farmerguychris

Why would we trade a guy who can be part of our future when we have the 'current' guys failing? Trade or cut Kepler and Gallo and let Larnach and Wallner play the corners with hopefully a right handed guy acquired for the current 2. Larnach (mostly due to injury) hasn't shown us a full year of what he can do. Gallo and Kepler have.

So are you recommending we should do nothing, or that we will do nothing?

Kepler or Gallo may be cut if my option. We have enough left handed corner outfielders in the minors who are ready to step in at the big club level and we wouldn't miss much production by having Larnach or Wallner in there instead.

Give me a right handed corner outfielder who can hit lefties and maybe another left handed pen pitcher.

I just can't imagine trading any of our top 5 prospects this year for a right handed bat or pen help. Anyone interested in Kepler or Gallo and we can just take the other team's right handed version of that player? Low floor, middle upside?

Eh - What else ya got?

He's pretty much a perfect Super Utility Player for us. Can play nearly any position in the field, and not a butcher at the plate. I think in the spring it will be between Gordon, Martin and Castro for the 12th and 13th bench spots. None may be exceptional regulars, but the ability to play anywhere and hold their own at the plate will be what determines who stays and who plays in St. Paul. Should be a good spring battle.

Brooks LeeMatt WallnerWalker JenkinsEmmanuel RodriguezAustin MartinCharlee SotoLuke KeaschallSimeon Woods RichardsonConnor PrielippBrandon WinokurMarco RayaDavid FestaYasser MercedesJose SalasJordan BalazovicNoah MillerBrent HeadrickMatt CanterinoJose RodriguezBlayne Enlow

They'd be fools to at least not listen to offers. They don't need to be the sellers here, they can sit and see what others try to sell them for him and see if it makes sense long term.

No thanks. Not a big fan of giving up anyone to help the pen. We can improve the pen without letting anyone important go by just letting Pagan walk.

My favorite part of this article was where we tell Kepler to go play center. Wish I could tell my bosses what I do, and what I do not prefer to do. Since he's not producing in the batters box the way we need him to, we should at least get more from him in the field. He has the ability to play CF and we need him there.

Agreed about Bellinger. We're only one injury away from having a non-CF starting in that role everyday. On an expiring contract I'd be open to tossing them an offer on him. Don't see a benefit of trading any of our top 20 prospects for him - hoping the cubs just want a salary dump perhaps?

I do not want to trade any more young talent for short term rentals. I would be open to trading away expiring contracts for players under control, but only a step away from the big leagues. Think even if we lost a couple players like Gray or Solano, we could still win at least 1 playoff game, and still won't likely win a playoff series -but at least we would be still building for the future.

I've thought about this for awhile, so seems like a good time to ask - Do we want our players to make the All Star Team? 1 - They need the rest more than they need the recognition right? 2 - With arbitration negotiations coming up yearly, and these hearings overseen by non-baseball people - wouldn't it be better for our payroll to have players not make all star teams, thus not expecting to be paid more each year? Maybe its only a few million over the course of a season - but a few million could help us upgrade from some of our players like Pagan couldn't it? Would have been nice to see Duran in there closing out the all star game, but would prefer to not risk injury to one of our few pen pitchers having a good year.

Rocco is fine. Managers get too much credit when things go great, and too much blame when they go poorly. We are a .500 team just like the analytics predicted we would be before the season.

I feel blame goes in this order: 1 - Players. These are professionals who got to the top level in the world with their talents. They shouldn't need a ton of coaching by this point in their careers - just some tweeks. 2 - The F.O, They assembled the roster they wanted. They wanted to keep Pagan, and they signed the players who are slumping. Maybe their scouting skills aren't as good as they think they are. 3 - The coaches - These guys were hired (yes, by Rocco) to help with the above mentioned 'tweeks' to the professional players. They need to be able to communicate in a way each player understands, which may be different player to player. However, again, at this level they are working with pros who have the talent to succeed at this level already and generally have a track record to prove that statement. 4- Rocco. I know a lot of casual Twins fans don't like his demeanor. He's too calm, that he doesn't show any fire like Gardy used to. I admit, I liked the fire Gardy shows - but does being a red-ass lead to more victories? Rocco can only play the players the FO gives him. Rocco can only keep low leverage relievers out of high leverage situations so often when he only has 3 decent relievers and nearly every game has high leverage situations because our professional hitters can't hit. Rocco doesn't influence that Buxton isn't playing in the field - this decision came from doctors and the F.O. Rocco doesn't make any medical decisions (he only went to high school, do you think they'll let him give medical opinions)? Maybe I'm a bit of a Rocco apologist, but we shouldn't hold him accountable for decisions he simply does not make and too frequently I see posts here that blame him for choices he doesn't have any influence over.

I hate to say this, but come trade deadline I'd prefer to sell any pending free agents we have and try again next year. (certainly not in a position to buy with what I've seen) We have a good core, but won't be big players in the playoffs. I think still a chance to make to post season as we are, even minus a couple of guys that we could trade away for the future. Think we could even still win that 1 playoff game that's eluded us.

I think he could have a great role if playing for Cleveland.

In your opinion, what 'role' should he have as our highest paid pen pitcher? His salary is 50% of the total pen expense.

@AaronGleeman Emilio Pagán is the only MLB reliever with an ERA+ below 100 and negative Win Probability Added every season since 2020. 2020: 94 ERA+, -1.0 WPA 2021: 81 ERA+, -0.6 WPA 2022: 89 ERA+, -1.0 WPA 2023: 79 ERA+, -0.3 WPA His combined -2.9 WPA since 2020 is dead last for relievers. His results prove he is worse than being 'just a guy'. We would be a better team with literally any other relief pitcher in his place.

They seem to be ok at scouting other team's players, but are we as good at scouting our own young guys? Steer, Cano, Petty?

No.... just no, time to move on. Trade him (the fo claims they can) for some no name single a reliever and bring up literally any other pro level pitcher to replace him.

Is it however? Yes, this plan brought us Stewart. But this plan has also put us in spots where Pagan and Colome and have blown how many saves and lost us games? You can't have low leverage pitchers put in high leverage situations as often as we do and be considered a good pen. Half of a good pen does not make it a great pen IMO. I can't see how any pen with the worst reliever in the past 4 years (Pagan) can be considered a 'good' bullpen. We've certainly been worse, but I think today we're only halfway where we want to be.

My guess is that it will be Martin. Lewis's agent doesn't want him playing in the OF, and we know we listen to what the players want (right or not) as Kepler hasn't played in center for 3 years despite being a better option than others we've put out there. I'm still hoping Celistino can work on his hitting enough in AAA this year to be above replacement level for us, Don't know enough about the other minor league options currently in the system, already see enough of our options to certainly not trade for one at this point until they announce Bux is done as a CF option.

Sure, they have a good 3, but they also have a group competing weekly to be last man out of the pen. Worried this will be considered a 'success story' for the F.O., proving the fact that they don't need to 'really invest' in the pen in the future.