TNtwins85

So maybe only 10-15 teams could realistically compete for that players services?

But why would a player sign that when they know there’s 29 other teams to compete for their services guaranteed in free agency as opposed to maybe 10-15 now?

Would definitely lead to more than one league. This was tried numerous times in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. Go watch Ken Burn’s “Baseball”. Definitely a good watch to understand the business structure of the game today.

Maybe. That’s not the focus though. In what article anywhere on this subject have you heard anything about fans/kids? Nowhere. The answer is nowhere. Which means they’re not thinking about what’s best for the fans, the kids or the game(young talent we could say). It’s what’s best for the players (high, middle and lower tiered especially) and the owners. Anything else is an after effect. Tell me when the last time was that a multi billion dollar conglomerate came and asked you what you thought about something……

I’ll be more excited to see how he plays against his own age. Not the fact the Yankees were gonna sign him for $5M and the Twins get him for $500K. My question . Is he good?

Yes!!!! It would guarantee it instead of providing a clear path out of mediocrity. A few terrible owners and bad teams are gonna drive the whole league into a lottery of decades of haves and have nots. No guarantee the Twins become a “have” in that system.

Good run teams will still be good run teams. Badly run teams could be mired more deeply to the bottoms of the league. A cap/floor system guarantees nothing but money to aging middle and lower tiered players and more money in owners pockets.

Oh it will be a mess! And it will be an unwarranted mess when logically it “could” be fixed without making a mess. But, it will be driven solely by the owners/players greed for who gets the money when the incentive structure should be centered around young talent. It is unlikely that young players will derive anything of substantial worth out of this deal just has always been the case. Once again big money to established players will flow to them and their middle and lower tiers buddies and less spots and money for younger talent. The owners will get more in their pocket by not having to spend as much and the revenue structure that will be changed lets them get more. Essentially the game will not change really.

The question is does money solve that whole equation or could young talent solve that equation?

As long as the owners and star players make the most money they don’t care. Both sides are selling a bag of goods to the media and fans without actually fixing the structure which is probably more complicated but fixable without the magic bean of a CAP/FLOOR. Lol, when you look through the veil a cap/floor system doesn’t address many things in the game. The disparity could be fixed with a different draft compensation system along with a development mandate. Which would incentivize lower market teams to collect and develop younger talent. Shifting money from old players to young talent while also implementing an international draft for players who are 18 and not 16 would push younger more accurately scouted talent to the lower market teams. This is a talent issue. Not a money issue. It can be fixed by fixing who receives the most young talent as that’s the real currency of the league. “Young” talent. That’s not what owners or rich players want. To them they sell a “ Who gets the money” bag of tricks and sell it in the media and that gets repeated until fans start garbling the same message. I believe this can be fixed but my definition of fixing the game and the players/owners definition are massively different.

Everyone around here consistently thinks that the Twins are gonna come out of this salary cap/ salary floor situation showered in gold but they forget one thing. If everyone is spending the same that creates more competition. Which means you’re not gonna have your teams to beat up on. With a salary cap there’s gonna be less incentive for teams to lock up and sign players to massive long term deals which means more player movement. Your jersey of X star player will be less relevant. Which also means your star player probably gets traded away to maximize the cap/floor. Teams at the top of the cap take advantage of teams with more cap by unloading high priced aging players to sign younger players. If teams like the bottom dwellers are going to spend like the middle tier teams it creates less spots for younger more exciting players which ultimately makes the game “older.” Unless the drafting and development structure is also changed it could lead to longer term irrelevance. There won’t be a super rookie who can come in and jumpstart a franchise right away like the NFL/NBA as it still takes years in the baseball structure. It will create less avenues for younger players to come in. Also, just like in the NFL and NBA you’re still gonna have teams like the Arizona Cardinals, the Lions until recently and the Browns. Teams like the Clippers, the Hornets/Bobcats and yes until recently 20 some years of irrelevance from your own Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA. With that in mind if the structure is somewhat the same which is what everyone seems to want it seems teams on the wrong side of the coin seemed to be forever mired in decades of terribleness. Even in this magical Narnia scenario where everyone thinks that their team comes out better there still seems to be teams that never cross that threshold and feed off the bottom for 5,10,15 years. That could be the Twins. It could make it harder for teams to rebuild with younger players and accomplish a turnaround as their forced to sign players to simply be over the floor. All I’m saying is that everyone seems to look at a cap/floor as something that helps the Twins, but maybe they turn into the Browns and the Timberwolves. Then what do you do? Shout from the mountains that the system isn’t fair once again? Once the genie is out of the cap/floor lamp you’re never putting it back in. Be careful what one wishes as your Twins could become the Browns. Good run teams will still be good run teams and badly run teams may be really bad for decades as evidenced in the other sports. The Phoenix Coyotes were once a team as well. With all the praising of the cap/floor system your Twins could become the next Browns, Lions, Clippers or Timberwolves and an ownership group will convince the league that baseball is unsustainable in Minnesota. Also, new owners can always be worse. That’s a thing. Just as this could be a great thing for the Twins it could be a nail in the coffin for Minnesota baseball. A massive change in a CBA creates changes good and bad. The league and MLBPA will always sell you the good but they will never tell you the bad. Especially when professional sports more and more mirrors large corporate America.

I’m in the same boat as far as a high walk rate in the minors and questions about contact. I guess that’s why I don’t see him as the super prospect some do. Once he gets attacked on the corners and by major league quality breaking balls I’m not sure that walk rate holds up. I think a super utility OFer is his future and he could succeed. Kinda like a RH Willi Castro who only plays OF. Idk. I’m just not impressed by Mr. Rodriguez

Doesn’t need to be a narrative or the front office showing their hand. Simply informing fans of what the direction is and how that will be accomplished and being honest goes a long way to giving fans something to look forward to.

How is that jerking him around? You tell him that’s gonna be his role. He rotates around. Plays RF for Wallner against a lefty. Plays CF to give Buxton a rest once or twice a week. And plays LF once a week to give whichever LH hitter or Martin needs a rest. Probably plays 3-5 of your 6 games during a week. Probably a good role for him. Then again I don’t believe he’s the super prospect everyone else expects either. Nothings being handed out? Pretty sure it says to hand him over a job.

Agree with everything except “handing” Emma a job out of ST. If he looks competent in ST he may be a candidate for a rotating platoon role/ 3-5 starts a week type of job. There’s a bevy of LH OFers and to slot him into a role where he rotates around the outfield maybe makes sense. Idk if he’s ready though with the hit tool being kinda a question mark. He’s there in everything else but I’d hate to watch him hit .160 out of the gate and be stuck at St. Paul until mid summer.

If only he can stay on the field now. Love how hard he plays and the passion but I can see the article now. “ Another Twins player constantly injured!”

Typical Twins outrage and for that matter everything else. Read the headline and immediately go to comments or social media to tell everyone else how outraged you are without understanding the whole picture.

It’s starting to show a split between ownership and the FO. I think Falvey is starting to show cracks that he wants to build a team to compete and is pushing the microphone over to ownership to see what they say in a very subtle way. Which is what he should do. He obviously has a vision representative of how he handled the deadline and the players he focused on. He wants a quick turnaround focused on potentially competing in ‘26 but definitely going for it in ‘27. Everyone can see his model. It’s ownership that forced his hand after ‘23. Its ownership that forced Falvey to turn the ship a different direction and try to compete in ‘24 and ‘25 with a hand tied behind his back. The last 3 years have more resembled a hostage negotiation than a cohesive ownership/FO group and I believe Falvey is starting to show signs he’s no longer willing to be played like a fiddle by a Pohlad ownership group who seems more interested with the Pohlad business empire then the Minnesota Twins.

Exactly. This is purely a marketing and communication issue which we know is not a strong suit of the Twins. Whoever marketed the “get to know em” campaign of the early 2000’s was a genius. If the front office could simply be honest and drum up “real” excitement over the direction of the team and not just some fake excitement and direction this could all be much more palatable from a fans perspective. Instead of trying to be like every other team simply lean into a direction and market the hell out of it! Not only would a large section of fans be more accepting but the big thing is they wouldn’t feel lied to all the time.

I would love to know what the development budget for each team is. Also it would probably go a long way for the public to know what their specific team is focused towards. With how free agency is it catches headlines because it’s public. I think that is part of the reason why everyone focus’s so hard on free agents. If people had data that shows how a team is focused as far as a development budget it would be just another way for fans to focus their energy. Also, that’s a way that the players union drums up excitement by focusing everything on free agency. Take the Twins for example what excites the fan base? Carlos Correa, Donaldson. Why? Because it’s what makes headlines. It’s what the Yankees and dodgers do. So when they do what they do it makes them excited. When they trade away those guys they think the world is ending. But if you attached a tangible number of development value to a prospect couldn’t that be viewed as a free agent number and drum excitement as well? Especially when you can assign stats and money to create a “worth” as a salary number does? Also knowing that that number delivers more fruit as opposed to a 29 or 30 year old that will inevitably get worse. I think that could help a fan base get on board with prospects more.

I like the idea. Create an ownership group. I’m not sure how many people would be in for that but if we all invested the investment money wise would surely be worth it as far as ROI and to have a seat in the boardroom. Has this ever been done before for any sports franchise?

But surely needed. And starts to point towards the Twins keeping Jeffers rather than trading him.

Because Vazquez is way older, terrible hitting, defense getting substantially worse and would probably never sign for anything close to $1.8M.

If they did that you would have complained that they should have traded for a backup catcher. Eeles is not a major league shortstop in any way. Didn’t get a chance at all last year. They traded a guy they were never gonna use for a guy who they need. Solid trade. Addresses depth. Simple as that.

Well, if you read anything about him other than his stat line he fits the mound of a BACKUP catcher. Good defensively, good arm, can crack a couple over the fence. Way better than Gasper. What were you looking for?