Danchat

With the Fields to Falcons rumors dissipating, the expectation is that Atlanta will land Cousins. We are looking likely to lose both Cousins and Hunter on the FA market... this offseason will be fascinating for this team. The roster is lacking talent at almost all positions, but they have tons of money to spend in future seasons with those two gone.

Was his defense really that good? I dunno, doesn't seem like a guy whose selling point is defense at 1B and passable OF play is worth that much.

Feels wrong that Rosario is sitting around while Gallo got $5M despite his horrid year. Both hit 21 HRs last year and Eddie at least had a passable season and is only 2 years older... and not to mention Gallo's injury issues.

Akers is a free agent, and I suspect he doesn't sign until around August/September. He was middling before his second Achilles tear and isn't getting anything more than the veteran minimum. Gibson is a sleeper I like, effective in the passing game and has a history of being a good runner before landing in Ron Rivera's doghouse. Dallas is just a guy in my opinion, can handle 3rd downs and mostly plays special teams. Dillon just had a poor year (3.4 YPC, didn't go over 80 yards in any single game despite starting 6) so he could be brought in cheap. As you said there will be plenty of cheap options. I think they will add competition to the RB room very soon.

Turns out we actually save $3.3M from releasing him instead of only $600K, making it a no-brainer move. The contract was not initially reported correctly (another reason why when you hear contracts reported they can be very misleading).

The deal seems alright at first glance, though I didn't realize how little power Margot has. I'm surprised they went with him over Taylor, though outside of the HRs Taylor was not good at the plate last year. Miller has a pretty low chance of being a MLB-viable hitter. Maybe the Dodgers will work some magic on him but I find it doubtful he will become anything more than an occasional utility call-up. Plenty of prospects with great fielding abilities but no bat have come and gone, so I don't see losing him as much of a loss, given what this organization has at the position.

It does make a lot more sense if these four teams are trying to sign him to minor deals, while he's waiting to see if he can land a major league deal.

People were disappointed when Donovan Solano was signed last year and turned out a pretty good year, and Kike is a fun player to watch... but between him and Santana as the new RH hitters on town that would be underwhelming.

Wow. I saw your initial post and considered making a move, but dang I didn't think it'd skyrocket that fast!

It's worth noting that his 2023 draft class looks pretty good for only having one top 90 pick... but the 2023 FA class is about as bad as it gets. Davenport was a huge miss, Lowry was a waste of money and appears to have his money guaranteed in 2024 due to injury, Oliver was a waste and made little impact on the run game, and Murphy was scarcely a success as he is barely startable. Not to mention having Mattison be the only notable RB acquisition after missing on Montgomery. Nothing was stopping them from signing free agents who could help in the long term but they chose to mostly sign short-term deals. Yeah, I think the only reason why the date was pushed back was in case he doesn't land anywhere in FA right away, the Vikings would take him back for a very small amount, near the minimum. He earned $11.3M last year (he failed to get $1.7M in incentives).

Absolutely, I'd say so. Do you think the Texans regretted taking Stroud? Sure, I agree that it's not worth shelling out 3 1st round picks / making a blunder like Carolina did to move up to #1, but if you can find that franchise QB and pair him with a competent HC and a front office that can build a roster, they can compete with the Chiefs. They aren't gonna win it all every year. It's difficult to put all three of those things together but there's no sense in giving up.

I suppose other teams didn't think he has the stuff to be a legit reliever, at least not worth it to keep on the 26 man roster for some time. I would guess if he had at least 1 option then he gets claimed. This happened last year with Blayne Enlow, nobody claimed him when he was DFA'd despite having 2 options and had been a notable prospect. It reeks of other teams viewing these pitchers as AAAA players rather than prospects.

I didn't expect the Twins were going to add so many relievers (that all happen to be in their mid 30s) this offseason, but I'm not complaining, as relievers are fickle enough that it's wise to give yourself more options than needed. Okert gets the strikeouts, but looking through his gamelogs he had a poor final two months after having a strong start to the year. I like that they've added another lefty as we nearly ran out of them last year. I was surprised Gordon was tendered in the first place and I didn't expect him to be on the team for long, but now it's over. It's a disappointing result for the former 1st rounder, but at least he had one pretty solid year in the majors. We'll see if he can carve out a bench spot successfully in Miami.

The kid is 19 and those issues can be ironed out - it's not as if we are talking about some prospect who is 23/24 years old and is close to debuting. There is still a lot of development time to go. But in the same vein he probably is rated too highly because he's so far away.

While true, it seems like hitting prospects pan out at a much higher rate than pitching prospects, at least from watching years of the Twins organization churn out players.

There really is no such thing as a pitching prospect. 😔 Another one bites the dust.

They've pretty consistently been able to do this the past couple years. That's why they bother to make these claims. Mission accomplished, we have more depth at AAA now.

My question for Martin is how high will his batting average at the major league level be? Some have compared him to Arraez but he's never consistently hit that well in the minors (.256 career minors average, compared to Arraez's .331). Yes, it's basically guaranteed he'll take a boatload of walks, but will that be in addition to a .240 average or something more like a .270-.280 average? With limited power, that will be key if he wants to stick as a starter in the majors. I see he played a bunch of 2B at AAA last year when I thought he was playing in the outfield more... only 23 starts in the OF in AAA last year. This after he played a bunch of SS in 2021/22 just for management to realize what we all knew that he couldn't handle that position. I guess he's being trained to be a utility player? I thought it'd make more sense to fully convert him to being an outfielder who can play all three spots, but perhaps being able to handle 2B could prove handy in the future.

I like that they added a RH bat to pair with Kirilloff and fill in at DH, but Santana isn't inspiring. He had a nice little resurgence last year that he'd do well to repeat, but at 38 you never know when his play is going to fall off a cliff. I do like that he doesn't strike out often, though I thought he took more walks than he does - seems to be my memory of earlier in his career. I prefer him far more than Gallo's addition last year, and I have to bring this up again - Santana's 4 sacrifice flies from last year is more than Gallo has had in his entire career!

There have been HC snubs who have been white before, former Vikings OC Darrell Bevell never got a job despite getting quite a few interviews over the years. Longtime Saints OC Pete Carmichael coached year after year of great offenses with the Saints and was with Brees with the Chargers through the Saints, but he never got interviews like Bieniemy did. Teams knew Payton was the mastermind of the offense, not Carmichael - just like how Reid overshadows Bieniemy. I'm shocked Ben Johnson hasn't gotten a HC job two years in a row, though it seems the Commies wanted to hire him so I won't include him on that list. You can add Canales if you're counting minorities, since he's part Latin American. I think Pierce is going to get a legitimate chance as he did quite well with the team in his interim stint, he might make it as the "leader of men" hire a la Dan Campbell. I think they also regret not hiring Rick Bisaccia after his interim stint, and they are trying not to make that mistake twice. I don't have a read on the Patriots situation. Clearly they've been grooming Mayo for some time now, but it's hard to know how much leash he'll get since we don't have a recent history of them churning through HCs. It seems there was some sort of clause that allowed them to hire Mayo without interviewing anyone else - otherwise I wonder if Flores gets an interview. I don't think Kraft cares that he's suing the league.

They certainly have more ammo to move some prospects. I find it funny how much hand-wringing there is over trading our own top prospects, yet we acquire a guy good enough to be #4 in our system and a possible top 100 player and nobody bats an eye. Maybe they feel more comfortable moving Rodriguez, or perhaps they make a big move at the trade deadline involving Gonzalez and others. Let's not forget Gonzalez is by far the most valuable piece to this trade. It's funny because we've done this exact same song and dance a good 5 straight years, yet so many are quick to overreact to no moves happening. That's just how this front office and the league operates. Things go slow. I have no doubt another $10-15M will be spent and likely one more trade will be made. No idea if it'll be another starter, but there is more to come even if it does end up underwhelming to some as they are going to reduce payroll.

Seems a bit high for Severino, there just aren't many power-only guys who make it in this league. He'd provide more value if he could handle 3B but it seems 1B is his fit... though I'd love to be proven wrong. Good to see more international talent like de Andrade having a solid year at a young age. I've been rooting for Rosario, though I hope he can figure out how to avoid being a DH-only.

I have to agree with you on SWR, that second half sample size isn't enough to sway me and the drop in velocity is concerning. The inability to throw strikes and pitch that slow isn't gonna fly in the majors.

On first glance, I like this trade. While DeSclafani is a classic "#5 starter" who is a 50-50 bet to implode midseason, it was important to add depth there and they didn't have to pay the full $12M or full with Seattle sending money back. Though if I had to bet, I'd put money on him not making it to the end of the year in the rotation. Just looking at Topa's stats from last year, I am a fan. I have been clamoring for more bullpen additions and this is a quality addition. I've looked through his game logs and I'm really impressed, he wasn't just hid in the 5th-7th inning, he pitched in quite a few high leverage situations (23 holds and 3 saves). In 75 appearances he only gave up a run in 12 of them and multiple runs in just 6. He should be able to fill Pagan's role that was left open. Who knows if he'll be any good next year since he is a reliever who doesn't rely on strikeouts, but I still approve. I am very surprised we got a top 10 prospect and a borderline Top 100 one to boot. Gonzalez throttled level A at age 19, then struggled when promoted against competition far older than him. With our farm looking somewhat questionable in depth, it's nice to have an addition - not to mention another piece to move for an MLB player if needed. Bowen appears to be mostly a throw-in, being a 12th round pick who had a decent first year at level A but will already be 23. Maybe he can become a reliever at some point but I don't expect to see him make it to the majors. Overall, seems like a quality trade that opens a full-time position for Julien to play (and Farmer makes more sense at his salary as the full-time utility INF). As much as I have enjoyed Polanco as a Twin, his health has become a problem and his fielding isn't what it once was. I wish him luck in Seattle.

Agreed, everyone seems to ignore Gibbs' brutal fumble that was quickly turned into a TD. That was far worse than Campbell getting too aggressive... despite the fact he rightfully had zero trust in his backup kicker. The drops and fumble lost the game (in addition to the defense crumbling), and if the players executed on even one of those 4th downs then it is a different game.