smartfred

I’m so happy Tom kicked Falvey to the curb so he couldn’t complete the rebuild because he was worried about ticket sales getting worse. Now the other MLB teams are assembled and the trade market is slim. We will be praying that Jeffers, Buxton, and Ryan are still alive at the trade deadline so they can be shipped off to a contender and we can assemble competitive team in 2028, one year later if he would allowed Falvey to do it this winter.

I am not opposed to this.

Not likely I agree with you. Falvey was high on Joe Ryan before the Nelson Cruz trade and tried to obtain him previously due to his arm slot and comments made by Twins AAA hitters finding it difficult to hit against. I can't seem to find a source indicating Tampa Bay approached the Twins with the offer. I find the timing of him leaving interesting. Spring Training is right around the corner and the off-season is ending. Why let him hang around for so long? The timing right after one of the only significant trades that resembles something the Twins could have done is interesting.

My thoughts of what happened which is not factual and just a hunch but the only thing that makes sense. Most likely happened over a week ago. Derek: Hey Tom, it looks like the Twins are due for a mediocre season since we only signed 2 replacement level players this off-season and our bullpen still has grand canyon type holes. We have an offer on the table for Joe Ryan that involves Carson Benge and Brandon Sproat which are both top 100 guys and I think we should do it and go big for 2027. Tom: Our attendance is already at an all-time low. Trading another fan favorite will not sit well with our season ticket holders. Our new minority owners aren't going to like another season in the red. Derek: With the resources you've cut from me, the only chance we have is to build a team through development since we aren't going after FA's that are difference makers. I'm trying to mirror what the Brewers, Marlins, and Rays are doing because they are able to put together winning teams with less budget. Tom: Being "just good enough" will keep the cash flow moving, and with any luck we'll make the playoffs every once in awhile. We need to keep the Twins looking like an attractive investment at all times to possible buyers. Derek: I think we are moving in different directions. I want to find ways to win, however you're handcuffing me from the business side. This is not something I signed up for. Tom: You know what, you're right. Lets call it a good 9 years and peace out.

Mother father you’re right. Not sure how I missed that.

Springer changed his approach to increase his bat speed especially earlier in counts. He increased his attack angle to hit more balls in the air so he's hitting for more power and a better launch angle. It's hard to believe with such an outstanding career that he's never hit balls harder than he has until this season (+90 mph exit velo) and he's 35. He swings at better pitches in the zone which sounds pretty basic but it's been a mentality passed around the Toronto lineup and you can see it not just in him but all around. It just makes me wonder if Popkins was leading the. charge in Toronto, what prevented him from doing this in MN? Was it stubborn players or was it a front office not rallying behind him?

You are correct and I should have been more clear. I was referring to their starting positional lineup payroll. Schneider - $780k Guerrero Jr. - $28.5M Bichette - $17.5M Kirk - $4.6M Varsho - $8.2M Clement - $2M Barger - $710k IKF - $1.1M Gimenez - $10.6M

Falvey mentioned it a few times that the performance on the field didn’t match the projections they had to begin the year. I would assume the front office assembles a team and projects the season and it’s up to the manager to reach those projections using the assets you have. This isn’t just in the MLB this is every business from small to enormous. Injuries are a weak excuse because especially in today’s game on average, teams use 14 SP’s during the season (using 2025 data), so if you’re expecting to break camp with 5 guys that will be there the whole season you’re out of your mind. Once you add positional players in the mix, you’ll have completely different teams. Rocco failed to get the best out of his players for multiple seasons and that’s where I have the problem. Mid-low budget teams rely on development to be competitive and missing on MLB talent consistently you failed at your job. Julian, Lee, Waller, Miranda, and too many others to list. In my opinion, now that Falvey has a new manager and he sold off the team to rebuild, this is where he comes to the chopping block. He’s already blamed failure on his managers and players so now he’s the common piece in everything. He selected another manager of his choosing along with trading all of the Twins assets for players of his choosing. If the team fails to build a contender in the next 3 seasons, this is on him and he should be done. Im not happy with the owners because they built a new stadium with the promise of spending money on payroll by hiking up taxes. They are clearly not doing this and I don’t like being lied to and better yet paying for someone else’s lies.

I find it interesting the Twins parted ways with David Popkins. To me it appears they needed a fall guy for the 2024 season and he was it. He moved to the Blue Jays and turned around a small-er budget offense that produced the most hits in the MLB and helped unheard of players hit well beyond what was expected (Ernie Clement, Addison Barger, and even George Springer). The players give him credit and the changes can be measured by the increase in bat speed from a handful of players on statcast. To me it appears as an organization the team doesn’t have a culture of buy-in from players to change their approach and it’s sad to see players like Julian, Miranda, Lee, Waller, Larnach, Kirloff and others not hit their ceiling. There’s something going on behind the development scene that needs an investigative reporter to break some news and the Twins need development to win since they obviously can’t afford to pay for it.

Lolz. This is one of the better ones. Nice work!

I appreciate the response. Buxton is 31 years old. He remains in the 99th percentile in sprint speed. In the next few years he will be in the tail end of his prime and there is a possibility of being surrounded by a good core of players. He's young enough to make a difference with the up and coming core of players. I didn't feel it was necessary to add in the record of the last few seasons. Those teams were above average. In order to be a serious contender, you need to be at about 95 wins. (Twins were at 87). Now there are always exceptions like the 2023 Diamondbacks in recent memory (they still lost in the world series), however you need a stroke of good luck to have your dice roll in a favorable position and make it that far. The Twins won a playoff series which was great! Once they were up against Houston however we certainly saw how good of a team they were. The last time the Twins were serious contenders for a World Series was 2019 with the bomba squad. Guess who assembled the team? Well Mr. Falvey did! Not only did he assemble the team he did it without breaking the bank. CJ Cron, Johnathan Schoop, Mitch Garver, Polanco, Rosario, and lets not forget our highest paid player Nelson Cruz. Of the 9 hitters that contributed the most, 6 of them were homegrown (because it's cheaper). In the next 1-2 years the Twins now have the opportunity to do this again. Buxton, Keaschall, Culpepper, Wallner, Roden, Jenkins, Buxton, Tait, Gonzalez, Houston and that's 10!!! You add a couple more pieces through FA like in 2019 now you're really cooking with gas! You can do the same with the pitching rotation however I'm running out of steam for a short response. I'm sorry that everyone is upset, however it is time to turn your frowns the other way around. We now have a window of opportunity coming for the Twins to compete for a championship thanks to this trade deadline. We won't be limping into the playoffs and capitalizing on a weak AL Central.

I’ve been disappointed with a lot of the comments on Twins Daily lately. I usually come here to read thoughtful takes from loyal fans, not the Facebook-style hot takes where every single problem gets pinned on the Pohlads or Falvey. Lately it feels like the conversation is just piling on, and people are missing how smart the trade deadline really was. Are the Twins closer to a World Series after the trade deadline sell off? Without a doubt they are! The last few years the Twins were good enough to "limp" into the playoffs. Is that what Twins Territory wants? An early exit? An embarrassing defeat to the Yankees or Houston again? The same fans would be complaining on how the Twins are terrible despite making the playoffs. The Twins don't have bottomless pockets! They currently rank 22nd in revenue in the MLB. They spend on their payroll 20th. The Twins are overspending! Chill out! The Pohlads might have money, however why would we expect them to fork over their personal assets for our amusement. How many owners currently do that? How many of you all go to the arcade and start dishing out your personal cash so strangers can have fun? Bullpens are replaceable. A reliever might pitch 70 innings a year—that’s less than 3% of a team’s innings. Just look at the Rays: they’ve built playoff bullpens for years out of waiver claims, minor-league deals, and failed starters. The Marlins are already copying that model under the Rays’ old GM, and it’s working. Relievers are volatile too roughly half of the relievers who post an ERA under 3.50 in one season fail to repeat it the next year. The Twins’ own best guys (Durán, Jax, Varland) all came from this exact approach. Odds are the next late-inning group is already on the roster. This is about building a real contender, not sneaking in. The last few years we limped into October only to get bounced right away. Is that really what we want again? I’d rather see the team reset now and aim for real playoff runs in 2026–27 instead of wasting time pretending this roster could win it all. And don’t forget the young talent: Lewis, Buxton, Keaschall, Jenkins, plus a strong rotation core with our deadline aquisitions. That’s a foundation a lot of teams would kill for. If even a couple bats take a step forward, this gets exciting fast.

It's definitely not the "worst" offensive statistic in baseball. Top Teams in BA for 2023 for winning percentage - Texas .274 - Ranked 4th in MLB for winning percentage - Atlanta - .274 Ranked 1st in MLB for winning percentage - Miami - .264 Ranked 5th in MLB for winning percentage - Tampa Bay - .262 Ranked 2nd in MLB for winning percentage Seems like the correlation between wins and BA is higher than 0.

It's cool to see the comments on this article are all positive comments wishing him well. It seems like Twins fans like to blame the front office in times like these.

Just a friendly reminder... 2021 high end pitcher signings; Bauer: 1.8 WAR @ $34 million Morton: 4.6 WAR @ $15 million Everyone else signed high-end accepted qualifying offers. Thank goodness the Twins avoided that. 2021 Mid-tier Signings Smyly: .4 WAR @ $11 million Kluber: 1.5 WAR @ $11 million Richards: 1 WAR @ $10 million Minor: 2.3 WAR @ $9 Million Paxton: 0 WAR @ $8.5 million Odorizzi: 1.1 WAR @ $8.5 million Wainwright: 3.8 WAR @ $8 million Happ: .5 WAR @ $8 million Quintana: .3 WAR @ $8 million Ray: 3.9 WAR @ $8 million Walker: 1.4 WAR @ $7.64 million 2021 Low End Starters 21 Starters signed between $2 million - $7 million (Shomaker was signed at $2) Notabler signings DeSclafani 3.2 WAR Wood 2.5 WAR Rodon 4.9 WAR Wacha 1.1 WAR Tyler Anderson 2.5 WAR Hill 1.7 WAR Williams 1.2 WAR Flexen 3.0 WAR The point I'm trying to make Everyone keeps saying, "Sign big name pitchers because the Twins need a #1 or #2 starter" and every year, a large percentage of high end pitchers don't live up to their expectations/get hurt/get into trouble. The payoff doesn't make sense for a team like the Twins. Mid tier teams find their #1 and #2's by trading or growing them. Of the top 30 SP in 2021, only 5 of them were signed as a FA. The chance of signing a game changing SP is pretty low. Of those 5 that ended up in the top 30, 2 of them were signed in the low tier. Flexen, Desclafani, and 2 were the mid tier, Ray and Wainwright. The Twins did the right thing in gambling on players from each tier, they just gambled wrong. I find the article interesting. It seems like a decent gamble going for Bundy looking at the stats and won't break the bank.