LA Vikes Fan

I think Kriedler's closer to a .225 -.240 type guy with occasional power. His glove says starting SS, his bat screams utility guy. I see him holding down the fort at SS until either Culpepper or Houston is ready and then on the team as a UTL. Good glove, elite in the IF, above avg in the OF including in CF. Streaky and below avg hitter. Sounds like a solid utility guy that's the number 24-26 on an MLB roster. Nothing wrong with that for the next couple of years. Besides, he's a lot better at both in the field and at the plate than anyone else we've tried at SS this year.

I think you're right on Wallner. He really has little to no value to a good team unfortunately, since he can't field and strikes out 35% of the time. I hope for his sake we can get him to a non-contending team like Oakland (Sacramento? Vegas?) and maybe he can have a career renascence as High HR, no glove guy on a bad team.

You may be right. I keep thinking Jeffers has more value than he probably does given that he's rental. It might take Jeffers and Emma just to get Hancock. I'd still do that, but I'm nowhere near as high a on Emma as many are here. Seattle is lucky in the same way we are - there's no good team in their division. Short of a collapse they are likely to be in the division race in September. Also, with their starting pitching, they could actually make noise in the playoffs if they can get some offense. I think Jeffers might interest them.

I'm going to keep saying it to try to will this into existence: Don't trade Jeffers to the Yankees, trade him to Seattle! here's the trade: Twins get - Emerson Hancock and Jose Ferrer or Gabe Speiers Mariners get - Ryan Jeffers and Alan Roden, Emma, or Gabriel Gonzalez. Jeffers and Emma is an even trade according to BTV for Hancock and Ferrer, Jeffers and Roden or GG works for Hancock and Speiers if the Twins throw in a 20-30 guy. Alternative trade- Twins get - Emerson Hancock Mariners get - Ryan Jeffers, their choice of Henry Mendez or Ryan Gallagher i say let's do it.

Hey, I agree with you on Lewis. One key to the second half offense is gonna be him, Lee, and Keaschall hitting. Those three are the best of the complementary bats. This offense can be potent if those three hit to go with Buxton, Jeffers (if he’s still here). and Bell, with Clemens and Caratini pretty much wild cards.

By the way in no surprise, Paredes is on the 15 day IL, Prielipp activated. Sands also activated, but haven’t seen a corresponding move. I’m guessing Anderson back to AAA but don’t know.

I agree and think they can do better. If we trade Jeffers, trade him for Emerson Hancock of the Mariners. They need a RH bat, Raleigh is hurt and playing poorly so they need a C. Hancock is maturing into a solid #3/4 starter and has 4 years of control left. Given that Jeffers is a rental, Maybe the deal is Jeffers and a good prospect for Hancock and a decent reliever. Helps both teams.

I think they need to stretch Rojas out. He’s now the 6th starter unless we trade for one and Prielipp is good to hit an innings limit soon.

You watch Rojas pitch like he did tonight and you're reminded why we traded Varland for him. This guy could be a front of rotation LH starter as early as the second half of next year. Remind me I said that next time I advocate for him to go the bullpen. Offense looks tired but I think it's just guys coming back to earth. Clemens, Kriedler, and Larnach look their 2025 selves not the 2026 version, and Buxton, Bell, and Lewis just are not hitting. Caratini and Keaschall are pretty much it right now. Hopefully just a slump. Still, we need somebody to step up and get hot at the plate. Luis Arraez would look good in the lineup, particularly if we didn't have to give up a top 20 prospect for him.

I think that an excellent question and may be the ultimate question that drives the decision. I actually think they have a decent core, what I would call about 2/3 of a competitive team, with the ability to actually be competitive next season for the division title and Mohr in 2028. We haveThree or four starting pitchers, four guys in the bullpen, solid catching, a solid outfield, and two starting infielders. I think the real mismatch is you’ve got three or four guys who are in the prime or later prime parts of their careers (Buxton, Ryan, Jeffers/Caratini, Larnach, Lopez next year), mixed with some guys who are just starting their prime in Lee, Keaschall , Morris, Gomez, Matthews, with Prielipp and Rojas, plus Abel, not far behind. Luis is a complete wild card with a wide range of outcomes and Martin could be a solid fourth outfielder. That’s a start of a good core, but not enough where the addition of a few rentals does a whole lot. That’s why my thinking at the trade deadline is trade Jeffers for the best package you can get, and try to make controllable MLB talent like Emerson Hancock part of the return. I would also consider trading Bell and Larnach if you can get a prospect a year or two out who could be an average or above average MLB player. I just don’t think you can. I think you want to keep this team with enough talent so they can sort of compete this year as they learn so I keep Ryan and trade him in the off-season for MLB talent, not now for prospects. I would then aggressively promote Jenkins and both Culpeppers to see what else we got. I think the competitive window can be open for a division title in 2027 and be wide open in 2028, but not if you trade away all of the veterans now. If you keep them and we tank this year and start off slowly next year, then I think you go into the trade them all and rebuild scenario, but not yet.

It just seems like with the exception of the deal with Seattle, all of the listed returns were light for Ryan. I don’t want to trade him now, but I am realistic enough to know that he’s probably gonna have to be traded in the off-season if not now. What I want back for him is an established mid rotation starter with at least two or three years of control left, plus more. The plus can be high-end prospects, but the centerpiece of the return has to be someone we can immediately plug into the rotation not a pitcher who might be good three years from now. If we’re going to do that, then we need to trade anybody of any quality on the team and do a teardown and rebuild because otherwise we’re going to have mismatched competitive windows and just be frustrated. If we’re going to trade Ryan, Seattle might be the best bet but we need George Kirby or Emerson Hancock as the centerpiece coming back along with high end prospects that are at least at the AAA level. May be a deal where we got Kirby or Hancock, Arroyo, plus some high-end prospects for Ryan and Jeffers might work.Seattle needs a catcher badly with Raleigh struggling due to the strained oblique and unlikely to be anything this year and they also need right handed bats. Who knows, maybe he could even put a deal together where we got Kirby and Hancock plus prospects for Jeffers, Ryan, and Lesser prospects. Hard to find one that works frankly.

No offense Sam, but this just doesn’t make any sense from a money saving perspective. Saving $10.5 million is bubpkis money for an MLB team. The only reason that trading makes any sense is to get value for guys who don’t fit in your competitive time window. I would say that’s the best argument you could’ve made. It certainly applies to Jeffers. The problem is that while Ryan could get you a big haul, the other three guys aren’t gonna get you anything of value. None of them is worth an MLB ready talent or anyone ready next year. The best you could hope to do is get lucky on A ball guys who turn out to be something four years from now. More likely you will trade those guys for players who have to be nothing more than organizational filler. Almost as bad, you give a signal to the fans and the teams that you don’t think you’re gonna be competitive anytime soon, not this year, not next year, maybe 2028 if you’re lucky, but more likely 2029 or later. I just think a big selloff is not only a bad baseball move, it’s a bad business move. I look at this is very similar the idea of trading serious prospects for guys like Sonny Gray or other aging, expensive players. We shouldn’t do that either. This team isn’t good enough to mortgage the future for. If you make trades, you make trades for controllable players or MLB ready prospects, and you trade guys you’re going to lose for nothing at seasons end like Jeffers. I think the right move here is to do a little buying of controllable players, if you can get them, sell Jeffers because you don’t want him to walk away for nothing, and move on. If you got a couple of prospects, you think can help next year, get them up to the big club to get their feet wet. Ryan is the much tougher call, but I would keep him unless just blown away by a package that includes guys with an MLB track record and then trade him in the off-season. Otherwise, play this one out.

(1) 3/4 starter - Emerson Hancock or Jose Soriano. Would love Detmers but the prospect cost will be too high. New starter moves Matthews to the BP; kills 2 birds with 1 stone. (2) Late inning reliever - Sam Bachman, Jose Ferrer or Antonio Senzatela. Fantasy trade is to get Hancock and Ferrer from Seattle for Jeffers and either Emma, GG or Mendez. (3) Bat to use against LH pitching - Luis Arraez or Lane Johnson. Hey that's more than 3 guys but only 3 spots.

I love me some vintage Royce Lewis, but that is not the guy we presently have. I watched him run home with the lead run yesterday and he looked like a 45-year-old man carrying a refrigerator uphill. The two ACL tears have really hurt his athleticism. He did have an .842 OPS in June so maybe the bat could still play but he will always be limited in the field because of his previous injuries. I think it will be another year before we really even know what we have because it will be that long before he's fully recovered from those injuries. Trading him is an interesting idea, but no contending team is going to want him for the same reasons we might want to trade him. I think the better move is to trade him to a team like the Angels, Giants or Rockies; teams that need to rebuild and might be willing to take a chance on Lewis regaining his form before they have to decide whether to pay him. You won't get much in return, but maybe he could be packaged with a guy like Emma or GG to get a controllable mid rotation starting pitcher, or with a 10 – 20 prospect to get a very good controllable reliever. I'm not sure that unique combination is available out there but that's a trade I would make if it was. I don't think packaging Lewis with Jeffers gets you anything worth having that you couldn't get with Jeffers alone. If the kind of return I mentioned isn't available, I think were just going to have to hold onto him and hope his physical condition improves enough so he can get back to where he was before all the injuries or at least to being 80% to 90% of that guy.

We can all argue about how good this year's team is and whether we should buy or sell. I think the ceiling is about 85-86 wins, getting a wildcard or winning the division if Chicago and Cleveland tank, winning one playoff series, and then being quickly shown the door. I think the floor is 72 – 75 wins if we make no moves, have some injuries, and the pitching completely falls apart. I want to make the moves that get us the best chance to hit the ceiling scenario without hamstringing us in the short or medium term. I think it's possible if you make the following three trades and I think all of them can be done. I ran all them through Baseball Trade Values, if you believe in that site, and all said they were either fair trades or a minor overpay by the Twins so I don't think any of them are fantasy, pie-in-the-sky stuff. Here they are: Trade 1 – Twins trade with Seattle Twins get: Emerson Hancock and Jose Ferrer (or Gabe Speier) Mariners get: Ryan Jeffers and either Emma, GG, or Mendez. Good trade for both teams. Mariners get the right-handed bat they need at a position of need for this season when they have a real chance to win a crappy division and the pitching to make noise in the playoffs. Cal Raleigh has a .573 OPS trying to play through a strained oblique. He can either go to the bench or be a DH, but is still be around next year when he isn't hurt. They also get an outfielder that might help them this year but really can help them long-term who is completely controllable. Twins get mid rotation starting pitcher with 4 arbitration years left, plus either a 26-year-old (Ferrer) or 31-year-old (Speier) LH reliever who is performing well this year and has at least two years of control after this year. Twins put Hancock in the rotation, move Prielipp or Matthews to the bullpen, and that with the added reliever upgrades the pitching immensely. Even better, you've done it by trading a guy won't be here next year with the only real pain being the trade of a high-end prospect at a position where we have several high-end prospects. Trade 2 – Twins trade with the Mets Twins get – Luke Weaver. Mets get – Ryan Gallagher, James Ellwanger. Khadim Diaw, or Yasser Mercedes, but only one. The Twins get a solid right-handed reliever who is having a very good year and who they can keep for $12M next year. Mets get a good but not elite prospect and can decide whether it's more important to get pitching or hitting. Another good deal for both sides. By the way, BTV says trading Gallagher or Ellwanger is a minor overpay with Diaw or Mercedes a pretty even swap for Weaver. Trade 3 - Twins trade with Giants Twins get - Luis Arraez Giants get - Ryan Gallagher or James Ellwanger. I stole this idea from the article today about trading for an OF or 2B that can help us against left-handed pitching. I think he's right that Lane Thomas also would be a good choice. I like Arraez more since he can play 2B or 1B, and I think Royce Lewis is still another season away from regaining his form after the injuries. Both Arraez and Thomas hit left-handed pitching well. If we go after Lane Thomas instead, I would trade someone like Yasser Mercedes, not Gallagher or Ellwanger. So there it is. If the Twins make these trades you give up Ryan Jeffers and basically three top 20 prospects, one top 10-12 OF (or top 5 if it's Emma), a 13-20 guy, and a 20-30 guy. We get back a controllable #3 or #4 starter, a controllable good but not elite left-handed reliever, a good but not elite right-handed reliever that we have in 2026 and 2027, and a bat that helps us against left-handed pitching. I think all of these moves are worth the cost as I projected and all would help this year's team. All but the last also help the 2027 team have a better chance of getting to that 85-90 win level. What do you think? What trades would you like to see made overall at the deadline as an overall strategy?

I think the concept that we should trade for right-handed bat is a good one and Lane Thomas is not a bad idea as a 4th outfielder/platoon mate for Larnach. Gleybor Torres leaves me cold, Taylor Ward is decent but expensive for what he brings, and Christian Walker, Lars Nootbar (love that name), and Michael Massey can't hit left-handed pitching very well. It would be fun to have a guy named Lars Nootbar playing in Minnesota though. I mean, where else should he play? I think if don't trade for an outfielder like Thomas, the idea of trading for a 1B or 2B makes a lot of sense to me. I watched Royce Lewis run home with the lead run yesterday and one thing is pretty damn clear, he is not fully recovered from his knee surgeries. He runs like a 40-year-old man carrying a refrigerator uphill. I've had a torn ACL and I will tell you that it takes long as two years or even more to get back to where ever it is you're going to get to and that is nowhere near as good as where you started. It also messes with your balance for a while and doesn't give you a lot of confidence in planting your legs, all of which might help explain how much trouble he's having at the plate. Football players can come back faster because it's a different type of movement. All of this means to me that having three guys that can play 1B and 2B that you can move around would be a great thing to have and I think improve the team against left-handers if you got the right one. I've looked and frankly though there's only two possibilities, our old friend Luis Arraez and Anthony Volpe. Arraez is actually hitting 313/.336/.443 (.779) against lefties this year which is almost as good as his OPS against right-handers (about 815). He ain't cheap and he's probably gone after this year but he would help us in the short term. I would be up for if we can get him for a top 20 – 30 prospect type. Volpe is interesting in that is really not hitting great against anybody with a .657 OPS against lefties and a .666 OPS against righties but he is a good fielder and we can have a much improved defense with him at second and Clemens at first. He also gives us another shortstop if Kriedler's bat completely falls off the table, which looks like might be happening. Once again, depends on the cost. Maybe we can get him for a 15 – 30 prospect or thrown in as an addition in the trade to the Yankees of Jeffers for one other high-end pitching prospects. If we can, he might be worth it. Other than that, though, the pickings are pretty slim. So I like the concept but it's hard to find anyone that really fits other than Lane Thomas or maybe Luis Arraez. All comes down to cost and this is an additional move, it does not stop the necessary move for pitching. My fantasy is we trade Jeffers and Roden or one of our AAA OFs other than Jenkins to Seattle for Emerson Hancock and Jose Ferrer or Gabe Speier. We get a mid rotation starter and a 7th or 8th inning reliever, they get a starting catcher to help for the rest of this season with Raleigh injured and really not performing well at all (.573 OPS), plus a fully controllable prospect with upside like Emma, GG, or Mendez. Both have a chance to win their division or make the playoffs as a wildcard this year and both teams get immediate help and guys they can keep for a while. I would then add to that a trade of a 15-30 prospect for Luke Weaver and a similar prospect for Luis Arraez.

Good way to look at it. I’m all for creating prospects for controllable pitching like Hancock. Otherwise, keep them and sort them out over the next 1.5 years until the real contention window opens.

Jeffers, Larnach and Wallner for Hancock? I would make that trade this afternoon if I thought it was available. By the way, BTV rates that an even trade, in part because they see Wallner as having a value of 0.

I like the idea of trading for Hancock. Do you think that Emma and Jeffers would be enough to get him? Seems like a reasonably fair trade if not a bit of an overpay by the Twins. We get a mid-rotation starter controllable through 2030, they get quality offensive catcher for the rest of this year and a high upside outfielder who can help them hopefully starting next year. Baseball Trade Values says that's an overpay by the Twins, but it would be a pretty even trade if the Mariners added in a relief pitcher like Jose Ferrer or Gabe Spier. I'm not sure I trust BTV because it's too focused on excess value which necessarily devalues rental players from their true market value for a contending team looking to get over the top but I do like the idea of trading Jeffers and Emma for Hancock, especially if we can also get Ferrer.

Thanks for this article. I agree that the Twins' current system could support a trade but to me the only trade that makes sense is one for a controllable piece(s), preferably at least one pitcher. We certainly don't have enough prospect depth to deal prospects for a rental pitcher and besides, the current Twins team isn't good enough and doesn't have a high enough enough ceiling to make that kind of a trade make any sense. I would like to see if a package highlighted by one of our AAA OFs could generate a controllable pitcher in return. The three prospects I would consider trading are ERod (#4), Gabriel Gonzalez (#10), and Henry Mendez (#12) and I would also consider trading Alan Roden. The pitchers I would target who are at least rumored to be potentially available are Reid Detmers, Jose Soriano, Emerson Hancock, and George Kirby. There very well may be others but it has to be someone established as a mid rotation guy who has at least 2.5 controllable years before I would be interested in trading one of the three prospects. I would also kick the the tires on what kind of prospect package it would take to pry away CJ Abrams, Jeremy Pena, or Zach Neto to play short, or even a catcher like Shea Langeliers or Audley Rutschman (probably too much). Another thought would be to try to trade for a youngish catcher like Langeliers or Rutschman, and then trade Jeffers and Caratini to backfill the system for the prospects traded. A package for a Langeliers or Rutschman could include Eduardo Tait now that we drafted Lackey. First choice would be a pitching trade, maybe a trade with the Angels where we get either Detmers or Soriano plus a reliever like Sam Bachmann or Ryan Zeferjahn in return for package headlined by one of three outfielders, plus another guy in the 10 to 20 range like Ryan Gallagher or John Klein, plus a Kyle DeBarge, Ben Ross, or Kala'i Rosario type. We get a middle of the rotation controllable starting pitcher with 2.5 years of control and an early arbitration reliever, they get an outfielder with star potential, a pitcher with upside, and a player that could potentially be the second baseman or a utility infielder. We could then add in another A or A+ ball guy to balance the trade scales. Those names may be totally unrealistic but hopefully the concept makes sense.

Matthews should go into the bullpen. I've think we've seen enough to know both that he is not ready for a full-time rotation spot and that he has a good enough arsenal to compete at the MLB level in the bullpen. He looks more and more like the classic failed starter turned reliever type. Also, these moves don't have to be permanent. If he goes to the bullpen and improves his command, he can always come back to the rotation. He's only just turned 26. I don't think we have to wait until next year to do this. One of my fantasies is that we trade a quality prospect a few years out for a quality rental starter like Robbie Ray or Kevin Gausman, and then move Matthews to the bullpen in a late inning role. Essentially, try to till two birds with one stone. My real fantasy is that we trade said prospect for Freddy Peralta, but I know that's not happening. The price tag on him will be too high to be justified for team like this one.

I hear that and I agree that trading him is the more likely approach. Having said that, I think the reason Jeffers might sign the QO would be to get the one season at $23 million and stay at a place he knows and were they know him as compared to taking his chances in free agency when his most likely value that I've seen predicted on a FA contract is roughly 4 years/$60-$70M. I think you could make a good economic argument that taking one year at $23M followed by a FA contract of three years/$50-55M is a better deal because of the time value of money. In addition, if the new CBA has a salary floor of some kind in return for some kind of soft salary cap (very unlikely the owners can get a hard cap), his value might increase to the Twins so they can hit the floor and decrease to high spending teams. This would all assume he wants to stay, which I don't know one way or the other, and that he's willing to accept the risk that an injury in 2027 makes that later FA contract either smaller or nonexistent. Much as I would like to keep him on the team, I agree that unless you have a pretty good inkling that you can either sign him later or get him to accept a Q0, the right move is to trade him at the deadline. Where I differ from some here is I don't think you just trade him for whatever you can get; you trade him if you can get a combination of someone that can help you in the bullpen this year plus a quality prospect or two. If you can't get that, it may make more sense to trade Caratini for a quality relief pitcher in his 30s, if that's available, and roll the dice on trying to keep Jeffers for next year. You take that risk knowing that you have Jackson to be the number two catcher behind one of those two guys in 2027 and that Jackson could potentially be the number one catcher if he really can hit like he has the last roughly year and 1/2. Jackson certainly has the defensive chops for the position, the issue has always been whether he can hit There's lots of moving parts here and it all depends on something we don't know; what can we get for Jeffers or Caratini if we trade them. I think each of us could make a good, well informed choice if we knew the answer to that question.

Got to go with you on this one. Keeping a guy like Jenkins down for fear of losing a year of control because the entire next season is lost due to a work stoppage seems like prioritizing the risk of loss over the possibility of gain to an extreme. I also think the chances of losing all of the 2027 season is pretty remote. I think it's much more likely that the parties reach a deal on a timeframe that shortens spring training and/or we may lose a few games. The economics of losing an entire season so that the owners can try to impose a hard salary cap just doesn't make much economic sense to me, even from the owners perspective. I'm hoping to see Jenkins on the big club shortly after the trade deadline. I did see a comment from someone else that if we wait until August 14 he keeps his rookie status for 2027. That means that if he is rookie of the year in 2027 we get the extra draft choice. Again, that seems like stretching for an unlikely result but I could see waiting until mid August. I'm hoping he is up and playing by then, either because we trade Larnach or Roden, demote Roden or Martin, or the most likely result, someone gets injured

I have to admit I may have been wrong on Adams. I'm one of the guys writing here that he should back to AAA for frankly any new shiny object that we pick up. I don't get it, but he's been very effective the last month or so. That's great to see because we need it.

Not a bad way to look at this. Trade Caratini, keep Jeffers, hope he signs a QO in the offseason, and go with Jeffers and Jackson next year. Make a low wattage deal with Jackson to keep him around as the #2 catcher. The big question is what do you do if Jeffers turns down the QO. The draft choice is nice but we're left with Jackson, assuming he will re-sign with the Twins, and ... Ricardo Olivar? Noah Cardenas? Jackson looks great right now but I see him more as a bat volatile #2 C guy. I doubt he can hit enough if playing 65% of the time to be a #1. But hey, the man is hitting .322/.355/.441 (.796) in a very SSS this year and .220/.290/.473 (.763) last year, much better in the second half after changing his swing, so I could be totally wrong on him. Trading Caratini is at least another option to think about.