Woof Bronzer

I mean yeah they backed themselves into a corner for sure, and their margin for error is always going to be thin. My "plan" would have been more realistic if 2026 was a full on development/bottom out year...and if they'd traded Ryan for Tolle and Arias...and if they'd traded Jeffers and others at the deadline... I just don't know what else they do. More 1 year plans to "compete"? Just be honest about 27 which might be a weird/abbreviated season anyway. And have a plan! Look to the future. Have a baseball strategy, not just a financial one. They're going to need to get starting pitching, not for 27 but for 28 and 29. I'd target younger starters with Ryan and Lopez and see what you can get. (I'd also put a stop the minor league strategy of training all pitchers to pitch 3 innings, if they're still doing that.) I'd also give Morris run as a starter and I absolutely would not give up on Mathews, Preillip, even Festa yet. They could definitely be part of the future, if probably not aces. It's not impossible. Do I think the current owner and FO have the competence and willingness and foresight to execute it? Lol. But it's not impossible. Two years ago if you would have said the 2026 White Sox would be a playoff team you'd have been laughed off this site.

Hey, be fair, 6 more years of recovery this remarkable and we'll reach .500!

The Twins like him, but not enough to play him. He passed through waivers in August. The Twins knew nobody else wanted him, and then immediately forgot this and re-rostered him, to protect their ability to not play him again. There are 13 roster spots for position players. The Twins only rostered 12 players they were willing to play. I really want to know the story. From a distance it's a fireable offense. The Twins are already battling revenue disparities, a self-inflicted resource disparity is the last thing they need.

If Zoll is indeed "firmly in charge of baseball operations," heaven help us.

I for one believe it!

With all the labor uncertainty it's probably fine for 27 to be a development year. (26 should have been as well, but that ship has sailed.) Then it's playoffs or bust in 28, and we're winning the dang Series in 29.

The Twins were worse this year after the deadline than last year, and will end up with something like 4-5 more wins than last year. Only 3 more years of "remarkable recovery" like this and they'll get to .500! And then someday, the playoffs.... The organization's stated goal this year was not "figuring it out" but competing, and playing meaningful games in September. Tom Pohlad specifically said the year should be judged on wins and losses.

For sure. I'm just saying the Twins rotated 3 guys around 2-3 roster spots to fill 1 position...and all it got them was 1/4 of the production that the younger Culpepper gave them in his first 6 weeks in MLB.

Culpepper: 0.8 WAR in 120 PA Gray, Arcia, Kreidler combined: 0.2 WAR in 500 PA We really, really need to stop being afraid to play the kids.

Eh, not sure about that. In my experience the Loons, Lynx, and Frost are all more affordable family nights out.

But isn't being afraid of playing prospects, and instead filling out the roster with 34 year old DHs 6 years past their prime on 1 year deals, also a good way ensure mediocrity? I'm thinking about teams like, I dunno, the 2024-2026 Minnesota Twins. Not all prospects are going to work out and even for those who do, it's not always going to be pretty. That's why 26 and 27 should have been bottom-out development years, with a goal of seriously competing in 28 and 29.

This is the same reason I do not understand resigning Jeffers (if they could, which seems doubtful). Great, you've signed a long term deal for a guy who plays almost exactly as much as Buxton, who's maybe a top 10 catcher at best, defensively mediocre, about to hit 30 in the most physically demanding position in the game...congrats, you've effectively blocked our best catching prospect since Mauer (and a couple other promising catching prospects as well). And for the privilege of blocking Lackey you'll pay a premium of tens of millions of dollars per year. For a middle revenue team this is an absolutely terrible idea. The Twins have to stop prioritizing expensive vets over cheaper, higher-ceiling talent.

Lots of folks here seem to think increasing payroll only means signing big dollar FAs. It doesn't. The Twins are never going to outbid the Dodgers, Yankees, etc for big dollar FAs, and the reality is, for big dollar FAs you are paying a high premium for past performance, and so a lot of those deals turn out to be terrible value. But the Dodgers, Yankees can afford a few sunk cost contracts. The Dodgers are paying Tucker $60m/yr for 4 years and in year 1 he's produced a whopping 1.1 WAR. That sort of value would essentially wreck the Twins for the length of that contract. (Don't even start on long term deals for starting pitchers in their 30s - yes the Pohlads are cheap as hell but one thing to give them credit for is just not doing these deals, because they rarely pay off.) Leaving the big ticket FAs to the top revenue teams actually improves competitive balance. Take the Mets, they are paying 4 players more than $25m/year - Soto, Bichette, Lindor, Simien, for a total of $164m/yr. This year they got a grand total of 6.2 WAR from those players. So the Mets paid about $26m per 1 WAR. That's crazy expensive! (They also have $63m in dead money). The Twins, on the other hand, spent $20m on their top 4 position players and got 4.1 WAR, so around $5m/WAR. Sure, the Mets have a payroll 3x the Twins on paper...but if you factor out the WAR premium and the dead money, that $344m payroll effectively becomes a $150m payroll. With investment, effective leadership, and a competent FO, the Twins should absolutely be able to compete with that. Where the Twins do need to spend money is locking up young talent to team friendly extensions before they hit FA. There's still the risk that not all of them will pan out, so they really need to improve their drafting and development to get to a point where there's a clear plan in place, the right people to execute it, the commitment to believe in your people and processes and follow it through, and the willingness to play younger, less polished, cheaper/better value players.

Ah yes, the old Dave St Peter principle: if your product sucks, blame the customer. "If you want a better product you must buy a bunch of bad products first so we can afford to make better ones."

Payroll should absolutely be a topic in 2027, but there are different ways of spending payroll than on big ticket FAs. The Twins need to start acting more like successful middle revenue teams like the Brewers, Rays, Guards, etc and sign their future stars to extensions early. Sure the FA class may be terrible, but if so it's a great opportunity to sign Jenkins and/or Culpepper, ERod, Priellip, Houston, Lackey to long term deals. It's going to take some payroll to do that though.