Danchat

What's stopping us from being like the Brewers and Rays, who have similarly restrained payrolls? Might have something to do with not a single player drafted by the Falvey regime ever going to an All-Star game, and nearly zero international players developed...

Given what the majority of prospects that have come out of the Falvey era has churned out, being harsh is warranted. Most prospects fail in general, if that can't be put out as "even a possibility", then it's probably time to stop reading about prospects.

I actually like what they did with the catcher position going back to the trade deadline, finally getting some legitimate prospects in the farm system and finding a quality partner to Jeffers rather than crossing our fingers with Jackson and whatever unplayable AAA catchers we have in the system. On Jackson, I think makes it to AAA given a team would have to take on his salary. They can survive if one of Jeffers or Caratini goes down.

At least it's not his elbow or shoulder...

Two current Vikings have died in the last year and a half... just awful.

To be clear, the right move is to play Wallner every day and expect a rebound after what happened in 2025. This is absolutely not the time to trade low on him. Maybe? Shelton has been a manager for over 5 seasons, he already has an established track record. He may not be the exact same person he was in Pittsburgh, but I'm confused why I'm seeing some talk of Shelton being an unknown quantity.

When you strike out a lot and walk a lot, it makes sense that he doesn't hit in runners when they are on base. I think we sometimes prioritize OBP over batting average when hitting a single with runners on base is much more likely to get RBIs when a walk can only get you a RBI when the bases are loaded.

A little while back I had taken a look at that Michigan championship team, they had 11 games that they won by 20+ points and only had 3 one score games. JJM only averaged 22.5 attempts per game, but when you factor in that almost every game was over by halftime, it's not bad. The passing game personnel around him wasn't great, 0 NFL WRs and the OL was much better at run blocking than pass pro and none of them are starting anywhere in the NFL. He did have 2 TEs who are both starting in the NFL, alongside Corum the workhorse. His problems with not being ready for NFL speed leading to footwork/mechanical issues killing his accuracy which was not a problem in college outside of not having an accurate deep ball. Zero durability concerns in college, and the immaturity/mental issues weren't a thing either unless the Vikings missed that in their interviews with him that other teams did. He was also very good at not turning over the ball too. I still think he's a 1st round caliber player in hindsight, maybe late 1st and certainly not on the tier of Williams-Maye-Daniels. Plenty of 1st round picks just naturally bust when they undergo the transition from college to the NFL, and it looks like JJM is headed that way. If you don't think he's a 1st round prospect, then you also shouldn't think that a certain other prospect who was in a run-first offense that only threw the ball 23.6 times per game as his juggernaut team won the national title... his name is Fernando Mendoza and he's getting drafted #1 overall in a couple months. Obviously there are other differences between the two, but the point of my argument is if we're going to use passing volume in college to knock down QBs, then other good prospects are going to be downgraded for reasons out of their control.

I didn't realize he had a 1.51 WHIP last year... and only 3 1/3 innings per start, and he's already 25. I think we know how this ends, and it's unlikely to be in the MLB rotation.

AR is an extreme version of JJM... amazing arm, incredible athleticism, but can't hit the broad side of a boat and is even less durable. Unlike JJM he wasn't even that good in college.

Yup, and the one guy under 28 years old didn't look like he belonged in the majors in his first stint. They need to get some young arms going in the AAA pen to prep for the majors or we are going to be inking more 33+ year old relievers to one year deals again in 2027.

Trading for Chase Petty would be a funny reminder that even the best of our pitching pipeline has mostly pumped out AAAA starters who have too much upside to move to the pen, but still aren't good enough to start in the majors. At this point I think you flip Larnach for the best prospect you can get. Not gonna be a top 20 guy on any team's prospect list, but they should take what they can get.

I don't think Lopez is worth 10+ wins...

I can see and click on the View Full Article button, but then it just leads to the same incomplete article minus the View Full Article button. If this is a membership situation, methinks there should be a notice about that being needed to read the rest of the article rather than having it abruptly end... they had this working in previous years.

If Lopez/Ryan aren't traded after signing a veteran starter, what's the point of trading for Bradley and Abel just to continue to not let them start games in the majors? I get that rotation depth is important, but did we really trade away Duran and Jax for depth instead of MLB-caliber players who can contribute to the team?

I don't think it is average, I'm not sure we have a single high leverage arm in the pen. Looking through our options, last year the only arm pitching in games with leads in the 7th inning and on was Rogers being a primarily 7th/8th inning reliever pitching about 50-50 the team winning or losing. Topa only started pitching in high leverage situations once the trades were made and Sands wasn't particularly good last year. It's a pen made up of a bunch of middle relievers, I don't know how that is better than 14-15 other teams'. They have the potential to reach average if some starting pitching prospects transition to the pen successfully but we can't factor that in. Average would be a windfall for this offense.

I'm seeing the same thing.

I didn't think we'd see another lefty with a real chance of making the team get added. Walks are the main concern, but unlike other relievers we have that's about it, he's still good at getting swings and misses. I like his odds of making the pen, and there's a decent chance he's closer. I trust him more than Banda.

100% agreed, that's what I said at the time of the trade. Stewart's value was low, but they should have been able to get a lottery ticket like they did for Paddack / Coloumbe.

He's been a manager for 5+ years and 750 games, feels odd to be saying that it's "too early" when he has an extensive track record.

IIRC I don't believe most sources have Abel as a top 100 prospect.

This depth chart doesn't mean anything, Larnach is listed as 4th in line to play LF behind Martin, Roden, and Outman and we know that's not happening.

Not a surprising move, that's probably it for the bullpen additions. Also not exciting, given he was primed for regression with his high walk rate and his FIP implied his defense was saving him runs. Looks like during the playoff run he was pitching in low leverage, and was downright terrible in the World Series. Small sample size of course, but I can see why the Dodgers are moving on from him. One thing I will note is that I appreciate that there are actually multiple rosterable left-handed relievers in the bullpen this year. But still, long term I wouldn't be shocked if Sands is the only reliever in the 2027 pen that is currently slated to make the 2026 roster.

Hard to say it's a bad trade for them if Jax still has value that will be worth trading for. Maybe not ideal for a team that isn't ready to do anything in the playoffs, but if they were ready to throw in the towel on Bradley as a starter, then may as well get two years of one of the better relievers in the game for him. While true, Falvey just left and they likely had Bradley continue prepping to start. That may change down the road, but I doubt they're going to move him to the pen right away now that Falvey is gone.

Best case scenario, a few starter prospects successfully transition to the pen so the 2027 bullpen has a chance to build around something. I don't really care about what the likes of Rogers and Topa do, they aren't long-term pieces and probably won't be back next year.