Nashvilletwin

The question isn’t the correct one. The question should be “What should the Twins do to get prepared for ‘28?” We have 18 months to get these things done: 1. New owners. Likely post the new CBA and after the ‘27 season. 2. New GM. Won’t happen until ownership changes. 3. Re-sign Jeffers. We don’t care if we overpay. Jeffers catches for two years and then plays 1B and DH. Probably won’t happen because TTT and JZ are delusional idiots. 4. Trade Ryan, Lopez, Hoffman, Larnach and Lewis for young starting pitching this off-season. None of those players will be on the ‘28 Twins. See #3 above as to why it won’t happen. 5. Play the young guys - everyday. That includes Culpepper, Jenkins, ERod, Lee, Keaschall, Houston (when he’s brought up) and all the young starting pitchers. Should happen, right? 6. Buxton goes to primary DH. If he insists on playing OF every day, oblige him by trading him. Won’t happen. See #3 again for the reason. 7. Start building the bullpen with projectable ‘28 and ‘29 talent. 8. Get ready to spend some real $ in the pre ‘28 off-season to fill any holes (for the ‘28 - ‘30 seasons) identified in ‘27. Probably happens with the new CBA - certainly if #1 is accomplished. Easy peasy. Steps #3-#8 are what TTT should do to maximise the Pohlad’s sale price. If the Twins did these things, attendance and fan excitement would be greater and the window would be wide open for ‘28-‘30.

Everyone, don’t worry. The question is not if Buxton/the Twins waited to long to have his surgery - they didn’t, because it’s highly unlikely there is any baseball before June next season anyway. The actual question is what role is he going to play. Ideally, he’s our primary DH, playing in the outfield no more than twice a week, and certainly not taking innings and ABs away from Keaschall, Jenkins and ERod. If he still wants to be an everyday outfielder, we give him the option to do that somewhere else. Easy peasy.

Nothing against Lewis, but if I never see him take another AB as a Twin, I wouldn’t be sad.

The Twins will be very pitcher heavy in the ‘27 draft. Just think where we’d be if we had accepted the BoSox offer for Ryan at the ‘25 deadline (Payton Tolle and Franklin Arias) and traded Jeffers to the BoSox for Anthony Eyanson. Tolle (LHP) is a 23 year old starter who in his first year in the majors went 9-6 with a 3.03 ERA and 171 Ks and only 40 BBs. In other words, he’s already way better than Ryan and he’s nearly seven years younger (and way cheaper with five or more years of control). Arias (SS) is the #3 MLB overall prospect. Our starting infield at some point next year would be Arias (3B), Houston (SS), Culpepper (2B) and Lee (1B). Wow! Eyanson (RHP) is a consensus top 50 MLB overall prospect with a #2 or #3 (at worst) starter potential. He’d be our #1 pitching prospect probably coming up in ‘28.

Not much needs to be spent, besides on Jeffers and maybe a BP arm or two. Why? Because no one should care about ‘27. The “lockout” shortened season (for all you owner haters out there who complain that technically it’s not a strike but the owners fault for locking out the players) needs to be an investment in our young players year. You play Culpepper, Keaschall, Jenkins, ERod, and, when he’s ready in July, Houston as much as possible. They need innings and ABs. Given the season is destined to be shorter, you don’t need to worry about innings for the young starters - Bradley, Abel, Prielipp, and Matthews should be going every fifth day (certainly if we get rid of one or both of Lopez and Ryan). Re-sign Jeffers (that’s where we spend some cash). That’s priority #1. Jettison Lewis and Larnach. Rhoden and Gonzalez (and Martin) take their place and we see what potential those young players may have. Kremer goes to the pen until we trade both Ryan and Lopez (that will save us some money). If TTT wants to get delusional about winning in the ‘27 stub year, he’ll probably just keep both and let their contracts expire and get zippo for them (I’m having a hard time even imagining how incredibly stupid he and Zoll would have to be to let that happen). Who knows, that roster may be a winner anyway. You tell Buxton that he’s primarily a DH going forward. If he still wants to play in the field for his last two seasons, you give him the option to be traded. We then head into ‘28 with all the cash in the world to augment the roster via FAs or offer extensions - Jeffers is the only big contact, Buxton and Correa are done at the end of ‘28, and Lopez and Ryan are off the books. Btw, we all need to get off this “payroll has to be at least ___” thing. It’s about the players whom we can roster at a reasonable overall cost - whatever that may be. We are way better off developing our own young players and rounding out the roster with a couple of FAs (like Jeffers, for example) to fill holes.

As a result of these trades are the Twins better positioned to compete in ‘28? Will any of the players acquired or the key assets kept bring any value post next year’s strike shortened season? The answer to both questions is assuredly no. Therefore, regardless of the individual trade grades, the overall grade is a solid F. Embracing delusion and short-term PR gains at the expense of building a true competitive team is precisely why the Twins under Tough Talking Tom and his minion JZ will never field a winner. Sad, but true.

Should we expect anything different? That record is probably pretty close to what Shelton managed last season with the Pirates. lol

Was Sabato missing his equipment tonight? If so, tough way to make your MLB debut. You work your butt off for seven years and then Delta Airlines loses your luggage. Hard to make that up.

…..and crowded…

100% agree. With those three in the lineup (ideally Culpepper for the last two games), plus now Sabato, the last week of the season is Must Watch TV for me. I have no particular burning desire or reason to see Lewis or Larnach take another AB as a twin - nothing against either player.

Agree. The injuries were included in the “or whatever” part. Regardless of the reasons (and there are likely several), Lewis is simply not very good - certainly not good enough to be starting first baseman on a Twins team that is rapidly improving. It’s just time to move on - best for both parties. And that is written with a reluctance because virtually all Twins fans, myself most certainly included, wanted Lewis to be star for years to come. It was just not meant to be.

The Twins tried very hard - very, very hard - to make Royce into the next Buxton; namely the fan favorite cornerstone of the commercial side of the equation. Sadly, it just didn’t pan out that way. Whether the Twins ruined Royce by playing him all over the diamond or whatever, the sad truth is that he cannot hit well enough or consistently enough or field extraordinarily enough to make up for the hitting deficiencies to be at least an average major leaguer. Bye Royce - best of luck to you at your new change of scenery. You need it and the Twins need it. Now they have multiple alternatives to build into that role - Culpepper, Jenkins, ERod, Keaschall. And don’t count out Houston or Lackey in the next year or two. The Twins may/should be looking at the likely strike shortened ‘27 season as an opportunity to reset out of the old and transition/invest in the new. As part of that, first base is now wide open for next season. Wide open - as it certainly should be. And Sabato is 100% one of the options. He may not end up winning the job, but he’s in the mix. And for many, he’s ahead of Lewis - as everyone knows he’s not the answer - as a possible solution.

People were snickering at me? My fellow TDers? Wasnt the first time and certainly won’t be the last, lol.

Might depend on how quickly the cap rolls in. Yankees might not have a ton of cap room. Maybe Jeffers likes living in MN. Who knows?

No reason to panic. With one simple signing we can finesse our catching issues for a couple of years AND solve our first base problem for ‘29 and ‘30 when our window should be wide open. Yes, all of that can happen when we resign Jeffers Here’s the catching pipeline for the next four seasons: 2027: Jeffers, Caratini 2028: Jeffers, Jackson/Diaw/Lackey 2029: Lackey, Diaw/Tait 2030: Lackey, Tait (and going forward) Here’s the first base pipeline: 2027: Lewis, Clemens 2028: Clemens 2029: Jeffers, Tinney 2030: Jeffers, Tinney (Tinney is 1B after 2030) Here’s the DH lineup: 2027: Buxton, other outfielder 2028: Buxton, other outfielder 2029: Tinney, Jeffers, Diaw, Lackey 2030: Tinney, Jeffers, Diaw, Lackey Granted, this assumes the prospects stay on schedule. But this scenario is very plausible.