JD-TWINS

Matthews was an 8th round pick and Festa was a 13th round pick. Either of them contributing at the MLB level would be a presumed bonus by the organization. Either, or both of them may be in the PEN by June or sooner. I agree that Prielipp & Rojas can get somewhat acclimated to the Show throughout the season with spot stints in the PEN ……..certainly doesn’t ruin them for future stater roles. It is difficult to see some combination of all 4 of those guys in relief roles as the viable starter depth at AAA (bean5302’s point) would be extremely thin. 2027: If Ryan isn’t traded (part of Tom’s “competitive plan”) & Lopez is back …………. Abel & Bradley are back with health…….. either Ober (seems to be steadying into a #4/#5 slot) or SWR completes the rotation. …… not worried about NEEDING Prielipp or Rojas ready for Big Club Rotation spring if ‘27…….. there may be room for an FA starter after Labor Agreement is settled?

They have today off which gives the other 7 guys a day of rest ……… can’t imagine Funderburk is not back by Friday. Rojas might see an inning or maybe 2 batters, just to give him a taste. Prielipp isn’t even on the roster - he may very well start this weekend for Saints. Don’t see this as any sort of gutting of the AAA rotation. It does send a bit of a message to these two guys that they may actually be called in if Team is in the mix going forward. Somebody will be coming up to replace 2-3 of the current PEN guys at some point (varying timing) Klein - Raya - Matthews - Prielipp ………. whoever - it’s going to happen - I don’t pay enough attention to know who’s at the head of the line in St. Paul - probably fluid week to week. Anybody know what’s up with Festa’s recovery?

It’s short term for sure - need Houston’s glove there but not sure they (or any team would push that hard w/him) ………….do we not think these two are better defenders at SS? At least Kriedler? I see Prielipp & Rojas are being brought up for a look ………. maybe the youth will start to flow more aggressively and Culpepper is at SS by Cinco de Mayo?

Lee passed the back-up SS test and the “he’s OK at 3rd or 2B if needed test”. We had CORREA! They drafted Culpepper & Houston in first round the last 2 years - so do not think Lee was the long-term answer. Lee has options - Keaschall has options - Wallner has option…………Keaschall may need to go to LF with Martin & Larnach platoon in RF ……….. maybe Keaschall and Lee alternate at 2B? Something needs to happen to improve defense in the middle of the infield. Since Lee has an OPS+ approaching 100………. he should maybe go to 2B and let Gray & Kriedler platoon at SS …….. all once Lewis is back.

He has options - I’m thinking I.L. after today and then at least a couple - ten week re-set. 🤞🤞🤞

Were leading A.L. in run differential (17) going into the series. Starters gave up 4 Earned over 18 plus innings - UNDER 2,00 ERA from those 3 starters. Cannot lose all 3 games! Day off last Thursday and another one tomorrow. Can’t pull together enough good innings the past two days from PEN to hold leads - pretty disappointing. Knew PEN was going to be an issue - knew defense was going to lack at numerous spots - knew the offense was probably going to be suspect………….maybe just need to assume they can’t be good, only OK once in a while…….not sure yet?

He’s pitched in relief TWICE. So, unless your last name is Nostradamus it may be too soon to give up on him. He had good stuff in the 9th - not throwing strikes early enough in counts to a couple hitters really hurt him! I thought after the two hits to right he should have been removed just due to his lack of command. Most here at TD have been clamoring for more velocity from someone in the PEN not. ore “spin”. Results vary with good pitchers and with guys that have mediocre stuff. I think he needs more of a chance to acclimate himself to this new role………probably a month or two in reality………particularly if he’s used in “long situations” once a week or 3 times every couple weeks. Needs to get a feel!

So did Tom Glavine & Greg Maddux for more than a decade - close enough for the knucklehead Reds batters to not challenge.

Culpepper & Gonzalez are RH hitters. No need to trade for “RH hitters” ………. BETTER HITTERS, regardless of which side is certainly of interest!! The “game” hasn’t completely flipped in 2026……..there are still between 70-75% RH pitchers. Twins have seen an INORDINATE amount of LH starters to this point in ‘26. Just beat Skubal - Valdez - Crochet within 7 days last week. Buxton - Martin - Keaschall - Jeffers - Kriedler(Lewis) are 5 RH bats…… Larnach - Wallner - Clemens - Outman - Gray are 5 LH bats…… 3 guys are Switch hitters. Symmetry. Now, replacing Outman - Clemens - Wallner with other options would be great news to my ears.

So, I realize the ball wasn’t intended to land in the middle of the Zone (nobody’s perfect) - but it’s not Funderburk’s intention to hit the guy either. My point is Taj shouldn’t be “all praise” and PEN guys be “all blame”. It was a piss poor 0-2 pitch! In a parallel, (not trying to pick a battle here) but I do not understand how so many are upset, frustrated, or unsympathetic to the Front Office (regardless of who is in charge) when ownership has essentially abandoned them. $155-$160M in ‘23 on payroll & in ‘26 the spend is $105M……….$10M to Correa & $22M to Lopez ………. this has the Team operating in 2026 with a spend of $73M for the guys on the field. I realize other Teams have injured guys as well but I really can’t imagine anyone else is fielding a Team of 26 guys for under $73M. There was no “plan” to become a frugal (Guardians - Pirates - Tampa - Cincinnati) spending Club. Without a plan do this or operate this way, the FO looks like they are clueless in some situations. An organization can’t change their approach, successfully, in 4 months nor 18 months …….. it’s a long-term philosophy. The problem with the Club, IMO, is a deficiency on some reasonable spending to be able to have a Pen with an ERA of 4.00 or less (v. 4.50) and a position player roster w/o Outman - Clemens. It’s only $25M range in sum. Expectations, as you accurately state, can’t be that “these guys need to or will, fix themselves” but rather, this is what is there to work with - particularly with Lopez not pitching an inning. Gotta get used to things not going well. GOOD baseball teams lose or have disappointments 45% of the time so it’s inherent to the sport in many ways.

Bradley looked solid for the most part ………very encouraging! The guys have to continue to put runs on board when opportunity is right in front of them. Critical maybe, but Taj cannot give up an RBI single with two outs & an 0-2 count on the batter. I live in Cincinnati and Stephenson has numerous holes in his approach at the plate………Bradley, again up 0-2 in count, throws a middle of the plate - thigh high breaking ball that got ripped. Mistakes happen but in this situation they really shouldn’t. My point here is the PEN guys are not the only ones making mistakes that cost Team runs they shouldn’t be giving up.

Wallner gets picked on here every day at TD, this is a paraphrase from someone above: Why? .183 BA 41% K rate, down from 48% ten days ago - LEADS baseball with 33 K’s OPS+ of 74 ……, Clemens OPS+ 75 OBP .275 ………. .338 Slug% Outman’s WAR with ZERO HITS & 2 Walks is -.400 ……….. Wallner’s WAR is -.600 (read that twice & try to justify him playing every day) If he was from anywhere else in the Union other than Minnesota fans would be clamoring for him to be sent down!!! He has options - let him go try to fix himself with some help in St Paul Running him out to RF daily is not working.

He has options - he started ‘23 & ‘24 worse than this ………he’d go down for up to 10 weeks and then shine the rest of the year. Something needs to change w/Wallner……… Brooks is reverting back to the .600 OPS - weak contact - no upside defensive guy at SS. Keaschall to right (maybe left w/Martin in Right?) - Lee to 2B - Kriedler/Gray platoon at SS (maybe Culpepper in a month?) - Lewis back to 3B when healthy in 7-10 days. 2 LH hitting Outfielder from AAA………Outman needs to be displaced first!

I agree - the “hopeful thoughts” for Royce are often WishThinking! Kody Clemens?….gotta be more fair to Royce than that though. Kody in ‘26, .152/.282/.333 with a 36% K rate in 39 PA’s. Royce in ‘26, .222/.378/.444 with a 27% K rate in 45 PA’s. Come on ………. Kody is brutal! Great attitude!! Sticks out occasionally with a nice swing but day in & day out he’s fringe guy who can be DFA’d any day. If Josh Bell could play a lick of defense at 1B, Clemens would be gone. Right now “he’s part of the Team” as they are winning but if that shifts OR if he doesn’t improve, he’ll be gone by June 1.

Love this thought - bad news is I think Lewis would pout every day until he was traded if they moved him to 1B (forcefully)…….could be sculpted to “help preserve his legs” …. to remove most stress on the defensive side regarding movement and throwing. Don’t see it materializing but I like it a lot.

The piggy back outing was not really in the norm for him and he wasn’t sharp - that’s on him. That first start, the weather wasn’t really conducive for success for anyone. He didn’t pitch well. I do think that many here (fans) expect some level of statistical perfection to denote a “nice outing”. If Max Sherzer or Verlander or deGrom or whoever works through trouble in 3 of 6 innings, they are doing it with guile and mental toughness. Seems there’s some slant here that Abel was just lucky. He was dominant in his 4th appearance. I’ll take 13 straight scoreless and not pick apart how he got there.

He wasn’t “fine” when he had his previous velocity. Pitch mix & LOCATION is what he and every other pitcher needs to master. He doesn’t need to average 96-97 to be effective. His “margin for error” may get a touch bigger with more velocity?

He was a draft pick in the mid teens, a flyer - he went through 3 levels in Minors in 3.5 months 2 summers ago - the Team needs to get him focussed with fewer options in his pitch repertoire - Duran, Jax, Sands, MeGill, Varland were all “failed” starters………numerous others in Twin’s organization & essentially every other reliever ever, were failed starters. Definitely, as you point out, overrated by writers and too many expectations too quickly. I think he can have real value from PEN - but that’s a fan opinion & nothing else.

He was already throwing 6 pitches coming into the year………adding another pitch? …….., with lack of success, seems pairing down to 3-4 pitches (focus) and shifting to PEN to help increase velocity to a maximum & thus providing VALUE in ‘26 seems to be a decent path for Zebby & the Team.

I know Keaschall’s got that Pete Rose energy (doesn’t do much for box score) but he leads the Team in PA’s and has 3 XBH. I am pretty sure I’ve seen him get 4 different “infield hits” ……….. regardless of the announcers continuing to state that he’s hitting the ball hard ……… his results at the plate are more of a concern. His OPS+ is 63 & his BA is .222.

Agree in general - the flip side of those RISP numbers are that, yesterday’s numbers late (4 in the 9th, down 8) are pretty meaningless and there were FOUR games early (over 20% of games played to date) that the team scored only 1 run in and they won a fifth 2-1. 6 runs over 5 games. Stats level over time - occurrences of both extremes.

Wallner -.600 WAR only 19 games into ‘26 …. (.191 BA - leads baseball in K’s - poor defense - 6 RBI with 2nd most AB’s on the Team - 8 guys have more RBI - while he plays every day) He projects to have 53 RBI with 600 AB’s. Last year, 40 RBI with 41 XBH. Gotta be one of the least clutch players in the game!!! Outman -.400 WAR (20 PA’s - 2 Walks - 10 K’s - zero hits) still has a better WAR than Wallner Lee -.300 WAR (not fixed yet) ……..his recent RBI streak gives him some grace Clemens & particularly Outman should be displaced. Lewis comes back - Kriedler stays to play OF with Outman getting DFA’d?

They seemed to be handling lefties just fine until yesterday. …….. Kriedler may take Wallner’s spot (hoping) with Gray being the LH bat in the line—up? Keaschall REALLY needed the day off - leads the Team in PA’s and tied for most games played in A.L. I get the reality check with SWR’s earned runs, however, being pissed off because of clown-like defense and having to throw a bunch more pitches ………..gotta think that doesn’t help focus on the mound. He’s responsible for his location of pitches, no matter the circumstances.

Pitch around SAL, the Rookie 1B - he’s doing a lot of heavy lifting for their offense………was hot coming into last night & then hit 2 opposite field HR’s (3 runs each). I live in Cincinnati and watch if Twins aren’t in action………may check out the 12:40 game downtown v. Giants today. Williamson Friday has over 5.00 ERA - Abbott on Saturday (lefty) so hope we keep the heat on from RH box - Singer is scheduled for Sunday but was hurt (showed signs) when leaving dugout in last outing.

“Non-existent offense” for a portion of the game is going to happen 4-5 times per week. There’s a difference between a “shaky rotation” and 3 or 4 bad outings though 19 games. There’s a reason that playoff Teams lose 45% of their games & poor starting pitching is one of them. Hoping these 5 can stay healthy & fans have to roll with the inconsistencies. The PEN is what it is - not special!! The offense has a mix of disappointing guys that go on streaks 3-4 times per year…….some new guys providing a shot in the arm. Can’t maintain the recent level of power and run production. Starting pitching………Bradley (4 starts) 1.25 ERA ……….. Abel pitched in relief & in cold & rain in first two outings………13 scoreless since ……… SWR having to throw high stress extra pitches due to ugly defense giving extra outs in last couple games, along with lack of command ……. looked decent prior. Ober is going to be along the “edge” all year. With a couple more guys from St. Paul, similar to Morris, (Klein - Festa - Matthews - Prielipp - unknown) Team can fill deficiencies in the PEN through the year. I think they have a chance to play at or just above .500 from here on out. 85 wins seems attainable.