaign. Acquire someone at the trade deadline if need be. If we shed Vasquez and add Alcantara or Luzardo I would consider a trade of Ryan/Ober to add a young talent like Triston Casas. He would be a tremendous addition for years to come. I also move Jax into the rotation. Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Jax, Festa. Or, Lopez, Alcantara/Luzardo, Ryan/Ober (Casas trade), Jax, Festa. OR...Lopez, Alcantara/Luzardo, Ryan, Ober, Jax for possible rotations. 2nd Base: We've got enough there with Lee and Castro. If we dealt Julien I would consider a guy like Jose Iglesias because his defense at 2B/SS would be a tremendous upgrade over anyone else we have and could be a bridge for one year. SS: Carlos is our guy and Iglesias/Lee/Castro is plenty of depth. 3B: This is tricky. When you consider all the leg issues Lewis was having last year it's no wonder he looked so shaky at 3B. I think he has the talent to play there but health will ALWAYS be a concern. Lee as a guy to play there if Lewis spends time on the I.L. is a great fallback if a vet like Iglesias is available for 2B/SS. I'm rolling with Lee right out of the gate in 2025. No time in St. Paul. I've got confidence in him. RF: WALLNER. CF: Buxton and Keisey. I still think Buxton is tradable to the right team for the right price. Part of that price is a VERY GOOD catching prospect. The Dodgers have several. LF: Larnach and maybe a RH hitter that can cover all three OF positions. If we move Vasquez AND Buxton, off-set with an Alcantara or Luzardo acquisition, could the Twins try to sign a Tyler O'Neill type OF?? Can we spend a little to get an AJ Puk/JKirby Yates type of RP if Jax moves to the rotation? And one Wild card for the Twins next season is Emmanuel Rodriguez. What kind of start does he get off to? How much improvement could he show next season. Running it back with the same cast of characters doesn't necessarily put us past or ahead of Cleveland, Detroit or Kansas City. Some changes need to be made

Great point tony&rodney. One I was going to make after I had read through all the comments (and you beat me to it). The Cleveland bullpen was unbelievably good in 2024. It is the primary reason they won the division. It will regress to some degree in 2025 starting with Clase. He may still save 40+ games in 2025 and he may still be unhittable, but he will certainly not duplicate the truly EPIC season he had for a closer. Just take a look at his final, regular season numbers. Has ANYBODY been THAT GOOD as a closer? We've had some tremendous seasons by closers over the years, but Clase's 2024 is one for the ages. And on the flip side of the probable, to some degree, regression for their BP I can see a pretty good chance for their starting rotation to show some bounce back. Bieber may or may not leave as a FA but if he leaves that's a big hole to fill. McKenzie, Williams and Allen are all better SP's than they showed this year. Bibee and Lively really stepped up and Boyd and Cobb were great additions. (certainly when compared to Trevor Richards). I could see their starting pitching being somewhat better in 2025. Lane Thomas at $8.3 million is a steal. There's no way the Guardians let him walk. Manzardo taking over for Naylor would be interesting, but I just can't see Cleveland letting Naylor go. A 1B/DH time share between Naylor and Manzardo seems more likely. The entire division division with the exception of the White Sox took a giant step forward. Whether it's the Pohlad's or somebody else, ownership needs to realize they have to step up to be competitive and not bring home another 4th place finish. I'm in complete agreement with Riverbrian on the excessive platooning especially with Margot/Farmer types. Wallner, Larnach, Kirilloff, Julien and Kiersey will never learn how to hit LH pitching at the major league level unless they FACE LH pitching. This trend will need to stop for sure once Emmanuel Rodriguez and Walker Jenkins arrive on the scene. E-Rod seems to have extreme plate discipline no matter who is throwing to him and Jenkins wasn't taken #5 overall because there was a concern he may need to be platooned. Having costly, low caliber vets like Margot and Farmer on a roster for a team that acts like paying a RP $2 million per year is an extravagance is not proper roster construction. I'm hoping that with the eventual new ownership we have an organizational purge of the old and a new set of front office people with a different outlook, strategy and philosophy. That means a new manager, some new coaches, no more Dave St. Peter etc... Retain what the new group thinks was done well by the previous regime and put your own stamp on what you think the Twins need to do to be competitive into the future.

Again, I think this is a worthy gamble for the Twins to take that could pay BIG dividends. chpettit19 makes a number of good points, but I would disagree with his "zero chance Jax throws 150 innings" as a SP assessment. Check out what a couple RP's converted to SP's did from one season to the next: Reynaldo Lopez went from 66 relief innings in 2023 to 135 SP innings in 2024. Seth Lugo went from 65 relief innings in 2022 to 146 as a 2023 SP and then from 146 all the way to 207 IP in 2024. Garrett Crochet went from 54 RP innings in 2021 to being injured all of 2022, to 13 innings in 2023 to 146 innings pitched in 2024. So just with those three examples and seeing how Jax profiles to those three guys tells me Jax could be anywhere from 125 innings to as many as 160. The three Twins rookie pitchers were as follows: SWR: Threw 134 innings in 28 starts. An average of 4.8 innings per start. David Festa threw 64 innings and average 4.8 innings per start. Matthews threw 38 innings averaging 4.22 innings per start. Let's look at the Twins "Big Three" and see how many IP they had in 2024 and what could be projected for 2025. Lopez threw 185 innings in 2024 and could be expected to match that or reach 200 IP for 2025. Bailey Ober threw a career high 179 innings in 2024 and he should should give the Twins 175-200 in 2025. Joe Ryan finished the season on the injured list and finished with 135 IP. Normally I would say a healthy Ryan coming back should be good for 175 IP. But here are Ryan's IP the last 3 years...2022 147. 2023 162. 2024 135. Joe's history and profile say he may only be a 150 inning pitcher. So if Jax is an effective to maybe a pretty darn good SP who throws in the neighborhood of 150 IP per season I conclude there is nothing "wrong" with that and a LOT of "right" with that. How would going into a season with effectively TWO Joe Ryan's in your starting rotation be? If you signed a RP like Kirby Yates or AJ Puk (not saying it has to be THEM) your entire pitching staff takes a giant step forward. And I'm willing to take that bet and gamble on Griffin Jax.

I expect this to be an ongoing topic on TD throughout the off season and I welcome it. I am firmly in the camp of giving Jax a shot at the rotation if he wants it. First off, you cannot compare Jax "the previously failed SP" to the pitcher he is now. He's completely different. His fastball is MUCH better. His Sweeper/Slider has always been elite. His change up is much better. But most of all, his command of those pitches is much better. Second, SP's are much more valuable than RP's just due to the amount of innings they throw. "Leverage" changes game to game, but a SP who gives you 5 or more effective innings is something every team needs and wants. As the video points out, Jax is poised to be much more than a "decent" SP. He has the potential to be an All Star. Third, Jax has worked his tail off to attain the level of skill he now has. Why should be be denied the opportunity to maximize his value? Jax will not disappoint in the rotation, and how does a rotation of Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Jax and Festa sound? To me, it would be the best rotation in the A.L. Central and that's saying something. I have zero concern that Jax will fail at this transition. I think he will shine. We have a problem with depending on so many rookies/2nd year guys in our rotation (Festa, SWR, Matthews). While Jax would have to adapt to the workload and mind set of a SP I don't have any worries with him. He's a bulldog and would add an "edge" to the rotation. Rather than shoring up the rotation with an expensive FA (not likely with the Pohlad family but certainly an area of need) this allows the Twins to put SWR or Zebby Matthews in a trade to bring back a needed piece who would balance the current roster more effectively. The Twins are not without options to replace Jax in the 8th inning. Go out and get a RP with closing experience. AJ Puk, Kirby Yates etc...these guys won't cost nearly what a FA SP would or a SP would in a trade. Louis Varland is a potential 7th/8th inning guy. Alcala and Sands are potential 7th/8th inning guys. You would have to gamble on Stewart/Topa whether Jax was pitching the 8th inning anyway. Funderburk and Moran should be healthy to begin spring training. Finally, Rocco has been horrid at "managing" his BP, always juggling guys around for the "high leverage" situation. Rather than chasing "leverage situations" game by game, just define what each guy's role will be and stick to it. Starting with Duran CLOSING. And ONLY CLOSING. I understand and accept others that have an opposing opinion on this. I Rec'd Doc Gast on his comment because even though he wouldn't do it, his reasons are valid. Same with Jmlease1. And Doc Gast echoes my feelings about clearly defined BP roles, especially the 8th inning set up man.

All great points Riverbrian. This is part of the frustration of baseball. I can see the benefit of bringing in a guy like Jose Iglesias to be a 2B/SS kind of guy. Last season in 291 AB's he hit .337 with an OBP of .381, a SLG of .448 for an OPS of .830. In 2022 with Colorado in 467 AB's he hit.292 an OB% of .328 a SLG of..380 and an OPS of .708. He is an exceptionally good glove man. He's basically Luis Arraez "lite" with a MUCH better glove. These kind of guys have value. They are not impactful, but they don't hurt you a lot either. Rookies are unproven and "unknown" quantities. That describes guys like Kiersey and Helman. It's OK to have a couple of Kiersey's and Iglesias's on a team. You just can't have too many of either in any given area or position. Case in point: The Twins rotation down the stretch. Very few teams in the history of baseball make the post season with THREE rookies in their starting rotation. You can have a really GOOD rookie (Mark Fidrych, Fernando Valenzuela, Doc Gooden) but you can't have THREE of them, even if one of them is Doc Gooden or Fernando. Each of our rookie pitchers had their ups and downs, but there were predictably more downs than ups in the final month of the season. Add to that an overworked and too often under performing bullpen and it was a recipe for the eventual disaster. Having Lopez, Ryan and Ober in the rotation (and hopefully all healthy) brings that "2nd Year" SP count down to just 2. But having another veteran arm in the rotation for depth (Griffin Jax, FA Pitcher?) would give the Twins a little longer runway. It's easier to add an impactful BP arm than a rotation arm, so if Jax DID move to the rotation Varland and a FA bullpen guy could fill the hole left by Jax. Most of what Riverbrian talked about was lineup/position players we wasted AB's on. Not the rotation or the bullpen. But regardless of who owns the team, the FO will need to make some trades to re-balance the roster. They may need to initiate some position changes to re-balance the roster. They need a little more experience in their rotation and a little more "stuff" in their bullpen. They need a little more speed in the lineup but also less strikeouts and more bat to ball contact.

Either Iglesias or Pillar would add some speed and defense. I'm not interested in Hampson at all. He couldn't even hit in Colorado. But I appreciate Matthew Taylor suggesting the other two. One other possible gamble to take would be to trade Kirilloff to the Angels for Jo Adell. They probably don't need Kirilloff at 1B since they have Nolan Schanuel at 1B. But corner OF and DH could be something the Angels would be interested in. Jo Adell could be a Shane Mack type of gamble that could pay off for the Twins. Mack was a much better hitter when the Twins initially picked him up than Adell is now. But the defense and baserunning Adell would provide is an acceptable comp to Mack.

Good points bean. In a "normal" world of baseball ownership, the Twins would look at the situation the Red Sox were in and immediately make a solid offer to someone like Tyler O'Neill. O'Neill would become the instant starter in LF providing power and speed to the lineup. In a pinch, O'Neill could play CF. He did with the Cardinals, but there was no need for him to do that with the Red Sox with Duran, Ceddane Rafaela and Abreu available.

bean, glad you clarified why Lewis was looking like a 45 year old. I'm 66, just retired and finally, after a 20 year absence returned to playing slow pitch softball after having played fast pitch until I was 46 years old. I strained a hip abductor and it's been SO SLOW to heal. I makes it very painful to run. You CAN run, you just can't run very fast because the abductor just won't let you. I stretch it 2 times a day, but I've been told I just need to rest it. The plan is to do no running for October, November, December (just take batting practice those months) and then in January see how it feels. I didn't realize that a hip abductor was part of the laundry list of injuries Lewis was suffering from. I now have newfound respect for what he was battling through. They say it's the biggest muscle in the body and a strain is a BEAST to deal with. There are myriad possibilities of what the Twins can do this off season. Trades, FA acquisitions, promoting some guys, cutting or releasing others. A lot of this won't matter if the Twins don't have the Royce Lewis of 2023 or at least the one that was playing at an All Star level before the injuries started piling up. We are just a different team when Lewis is hitting cleanup and driving in runs. Without him, or if he's severely limited like he was down the stretch, we're just not as good as Cleveland, Kansas City or Detroit. We need "Our Guy" back and healthy.

The Red Sox need SP. The Twins could use a young (25 y/o) inexpensive OF with speed, Gold Glove consideration and some pop (.781 OPS). How about SWR for Wilyer Abreu?? The only negative to Abreu is that he bats LH. So the Twins would still need to find a RH complement. But Abreu is a finalist for a Gold Glove and can play all 3 OF positions. The Twins have 3 young pitchers who got a taste of the major leagues this past season in Festa, SWR and Matthews. Having all three in the rotation is sub optimal when there are some big holes to fill at specific positions. I would advocate it's time to sell high on a trade. Better yet, why not shoot higher and offer SWR and Miranda for Tristin Casas. Casas was pretty good as a rookie in 2023 but slumped some due to nagging injuries in 2024. Miranda could play 1B or even 3B for the Red Sox if they traded us Casas and decided to move Rafael Devers to 1B. Miranda could be a good bat in Fenway Park. The Twins get a 24 year old, LH power hitter to be there 1B for the next 10 years. I'm not sure if a deal like this is even reasonable on BBTV (I refuse to pay for it). Maybe someone could check on this proposal to see if it has any merit, but I do think the Twins need to pick one of those young SP's and leverage them in a trade.

The thought of moving Lewis to 1B fulltime has crossed my mind as well. On one hand, the idea of moving a guy like Lewis to 1B just slaps me in the face. This is a guy who we drafted to be a SS with an athletic profile of being one of the fastest guys in our organization with a cannon for an arm that, if SS didn't work out, was a can't miss CF prospect. Fast forward a couple of years and Lewis can't run and he can't throw. He's always had "durability" issues throughout his time in the Twins organization, but for a guy in his mid 20's he seemed like he was in his mid 40's last year. He couldn't throw. He was instructed not to run hard on any ground balls he hit in the infield so he just jogged to first base, often times not even appearing in the TV picture as the first baseman caught the ball. Tom Kelly had to be just grinding his teeth. But last season aside, the Royce Lewis Twins fans saw in 2023 and in the playoffs made him seem like the Twins version of Derek Jeter...with more power !! Clutch hit after clutch hit, Lewis was electric !! THAT'S the Royce Lewis I want to see. THAT'S the Royce Lewis EVERY Twins fan wants to see !! If we have to move him to 1B to keep him healthy I'm all for it. If playing 1B means Lewis plays in 140 games per season with 550 AB's I'm all for it !! But why does it have to come down to that? Why does an ultra athletic 25 year old look like a 45 year old on the field for the Minnesota Twins? Didn't we hire a new trainer to figure all this stuff out??? Miranda and Kirilloff are the In-House candidates to play 1B for the Twins. Neither can stay healthy (and both are not even 30 years old yet). They could form an effective platoon but would they? Would we be better off trading Kirilloff to the Angels for Jo Adell?? Neither Kirilloff or Miranda inspire a lot of confidence for 2025. I agree, Falvey missed a golden opportunity to trade Julien for something significant when his value was at its highest. The Twins should have determined that with Correa entrenched at SS, Lewis at 3B and Brooks Lee deemed the better prospect than Julien by far, a trade of Julien would be inevitable. They should have traded him at his peak. Now his value has cratered. I'm not sure what they could get for him now. I've said in another thread that Carlos Santana should not be in the mix at all for 1B in 2025. Take the "win" you got in 2024 at his age 38 season. Do NOT gamble that he can come close to doing what he did in 2024 for his age 39 season in 2025.

I'm on the side of those who think we currently have enough guys to field a pretty good bullpen in 2025. The "spine" (as someone referred to it) of Duran, Jax, Sands and Alcala is good. Guys who have flashed talent but have health issues are Stewart and Topa. Two LHP that I still like are Funderburk and Moran but they have to get healthy. In particular, I think Funderburk was battling through health issues ALL season. Varland is a Wildcard. He could be PERFECT as that 2-inning guy. I think he's cooked as a SP but has a chance to be a solid guy in a bullpen ala Trevor May. Nowlin and Prielipp are interesting possibilities as the season unfolds. If we were a baseball team operating with a reasonable salary structure I would advocate signing ONE impactful LH bullpen arm. Not that he's the guy, but as an example, an A.J. Puk type of arm. Alas, we have bigger issues than getting an A.J. Puk type of arm. First Base has more questions than answers. 39 year old Carlos Santana is not one of them. Take the "win" for 2024 in his age 38 season. Don't make the mistake of giving him an age 39 season. We need a 1B for the future, not just one more season. I would go into 2025 with Kirilloff, Miranda and Julien battling to win the position. He who HITS and stays healthy is the winner. We really need to acquire a RH hitting OF as Buxton insurance and to possibly supplant Larnach as the fulltime LF. I'm not sure who that guy would be at this time (a Tyler O'Neill type of guy) but we do need to "balance" the roster. It's hard to know what types of moves/trades the Twins will consider with the ownership question hanging in the air. How quickly that question is resolved will give us better insight into what would be considered, but even if the Pohlad's still own the Twins for much or all of the 2025 season, some guys we wouldn't expect should at least be considered as trade bait.

There is no doubt that missing Kepler in RF will be some kind of downgrade on defense. But Max didn't even have 400 plate appearances last season. That's barely above playing in 60% of the teams games. Buxton is very similar. When he's out there, the defense is elite. But last year's 100 games played still represents 62.5% of the season. It seems the Twins have been missing Buxton & Kepler defense for more than half their games since 2021. And this is why guys like Buxton and Kepler have been missing from any Gold Glove talk for several seasons. You have to be on the field more than 62% of the time to merit consideration. I'm all for Kiersey finally getting a real shot at #4 outfielder. He can play all three positions, he gives you excellent speed and he's got a little pop. If he can hit hit just enough, he should have a roster spot. But he's a LH hitter, and when your projected corner OF are both LH hitters that is an unbalanced roster. They kind of need a Rob Refsnyder kind of guy. Capable OF who hits LHP. Refsnyder is kind of light on power but he's competent. With Emmanuel Rodriguez looking like an All Star break callup and Walker Jenkins on the fast track, I could see a trade of Larnach that brings back an everyday type of RH hitting LF, kind of like Tyler O'Neill did for the Red Sox. With the defense that a Joe Adell brings (Gold Glove consideration) if he could just hit a little he wouldn't be a bad guy to take a flyer on. He wouldn't cost much.

If a player like Jarren Duran was the price for Bailey Ober I think I'd pull the trigger on that. Duran is a legit full-time CF who could allow the Twins to either keep or move on from Byron Buxton. There is no doubt, the Red Sox need pitching. But Duran just put up an 8.7 WAR season at age 28. He played 160 of the 162 games. He's the anti-Buxton. Ober is a good pitcher, but I'd trade him in a heartbeat for Duran. However, I'd first approach Boston about a possible SWR trade for either Ceddane Rafaela, who is a good CF. SS and 2B as well as a RH hitter (24 years old) with some pop and speed...OR, possibly Wilyer Abreu (25 years old) who is a Gold Glove Candidate for RF and is also a good speed/power kind of hitter. Rafaela would give the Twins tremendous flexibility in the IF and OF along with Castro. We might actually have two guys capable of stealing 25-35 bases. Abreu had an OPS of .781. Rafaela was only .664. Each are free swingers who need to take more walks, especially Rafaela. But they are excellent defensive players, with speed and emerging power. Duran is the more expensive piece but would be worth the price of Ober as an everyday player. But if you were reluctant to give up Ober, trading SWR for either of these guys would not be a bad move. Maybe you expand the deal to include one of Boston's catchers (Wong or Jansen) and include someone like Vasquez for a reunion with the Red Sox. Vasquez had a nice run with the Red Sox and his $10 million dollar salary wouldn't be as big a deal for Boston.

Fred, that's why Buxton should be heavily considered for a trade. What good is a player if he's as fragile as blown glass and you will never see the fullest application of his 5-tool ability?? At least in a Twins uniform. I think Buxton would waive his no-trade clause if it was a trade to a perennial contender. The #1 team I could see him being traded to is the Dodgers. He's a Georgia native, but with Harris, I don't think the Braves would be interested. Maybe the Padres, maybe the Cubs, there would be interest from some of the deeper-pocketed teams. I don't see anything etched in stone for the Twins this off-season. There are endless questions about the potential sale of the team, new leadership and new philosophies.