Danchat

Holy barnacles... you can't have Santana pinch hit! Certainly not for Kirilloff!

Gotta agree on Okert, he's been quite rubbish so far this year - only 6 innings and in that span he's given up 12 baserunners. Looks like Sands threw a well-located 0-2 pitch to Baez, he just did a great job of making contact on that ball out of the zone.

Martin showing why he shouldn't be slotted at #9 in the lineup...

Josh Staumont has been activated from the IL and optioned to AAA.

That wouldn't change the incredibly questionable quality of lineups we are seeing...

I understand that reference!

Your logic is sound, but I don't think it happens. This is their chance to get their franchise QB, who knows when they will get another shot (the 2025 QB class is considerably weaker and who knows if they will be top 3 again). Ideally they would sit on that rookie for most of Year 1 and as for WRs Round 2-3 are absolutely stacked compared to previous years. MHJ is super special but the rewards of hitting on an elite QB compared to an elite WR are much greater. The odds I'm seeing on MHJ at #3 is +1600, pretty unlikely, but if you end up correct that will be quite the hunch.

Polanco is still hitting .194 with a .681 OPS to start the year, both he and Julien are starting off the year slow and if Jorge were still here we would be lumping him in with the "slumping hitters" category. And I'm unsure about these claims about his range, Fangraph's fielding stats had him at an average to below average fielder at 2B last year. Still, in hindsight clearly we needed to keep Polanco... but our offense would still be poor even with him (and his .194 average) in the lineup. Even with his questionable fielding and ankle problems, he'd be a godsend as the primary DH on this team.

I think you're mixing up ILBs and OLBs, which are two very different positions in 3-4 defenses. OLBs or what I prefer to call them "edge defenders" which are Greenard, Van Ginkel, and Ward (Hunter, Davenport, Wonnum, Jones II last year). The first two will likely be every-down players with Ward rotating in, with Jones II and Andre Carter competing with him and any rookies (I would like another 4th/5th edge). At ILB, Flores tends to play two at a time but does situationally have only one out there as they opt to go with a safety or a third edge defender (Wonnum/Jones II last year). Cashman is likely stepping into Hicks' role as the every down ILB and Pace Jr. will continue his role as a weapon to be used 20-90% of the snaps depending on what the gameplan is. There were games where Flores only had him out there 10-15 snaps, and some he played nearly every down. The 5th LB you mention was Grugier-Hill, who should strictly only be a special teamer while Asamoah will compete with him. Flores showed zero faith in Asamoah last year so I expect we will not see any 3 ILB formations, just like last year. So I don't see Pace Jr. being a trade piece, as there isn't anybody behind him that Flores would trust to fill his role. And with how well Ivan played last year, they'd be foolish to as I don't think they'd fetch much as teams don't often trade ILBs. My question is will Metellus continue to play an every down role as a 3rd safety? Flores did mention that they want to scale back Harry's snaps so it is possible Metellus begins to take over at SS when Smith is not on the field. Not to mention will Flores trust his CB corps to field 3 CBs in the nickel? Last year Metellus was the primary nickel CB and they only fielded 3 CBs [by name] in dime formations.

Funderburk has 30 career strikeouts in 19 innings, about 14.2 K/9 which is fantastic. If he maintains a K rate close to that then I will take the groundballs.

His career stats? Plenty of AAAA guys like Fajardo have raked in AAA and then contributed nothing in the majors (Tim Beckham, anyone?). Not to mention he's at AAA for the first time and hitting sub .650 OPS. Incredibly tiny sample sizes aside, Larnach is on the 40 man and with so many injured guys clogging the roster up, it is logical to give him another chance over a AAAA player.

Reminder: this thread is for posting about Twins roster moves ONLY, not opinions about players / coaches. The point of this thread is to have an easy place to see past and current transactions (AAA signings like Kemp are fine as they are potential options for the major league team). Edit by Squirrel: posts that veer off into discussion will be split off into its own thread or will be removed. Feel free to start your own discussion/opinion threads, but this thread is not a 'catch all' for random commenting. Thanks.

Ah, Tim Beckham... that time when he hit .400 at AAA so they called him up... and then hit .080 and is out of baseball. I'm with you on Martin, though with Keirsey they probably like him enough to not want to risk DFA'ing him after the season.

As nicksaviking already stated, Larnach seems to be a hot-and-cold hitter. The 100 PAs before he was demoted he was hitting .189 with a .677 OPS. When he's hot, he is great at driving in runs - which makes it all the more frustrating that he can't maintain that for longer. And despite his profile he doesn't hit for as much power as he should.

This is Larnach's fourth major shot at earning a spot with the Twins and staying there. After failing to stick for the first three, I find it doubtful the fourth time is the charm but there is no harm in trying.

I had some hope Varland could stick as a #5 starter... but this is what happens whenever I have the slightest shred of optimism for a Twins starter prospect. Thankfully we already know Varland can deal in the bullpen. SWR deserves another crack at it... but if he falters then we're in big trouble depth-wise. Actually, we already are in that trouble.

I would be less concerned if it was just the 50 PAs so far this year and not how his 2023 season was a far cry from his 2019-22 self. The more I watch the more I think this is who Buxton is now. Spurts of HRs will come, but even then we don't need another Gallo on this roster... who doesn't draw walks. Not to mention this is the healthiest he's going to be this year (unless he just so happens to be playing through an injury).

Farmer's got to make that play, if he's gonna hit .080 then he better at least be able to knock a groundball like that down. Given how volatile bullpens are and the injuries ours has sustained, taking until game 14 to leave a crooked number is pretty good. Too early to say Thielbar is cooked, one HR and two groundball singles isn't that much of a sample size... but it's nice to have two capable lefties if he is, unlike the past couple years.

The NFL actually does this with promoting players from the practice squad (or poaching from another team's), IIRC they get 4 game checks minimum even if they are axed after one game. Similar concept.

I definitely did not expect 7 straight outs from Sands to end the game... groovy! Great job getting both wins today when it felt like they were listless yesterday. Them's the ups and downs of the baseball season.

Great to see Sands holding firm in a high leverage situation. Also, the Tigers hitters are striking out like crazy.

Fun fact: Funderburk has struck out 30 hitters in 19 major league innings pitched!

6 innings, 1 run allowed is a heck of a way to start the year for SWR. Very encouraging, as it is highly probable he will be starting more games this year. Many more.

I looked away for a moment when we were up 5-4, now 11-4?! Of course it was an error, god forbid this team have a clutch hit. Detroit put a position player in at pitcher with only a 4 run lead? Really? Don't think I've ever seen that. I get that this is a double-header but come on.

Martin should never be below Castro and Vazquez in a lineup ever again... and probably Santana but we are multiple months away from the team realizing their mistake with him.