WhenWillWeBeatNY

I know we are already in spring training and getting closer to the season but this move could be pointing to a potential Larnach or Kepler trade.

The future of the Twins or at least how I see it is Correa moves over to 3B. Lee than takes over at SS. Edouard Julien takes 2B. Royce Lewis moves to the OF. Jose Miranda moves back to 1B. This obviously only works if all the prospects pan out which is super unlikely but if they did I love this infield.

Edouard Julien is ranked the 7th best 2nd baseman prospect by MLB.com so I think he should be higher. He hopefully will crack the top 100 prospect list as well.

I know we resigned Garlick but I can almost guarantee he will play in AAA. I think he will be like Cave last year where he just plays until he is needed when there is injuries. I’d rather give the last OF spot to Celestino or Wallner.

I forgot to mention or also just trade Kepler and let Matt Wallner take over. I think we can sell pretty high on “no shift Kepler” and maybe restock the farm a little.

I don’t think we need Mancini. He doesn’t bring a whole lot to our team and we don’t want to take up roster spots for guys that still need to develop (Kiriloff, Larnach, Wallner etc.)

Well with Correa gone and a lot of other FA’s off the board here is my blueprint. 1. Sign Jose Iglesias 1-year $7 million, I love Kyle Farmer but only as utility. Iglesias is an actual everyday SS who has some decent numbers plus could be another leader in the clubhouse. 2. Sign Nathan Eovaldi 2-year $32 million. We need another SP who has the potential to be a #1 or #2 starter and Eovaldi can be that guy. Yes he has injury issues but we still have young pitchers that can fill in. 3. Move Maeda to the bullpen. Yes I know he was amazing as a starter but he is still recovering from injury. We could move him back to the rotation in the middle of the year but at least for the beginning of the season I think he starts in the bullpen. 4. Finally we have a ton of money left over so I just went for the bullpen. Sign Andrew Chafin. An established veteran lefty should be able to help our young guys keep making progress. For a team whose bullpen screwed them a lot last year I don’t know why there hasn’t been more focus on it. Sidenote: Another route I think the Twins could go is signing Andrew Benintendi to a 3-year 60 million dollar contract and trading Kepler, Polanco, Larnach for pitching. C: Christian Vazquez ($10.00M) 1B: Alex Kirilloff ($0.70M) 2B: Jorge Polanco ($7.50M) 3B: Jose Miranda ($0.70M) SS: Jose Iglesias ($7.00M) LF: Trevor Larnach ($0.70M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Max Kepler ($8.50M) DH: Luis Arraez ($4.50M) 4th OF: Gilberto Celestino ($0.70M) Utility: Nick Gordon ($0.70M) Utility: Kyle Farmer ($6.00M) Backup C: Ryan Jeffers ($0.70M) SP1: Sonny Gray ($12.00M) SP2: Tyler Mahle ($8.00M) SP3: Joe Ryan ($0.70M) SP4: Nathan Eovaldi ($16.00M) SP5: Bailey Ober ($0.70M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Lopez ($3.00M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($2.00M) RP: Kenta Maeda ($9.00M) RP: Andrew Chafin ($10.00M) RP: Emilio Pagan ($3.00M) Payroll is 7.50% under budget

Just sign Chris Bassitt especially when we miss out on Correa which is looking more and more likely. Bassitt for 3 years 65 million I think gets it done. He has been healthy his last 4 years and has better stats than Lopez. Why trade away a great player in Arraez when a free agent is right there especially when we have the money.

There is no way we get Bassitt for $16 million, it’s gonna take around $20. I’d say 3 years $60 million gets it done.

Rodon is overrated in my opinion, I just want the Twins to go get Bassitt someone who has been pretty healthy and completes the rotation. Yes pitching was an issue last year but people forget how bad the offense was. It would be a lot worse without Arraez.

Would be a stupid move. Why trade a player who balances out a team that strikes out a ton. This is an off-season where a ton of money is available for us and instead of signing an SP we want to trade for one? Makes no sense. Arraez is one of the only players on our team you can count on for consistent production

Rodon is basically the one big FA I don’t want the Twins to get. He is a massive overpay. Never pay that much for pitching because it’s hard for any pitcher to stay healthy and keep up those numbers.

In my perfect world where we have a higher salary cap and our FO will actually spend FA money on the bullpen I’d get Andrew Chafin and Rafael Montero. I’d then pick up a high SP and move Maeda to the bullpen. Giving us: Duran Montero Lopez Alcala Chafin Thielbar Maeda Jax/Megill Now being realistic the odds that we get even one of these guys isn’t going to be high. That being said our bullpen can be good. The biggest starting factor is the starting pitchers. We dealt with a lot of injuries last year and had guys like Bundy and Archer that would only go 4 innings. Our bullpen ranked 3rd in most innings pitched. The more opportunity you give your bullpen the more likely they will screw up. I’m going to insert a picture here that sums it up. And look at at the correlation. The 2 bottom teams are the World Series contenders and 4 out of the bottom 6 were in the championship series games. Compared to the World Series winners the Houston Astros pitched 169 less innings than the Twins. That equates to 18 full games worth of bullpen pitching. Part of it is injuries and part of it is Rocco being Rocco but either way if we want to have a good bullpen no matter who we have we need our starters to pitch more innings. The next thing our bullpen needs is a strong leader/experience. We have a lot of young guys in our bullpen and a guy like Chafin who has been in the league for a long time with plenty of great years. A guy like Montero would also bring in experience especially playoff and World Series experience. He’s been in those big situations and know how to deal with pressure and will be very reliable. Finally the third factor is our rookies/guys back from injuries. If Alcala can make progress and become more effective after his injury. In my scenario I moved Maeda to the bullpen. I did this because coming back from his injury the bullpen would be less stress on his arm. Maeda has also proven effective in the bullpen while with the Dodgers. Other rookies like Jax and Megill if they keep improving could make a big impact. Overall, there are many factors that can affect our bullpen but I do think that our bullpen will be better in 2023.