jmlease1

I don't think people here are undervaluing Arraez, though. Especially because we're being pretty clear it's not because he hits singles that we're less enthusiastic about him, it's because he's been going in a direction where that's all he's doing. He's not taking walks like he used to, he doesn't hit for power, he doesn't add value on the bases (and he also hits into a lot of DPs)...that's the issue. I think it's fair that batting average has become undervalued to some extent in this era, but people get hung up on the aesthetics of strikeouts as much as the impact of strikeouts, when at the end of the day there's little difference between a K with no one on base and a lazy fly to left...but some people get much much angrier about the K.

yeah, I think that's certainly an issue. Joe was put out as the forward face of the family and certainly has attempting to influence the baseball decisions, and had increased authority and responsibility on the business side...but at the end of the day, Jim was still the real final decision-maker for the family, and the fact that Tom is now getting that official role with MLB that Joe did not says some things. I don't think Joe had the requisite experience to really drive the train, he definitely didn't have the gift for being the public face (which was definitely what the family seemed to want from him), but we'll never really know if Joe was the one that sold the idea of the payroll increase and then pulled it back or if it was Falvey who sold Jim on the payroll increase with Joe cheerleading and then Jim & the family (which was probably driven by Bob but also might have included Tom) pulled it back because of how the losses were piling up. Joe wanted to be in charge, wanted to be "the owner", but never really had the power. Tom will still have to answer to the family/board, but has much more power as a decider than Joe did. I'm not sure I care that much. Show me some competence in the business ops, that you actually know how to raise the profile and revenue of the team without just cranking ticket prices. develop some plans to get fans in the stands. (and no, "just win" isn't enough: good teams don't always fill their stadiums, and bad teams can still draw. The effing Rockies stink and still sell tickets; they've been at 30K per season for the last 4 seasons. Tampa has frequently been good and in the mix, including a WS run and hasn't broken 20K attendance since 2011)

Good luck to McCusker. Hope it goes well for him, and he makes enough money to set up his family for life. Hope he embraces life in Japan and he enjoys living and playing there. Seems like a good opportunity and better than trying to grab a AAA contract in the US.

It's the smart play for him. He's not going to get an MLB deal off of winter league showings.

There's several things that are of interest, both in Joe Pohlad being shown the door (which will 100% be a source of conflict in the family and I'm sure that will linger) and Jim finally stepping aside as the official controller. The latter is very interesting to me, since they didn't take this step when they put Joe out front and center. Will it make any difference? We won't know until we start seeing some actions...and sadly some of those probably won't happen as quickly as we'd like. Falvey probably isn't going to get canned in December, but I'd be shocked if his seat hasn't gotten quite a bit hotter. We'll see if Tom (along with the minority partners) actually changes anything. Frankly, they need a massive overhaul in their business practices, because they've utterly mismanaged things over at least the past 15 years. And we're not likely to see how that changes immediately unless they announce a lot of staff firings (and hires). But right now the Twins are arguably 5th in popularity among pro franchises in MN and have been declining. That has to get addressed as much as the on-field product.

well, this is part of the fundamental problem with Pohlad ownership: it seems exceptionally likely that the family took profit distributions out of the club at various points, but never did a capital injection, except for possibly their share of stadium construction (but we don't actually know; that could have been deficit financed as well). We do know that over the past 5 years at least, any operating losses were funded by loans without any capital call from the Pohlads. Owners that care about winning and the sport they are a steward of through their team, will reinvest profits. They'll make capital calls for development, rather than borrow. Hard to see that being the way the Pohlads have run this team. But we'll never actually know because there's zero chance they'll open the books to anyone that's not an investor. The hope is that the new partners saw everything on the books and still saw the team as a good investment...

Leipold hasn't been as successful; as Wild fans would like, but at least it's clear that he's a) trying, and b) loves hockey. Part of the utter dissatisfaction with the Pohlad Family ownership is they frequently don't seem to be trying to do anything significant with the Twins, and outside of Nephew Joe (who boy howdy was the King of Not Ready For Prime Time) and the long gone Eloise they've never seemed to actually care about baseball all that much. The fact that they've been out selling the idea that they managed to heap hundreds of millions of debt on the team in only 5 years tells a lot about how they actually run the franchise. I don't expect much from the new minority owners; minority owners don't get much say. But if it clears the debt and makes the franchise more saleable after the sadly seemingly inevitable lockout in 2027...

Well, we'll see if it lands there? If he hits like he did in the second half of 2025 we won't be. That's the risk we're taking here. If you're saying we can't take risks paying players looking for improvement or bounce back seasons...what exactly are our options with this ownership? I'd rather take a swing at Bell (who people find attractive in the trade market if the Twins season is toast at the deadline) than some others. I'd have been willing to try and acquire someone from the O's, but who knows what they were demanding in a trade package? Mayo might turn out to be A Guy, but if the price is Pablo Lopez? Hell no.

Yeah, he does strongly believe in taking his best clients to free agency, and it's certainly worked for him. I'd be interested in doing a long-term deal with Keaschall, who didn't get a huge bonus and might be interested in some security and certainty, while still being young enough to hit free agency at a good age. My confidence level in him is high, even with the injuries and questions about his long-term defensive position. But it probably won't happen.

I guess that depends on where you look and whether or not you count the buyout against this year's contract or next? But yeah, the Cheap Pohlads cut the #@%$* out of the payroll, and a lot of our guys are now on minimum salary or early arbitration salaries. So? It's an indictment of ownership, not really about Bell's (reasonable) contract.

technically? Arbitration players haven't settled yet and you have to assume Jeffers, Ryan, and Ober pass him.

It's not one season, though. it's 2. And he's not unsignable, but he is a poor fit for the Twins, who are looking for more thump in the lineup and don't need more LH hitters who can't hit LHP. For all that Arraez is a good hitter still, he doesn't hit LHP and has always been poor at it. Basing a preference for Arraez on him winning batting titles in the past while ignoring everything else is faulty logic.

It'll very interesting to see if the Twins are able to improve Bell's defense through positioning and how much impact that has on him. They also have the option of bringing Clemens (who appears to be a fine defender with very good range at 1B) as a late inning replacement as needed, depending on the situation. But if they're able to help Bell out, that would be impressive. (Probably still won't convince some people around here that they care about defense, though, or coach it) If Bell hits like he did the second half and shows modest improvement defensively, this signing could work out quite nicely. There's some risk, especially if Bell's implosion against LHP in 2025 is for real and not a fluky small sample size thing, but there are few sure things in the aisles the Twins ownership has them shopping in.

I'm not going to tell anyone not to love a player for their own personal enjoyment, but if Arraez gets on base 12 times in 6 games, a) his OBP will have turned back the clock by 3+ years, and b) Bell probably still gets on 10 to go with the homer. It's not 12 vs 1.

LOL, you're comparing Arraez to 2 Hall of Famers? Here's something that Kirby & Tony did consistently: hit the ball hard. Yes, they swung the bat a lot and chased balls, but they also didn't just slap the ball around. Kirby became a star when he showed he could turn on a ball and put it in the seats (along with his CF defense, of course) as part of his hitting package. In Tony's years either winning batting titles (or leading the league in hits) his lowest SLG% was .491. Arraez right now looks like old, broken down Tony O when his ruined knees kept him from playing anything other than DH, not the real deal. Giving Arraez 3 years and $37M is a terrible, terrible use of resources. Good grief.

He's not that difficult to judge any longer, though. He's chasing contact like crazy and it's making him worse. He's not taking walks, he can't hit LHP, he's not a good defensive player, he's showing little power...he's a one trick pony and that trick ain't as good as it used to be. The goal of a hitter is to avoid outs, not avoid strikeouts. The weak grounder to second sucks about as much as a K. (sure, sometimes it advances the runner, but sometimes it's a DP) Plus, we're not paying Bell $10M.

I suppose it's possible if you could find 9 Luis Arraez's it MIGHT work to have them them all play together (we'll ignore the fact that it would be one of the most shockingly terrible defensive teams in league history for this exercise), but I suspect once the OF starts playing super shallow on them and the pitchers realize that the lineup can't hurt them with extra base hits it's not going to go well (watch those double plays fly!) But the real issue here is that you just didn't read the article. Yes, Arraez can hit the ball...but he can't get enough actual hits with his current approach to make him a starter, and he doesn't have the positional flexibility any longer to be a utility guy. Sure, he's hitting the ball, but it's not doing enough when he does and he's not offering much of anything else as he chases the ball out of the zone. He left MN and stopped taking as many walks, hit into a lot more DPs, and started chasing contact to the exclusion of all else. The batting titles are cool, but seem to have changed who he wants to be as a player.

This is amazingly one-sided. Lewis made sacrifices to stay on the field and play hurt? Really? Compared to Correa who played through plantar fasciitis in 2023? In the 3 seasons Correa played for the Twins, he played more games than Royce did in every single one of them. Hell, even in 2025, Correa played in almost as many games as a TWIN as Royce did, and Correa got traded. It's fun to make Correa the bad guy, but Royce got no leg to stand on for being mad at Correa, not really. Lewis did not "avoid arbitration" with a salary below projections for multiple years in a row: this is his first year that's he's been arbitration eligible. Maybe the Twins needed better defensive coaching, but it's not like Lewis hasn't improved at 3B, and certainly looked competent there in 2025. Musical chairs for positions? You'd have to put a lot of weight on him being asked to maybe play some 2B and objecting to it to sell this one; he's played 214 games in the field, 199 have been at 3B. Of the remaining 15 12 were at SS, 2 at 2B, and 1 was the unlucky adventure in CF. They've hardly played musical chairs with him. Beating down players in arbitration? We've already established that the Twins didn't do it with Royce (yet), and they generally settle before a hearing with almost everyone. They're pretty bog-standard with how they handle the weird and semi-busted arbitration process. The last shot at Baldelli is gratuitous and cheap. There's literally no evidence that Baldelli was trying to re-live his playing career through his players. Why not just put a big sign up that says "I Hate Rocco Baldelli" instead? There's enough reasons why Rocco needed to go as manager without making crap up. I don't particularly have a problem with Royce's attitude, but things that are charming or funny when you're kicking butt can come off as out of touch or stupid when you're struggling. It sure looks like Royce has experienced some of the blowback in the past season and a half where he has struggled as a hitter and still hasn't managed to play a full season. His injuries are almost certainly a huge part of why he's struggled over the past season and a half, but at a certain point he has to play and perform. I don't consider injuries a personal failing on the part of a player, and I'm not going to get mad at him for getting hurt; I'm quite certain he wouldn't choose to miss any time and no one is more frustrated with his inability to stay on the field than him. But it hasn't happened for him...yet. And it's why this season is something of a crossroads for him, because if he struggles to hit and stay on the field again, now that he's getting into his arbitration years, he'll eventually get too expensive to roll the dice on.

Honestly if he's able to hit LHP back to career levels then it shouldn't be an overpay. I'm a little nervous about how ugly his numbers from the right side were last season, but hopefully that more small sample size than anything. Of course, signing Bell really makes me want to move on from Larnach...

I think this is right, but some of "league figuring him out" might be more about injuries reducing his physical ability as a player. There are reasons to think he can be a significant contributor in 2026, but he's got a lot of work to do. I liked the fact that he was running on the bases again and looked comfortable with his legs. I liked the fact that his struggles at the plate didn't follow him into the field, and he played a very solid 3B. If they can get him to a point where he doesn't need to swing at everything to get hits and can find it in him to not chase those low and away pitches, the rebound at the plate will be there. It's a pretty critical season for him: can he be a core player again, or is he a guy whose talent was overcome by too many injuries? If Shelton's team gets him going quickly, this could look like a very different team in a hurry. Would love to see him hitting 5th behind Wallner and looking dangerous. Let's get Mr. Grand Slam firing on all cylinders.

well, it's been proven that Josh Bell is very tradable at the deadline, even when he's not been producing. But he's not really blocking anyone: there's still room for Wallner to DH, Julien hasn't shown enough in the past 2 seasons to say he's being blocked from anything (and I say this as someone who spent a lot of time defending Julien), Keaschall is going to get every opportunity to take 2B and run with it (and I'd much rather have him do that than already get shifted to 1B or the OF), and the real issue on guys not getting called up is a punk like Outman or continuing to roll with Larnach. If we get AZ Josh Bell, we're going to be pretty happy. There's some indicators that Bell was a little unlucky in Washington last season as well. Curious as to the terms, but I don't hate this move, especially if it means that Clemens isn't starting at 1B against LHP...

I get that prospects are suspects until they actually do something, but you simply can't say they have no value. Even if they're no contributing to the MLB club yet they at a minimum have trade value. I highly doubt we would have been better off with Arraez than Lopez; Arraez simply hasn't been very good the past 2 seasons and hasn't gotten on base at high levels (certainly not high enough to make up for his lack of pop) since 2023. Varland absolutely would be better than Roden, but he was traded (with France) for Rojas and Roden, and Roden was not the centerpiece of the deal. He just wasn't. Yes, the bullpen is very important in modern baseball, but it's also been shown to be the area that's the easiest to build cheaply. The Twins have done it before, the Rays do it all the time. I don't think the strategy is that hard to see: they traded relievers for starters, under the belief that starters are harder to find and more impactful, trusting in their ability to find the next Brock Stewart off the scrap heap, create the next Varland by converting a struggling starter, etc. Clearly it was both a value play in a lost season, but also a budget move: with the Cheap Pohlads resetting payroll down in the $110-115M zone, they're not going to pay a reliever $10M. We'll see if it works; they need guys who struggled last season to really step up to have a chance.

People are awfully fast to shove Keaschall off 2B. Yes, he had some wonky throws and clunkers off the glove, but he's got the quickness and range to do well at 2B, so many give him some reps now that he's actually healthy and see if he can handle the position? He's got 42 games at 2B in MLB and only 56 games there in the minors, total. Considering the time he missed to injury, might be worth seeing how he looks after an offseason where I'm betting he took a bunch of reps and could work on his throwing. (I seem to recall he didn't really field in spring training last season either) We really don't know what his arm looks like yet; he's barely 23. I'm certainly not looking to dump him in the OF if he can play on the dirt, because we have better options in the OF than we do shuffling around the infield right now. Lee's lack of range (and lack of big arm to make up for it) is a problem at SS, and it's hard to see him sticking there, but unless he hits moving him anywhere else isn't going to be great either...and if he starts hitting above league average we might be able to accept his defense at SS for now (he does handle the balls he gets to?) until Culpepper is ready. And moving Royce Lewis to 3B to find room for Lee doesn't work for me either; Royce is developing nicely at 3B defensively, and if he can't hit either then moving him to 1B isn't going to work. I'm not terribly interested in dropping assets on a placeholder SS, and if you believe in Culpepper (and it's hard to see why you wouldn't at this point; he's answered every question put to him so far) why would you spend significant assets for something more impactful, when there are other areas of greater need?

I'm sure that's true, but a boy can dream, right? (The O's can actually use a competent LH hitter I think; YMMV on whether or not Larnach really is one) But if the O's want pitching, I would make them really pay for it. No "oh, what a lovely deal for Baltimore" crap that the east coast bobos that wish they didn't have to get on a plane to cover baseball or stay up for a west coast game would like, no "the midwest teams are supposed to be the farm system for the AL East" Bee Ess. :P

Oh, I'm sure someone was floating it and there are even credible people around MLB tossing it around. It just feels like a deal where you'd better be damn sure Mayo is going to break out in 2026 or you're in real trouble. And I'm not talking "Mayo as an all-star", I'm talking Mayo as a 2-3 bWAR player. And I'd be very concerned that Mayo's value is inflated because of the draft position and previous prospect ratings more than his actual ability and projections at this point. Players should stop getting scholarship bonuses in "value" for their prospect rankings once they've lost their rookie of the year eligibility, IMHO. But it consistently feels like they still get that "extra" in these kinds of deals, whether they deserve it or not. Especially for Ryan. If it was Pablo, then at least you'd be gaining significant salary relief (which I hate is a consideration, but we have Cheap Pohlads as owners), but Ryan is not expensive. Mayo has been ok for a guy getting his first significant playing time in MLB. But he's proven nothing.