Rod Carews Birthday

Good for him. Glad he signed. At least that prevents the Twins from bringing him back.

No. He’s better than who in the lineup?

No they're not. It's very smart business -- assuming the market cooperates. That being said, it is still a fantastic deal for people who are looking for reasonable concessions, especially families. They can focus all they want on making a buck by growing the brand, but if along the way there are more and better deals for regular consumers, more power to them! The more I ponder this potential ownership group, the more I think this would be somewhere near a dream scenario for the Twins and for fans. But, as always, I could be wrong.

And in regard to the previous post, I don't particularly like the guy, so I'm no apologist.

He graduated from H.S. in 1934. That makes his dropping out after two football seasons, spring 1937. He took a low level job delivering bank collections. He was in his very early twenties and not making any real decisions for any lender I'm certain. He's delivering at that point, not foreclosing. By 1940 the great depression was effectively over. He was drafted and went off to war in 1943. It seems unlikely that he got rich before he came back from the war. AND, after the war there weren't many farms to foreclose on as the 1940's and 1950's were some of the very best times to be a farmer. It was also very profitable to be in just about any business, including banking. He was a banker. Yes. Was he more than a bike messenger? By 1950, certainly, but probably not much before then. Did he likely foreclose on some farms? Sure. He was a banker. Foreclosed on cars too I bet. But I think the statement is a little melodramatic. The depression story makes for good story telling, but the years don't really add up.

Yes, a little, but good owners employ the right people to run the team so they don’t need to know everything.

As scenarios like this go, we’ve got to be pleased that these guys check many of the right boxes to be good for the Twins. Certainly they aren’t perfect but that’s a relative term. Billionaires usually didn’t get that way by being pillars of virtue, and there are many who scare me much more than they do. If they buy the team there will certainly be some changes. Some we may like and some we won’t. Let’s just hope that the process plays out quickly and they are either in and buying the team or out and another bidder materializes.

Definitely not. You would be basing an extension off of a flicker of high potential without any sustained performance whatsoever. This article actually did a fantastic job of telling me why the Twins should NOT give him an extension at this point. I agree with @Linus. Pay him until the end of his control and then slap on a QO.

Goltz, Reardon, and Grant.

Completely agree with that sentiment. It is indeed a lottery ticket, but one with only an investment of time and energy. That time and energy has to be spent on something, and this would seem like an extremely worthy target. You never know. Who thought we would get Correa a few years back?

Pierzynski was more of an example of someone you hated because he was an extreme competitor moreso than because he was a bad guy. I think he probably begrudged the Twins for trading him, even if it was to open up the job for future hall of famer Joe Mauer, and played with a chip on his shoulder against us. He was just that intense. The Sox certainly got their money's worth from him.

They have (tied for) the largest pool of international bonus money, so I would approach Sasaki with a "we want you so much that we will give you our entire allotment of bonus money this year" kind of offer. A. It's the most money he can get. B. He might be flattered just a little. C. It can't hurt at all.

I personally don’t think that we can count on Lewis as a core piece until he has a real season of baseball where he hits, fields, and mostly avoids injuries. He’s got lots of “potential” that has been flashed, but not enough of it has manifested itself on the playing field. I completely agree on Buxton. I’m actually more optimistic on him than I have been for years. He was mostly good last year and I would actually set the over/under on games played at about 125. A healthy Buxton is definitely a core player. I’m not as concerned about Correa’s PF. It is unquestionably a “you never know when” kind of condition, but he had it on the other foot this year so it wasn’t a recurrence of the first condition. As a PF sufferer myself, it was horrible (and I had it on both feet) and I spent about a year dealing with it. But, when it was gone it was gone and nothing has happened since. I will admit to being very cognizant of any foot pain that I may have, panicky that it could be the dreaded condition. Correa likely has much better health care (or at least more urgently and tightly focused) on this front than I did, so I think he will be fine.

I do think this is possible, but I think at the end of the day if they trade pitching, it will be something outside of the big 3 in the rotation. Certainly they have many “almost ready/just ready” starters and a selection from that group could be traded. I’m also on board with trading Duran (even though his numbers weren’t as good as Jax last year, I think he still has more value — just because of mystique). The difficulty I’m having is coming up with a better catcher situation. They will probably need to pay (in $$ or prospects) to get rid of Vasquez and even though we don’t love him, he is a pretty viable second catcher, albeit an overpaid one. If they trade Vasquez, they still need to sign a catcher and there isn’t much out there to be had that’s very good. Perhaps a trade for a youngster from the Dodgers or Brewers could happen, but catchers are hard to come by. Jeffers would bring much more in return, but again, he needs to be replaced, and that’s not very easily done. I’m curious what value some of the infielders have. Would trading Julien, Lee, or Castro bring back a similar player who happens to profile as more of a first baseman? If you could pull a trade like that for a player who blossoms at the position, it would be a major win. In the outfield, while I would love a RH bat, I’m very comfortable with a Wallner-Buxton-Larnach outfield, at least offensively. Do you think that they are trying to keep Castro (good for baseball reasons) or trade him (good for budget reasons)? I can’t decide which way they are leaning at this point. In some ways, he is maybe more valuable to the Twins and their style of lineup building than most other teams. At the end of the day, I’m certainly glad I’m not in charge. There are tough questions without easy answers out there.

Don’t be impressed. They booked it on Black Friday.

Meaningless and useless, perhaps, but also fairly entertaining and interesting. Some of those are probably symptoms of other good and bad things, but I think they stand on their own too.

This is not a bad idea at all, but I personally would wait one more year. By then he will hopefully have an even more consistent track record AND you will have a better picture of what more of the young pitching looks like. Maybe Festa and Matthews (and others) look awesome, and then he becomes a trade candidate. Maybe they are lousy and we desperately need to hang onto Ober. When it comes to extensions, next year becomes the big year. There are so many players on this team who currently have three years of control it's a little scary. We won't be able to keep them all, but hopefully some will be displaced by younger players coming through the minors.

I think that part of the reason this came out is to loosen up the general public to the idea that someone we care about might be traded (and that might not be Correa), because people aren’t beating down his door for Vasquez or Paddack. Every single trade is a matter of the right return. Lopez for a couple of prospects? No way. But, Ober for Crochet and Robert? Now you’re talking! In every trade, it matters who we get in return, whether that is for a prospect or for a starter or for a star. The harsh reality is that the Twins need to shed some salary. I’m guessing that Falvey is actively trying to do that in general but so far hasn’t found any trade that is palatable or worthwhile. Let’s hope that he finds some takers on some of our lowest hanging fruit rather than having to trade the stars. However, as @TopGunn#22has pointed out, there are indeed returns that could make this worthwhile. Tomorrow in Twins world will likely neither be the worst day nor the best day.

Exactly. I think his ceiling is much more likely to be #3/4 than #1/2. Plus there is an increased risk of injury while he changes his style and ramps up the innings. Can't put an injured Jax back in the bullpen. Then you don't get him at all. I personally would rather trade him at maximum value than try to make a starter out of Jax.

I take your point in seeing that shedding salary is needed to kick things off. That’s true but two things can easily happen simultaneously. My poorly expressed point was that none of the likely deals (Vasquez, Paddack, Castro) are going to be anything huge from the Twins side of things so a salary dump trade doesn’t take long to create. That’s why I’m unconcerned about the timeline. When the musical chairs game of free agency stops and a team of two didn’t get their pick, interest could spike (yes it could also tank, but I’m of the opinion that demand will exceed supply). It’s popular to say that the Polanco trade was so bad because of the date, but in the end everyone involved in it was either injured or just plain bad — Polanco included. People may not agree with me, but that’s ok. March is late. December and January is when trades happen. Here’s a crazy take. If there were a team out there willing to do it, would you package Vasquez, Paddack, and Castro together for nothing except salary relief? My answer is “almost”. It does free up great money but Castro is just a little bit of an overpay for the other two guys.

The team doesn't need to be completely in place until Spring Training -- actually as we've seen in past years, even opening day. As a fan I want to see them make their (big!) moves right now so I can get used to the idea. However, if prices are higher than expected for free agents, then there is reason to believe that will affect the demand and/or prices for some of their possible trade chips. Paddack is easy to trade. People will want the pitching. The Twins just need to decide how much or how little they will accept in return, and that's what will determine when and if it happens. Vasquez is a tougher situation because he's probably not worth his salary. I think if you can put together a package that would net a returning catcher -- even if it is just a "change of scenery" guy, you would do that even if you pay some of his salary. Other bigger trades seem like pretty wild speculation at this point, but you never know.

“I reconsider every life decision that led me to this job.” And who among us has not done that! 🤣

In terms of trade value, either of these guys would likely net more than any other player on the roster. I think Ryan might be worth ever so slightly more than Ober, but the difference isn't much. Young-ish, successful, controllable starting pitching is worth a lot. That being said, I don't know how you can trade them. The Twins are trying to win not rebuild, so they're not in the hunt for more prospects right now. Keep them and let them form a nice solid top of the rotation with Lopez for now.

Maybe I'm just not seeing it, but aside from Mason Miller -- who is actually awesome, but a relief pitcher -- and possibly Lawrence Butler -- who might be on a good path with the bat, these other guys are no better (and I would argue worse) than the guys the Twins already have on the roster. For example, other than being right handed, what exactly are Jordan Walker's attributes (defensively he's a DH) or Curtis Meade (who has never even had a 100 OPS+? These guys aren't altogether useless, but to call them a "moonshot" seems pretty far over the top. They are more like "shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic." I get it, hyperbole gets eyeballs, but realism (even overly optimistic realism) keeps me interested and more usefully engaged in constructive conversation. They don't need a "moonshot" like trade for a Mariners starter or an MLB ready young catcher (which I would support wholeheartedly), but they probably need to do something to inject a little more life into this team for 2025.

I do agree with you that signing veterans who have lost it (or who never had it) is a fools errand. However, I don’t follow the straight line you draw from the Rooker trade to having Astudillo, Celestino, and Garlick. Garlick, yes. He was definitely signed to be the RH bat in the OF, but Celestino was more of an emergency situation with Buxton injured (Rooker wasn’t going to play CF) and Astudillo, well. . . . Who knows what that was about? But I would maintain that Garlick was the only one whose Twins tenure was related to Rooker. Mostly I think it seems that the Twins have an aversion to trusting young players and giving them the reps to succeed at the major league level. They are searching desperately for that linear development, and when it doesn’t quite happen they panic and go elsewhere. At the moment I’m just hoping that they finally let Wallner play this year. Not sure what will happen with Julien/Lee/Miranda though. Oddly, Lewis seems to have escaped this situation. While his debut was nothing short of spectacular, the wall he hit at the end of 2024 looms pretty large out of the gate this year. Talent evaluation is mighty hard.