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I doubt that Kepler can bring anything more than a prospect or two. But the money saved can be applied toward a pitcher. Considering how few innings that our starters are allowed to pitch and the over-reliance on the bullpen game after game. I would like to see a reliever that's stronger than Pagan. I wonder what the price tag would be for Aroldis Chapman who is a free agent and if his contribution would be worth the price tag. If the Twins could sign him (or a similar pitcher) to a prove it deal for his estimated value of $6.6 mil or so then he might be worth the risk. Then accepting the loss of talent on a Kepler trade wouldn't seem to be a such a big loss. Pagan just doesn't cut it for me.

I disagree. Sports betting is suppose to create a new revenue stream which can be shared with players to raise their earnings. More earnings should attract more athletes to engage in baseball. MLB has an anti-trust exemption which means that as long as the owners and players union can work out their disagreements then MLB will survive. There's more competition for sports viewership but the season is long and attractive enough to bettors and sports enthusiasts that MLB should be safe. IMO the sport has a safer future than football and is more international. MLB will undergo expansion soon enough. MLB has more economic upside for communities than other sports. All of the Latinos entering the country can't be all bad for the future of baseball and its athlete pool. The billionaire owners will figure out how to protect their investments and the game itself. They've already expanded the playoffs. And IIRC for the first time all MLB teams will have an equal schedule of games outside of their own Division by playing against each & every other MLB team. That's a dream come true.

I personally like the Twins front office, the moves that they try to make and how they think. I also like the Pohlads and think that they care about the team. We have some good players, Buck, Arraez & Capt. Polanco. There was the record setting Bomba season. We were in 1st place most of last year until the injury bugs hit hard. Sure there's disappointments but that's the nature of baseball. IIRC the Twins profits are less than or about 2% of the team's gross. I seriously doubt that the Pohlads take any money out of the organization, it's mostly self sustaining. My hunch is that the Twins may even need to borrow money from time to time. I really think that the biggest problem with the Twins is Minnesota itself. It's fairly cold and too isolated to attract major superstars who prefer to play closer to their home cities or established bases of their wive's family. And they consider their own family and kids. They like the coasts and certain climates, some are southerners while others are easterners or California born & bred. The Twins can't become the Yankees without causing future organizational difficulties. Every team has a large empire of expenses to develop and recruit talent including in foreign countries I doubt that all of the fans understand that billionaires don't want to mix funds from one of their investments to another as if it were a loan that would never be paid back. They operate in a fiscally responsible manner and aren't like the US gov't that can print money. Billionaires have responsibilities to use their money for the betterment of society and not just to toss it away to try to win world championships. They trust the front office to do the best that they can. I'm sorry but if some fans don't like it then they simply need to lump it. The billionaires like Mike Bloomberg who is willing to throw his money away because he has alternative agendas besides baseball don't want to buy MLB teams. Fans talk like being a billionaire is like living a pipe dream which just isn't the case. It's an establishment and they rarely chase pipe dreams unless there's a profit motive. That's what the establishment does with their money. They roll the dice in a responsible manner in an effort to win, and if they win they win, and if they don't they don't. How many lottery tickets do folks go out and buy when the mega-millions lottery reaches astronomical amounts? Maybe I'll buy one ticket a year. And if I were a billionaire that wouldn't motivate me to buy more lottery tickets. You know that they're all going to lose. Fans just want a sugar daddy team owner to splurge and then will complain afterward about the high ticket, food & beer prices. Who can even afford a ticket to the world series anyway? Yada, yada yada.

Carlos is a stubborn & prideful man, and the more stubborn & prideful that he is the better for the Twins. The big variable with this tri-partite situation is whether the Giants would be willing to match or beat the Twins best offer. You can be sure that Buxton is on the phone with him urging him to remain stubborn with the Mets. Correa doesn't want to admit that he'd be losing at roulette by accepting any offer that's much less than Lindor is getting from the Mets, & less than he could have received from the Astros for 6 years. Another problem is knowing that he would need to fill in for Lindor if he gets injured. Hey Carlos, a 3B is just not worth as much money as a SS! Carlos should understand that the Twins give players a lot of rest and treat their heroes like royalty. The Twins may change his position someday too, But Carlos needs to admit that if he wants money from the Twins or Giants that he needs to play SS or his value goes down. I would be okay with the Twins offering Carlos $300 mil for 10 years, but not sure if the insurance costs are doable. That small tweak may be able to bring him back as long as he remains stubborn with the Mets and still wants to play full seasons with Buxton. His Puerto Rican connection with Lindor needs to be broken. It's business before pleasure. Friendship alone doesn't make enough sense to me as being the main reason for Carlos to move to 3B and possibly lose his chance for a HOF career as an elite SS. I don't believe that he really wants to settle to be 2nd fiddle when the Mets make their final offer

Why would anyone be angry with the owners? They went out of their way to sign Buxton and aren't responsible for his injuries. There have been plenty of other injuries too that the owners didn't cause. Twins fans know that there's too many to list. If someone wants to be irate with the Twins then walk away and take a break. Baseball isn't for the faint of heart and the team isn't a charity either. The team profits only amount to a small percentage of the overall gross which they probably squirrel away for bad economic times like during covid. They went ahead and signed Correa and then made him a fair long term offer considering all of the circumstances. We'll see what happens when Lewis, Kirilloff and others return from their injuries. And what kinds of trades and transactions can be made going forward. If someone wants to complain that only makes them look like they have sour grapes. Twins fans should feel lucky that the team hasn't relocated and is a source of local pride & entertainment.

I think that Esco would be more than a lateral move & an improvement over Urshela. He's among the best switch hitters and has more power. A lot of fans were disappointed when he was traded, and he wasn't able to team up with Polanco. Now if that opportunity exists it become a spark to produce something greater than the sum of its parts. I don't thoroughly trust Miranda playing 3B nor Kirilloff making a total enough recovery to play 1B without proof. Esco has an option so it could only be for one year. Esco is a versatile player who hustles on the base paths with more speed than Urshela. I think that both Esco & many fans would get a charge if he returned to the Twins. As long as the fans like him and respect him. And the Twins would be saving money overall if they trade Kepler. So there would be some upside. I think that it would be a good idea to sign Esco if the Twins are going to trade Kepler anyway. A switch hitter with power is beneficial and could mesh well with Polanco.