jmlease1

well, the idea that a manager can't be effective if they're in the last year of their contract is a myth that's been promulgated by...managers and coaches, across almost every sport. It's self-serving at best, complete BS at worst. But I'm not all that surprised that an extension hasn't happened for several reasons. The team had an epic collapse to end the season, the second one in three years (although Baldelli was hardly to blame for the first one) and it's not unfair to wonder whether he was starting to lose his grip on the team. With the current ownership group selling the team, not extending the manager is a gift to the next ownership group, who may want to put their own guy in place, not because it's always the smart decision but it's just the sort of thing new owners do. new owners always want to make a splash, show they're in control, that there's a new sheriff in town, blah blah blah ownershipcakes. Picking a new manager is a nice high profile move, and usually easier than anything on the player side of it. I think Baldelli is...fine. When his players are healthy and playing well, he looks great, and when they're not he doesn't. he's not a disaster, despite the loathing he engenders from some of the folks around here (the hatred is almost comical at times, especially as people make up things about him to fit their narrative, pretend to be able to read his mind, or act as if the modern style of baseball is something uniquely related to "Baldelli Ball" or something). he was overrated when he won Manager of the Year (which much like in the NFL goes to the manager who is believed to have overachieved from what their perceived talent was in the preseason more than any kind of objective "best"), underrated when the team finished last, and falls into the mushy middle of baseball managers. In terms of managers that win more games than they "should" because of their consistently superior game management; that number is perishingly small, and most fans drastically overestimate the impact of managerial in-game decisions. A lot of what constitutes the modern managerial role is behind the scenes in handling the egos, player development, strain of the long grinding season, etc and fans have less information about that now (despite the internet) than ever, because players are much more carefully handled by their own management teams and management doesn't talk about it. I won't be crushed if Baldelli gets moved on by a new ownership (he's plenty rich, he'll be just fine), but i won't be rejoicing either. (Baldelli is fine and baseball managers are frequently overrated).

Free agents are flying off the board while we sit back because the ownership hamstrung the front office by cutting $30M+ from the payroll. If ownership is setting the payroll at $130 when it should be at $150-160 because the billionaires need more cash to prop up their other businesses, that ain't the fault of the front office. And the idea that Buxton would be a backup on anything but a handful of teams is a contender for the Preposterous Statement of the Year Award. I'll give you Judge & Duran, but Rodriguez and Merrill were healthier, not better. I'll hear arguments on Varsho, but Buxton hits a heck of lot better. Doyle? healthier, not better. It's incredibly hard to find a player who can defend in CF and hit like Byron Buxton. Want to claim Buxton is a "backup"? name names that would start over him on a "real" team.

How many teams move a player down the defensive spectrum before they have to? And if players are moving down early, then they're frequently flawed as defenders at any position. If you draft someone out of HS or college at 1B, they'd better be able to hit a ton. The reality defense at 1B just isn't as important as hitting at 1B. Carlos Santana's Gold Glove this year was great, but it would have been pretty hollow if he'd put up a 90 OPS+. Just like Max Kepler's 2021-2022 stretch where he was an average starter, but below average offensively and drove people insane with all those 4 bouncers to 2B... I'm pretty sure Royce Lewis could play a fine 1B with his good glove, but his bat is more valuable if he's able to hit at 2B or 3B and defend reasonably. I think the Twins were always pretty positive on Kirilloff's ability to play 1B, but when was he ever healthy enough to actually play it? His lack of health and (understandable) inability to hit through some awful injury problems kept him from ever settling in. Twins brought in Santana because they couldn't count on Kirilloff staying healthy, not because they didn't think he could evolve into a functional 1B.

because he's currently their best player? and while we could certainly use $20M to improve at say 1B/DH...do you really think that signing Pete Alonso to handle that role will actually make up for the loss of Correa's production? I mean, who else are we signing? or is that 420M getting eaten up with someone else's "bad" contract in return? Look, you could still have a winning Twins club without Correa if you signed Alonso and he played well, Lewis stays healthy and produces, Buxton stays healthy and produces, Lee has a breakout season, Julian returns to form, the pitching staff stays steady/improves, etc. But the risk goes up and the margin for error shrinks. And taking a player who produces like an all-star off the roster and replacing him with a couple of average starters doesn't move the needle much for this team. Might be different if Royce was coming off a healthy season where he finished strong or Lee had already had his breakout. But that's not where we are.

Do they really have question marks at all of those positions? Wallner is locked at RF and while Twins fans who hate the aesthetics of Ks don't like him, he's a fine corner OF. Larnach certainly played well enough last season to deserve a shot at LF, but I guess if you want to make him a question mark you can. Brooks Lee and Royce lewis are excellent prospects who have some injury issues that need to overcome, but between the two of them they should be able to handle 2B and 3B, and we still have both Miranda and Julien if either of them falter, so while we may have questions at 2B and 3B, we also have plenty of answers. But maybe stop pretending you can read the mind of the manager and declare that this is what he "wants". This is what he has. they are platooning LH hitters they don't think can handle LHP, not because they like it. They're giving Buxton days off to try to keep him healthy the entire season, because they're much better when he plays, not because they like it. And they don't actually give Correa very many days off when he's healthy, but after playing with injury in 2023 and not hitting well, they took a different route in 2024. (this sort of nonsense about what Rocco "wants" reminds me of when people claimed he "wanted" the DH spot open so he could cycle players through it and didn't "want' a permanent DH. But Rocco clearly had no problems penciling in Nelson Cruz at DH every day, and even said publicly how nice it was to always have that spot filled. What do managers really want? As many players that can play at elite levels as they can possibly find. All the rest is usually the fans imprinting what they want.)

I think Pete Alonso is going to regret turning down the long-term deal he had on the table with the Mets. Not seeing much of a market for him, but he would actually be a good fit for the Twins to add that right-handed thump and he's always hit LHP well. But ego might get in the way of him taking a pay cut even to rehab his rep on a 1-year "prove it" deal with a team like MN. But if he were willing to take a Goldy-style deal, I'd love to see him here in 2025. I doubt we'll come up with the money, though. Congrats to Carlos Santana on a getting a big pay bump coming off a gold glove season. not sure he's going to replicate last season at age 39, but he's a good dude so go get paid, sir. Please feel free to change your Evil Ways when you play us, however. Wade's LH bat and unimpressive defense makes him a bad fit for what the Twins need, even if he is a capable hitter. Polanco is one of my favorite Twins. But I dunno about him at 1B, and while his switch-hitting is nice, he's better as a LH batter and was more of just decent hitting LHP as a RH batter. Think I'd rather roll with Miranda and Julien as the platoon at 1B, allowing Miranda to back up Lee at 3B and Julien to back up Lewis at 2B than jam in Wade or hope that Polanco can bounce back from injury again at a new position.

Adames also has never had a 5 bWAR season in his career and despite playing 75 more games than Correa in 2024, he still ended up with a lower bWAR (which is a counting stat). Henderson, Witt Jr, Seager...who else are you sure is better than Correa? And I'm amazed that you think that the 7th or 8th best player at any position is replaceable.

The Twins clear $36M in a trade if they take no MLB players back. Do you really think this ownership group, with their track record, and their intent to sell would actually spend more than $15-20M of that "savings"? How many holes do you think you're filling in FA with that? Disagree that Correa's not an MVP-caliber player, but even accepting that: 5 bWAR players are worth a LOT and are very difficult to replace. From 2021-2024 the Twins have had exactly 1 player reach 5 bWAR: Carlos Correa. I love Royce Lewis, and I hope he reaches his ceiling, but his career bWAR is lower than Correa's bWAR from 2024.

I'd be fine with that? Minor league deal with no promises of promotion and no 40-man slot? sure, seems like perfectly fine insurance policy that would also be very tradable midseason if he's healthy and the Twins didn't have a roster spot for him. Biggest barrier is we might already have too many starters for the AAA rotation. Minor league "rehab" deals are reasonable business: add in insurance policies at low cost, get to know a player better, and it doesn't hurt your reputation around the league either. Just don't use them to block prospects and/or overpromise them.

The only people that would win would be a) the team trading for him, and b) the Pohlads, who would almost certainly pocket a substantial chunk of the salary savings. Trading Correa is the white flag of surrender for 2025. I still think this team can contend despite the rotten end to last season, the refusal to invest from the ownership, and struggles we saw from some of the younger players in 2024. You should never throw away a season in MLB, because a) weird things happen in the playoffs, and b) sometimes all you need is a couple of players getting hot at the same time. This isn't the NBA where the team with the best player usually wins the series and it's hard to get a star player from a middle of the pack team, or the NFL where you can rebuild in 1-2 seasons. Rebuilding in baseball takes longer, especially for a mid-market or smaller team. Keep Correa. He's a reason to go watch the team. He's the best defensive SS we've had since Gagne, probably the best offensive SS we've had ever (sorry Roy) and I love watching him play.

I'm confused by how the Twins seem to think of Alcala, who has a ton of talent and now that he's healthy has the tools to be a shut down flamethrower in the back of the bullpen. But there seems to be some attitude or mental discipline things going on there that we sort of hear rumors about the team being unhappy about but it rarely seems to get into specifics. Maybe he's the million dollar arm/5 cent head guy. or maybe they just need to settle him in a role as a late inning, 1 inning reliever and let him cook, instead mucky around with 2 inning stretches. The August 18 meltdown was pretty bad, but it happened so fast that they probably couldn't get anyone up in time to stop the bleeding when it quickly because obvious that Alcala didn't have it that day, coming off 1 day of rest. but even with that hellacious outing, he still had a very solid season. he shouldn't be in no-man's land: he should be looked at being right with Sands as the guys right behind Duran and Jax. But maybe some of the other stuff is impacting that in ways we don't really know?

I'd love to lock Joe Ryan up to a long-term deal, but I doubt it happens this season with the Pohlads trying to sell the team and likely wanting to keep the books clean. Their penurious nature as well limits the flexibility in drafting the contract as well; does anyone think that they would be willing to include any kind of signing bonus or other similar type of mechanism that would make it more attractive to Ryan? Hells bells, I'm terrified of any trade to free up payroll, especially involving one of our most expensive contracts, because I'm seriously concerned that the Pohlads will choose to pocket the savings on their way out the door. But I'm a big fan of Joe Ryan, and even if he can't make the leap to a #1 starter, there's no doubt in my mind that he can at least be a #2 on a playoff team, someone who should be trusted to start in a playoff game and give the team a serious chance to win. Plus, he's fun to watch. Works quickly, throws strikes, has a different set of mechanics, and has shown he can get deep into a game. Ryan paired with Lopez and Ober are a big reason I feel the Twins can compete in 2025 and beyond.

I hate to say it, but I think a lot of Twins fans around here are overrating Willi Castro, who is a very nice player to have, but fell off badly at the plate in the second half last season (batted .200 in July & Sept/Oct, with an OPS of .548 & .562 respectively. That's dreadful). Vazquez out-hit Castro in the second half last season. And Castro's defense was much much worse last year, and he was much less impactful in the running game in 2024. Other teams are going to look at him and see a useful utility guy but aren't going to give extra credit for the all-star nod. I like Castro a lot, but he wasn't our best player last season, he wasn't the most valuable, and it's not really very close. He gets extra credit for being able to play almost anywhere, but takes demerits from often not playing them well. I'd argue that one of the things last season showed us was that Castro might be more impactful when he's playing a little less. All of that plus a $6M salary limits what you can get in return for him.

It's really not: it's a 20 year period where Dallas has utterly underperformed by the standards it supposedly set for itself and the expectations of the league. yes, jerry Jones won 3 super bowls as owner. but all of his real football success was in his first 7 years, and the teams were built when Jimmy Johnson had final say on football matters. That's not cherry-picking, it's context. I can live with a Jerry Jones owner as long as it's initial Jerry, who could hire someone talented and let them do their job. Later jerry, who needed to get more credit, have more control, and play with his toys? No thanks. If you get the jerry from the last 20-25 years, you're probably not getting those early wins that he had.

Sure, but under the Wilfs the Vikings have reached the conference finals twice; during the same period, Jerry has gotten Dallas to the conference finals exactly never. Jerry Jones hit on the right coach at the right time out the gate. was that the result of him being a meddler who thought he knew more about football than everyone or did he just get lucky? Kinda seems like the latter. Al Davis was a big winner early on with the Raiders when he was young and on the cutting edge of football, willing to innovate, take risks on players that didn't meet the traditional mold, being ahead of the game on race and free agency. once everyone else caught up...suddenly all the meddling screwed up the franchise. The meddling from ownership rarely helps. The twins biggest flaw as a franchise is an ownership that is uninterested in investing in the team, and is primarily interested in generating wealth from it. If the Ishbias come in and the twins have more success, it'll be because they've injected capital into the franchise, not because they're making decisions on free agents or firing managers. they seem like the right kind of ownership for the team: interested in investing, growth-oriented in terms of viewership and attendance and marketing. You just hope they won't make the classic new ownership mistakes of making a big splashy (and dumb) signing, firing, or trade just to have something that they can take credit for and show everyone that the new owners have arrived. The fact that they've been through sports franchise ownership with Phoenix for a couple of years already should help? but they seem exactly like the sort of owners who would take an operating loss for a few years while in contention in order to try and win it all, rather than cut payroll on a winning team to cash-flow one of their other businesses, and have the resources to look at the benefits over a longer period than year over year.

All three have something common: the more they messed around with the team the worse things got. Jerry Jones won with Jimmy Johnson's players, fired him because Jimmy got all the credit and once those players were gone hasn't won since. How have the last 30 years gone for the Cowboys? Their owner plays GM and does it badly. Al Davis did great in the early Raider years and was very influential. And then he wouldn't let go even as the game passed him by and how did that go for the Raiders? Ceded some power to Gruden who rebuilt the team...and then couldn't tolerate someone else calling the shots; once Gruden and his team were gone the Raiders have been one of the worst franchises in the NFL. Steinbrenner won a lot with the Yankees, but arguably his teams won in spite of him rather than because of him. The more he meddled, the worse they got. (the constant hiring/firing of Billy Martin? ugh) His best run was after he had been suspended and when he let others run the team and he stepped back in 90's.

Boy, having a big name sure does keep selling around here. I'm baffled by the people pushing for Goldschmidt, who looks to be in a very very steep decline. yes, he was the MVP in 2022, but dropped off badly in 2023, and wasn't even an average starter last season. two of his 3 worst seasons have been...the last 2 seasons. And yet, the name alone probably adds $2-7M to the price. He's 37; why exactly do we think he's going to bounce back substantially? He's been healthy every year for the past 10, so isn't it most likely that he's just finally losing to Father Time after a great career? defensively, he's regressed and there's nothing in his hitting stats to suggest that he was merely unlucky. isn't it more likely that 2022 was one last hurrah for the old lion rather than any signal that he'll be able to play effectively as he heads towards 40? I don't think Turner is a good fit: he's not exactly known for bashing around LHP, looks to be in real decline, isn't much of a defensive player, and has already turned 40. Santana is probably the best choice, but he really should be platooning/late inning defensive replacement at this point, because he just doesn't hit RHP much any longer. I'm unconvinced the Twins would properly allocate his playing time, especially if he gets a raise in free agency. Would I be ok with him platooning with Julien and tutoring Julien on the finer points of playing 1B, pinch hitting against LHP, being a defensive replacement in late & close games...sure. Much less excited about him as an every day starter, because he just can't hit RHP much any longer.

More power to them. If they own the stadium, then they're also less likely to move; it's not like you can take the stadium with you. I'd be happy for them to be responsible for all stadium improvements and development around the area, and Hennepin County can always use the cash. But I wouldn't bet on that part; one of the ways rich people stay rich is getting governments to pay for stuff for them.

That risk is out there for any owner that's not a MN resident/native. But the Twins lease isn't short, neither Ishbia lives/works in a city that doesn't already have a team (and they're from Detroit), and MLB wants MSP as a market. Yes, Justin Ishbia has ties to Nashville, but it's not like he's been living/working there for the past 20 years. If he buys the Twins, by the time the lease is up he'll have spent more time in MSP than he did in Nashville for law school. There's some risk to any new owner that they're going to be a yahoo, a fool, make promises they can't fulfill, etc. They're billionaires and the vast majority of them aren't exactly good people (IMHO). But in the MLB world of no salary cap and limited revenue sharing and no realistic means for community ownership...they're a pretty good fit. They're baseball fans, especially Justin. They're insanely wealthy and not afraid to use that wealth. They seem interested in sports franchises because they like sports and want to win, rather than just having them as assets to make themselves more wealthy in 7-10 years. And they certainly seem to be people that would take a short-term financial hit in order to compete for a title. I ain't rooting for any billionaire, and I'm sure the Ishbia's have done some shady crap (or simply permitted it) in pursuit of having All The Wealth (let's not pretend the Pohlads' hands are clean; Carl made the family money in banking, an industry well-known for always playing fair, right?). But in terms of purely sports ownership...the Ishbias could be a great fit for the Twins.

There's absolutely no reason for the Twins not to take a shot. They should swing for the fences on this one and 100% put their best foot forward. Screw the East and West Coasters who call us "flyover territory" and all the baseball bobos who presume that no one of import will want to come here. Why not us? The team is going to compete. There's star power in players like Correa, Buxton, Lopez, and Lewis (who may not have proved it yet over a season but unquestionably has the star magnetism) and young talent. Minnesota is awesome in the spring, summer, and fall which is when he'd be actually pitching here; the team is in Ft. Myers in Feb, and I hear that's the time to be in FL. the media here doesn't have anywhere near the same crush that you do in japan or on the coasts, and while you'll have to deal with some twits some of the worst offenders won't often bestir themselves to go to the games, making them far easier to ignore. the fans will love you. We love anyone that shows they want to be here and gives a damn. (and I'm fine with that) We won't even ask you to try lutefisk! (and you'll love the walleye) Heck, I bet Pablo Lopez will learn Japanese just so he can be a better mentor and friend to you. (seriously, I bet Pablo could do it. Dude is crazy smart and already speaks a bunch of languages) Joe Ryan would teach you water polo. Griffin Jax would use his AF connections to get you up in a jet. I'd love to get this dude. Take your absolute best shot at him, Twins. Just don't presume you're gonna sign him.

assuming that you start professional work at 18, that means retiring at 63. Which certainly used to be pretty normal and it would be awfully nice if people didn't have to desperately keep hanging on for 5-7 more years so that they don't go broke in retirement. Especially for people working blue collar jobs which generally have physical demands that make it exceptionally hard for folks to keep working well into their 60's.

INteresting group. I'd go: Goltz Worthington Reardon Perkins Boswell didn't have enough big years, Chance & Grant weren't here long enough IMHO, and Erickson needed either one more bigger year here or a higher peak (He may have been runner up for the Cy that year but a) he didn't deserve it, and b) wasn't even the best pitcher on the Twins that year; Tapani was better.)

Mack Koskie Smalley Brunansky I wouldn't add any of the others to the Twins Hall. All were fine players and did some good things for the Twins, but they're not Twins Hall of Fame worthy, IMHO. But if I had to rank the remainder: Harper Guzman Jones People forget just how great Mack was. And it certainly wasn't his fault the '94 season got cut short by greed. Because he was a late breakout, also can't blame him for going to Japan to get paid. But he was pretty great as a Twin.

I always think about the "Bad Clubhouse Guy" issue through the lens Bill Simmons set up long ago: you can have ONE. When you have 2+ then they might start hanging out together and enabling each others worst traits. or drown out the quieter but possibly smarter guys. And there's a difference between a guy with some questionable issues and a total disaster. The biggest issue I have with Pham is he's been bad in too many recent years (3 of the last 5) and at 37 how many more bounce back years does he actually have? Same question with Grandal: hasn't hit since 2021 and might just be cooked. 2024 when he had an OPS+ of 95 might have been his bounce back and now he's cooked...

it was such a small sample size at Ft Myers that we really don't know who he is yet. As a college player, you'd hope he could control the strike zone against A-ball pitchers, and he did grabbing plenty of walks. But while the overall OPS was solid for the FSL, the .222 batting average is more concerning. That said, a handful of hits in 63 ABs makes a big difference, so it could just be small sample size. That's why i think the full year of pro baseball will be so interesting with him. He showed he could compete out the gate and doesn't need time in rookie ball/complex league/etc and can play in A-ball already. But let's see how a full year of professional baseball impacts him. He is coming form a high level program at Tennessee and Clemson is significant as well, so he's had good competition and hopefully decent coaching, access to high level training etc. Now he gets to do this as a job and focus entirely on being a baseball player with a lot more games. Should be fun to track, seems like he was a solid pick.