Doc Munson

Who says no to some of the following trade options? #1 Pablo Lopez and Christian vazquez to Red Sox for Tristan Casas and Miguel Blies: Why it works for Twins: They are able ot clear $32M from the books while at the same time solving their 1B issue. they get a prospect with MASSIVE upside who was showing big potential before injuries in 2024. This also allows for further moves with our infield depth. BU ta clear 1B upgrade and clearing $32M is that too much to pass up? Why it works for Red Sox: Red Sox are having internal discussion of moving Rafael Devers to 1B, and Casas is definitely expendable in that case. Red Sox need another starter and can easily take on teh $10 owed Vazquez. #2 Renew trade acquaintences with Miami: and Brooks Lee, Eduard Julien, Gabriel Gonzalez to Miami in exchange for Sandy Alcantara Why it works for Twins: Th eTwins once again dip into IF depth to acquire a starter from Miami.Twins still have Lewis, Correa, Miranda (Casas if make that deal), the supposed near MLB ready 5 tool prospect in Keaschall, plus utility guys in Martin and Castro. Maybe the Twins can do with with keeping one of teh three and/or swapping out with another top 25 Twins prospect. Alcantara is coming off TJ, but he is nearly 2 years removed and all accounts are he is back to his previous injury self. Twins still get 3 years of control Why it Works for Miami: If Miami is in yet another "redo" mode, do they want to keep an "older player" at his price? They have already moved Luzardo for 2 prospects. Would they move a more expensive starter for THREE quality prospects/young players?? They coudl get 3 young MLB ready (or near) positional starters. #3 is a FA edition of "who says no"? instead of a team, it is Twins or the FA Twins sign BOTH Justin Verlander & Max Scherzer to matching 3 year deals averagign about $15M per with some built in protections for both. Something liek $12M for year 1. Year 2 is $15M with mutual options. Player opt out options, or Twins can buyout at $3M (this basically means it is a $15 year year 1 deal). Year 3 at $18M but contains vesting options based on innings or performance in year 2. Why this works for teh Twins: These are low risk moves. there is built in protections with the mutual option and the vesting option for years 2 and 3. While neither can legitimately be counted on for 30+ starts, they would both be great mentors for Ryan, Ober, and the rest of our young pitchers. This gives us 6 deep with Ryan, Ober, (Lopez, or Alcantara if we do/dont do any of those other moves) Verlander, Scherzer, SWR. plus our ready/near ready young guys means we would have the depth to ease them along or deal with injuries. From a financial perspective they will sell tickets. and if Verlander performs and we can retain him we have the chance at the run for 300. Why this works for JV/Max: Neither pitcher is set to get any offer above say $12M on even a 1 year deal due to age and recent injury. This give them the opportunity to maximize their value and provide flexibility on their end.

It is sad we need to be financially constrained, but since we are, I will keep screaming from the mountaintops until this gets done or these parties are no longer available. And first off I HATE moving him!! But if we are talking about clearing salary and moving pitching, how are we NOT talking about Pablo Lopez? A) he would command the biggest return. B) he would clear the most money and C) He would allow us to package Vazquez to clear more money. No other team would be incentivized to bring on Vazquez with an Ober or Ryan. The perfect trade partner right now are the Red Sox. Move Lopez and Vazquez in the same deal to the Sox in exchange for Tristan Casas and Miguel Bleis. That clears $32M and give us a legit starting 1B. Then to offset pitching loss sign BOTH Scherzer and Verlander to 3 years deals. with player options after the 1st year. I think could easily get them for an average of $12M per. So Verlander and Scherzer on 3 year $36M deals (on average maybe one has to be a bit higher who knows). I would say Verlander, Scherzer, Casas in exchange for Lopez and Vazquez is a MASSIVE overhaul!! PLUS would be saving close to $10M in total. If they can be even league average pitchers it is a Phenomenal deal!! WIN If they are hurt and/or suck then on the hook for 2 more years (Unless you make year 2 a mutual Option with say an $8M buyout, then at least you get the third year off the books). LOSS (but a manageable loss) If Twins are out of contention but they are pitching well then you have 2 strong trade deadline pieces, and can move mor salary and pick up more assets. WIN.

The Twins (as with any team) would be crazy excited to land Roki Sasaki. Would he choose to sign here? Maybe, maybe not. The Twins do have one thing in their favor which is the fact that they are in the small group of teams who can offer him the most money. How huge would a Sasaki signing be? It would be literally franchise altering!! Having a talent like Sasaki with international appeal on essentially a bargain contract would instantly increase the value of a franchise that is looking for a buyer. On the field it has a potential impact well beyond landing an Ace. With Adding Sasaki to Ober, Ryan, Lopez SWR would make for a strong top 5!! But it would...PST nomination in the making here... Give the Twins an embarrassment of riches from which we could trade. Combine depth with Possibility of Twins wanting to trim payroll, and that makes Pable Lopez a phenomenal trade piece. Lets say a team like the Red Sox who are in need of pitching. a Lopez for Tristan Casas and a prospect like Miquel Bleis or Kristian Campbell. There is talk of moving Devers to 1B making Casas expendable and gettable. Pair up one or both of those prospects makes this a fair deal for both sides. Heck we should be able to even demand that Vazquez and his salary are part of this trade as well. The kicker is by moving both Lopez's $21.75M and Vazquez's $10M means we coudl then make matching 3 year $36-45M deals to both Justin Verlander adn Max SCherzer. at say between $12-15M each we add 2 more quality (albeit older and coming off injuries) starting pitchers. Now at the same (or less) salary levels we have a rotations of Sasaki, Ober, Ryan, Verlander, Scherzer, SWR. That is 6 deep not even counting any of our young pitchers, which would allow us to take it slowly with Ryan, Verlander, Scherzer coming back from health issues. and give us protection from new injuries. While at the same time adding a big bat like Casas and have a potential infield of Casas, Lewis, Correa, Miranda. providing even more infield depth and havign Julien or Lee also as valuable trade chips. But all onyl if we get Sasaki

... and why is he on the 40 man roster over Kala'i Rosario? Granted Rosario is by no means a cant miss prospect, and there is a possibility that he will not be claimed in the Rule 5 draft, Why the heck do you send him to AFL and then not protect him? With no disrespect to Helman... Helman is 28 tears old, will not crack opening day roster when we have Buxton, Larnach, Wallner, and even Austin Martin? and if you believe reports of us being linked to Tyler Oniel there is no immediate need, and at 28 he is not the future. By mid year Emmanual Rodriguez coudl be ready, and by next year Walker Jenkins, again confirming there is not a need for a 28 year old as part of the future. And again while being drafted in Rule 5 is no guarantee, after playing in 67 games at AA last year, and in the AFL the last 2 years he is definitley in the window of possibility!! and we risk that for Helman?

Of course trading Correa woudl be a very viable option. Especially for a team looking to keep payroll down, and we coudl get some top talent from either Mets of Yankees, BUT where exactly does this fallacy that we cannot keep Correa's payroll and properly build around??? If we are talking about a window where we have Correa, that is a 3 year window. his contract is only guaranteed through 2028 with all other years having vesting options based on PA. and at numbers he has not hit in 4years, so lets assume he does not get 575 ABs in 2028 to vest the 2029 season. In the next 3 years we have control over... Twins currently have an ACE (Lopez) and 2 young quality developing pitchers in Ober and Ryan, plus potential with SWR so while it would be GREAT to add more top line pitching, there is nto a screaming need there. and not for the next 2+years.. Worst case scenario we cant move Vazques or Paddack and that combined $17.5M comes off the books after 2025.. The following young players will still be under team control, unless traded... Wallner potential starting RF Lewis potential starter SOMEWHERE in IF for good or for bad... Buxton on the books til 2028 Larnach potential starting OF Brooks Lee... hasnt proven self yet, but potenial starter Julian... jury still out butpotential starter Miranda... not consistently proven, but potential plus young potential "studs" in Jenkins and Rodriguez So really only need to fill a hole or two here or there while still keeping Correa

Of course this is completely made up wild speculation, but how cool woudl this scenario be?? Arod and Lore are in squabbles about the Wolves ownership.. Mark Cuban has gone on record stating he would become an owner of a new team if Shaq was involved. And Derek Jeter has always had aspirations of ownership. How about this for a dual ownerhsip group. Arod, Jeter, Cuban, and Shaq, form a singular entity and buy BOTH the Twins AND the Wolves!! and just for local interest they bring in KG and Joe Mauer as minority owners of both teams as well. The NBA would buy off on this in a heartbeat!!! Cuban bring s the money, he makes any ownership group legit. (plus of course his history of being an owner). He could pay cash all by himself for either the Twins OR the Wolves with his $3.5B sale of majority stake in Mavs. with him selling he remaing 27% stake he could buy BOTH. With Shaq's net worth being around $500M he is no slouch either. Jeter comes in at about $200M net worth KG at about $120M and Joe Mauer at about $100M Both the NBA and MLB would love this. It bring sin local ties and heroes from both sports to be co owners, it brings in succesful previous ownership group in Cuban, and big star power from teh NBA in Shaq. Also it brings in 2 minority owners to both the MLB & NBA in Shaq (and KG). It helps build the hype between both sports and both Minnesota teams.

This is probably about the most obvious issue the Twins have this off season. Even at just $1.8M this is a CLEAR NO!!! if his injury was an elbow, ankle, even shoulder I would say resign him as a longshot chance. But back injuries??? back injuries that take a player out for (almost) an entire season??? Back injuries just do not heal, they are with you for the duration of your career. And the comp should not be Kirilloff/Santana... it should be Kirilloff/Miranda or even Kirilloff/Julien.. Heck even Kirilloff/Severino, but nto Kirilloff/Santana

How a bout a quick game of Rock Paper Scissors. But this time in the form of Players, Coaches, Front Office. With an historic collapse liek the Twins had there is never just 1 reason for it. There are always multiple reasons. So how about a game of PCF? Where would apply the primary Failures? Not I am not including injuries in the game because a 4th option just does not fit the game. Plus depending on the injury it could fall into any of the current 3. 1) Offense: Down the stretch our offense completely disappeared. Truth be told, we were never TRULY that good of an offense. During our stretches of being the "explosive offense" the Twins pretended to be tended to come against stretches against bad to mediocre teams, when we moved onto better teams we tended to revert back to an underperforming offense. but we are focusing here on the collapse portion of the season, and while were were a top 10 run scoring offense overall, during this stretch of futility we were only better than the White Sox and Angels. who COMBINED for 102 wins. Players: You could say the Twins were "tired" or injured, btu that is an excuse, Lewis MASSIVE slump to end the year you could tell he was just all upper arm swing which indicates tiredness, But overall just didnt produce. Correa and Buxton were missing for a portion of the collapse, and both it well when they returned but we still struggled. How much of a collective struggle is "team approach" I.E. coaching? and how much is on players not performing? There was just too much bad baserunning, bad situational hitting, and bad approaches down the stretch that must go on the players on the field. Coaches: This could just be philisophical differences, as opposed to perceived incompetence, but I HATE the amount of early pinch hitting Baldelli does. And while I have never coached above College ball (ok never above high school or even T ball... but the "never above College" still is technically accurate) I think you have to give your players the opportunities to hit same side pitching. take opportunities during the year with games not on the line. leave them in sometimes. Do SOMETHING to make yourself not so reliable on having to switch out hitters. I cna recal a MINIMUM of at least 5 games wher Baldelli pinch hit for LH hitters in the 5th inning against teams that had only ONE LH pitcher in the bullpen. this means if you left your LH in the game in the 5th inning, you know for a fact they will face oly RH hitters the rest of the game. If my memory is correct we ended losing them all. Not that we were guaranteed to win them, but that is not putting your team in the best position to win. Front Office: While our offense was not the big priority, it was clear it was not the overall strength they sold it to be going into the season. Everyone had to know Correa and Buxton would be missing time again. While you couldn't anticipate the early injury to Lewis, he had never put together a full healthy season. While we had an abundance of "potential" we went into season with unproven over a full season Larnach, Miranda, Wallner, Kirilloff. Julien was coming off a good year but how many players repeat succesful rookie campaigns? Farmer is what he is (hint not a major league regular). Would Kepler be the 2nd half Kepler from last year? or what he had been for most of his career? oh yeah and Kepler, Wallner, Larnach all seem to have something I just cant put my finger on when it comes to building out a roster... Oh yeah ALL LH hitting OF. What is a coach supposed to do there? especially one who relies on analytics to mix and match? Margot was not a win, Santans though you have to give FO credit. But overall what else would a FO do here? you have to trust/hope in who you had. and where were realistic better options position wise? RESULT: ROCK... PAPER.. SCISORS... PLAYERS!! with coaching a close 2nd. and I could actually go coaching... after all can you blame players for simply playing to who the level they actually are? 2) PITCHING I am lumping the entirety of pitching into one group as starters and relievers impact each other. Players: Joe Ryan's injury here obviously had an impact. It does not seem to be an injury that coudl have been easily predicted (which would put on Front Office) or through the result of poor handling (which would have been put on coaching) so it comes in here. Ober was solid, Lopez was not spectacular but solid, and better down the stretch than early. Beyond those two in the roation, SWR performed admirably but tired down teh stretch, we relied on too many young starters who did not have the experience and who were approaching or exceeding historical innings maxes. the Bullpen had some inconsistency especially with Duran, most other failures were just relievers who were not very good overall. I cannot place the blame on young pitchers with no experience hitting their innigns maxes, or poor performances from players who simply arent that great, so hint... we may not have a winner here. Coaches: Now it gets juicier. AT least in my opinion. Personally I believe Baldelli did a HORRIBLE job of managing the staff. From pulling pitchers way too soon who were cruising, to using Duran in a number of situations where he had proven himself to struggle (yes any good pitcher shoudl be able to pitch in any situation, but if you as coach know they struggle more in certain situations you just do not put them in those situations). Weirdly the Twins are middle of the pack (14th) in innings pitched by pitchers, so does it just FEEL like he pulls pitchers early??? and maybe the horrible blow ups just shine more light than it deserves. but it FEELS like Baldelli horribly mismanaged this staff. so I am sticking with it. Front Office: SO going into the offseason we let Sonny Gray go, we let Maeda go. and we replaced with... ??? Again I wouldnt have anticipated Joe Ryan's injury but we went into the season with Ryan, Ober, Lopez as a top 3. with little other experience filling out the back end. So to START the season we had either inexperience or known injury history in the back end, SWR, PAddack, Disclafina, Varland. and ended up relying on inexpereinced youngsters hitting their innigns maxes in Fest and Matthews. SO we did not set up the rotation for success out the gate (which has an impact on the collapse we are specifically grading). At the deadline we did virtaully nothing and almost LITERALLY nothing. Total pitching moves by this Front Office: 6 total external moves. spending a total of $9M resulting in 4 DFA and 2 DNP. RESULT: ROCK... PAPER... SCISSORS... FRONT OFFICE!! (again with pitching a close second) To paraphrase a well used saying... "It takes teamwork to make the dream nightmare work" and if you average the scores... at least mine you get: Players: 1 offense and 3 pitching == 2 average Coaches 2 offense and 2 pitching = 2 average Front Office 3 offense and 1 pitching = 2 average. Overall though I would put the blame game as #1 Front Office #2 (close) coaching and #3 Players. Thoughts? and who comes out in your "Rock Paper Scissors"?

Holy cow, How pathetic were the Twins Pitching additions this year by our FO? we all know it was pathetic, but did you know it was THIS pathetic? I didnt quite realize how poor the moves were... until I read the article by Do-Hyoung Park... Here is the sum total of our pitching additions this year... OFFSEASON MOVES: Anthony DeSclafina: $4M DNP Josh Staumant: $950K Released 8/2. Steven Okert:: $1M DFA 8/24 Jay Jackson $1.3M DFA 6/21 Justin Topa: $1.25M : INJURED ... ok so he actually was able to get into a whopping 2 games and 1 1.3 innings but not until 9/25 when we were essentially already toast, so basically another DNP TRADE DEADLINE MOVES: Trevor Richards: acquired 7/30 DFA 8/27. The Sum Total of pitching acquisitions: 6 Total Acquisitions $9M (roughyl) 4 DFA/Released 2 DNP (including Topa as DNP as he essetnialyl was) yes... THAT pathetic!!

Bailey 7 IP 1 hit 0 walks 7K 83 pitches. Hey here is an idea, lets pull him after retiring 15 straight batters, absolutely rolling (throwing a potential Maddux) and lets replace him with Duran who struggle sin the 8th. Seriously?

Barring a total collapse the Twins are positioned well to make the playoffs. Even with the injuries and lack of moves. While not looking ahead to next year, this year and our relative success has me thinking about the sustainability. So while not looking AHEAD to next year, I am looking AT next year. How or where we will be able to make some tweeks to keep up with the Royals. This was initially going to be a very hopeful task. Instead it was a bti sobering. :( WE have a strong potential core. Lewis, Lee, Miranda, Wallner, Larnach on the position end of things and Ryan Assuming healthy for next year, Ober and Lopez also the developing SWR on the mound and Jax, Duran, Alcala in the pen. We will be having some salaries coming off the books in Kepler $10M, Farmer $6M Margot and Disclafini mean another $8M I cant imagine Santana being back next year so his $5M+ should be moved. Assuming continued financial constraint, and assuming even being able to keep current salary (and there is risk of having to cut even more next year). At least this is a good $30M we can re-allocate to help improve the solid core. right? Well Maybe not so much. * Injury riddled Correa goes from $33 to $37M that takes us down to $26M avaiable to remain the same. Injury riddled Byron Buxton stay about the same at $15M guaranteed. so that is good. Pablo Lopez's salary jumps $13.5M next year so that gives leaves $12.5M Even Chris Paddack locks in a $5M raise bringing potential available FA funds to $7.5M. and this will go up to maybe just over $10M with Kirilloff and others not being brought back. SO with roughly $10M to spend, where will the needs be and how can we fill them? OF: OF should be relatively set, even with departure of Kepler. Wallner steps right in there. Buxton should be "primary CF" and we can continue with Castro/Martin as back up if needed. LF could still be Larnach as in house, with possibility of E Rod beign a mid season promotion. IF: IF has lots of uncertainty, but not necessarily WHo will be playing, but WHERE they will be playing. Will Lewis be 3B? 2B? Correa, assuming health is locked into SS (or could a mid/late career change to 3B be in the works to take ease off feet and slide Lewis/Lee to SS??) Speaking of Lee he will be in there somewhere, and Miranda can be 1B/3B. Not to mention the potential of Julien shoudl he get things back together. All that being said, no clue WHERE they will all be playing , but we definitely have the players to field an IF. C: assumng Jeffers returns, and we have Vazques still on the books for $10M that will be impossible to move. SO status quo there. That means position player wise, even if we WANTED to improve significantly... or even marginally, there really isn't much room. Starting Pitching: AS mentioned above assuming the return and health of Ryan, Ober, Lopez, SWR that is a quality top 4. Can Festa or Zebby prove capable of the #5 spot? Indications are there may not be a HUGE need for SIGNIFICANT upgrade to rotation. BULLPEN: if we keep a core of Jax, Alcala, Duran in place, even a respectable Cole Sands. and the Twins philosophy of "year to year" bullpen arms. where they believe Bullpen success is very inconsistent year over year, then we would be looking at not needing/spending much money there. with a potential solid rotation, then a Varland can move to BP. SO overall, while somewhat frustrating we have not added to a successful team. If you liek what you see this year, expect more of the same next year, if you DONT like what you see this year, expect more of the same next year. I say we follow the Wolves lead and RUN IT BACK!!! The onyl way to make significant changes is trying to trade Correa. That would be a cash dump move after continued years of missing big chunks of time and would get little in return unless we eat money which woudl go against our mantra. We have the organizational depth to handle moving correa. But if we did I would want to reinvest that $ into other quality players and we will just do it to save money. so lets run it back. The ONE move I would make... take our $10-12M (or so) we would have available. and make a run run at a 3 year guaranteed deal for Justin Verlander. a 3 year $36M deal. at his age and recent durability, I am not sure he gets more than that. Heck I would even go 3 year $45M to make it an even $15M. Verlander really wants 300 wins. It is a risk, but a risk worth taking. if he doesn't pitch, it is a 3 year hit. (heck we would have taken equal hits on the likes of Paddack), but if he is healthy in addition to being a still relatively quality arm, he would be a draw, especially as he approaches win #300. PLUS what a better mentor for the likes of Ober, Ryan, Festa, SWB, and other young pitchers. SO in long summation. For good or for bad, the Twins we have now will be the EXACT same team we have next year. Which may not be a bad thing.

Twins could obviously use a weapon like Miller in the bullpen. His rookie scale contract and controllable years make him affordable (financially) for the Twins. An Elite bullpen arm is a luxury teams not in contention now or the foreseeable future do not really need. All of this adds up to a perfect match for the Twins to go big, but will they? The twins have the propsects to get it done: Twins have some redundancies in a couple areas. with overlapping timelines. First lets look forward a bit. CF: assuming Buxton can reman even relatively healthy over even the next 2 years, which should be the window for when Jenkins/Rodriguez should be ready to man CF. Then that makes one of them "expendable" along with Gabriel Gonzalez. RF: We have Kepler this year then he is off the books. Twins could trade him to move salary, btu that would be kinda cruel, but his salary clears next year. Could he return on a lower deal? possibly... if he wants to be a Twins lifer. But if we assume Twins dont trade Wallner at this deadline, then he could be heir apparent in RF. LF: larnach?? if not traded? Castro? Martin? someone else moving forward next year, possibly a Keaschall? Being potentially weak here should nto prevent us from trading from our young OF depth. INFIELD: Again assuming health a potential IF of Lewis 3B Correa SS Lee 2B Miranda 1B would be very solid over the next 6-10 years (minus Correa) That opens up trade potential for Julien, So with just a cursory review some potential trade assets the Twins have to send to a rebuilding As team are: Julien, Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Larnach. You usually also nee to give up something to get something in the pitching department, so if we have to give up a high end pitcher with potential to get a PROVEN high end MLB arm then we have to. Zebby seems to be a fast riser, can we live without him? Charlee Soto? - we have given up recent highly drafting pitching in the past (Chase Petty). And how about making a bigger combo deal to help balance our lineup L/R. Say we give up Zebby, Soto, Julien, Rodriguez (could try it with Gonzalez first), and Larnach for Miller and bring back Rooker? Larnach decent, but not a corner stone player. the Rooker/Larnach swap is nto only an offensive upgrade but balances lineup, Rodriguez/Gonzalez is a top prospect but potentially blocked, Julien, at this point doesnt seem to be much room for going forward. Zebby & Soto both have potential, but how many young pitchers with potential actually live up to their potential? and we would be getting a proven arm, for this year and going forward. Would the Twins give that much up? and woul the As take that in return for BOTH Miller/Rooker? or coudl they get more in 2 separate trades?

The Twins are putting Miranda on the IL. and calling up Diego Castillo to take his spot on teh 40 man. Since Diego is not currently on the 40 man roster there needs to be a corresponding move. What do the Twins do? the Twins COULD do something with a pitcher, but lets assume they stay position player... here are the positions players on the 40 man. and remember this is not just sending someone down, it is risk losing the player to another team. NA means there is no way that player gets designated. Wallner - NA Emmanuel Rodriguez - NA Austin Martin - NA Trevor Larnach - NA Max Kepler - NA Byron Buxton - NA Yunior Severino - NA Carlos Santana - NA Jose Miranda - NA Royce Lewis - NA Brooks Lee - NA Eduard Julien - NA Carlos Correa - NA Willi Castro - NA Ryan Jeffers - NA. That leaves the following... Vazquez - he is a "clubhouse guy" which means the Twins will keep him even though he is not performing well. even so the Twins would never eat that contract. if they wanted to get rid of him they would trade hm for anything they can get, a bag of used BP balls to move the contract before DFA him. Camargo - Could be an option, but I doubt it as there really isn't another "next in line catcher" for the Twins. and would you risk losing him for a short call up? Farmer - Already on the IL, but not really a candidate to move him to the 60 day. Might not be a bad move, but there would clearly be a grievance if this was done as his injury does not necessitate a 60 day stint. Twins have proven they want to keep him so wont be DFA'd Martin... could the oblique legitimately cause a 60 day IL transfer? I doubt it, That leaves just Kirilloff. He has already been o the IL since 6/13 so already 30 days in. with no real update on his condition, this is a CLEAR move. Plus the Twins are getting annoyed with him. Not annoyed enough to straight up DFA him but they would love to get ANY sort of trade value out of him. putting him on the 60 day IL woudl prevent the option of being able to trade him by the deadline. so that is not SUPER good. At this point though with 2 weeks left til the trade deadline, and Kirilloff nowhere near a return, it kind of makes that point moot. To me the Twins 2 options are... Option #1 move Kirilloff to the 60 day IL Option #2 just play short. Making the move retroactive to Friday and after todays game, we are on break, and would only miss the 2 Brewers games coming out of the break (assuming healthy). Option #3 is nto really an option if they are indeed looking at Diego Castillo.... why not bring up Julien? How would you clear a spot on the 40 man in this situation?

I am not sure if there is anything serious with the Kepler injury, but now is the time to make a move. The Twins schedule has them playing NOBODY over .500 until after the Allstar break!! Now is the time to call up Wallner and Lee, let them continue their string recent offensive surges against AAAA competition to build confidence for the second half. DFA Farmer, there really is ZERO reason he is still on this club!! I have hear the veteran presence in clubhouse thing, but we still have Correa, we still have Santana, while he hasnt enjoyed great success we still have Buxton, and who cares about veteran presence with young leadership skills of Lewis. He needs to be gone. plug Brooks Lee into 2B. Use Castro as the super utility guy. While Kepler hasn't been HORRIBLE, he is obviously no longer a part of our long term future. Best case is he has a minor neck tweak that a IL stint coudl help, this would allow us to bring up Wallner for lightning in a bottle. If he continues hot streak then RF is his, if he flounders then we can go back to Kepler on his return. While Wallner is tearing it up, he is still striking out about 1/3 of his AB's. against AAA pitching, so if he comes up and continues with the high level K's (and dosent bring power along with it) then as mentioned after DL stint you go back to Kepler. But if ... IF... Wallner and Lee can bring their potential, and you put them in a lineup with Correa, Lewis, the resurgent Miranda (.284 avg & .844 over last 30 games) and the coming around Santana (.305 avg & .920 OPS over last 30 games) now we have a pretty potent lineup.

Wallner has ALWAYS been a notoriously horrible first half hitter, this is nothing new. The only question is if this trend continues (as it historically has) then who does he replace? Barring injury of course. Larnach is not a world beater but he has been solid. The Twins are not moving Kepler, Even if Buxton gets re-injured Wallner is not a CF. HE wont take any DH AB's from any RH hitters like Miranda. I dont want to trade him, but even if tis does prove to have staying power, what do you do with him?

SO yet again Baldelli pinch hits for the lead off batter and the#2 batter in the 5th inning!!!???? you have your starting lineup for 4 out of 9 innings. you pinch hit a guy hitting under .200 and an OPS under .500 for your leadoff guy, and you pinch another guy under .200 BA and under .500 OPS for a guy hitting .354 &.928!! Thsi SHi.... This CRA.... This STUFF has to stop!!!!

Just posted a rant... I mean blog... on Baldelli pinch hitting so early in games. I CANT STAND that style of play!!! if I was Wallner Id ask for a trade.!! sure PH for me in teh 8th or 9th against a lefty when we need a hit, but in teh 6th inning!!??? and with 2 outs and nobody on where you need MULTIPLE hits to score (most likely) AND you give up a guaranteed AB against a righty in teh later innings???!!!

UM... trading for injured pitchers is EXACTLY the Twins MO. HAHA

OK, first off, yes I am old school. I HATE platooning, and what I hate even more is strictly pinch hitting RH for LH, especially young players. How the heck is a lefty gonna learn how to hit a lefty if never given the chance??? And what makes no sense to me even MORE is pinch hitting in the 6th inning or earlier!!! I wish there was some smart analytics guy out there who coudl run stats and prove me either right or wrong. even if proven right I HATE managing purely by analytics. But anyone who has watched the Twins can probably guess that I am talking about the obsession with pinch hitting for Wallner. YES he is horrid against lefties, but is pinch hitting Manuel Margot for Wallner... IN THE 6TH INNING any better? You cannot take just the current AB into account, you have to take into account future ABs. First, why would you pinch hit Margot for Wallner? Well on the surface Margot has a .281 avg a .341 OBP and .760 OPS to go along with a 109 WRC+ against lefites. Wallner? oh a just touch worse at .119 avg .188 OBP and a .442 OPS to go along with an unsightly 21 WRC+. CLEARLY pinch hitting Margot was the right decision right???? NO!! This was the 6th inning, which means you are GUARANTEED to have Wallners spot come up again later in the game no matter what happens.(not to mention if it would go to extras) What are teh chances that Wallner would be facing another LHP in his next AB? lets go ahead and put that one at 0.00%. Why??? Because Herrin is the ONLY LH reliever on the Cleveland roster!!! SO now you have to factor in the GUARANTEED matchup of either/both Margot and Wallner when facing RHP to determine the overall probable success rate. but first let's go back to the Pinch hitting scenario in the 6th. Wallner is pinch hit for with 2 outs and nobody on. Now the expected Probability of scoring a run with 2 outs an nobody on is 4.48% (just did a Google). So even if Wallner strikeouts out there, there is still a 95% probability that we would score the same amount of runs leaving Wallner in there as we would when pinch hitting Margot. So here is the first analytic data point showing it was a HORRIBLE (yet sadly predictable) move. Now if there was a runner in scoring position, and all we needed was a single, or even extend the inning with a walk, then it could make sense, as Margot's average is 162 points higher than Wallners against lefties. But again we did not, we needed either a HR, or multiple productive plate appearances in a row to score. again only 4.48% scoring probability. SO we are at neutral AT BEST for that pinch hitting situation in a vacuum, now lets take into account at least one (possibly more should the possibility of extra innings come in to play). What are each of their numbers against RHP in their careers? Margot = .244 avg .294 OBP .663 OPS and a 81 WRC+. SO not overly good. Wallner = .274 avg .401 OBP .935 OPS with a 161 WRC+. Basically pretty darn good!!! Of course since we would not know at the time what the situation of the next AB is (except we ae guaranteed a RHP) so we cannot say what would be needed the most, but by ANY metric, Wallner is the CLEAR preferred batter!!! need a base hit? Wallner 30 points higher. Need a walk? Wallner 107 points higher OBP. Need an extra base hit? Wallner 272 point higher OPS. in actuality (which you cant take later results into consideration when making a decision, but as it turns out it would have been even MORE advantageous to have had Wallner in in the 8th). That next AB turned out to be with Correa on 2nd and 1 out.. (as it turns out a runner on 2nd with 1 out you score at least 1 run 41.4% ot the time so you would have had a better chance to get the better probability of scoring a run with Wallner than Margot, but again that is in retrospect). Bottom line... HORRIBLE move to pinch hit Manuel Margot for Wallner in the 6th inning with 2 out and nobody on against a team that has no other LHP to use against us in later innings. It is not only the wrong managerial decision, but it is painfully horrible baseball to watch. Now I will go back to yelling at clouds and shooing kids off my lawn.

As has been mentioned in previous posts, the Marlins desperately want... NEED... to move salary. The only thing that had prevented the Marlins from selling off pitching prior to the start f the season was the fact that they made the playoffs last year. How would that look? dismantling the strength of a team on the heels of a playoff appearance? It was abundantly clear that with the Braves being the Braves, and Philly improving, that at best Miami was a third place team and most likely out of the playoff chase. Early on I figured about 1 month the front office would realize they are not a playoff team. Could this realization come after just 8 games??? Starting 0-8 should help clarify their true standing this year. The Twins should be in position just 6 games into the season to make a big move. Call up Miami, NOW, find out what it would take to get both Jesus Luzardo and Alcantara. Luzardo immediately upgrades our rotation this year, and the pairing of Luzardo and Alcantara next year with Pablo, Ryan, and that leaves pitchers like Ober and Paddack as #5 starters. While this move is 100% focused on improving our roster this year, it sets us up incredibly well next year and beyond. With both pitchers on board next year the Twins would have the following potential starters under team control... Alcantara through 2027 Luzardo through 2026 Pablo through 2027 Ryan through 2027 Ober through2027 Paddack just through next year that's a solid 6 deep And we haven't even spoken about the young arms who should be ready to fill in gaps such as... Varland, Festa, Raya, Soto, and others So what would it take? and would it be worth it? It will take some top tier talent for sure. If Lewis had not been injured... AGAIN, I would suggest it would be worth moving Lee. Now he has even more long term value for Twins if Lewis is Buxton Jr. How about Emmanual Rodriguez to headline a deal? If Jenkins can stay in CF long term, then that makes Rodriguez a bit more expendable. would a package of either Rodriguez or Gonzalez, along with something like Danny De Andrade, Yunior Severino, and a top 20 Twins pitching prospect get a deal done? If not what should the Twins give up for that pair of starters If...WHEN Miami makes them available?

NONE of these 3 points speak to why the Twins trade for injured pitchers like stated in title. 1) The "all pitchers have injuries" an dincluding pitchers who are currently injured such as Cole has ZERO legit comparison. PLUS all of the Twins trade targets had injury histories as recently as the previous year that they had been battling, and never fully recovered from, it is not like Cole who has been reliable and now suddenly having an injury. Every one of our pitchers have come with KNOWN, and RECENT injury histories. 2) The front office refusing to leverage the farm for frontline starting pitching is pointless as well. First it takes two to make a deal, Miami has more frontline pitching and they traded none of it. am sure others were interested as well. Chicago was never going to trade us Cease in the division. You mentioned the Mahle trade, they gave up top prospects there (but again for an injured pitcher) so they ARE willing to move prospects. Also you seem to ignore trading away the recent 1st rounder in Chase Pety who is now a top 100 prospect and still just 20, Finally the trade to get Pablo while not trading prospects, they traded the reigning batting champion which shows even MORE of a willingness to trade quality. So basically they ARE willing to trade when the deal is right, 3) Giving large contracts to pitchers just doesn't always work??? um well DUH!!! but that is not the supposed point of this article. giving big contracts has nothing to do with why the Twins would trade for injured pitchers,

The Twins and Dodgers have done a few trades over the past few years, including most recently the trade for Margot. Of course the one that comes to mind that really benefitted both clubs was the Kenta Maeda trade that brought Graterol to the Dodgers. Could/should the Twins Dodgers look to make another potential win/win trade? Take away both teams potential needs for starting pitching. Dodgers due to injuries, and Twins due to an unproven rotation, and there seems to be a perfect matchup here for a trade. The Twins thought they "solved" their RH OF issue by trading for Margot, but really that was a dud from the get go. Margot was not significantly better than anyone on the Twins roster or in the Twins system. There is another player would completely fit, and we will get to that name shortly, but first the Dodgers "need". the Dodgers love Gavin Lux's bat, so much so that they have moved him to 2B and have moved Mookie Betts once again. This time to SS. Now Betts very well may make the transition to SS without any issues and not risk injury or any negative impact to his offense, but do you REALLY want to risk that?? For a unproven bat, even with his potential? Plus the kid is already 26. I would suggest that the Dodgers may be open to acquiring a SS upgrade, even if it means jettisoning Lux. HMMMM, what team that we all know and love seems to have a middle infield glut? I COULD say the Twins should involve Correa in a trade if the Twins truly are concerned about their finances, but who wants to have such a major shakeup of a potential contending roster this close to the start of the season? Not to mention I actually like Correa on this team. Correa then is set at SS. Lewis is not going anywhere, an he is set at 3B. Julien is presumably set at 2B (or even a slide to 1B for future infield set up), and he is purely a 2B, Dodgers would need a SS in this scenario. That leaves Brooks Lee as a potential option to be moved. Yes, I love Lee as much as the next person, and I think he COULD be a long time Twins great. And there are options fo rhim to get AB's this year, as well as starting next year if we do move Julien to 1B, but there is a bat I love in the Dodgers system, one that fits our needs. I say we reach out to the Dodgers, offer the Dodgers Brooks Lee in exchange for Adny Pages (plus another player such as Maddux Burns who has a high upside arm). Pages is near MLB ready, if not MLB ready right now, the only reason he has not made debut yet, was a shoulder injury he suffered last year. which he has shown he is recovered from. The kid has massive power, the most power in the Dodgers system, he has a cannon of an arm equal to, if not better than Wallner, decent to above average speed. Most of all, he is a right handed hitting outfielder. HE checks every box the Twins need to compliment the lineup, PLUS he is young and can be a core piece in the future, and is ready right now. Pages would be the PERFECT platoon with Wallner in 2024, and then transition next year to an OF of Pages, Buxton, Wallner. (Walker Jenkins, Rodriguez and Gonzalez are all AT LEAST 1 year away). Both have huge power, and hit opposite pitching well. both have huge arms. and if we get a pitcher liek Maddux Bruns as well (Dodgers #16 overall) with a big armed lefty with tons of potential (albeit control issues). A trade with Dodgers centered around Lee and Pages coudl be another one of those (although tougher to swallow) win/win trades.

IMHO reduction in starting pitchers innings has little to nothing to do with starters striving for higher spin rates and higher velocity, or even to the fact of people wanting to protect their arms. If they were looking to protect their arms they would be wanting to protect their arms FOR something. and what is that FOR in todays game? It is not liek they are protecting young arms so they can go deeper in games later in their career, or later in games in "BIG TIME GAMES". AT some point it morphs from "protecting arms" to "He's never gone more than X innings" to after a number of years... "he has X number of innings under his arm". Ultimately it is all about analytics, and the fact that it is not the STARTING pitchers with increased velocity and spin rate, but EVERYONE has higher spin rate and velocity., and more about analytics and the philosophy of the game. If a manager feels there is a 1.75% better chance of getting through an inning by bringing a fresh arm (with that high velocity and spin rate) as oppose to letting a pitcher face a lineup for a third time. then it does not matter how much of a spin rate that starter has, or how much velocity that starter has, the manager is going to pull the starter and bring in the "fresh arm". For good or for bad (for me it is for bad, btu that is just my preference) the game has changed, Anyone of these pitchers in teh gaem today COULD go 8 innings consistently, and COULD throw 250+ innings per year. It may have STARTED by wanting to protect pitchers arms when starters started getting paid big bucks, but the main driver now is the analytics, and the fact that you can use your farm system to constantly rotate fresh bullpen arms through. Analytics has just simply "devalued" the starting pitcher (ironically despite quality starting pitching getting more and more expensive each year).

I am torn... But I will say my biggest issue with Pohlad, is you don't come out and SAY "we need to right size". Its not my money, so I shouldnt have a say, BUT... There is a time to be financially prudent, and a time to push the boundaries. Coming off of last year is the time to push the boundaries, and by pushing the boundaries I mean "do not handcuff" teh team. even signing a $30M player You can still come in under last years salary. As everyone has noted contracts like Farmer, Vasquez, Kepler, that is $26M right there. We come off last season, where we break through the playoff curse. Royce looks like a special player, the hopes of Correa being healthy, and Buxton being healthy ( I will pause right here for laughter to subside).. Having a good young core adding Julien and Brooks Lee nearly ready, Matt Wallner showing promise as a slugger, and Pablo being an ace... AND basking in the wave of excitement of Joe Mauer being elected 1st ballot... and a very winnable division, and NOT the time to say need to right size. I don't even mind them not making any more additions (if they dont) as long as they make a move at the deadline. But you just don't talk about right sizing right now, you capitalize on the goodwill and excitement. You are going to go after any of the remaining big FA, no worries, just KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!! and now there are MLBPA grievances being filed. I do not know what any potential punishments could be, but I am guessing fines (which lose some of that precious $$ you are saving by right sizing) or could we lose draft pick?? But what I REALLY want to hear then is... When in the next couple of years the $4.4B (or more) that gets distributed amongst the owners with 2 new expansion teams in a couple years, are we going to "re-right size" and spend more? Ill just sit here holding my breathe. All of that being said, I am excited for this team this year and will enjoy the team whether we spend more or not.

In a previous post I had posited that the Twins should not make any moves for pitchers unless thay HAD to. There is no NEED for a Postseason Starter until/if you make the postseason, os hang onto trade chips until you need to cash them. Signing a FA however is a different story, even though a quality signing would necessitate dumping some salary, and that is different than trading young prospects for quality pitching.. I wouldn't touch Blake Snell. even though he has 2 Cy Youngs, he just doesnt go deep enough into games (although that would actually make him a perfect fit for our philosophy). JOrdan Montgomery would be a great cherry on the top of this offseason.. Currently the Twins project to be at roughly $123M for the season. There has been "talk" of up to $140M on the budget with a redone TV deal in place. While that is still $20M below last years payroll, it still leaves $17M on the table. Montgomery is apparetly looking for something bigger than teh Aaron Nola deal which was 7 years $172M. or basically $25M per season.. at 31 years old you would be buying the back half of his 30's as a premium, that being said he has been for the most part healthy over the last 3-4 years, and really in another 5 years an average starter will cost darn near $25M. SO I would say that something around a Nola deal would not be a huge overspend. There is however another option, a short term higher AAV with opt outs, similar to the Initial Carlos Correa deal. You sell him on Sonny Gray just signing a 3 year $75M at 3 years his senior after pitching with this team. A full year with 1 team (which he hasn't had in 3 years) pitching in a weak division, with the potential offense the Twins have, and he is a potential 20 game winner if he pitches to his recent season averages of right around 3.00 ball. Lets throw a 3 year $90M deal on the table with opt outs after each year, Include a 4th year $20M option with a $10M buyout to allow him to hit the $100M mark. If we go there, we would need to clear about $13M from the payroll stay within the $140M top end payroll projections. This could be done easily. with ANY combination of moves. The usual suspects: 1) Kyle Farmer has $6.25M on the books. That is a decent amount for a utility infielder, even if he is a decent quality. We still have some depth to replace him even with trading Gordon/Polanco. 2) MAx Kepler has $10M on the books. while losing his defense we have Larnach, Kirilloff (if Santana is primary 1B), plus Castro an possibly Martin who cold claim a spot. That being said while Max could garner the most in trade, I would hate to see him go (coming from the guy who wanted a bag of used BP balls for him last year!!) 3) Christian Vasquez also has $10M on the books. While a good clubhouse guy, Jeffers deserves at least 60% of the ABs from catcher if not more. and $10M for a back up catcher is just irresponsible for a team claiming to have budgetary concerns. Moving JUST TWO... ANY combination of two from above clears enough to bring in Montgomery. In other words, ask yourself this... If Montgomery were a trade candidate and he was making $90M over the next 3 years, and his team offered you him for Kepler an vasquez, would ANYONE say no??? NOPE. After a succesful year 1 with the Twins, and being a Boras client, he would most likely opt out of the remaining 2 years, at which point the Twins can designate him with a QO and get draft pick compensation. And heck, he would be great trade bait in the off chance the Twins arent in contention. Either way you cut it, a short term higher AAV deal, or a longer term deal closer to $25M he would/could be an affordable add. and all the Twins would need to give up is trading away redundant or overpaid pieces and ask for little in return.