Unwinder

Obviously they're waiting to see Royce play exactly one game in spring training before pulling the trigger on a shortstop.

Story has all the incentive in the world to drag this out, he has plenty of suitors who don't have a lot of options, and nothing to lose from making teams sweat.

I think we can safely extrapolate that Sanchez is on track for the Andrelton Simmons Fan-Blame Award.

Martin carrying the helmet-falling-off torch for Astudillo.

We still have Garlick?

Miranda looks pretty good in a Twins uniform

Sanchez appears to be a one-true-outcome player

I'll do my part to set the bar extra low with the quality of my posts to make posting less intimidating for you.

Is there a way to make a one-time contribution? If so, I'll do it.

Gotta believe that choosing a photo with Astudillo in it is the ultimate troll

More like we'll be there to connect you to most teams but not your team.

I'm not too excited about Sanchez, but robo-umps are on the way, so who knows how long his pitch framing issues are going to matter?

I gotta say, even though I'm very anxious about the outcome here, it's really fun to see the Twins making a lot of waves.

Yeah, I'm not going to pretend this isn't a more likely explanation.

OK, having slept on this, I feel like there has to be some kind of gameplan here. Falvey has made some decisions that didn't go well, but he's not the Joker. He's not a gibbering madman who wants to lose his job. It's so weird, the moves made here seem to point at completely different strategies. The Garver/Kiner-Falefa trade was the sort of tepid, underwhelming move that we expect from the front office, which seemed to indicate that the Twins were content to tread water for the season. The Gray trade was a bold statement of contention (but also a killer bargain). This seems like a move to dump salary and rebuild. Possibility 1: The Twins are clearing payroll to make a big signing, which is going to HAVE to be Story, since the FA pitching market has dried up. Unless... they're going to try to trade for a pitcher who's already on a fat contract??? What's going on with all the Garver and Kiner-Falefa stuff though? Did the Yankees refuse to take Donaldson's contract without an OK shortstop thrown in? Did the Twins make a "safe" move to cover shortstop, and then swerve to drop Kiner-Falefa with Donaldson when talks with Story started to look promising? If indeed this is the case, then WOW, it had better work out! Falvey hasn't struck me as a big risk-taker, so I've got to believe he wouldn't take this route unless it was almost a sure thing. Possibility 2: The Twins are just trying to dump salary. They signed Sonny Gray because the deal was too good to pass up, and they don't want to LOOK like they're tanking. This STILL makes the Garver trade look utterly deranged. I really don't think this is the case? And if you're dumping salary for a rebuild, WHY WOULD YOU LET GO OF RORTVEDT AND CREATE A NEW HOLE AT CATCHER???? Possibility 3: The Twins were trying to contend up through the Gray trade but SOMETHING they had in the plans went catastrophically wrong and they decided immediately in the course of 24 hours to pivot to dumping salary and making room for a rebuild. Perhaps negotiations broke down on another SP trade? This still doesn't account for dropping Rortvedt. Yesterday, a friend was talking about a particular chess-playing computer, and said that great chess players find it hard to play against because it makes shocking moves a flesh-and-blood player would be too timid to make -- for example, sacrificing a queen and a bishop for nothing but a positional advantage. I really hope that's what we're seeing here,

Remember that bonkers J.D. Davis rumor from the other day? The runway is clear.

The Twins' direction here is not confusing at all: they're trying to put together a rotation that's comparable to, and no better than, the ones they had in 2019 and 2020. If it gets better than that, it's because prospects pan out.

Simmons safely off the market.

It seems in-character for the Twins to make a bunch of uninspiring signings in the positions they actually need and then make a big splash on some random position that doesn't really need upgrading. I hope the explanation is simply that Falvine is very thoroughly plumbing the depths of the market, kicking every possible tire.

It's exciting and also very scary how much the next couple of weeks will determine how the Twins' season goes. We should have an idea very soon whether the Twins are actually trying to contend, or if it's going to be a rebuild year. I'm not convinced that the front office even really knows now.

The chances are a lot better than they were yesterday!

This is very exciting. As soon as tonight there is some chance that the Twins might be good.

May the Phillies let him actually taste that cup of coffee.

I'm coming around on expanded playoffs based on this article's perspective. Sure, it de-incentivizes contenders from upgrading at the trade deadline, but if it deprives mediocre teams of their excuse for phoning it in, I suppose it could encourage parity. (And now to take a big sip of coffee and see how expanded playoffs have affected other sports...)