Danchat

I wish we could also be only 2 years removed from our last championship.

They've gotten seven years and their promise of sustained competitiveness hasn't panned out. They're only 'competitive' this year because of the division and would be in 4th or 5th place in another division (8th/9th out of 15 in the AL). In my opinion they haven't fielded a playoff contender since 2020. The only other thing other than firing Falvey/Levine would be moving them elsewhere in the organization and having someone else run the team. I agree, but it should be up to the new FO to decide his fate. Many of the rationalizations around Baldelli's coaching have been misguided (for example, Rocco gets praise for letting starters go longer in 2023 compared to 2022, but that was because the majority of his starters sucked the third time through, and now he actually has a good rotation that can be trusted), or the bullpen issues that everyone complains about, but he's been forced to put in relievers who are not up to snuff into places they don't belong and people criticize even the tiniest misuse of a player. It goes to show that the roster just isn't good enough. The core from 2017-20 has been mostly dismantled and what we have now is middling, with the top talent we do have spending far too much time on the injured list. The pitching pipeline never materialized, forcing them to make several trades for starters (which aren't bad moves individually, but we were expecting a Cleveland-like pipeline that we would be able to draw from), and they have the hardest time building a bullpen (which is something I expect a hiccup from with the volatility of the position, but the past few years of Joe Smith/Emilio Pagan/AAAA arms/forcing them to acquire arms at the deadline has not worked. Frankly, I don't know. Perhaps reboot the team culture / fill out the coaching staff with new faces and see what works. Maybe that doesn't change the status quo or even backfires, but "trusting the process" without any results is futile. When it comes to the players/talent I don't believe a full-on rebuild is required to get this team into perennial playoff contender status, but the franchise needs a reboot via a new GM / team president.

Reminds me of when the Yankees traded away Aroldis Chapman, got the Cubs #1 prospect, then got him back the next year. Obviously not the same sequence of events here, but Verlander ends back up in Houston where he started, and the Mets got a top prospect out of it.

I know the whole hindsight thing annoys people... but I and some others called in in that "the Twins don't need to add relievers" thread right before the season began. There were far too many question marks, and the Twins made too many assumptions (Lopez would rebound, Alcala would be back to where he left off, no injuries, a veteran cast-off emerging or other young arms emerging). Pagan did rebound and Stewart was a big find, but that and adding Floro is not enough if this bullpen is going to make it through the playoffs. I suppose if the goal is to win the division then continuing with this cobbled crew could work, but if they are serious about winning in the playoffs then they're going to give up runs like they did in 2019-20.

I'd be down for the Cleveland / Tampa approach if it led to the results that Tampa gets, but with our current FO, heck no. Though I'd love to see what Tampa could do if they had the salary that the Twins do.

Late August at earliest, he will probably start a rehab assignment in a week or two.

I'd be ticked off if I were a Cleveland fan, a single 1B prospect for 2.5 years of Civale? I'm sure he's good, but you should get multiple prospects in return for multiple controllable years of a quality starting pitcher.

Impressive, I'm glad you did the research - though I have to say I'm interested to see if any sweeps happened earlier in the year? I also didn't realize how horrid their winning percentage was at this point... woof!

I'm sure it has happened several times, with how random baseball can be at times, but we are only a few ticks over .500...

I don't think they're going to sell for prospects, the front office is going to do what they can to win the division this year to prevent from being fired. I don't think they can afford to have a third straight losing season. That being said, they might opt to move a couple MLB players for other MLB players, like trading Gray or Maeda for RH hitting / moving an outfielder for a reliever.

Just checking in... 7 innings from Yarbrough, just one run... I was told at the start of the year that we'd be fine against lefties, but here we are, another game against a middling lefty and we get dominated. If only we knew that we'd need RH hitting help in the offseason... oh wait, we did. Feels like Correa's hot streak is over, now he's back to being a sub .700 OPS hitter who is now the leadoff hitter. We had better hope he's a new hitting coach away from being back to himself again, or we are paying a lot of money to defense-first shortstop.

Probably Cruz for Ryan and Strotman... but on the us acquiring a veteran? Uh... Kevin Jepsen? Sergio Romo was okay. But by definition of "blockbuster"... Shannon Stewart?

Moran simply isn't a MLB reliever. He's been given ample opportunity, but he just doesn't have it. We need another lefty in the pen to pair with Thielbar, especially with Caleb's injury problems this season.

It seems like contract talks have reached an impasse, and a trade is firmly on the table. I am mixed on whether if this is the right move or not. The team is in an odd position as their offense should be a top 10 unit, while the defense quite possibly has the least amount of talent in the whole NFL minus Hunter. We would have a lot of high scoring games! As for the price for Hunter, I would want a late 1st (from a contender) or early 2nd + more. Based upon the price of other pass rushers getting traded (see Bradley Chubb), that would be a fair price.

Lewis is coming back late August at earliest, so I wouldn't call that imminent. Perhaps their insatiable desire for 8 relievers will be what it takes to force them to DFA Gallo to get Ortega or the like up.

Crazy how he doesn't hit free agency until age 35... but I'd consider it, he's got stellar numbers over the past 3 years.

Castro has stolen home 3 times this year... right? That's nuts. I really appreciate the value he brings on the bases. Gallo, meanwhile, needs to be DFA'd ASAP. I knew from the moment we signed him he'd be hitting horribly, but even deep into the summer he'd still be getting penciled into the lineup most every day for the off chance he hits a solo HR.

Cool, I was actually looking to go to the Saints game tonight but I looked too late, it was completely booked.

I'll willing to bet Cano's play going forward will be more dependent on the walks - reminds me of Brusdar Graterol, who's got consistently low K rate but rarely ever walks anyone and has a pretty darn good ERA & FIP.

I wouldn't call a top 20 prospect of ours a "fringe", and he's recently been ranked as one of their top 10 prospects - not to mention, he was the primary prospect of the trade, the guy the Orioles wanted. He's not someone I'm losing sleep over, but our current stable of pitching prospects is mediocre again and we could use him (best used as a trade chip for someone of actual value, not a sub-replacement level reliever).

Pretty crazy how this current form of the team had its competitive window open in 2021, and then slammed shut and now they're awful again. I thought they'd at least have a few years of relevance, but all they have left is a couple good hitters, and a pair of solid starters and that's it. I have no idea how stacked their farm system is, but I'd say their outlook going forward is quite bleak.

Fangraphs had the two prospects at #3 and #9, so the return doesn't seem that high. I suppose both pitchers are hitting the free agent market so that keeps their value quite low... I am intrigued to see if the Angels can finally reach the playoffs with Trout and Ohtani.

I noticed some Marlins fans noting that Floro has a tendency to melt down in close games this year, so I did a little bit of digging: High Leverage - giving up .864 OPS in 75 PAs Medium and low leverage - giving up .692 OPS in 96 PAs When within 3 runs - .833 OPS, within 2 runs .853 OPS, within 1 .921 OPS, tie game 1.005 OPS When > 4 runs: .604 OPS So he's basically pitching like Pagan is, a solid middle reliever with a strong FIP suggesting he can be better, but can't handle high pressure situations. IMO this trade itself isn't an awful move, the awful part is that this front office turned Cade Povich, Yennier Cano, and 2 lottery tickets into two months of Dylan Floro. Not to mention failing to get Lopez right and receiving a net negative WAR from him. I would bet Floro pitches better than Lopez does the rest of the year so it could turn into a minor win amidst a very bad trade.

Welp, this confirms the Jorge Lopez trade was a terrible one, and they have sold low on him. Floro looks like another classic 'high ERA low FIP' reliever whose performance will be a mystery box, but most likely won't be here in 2024 and on. Can't say I feel any better about the bullpen... and it is seeming like the young arms aren't going to help much. Balazovic has looked like a keeper, but Moran just isn't good, Winder and Sands are mop-up arms. It's too bad they gave up too early on Cano but have given Moran more chances.

We have a slugfest on our hands!