Woof Bronzer

Jim was definitely involved, in fact there's a letter signed by him - I believe it's actually in the baseball HOF strangely enough - blaming fans for not supporting the team enough as a reason for contraction. Here's a direct quote: "when we are posed the question, "why should the Minnesota Twins not be contracted?" we are unable to find a plausible answer." That's how much the Pohlads care about this franchise.

If not for a single judge, the Twins would not exist - not here, not in any other city. I think that is much, much worse then moving a team. And the Pohlads did it out of spite, not business reasons. They wanted to punish the people who didn't just give them whatever they wanted. That's borderline sociopathic.

Saving $30mil in salaries removed a large chunk of the $400 mil debt? The math doesn't work there Bob. Just another hint that the "sale is imminent" rumors are just bs planted by the Pohlads to stir up interest.

The Pohlad family tried to move, then contract the Twins when they didn't get their government handout for a stadium. You cannot get worse than an owner who is literally willing to evaporate the team if they don't get their way.

This is just extremely, extremely false. The hatred for the Pohlads is visceral, and every story and comment mentions them. Again, so very weird to blindly defend a guy you readily admit was lying in his letter by putting for the laughable take that "no one is blaming the Pohlads." I have yet to find a single article, blog, opinion piece, anything at all that claims the FO did this on their own independent of the Pohlads. Just a bizarre thing to claim. Clearly the majority of the activity was Pohlad-driven. But to pretend Falvey is innocent in it is just shockingly naive, and I truly don't understand the point in pretending otherwise. Here's a guy who traded an MLB reliever on a team friendly deal for a 28 year old AAA LH hitting outfielder (the 178th LF hitting outfielder in the organization) because he figured out he could stash him in St Paul for 3 weeks to gain another year of service time with which to put his his incredible .105 batting average to use. Indefensible.

The Varland and Stewart deals were not Pohlad directives, that was purely the FO "finding value". And according to Derek St. Peter's letter the fire sale was his intentional plan to make the team better. It's weird that you keep insisting he had nothing to do with this. Like most things in life it's not black and white.

It's bizarre that Buxton chooses to show loyalty to an organization that has made it crystal clear that the loyalty is not reciprocated. What does that prove? The Pohlads, like all billionaires, don't care about players or loyalty or anything that doesn't involve them hoarding more and more money. Hard to feel too sorry for a guy who chooses to stay with a crappy organization that treats players like crap.

Pretty clear Falvey's new role is Dave St Peter 2.0. His job is no longer about baseball, but making the Pohlads richer and carrying water for them in front of fans. The more I think about the deadline the more convinced I am that the Pohlads aren't selling, but are rather shifting their approach to be a White Sox or As level team with joke payrolls not even trying to win.

Yeah there's obviously no plan here. I hope the Pohlads are paying Falvey handsomely to debase himself like this. A GM with a shred of self respect and professional pride would have quit yesterday, a la Terry Ryan when he was given an absurd cost cutting target. Falvey doubled down, and now seems to embrace the Dave St Peter role of lickin' boots and alienatin' fans.

The "plan" is becoming clearer: insult the intelligence of fans with smarmy holier-than-thou messaging, and just flat out lie about what happened and what they're going to do next, which is lose a ton of games. Full text of Falvey's letter below for those who haven't seen it. Absolute screaming joke of an organization. "This week, we made a clear and deliberate decision to strengthen the next chapter of championship-caliber baseball for the Minnesota Twins. "We didn't make surface moves. We acted with purpose. That meant adding players who can help now, deepening our talent pipeline for 2026 and beyond, and reinforcing the foundation for long-term success. "This wasn't about patchwork or small adjustments. It was about holding ourselves to the standard we expect. The season so far hasn't met that mark. We knew it was time to respond. "We've bolstered our pitching. We added arms ready to contribute now, along with others on the cusp of breaking through. The rotation has gained depth, and the minor league system behind it has become even more robust, with emerging talent pushing the group forward. "On the position player side, we brought in impact potential. Players with the tools to grow into everyday contributors and raise the overall ceiling of the roster. The foundation is getting stronger, and we believe the next wave is starting to take shape. "We know moves like this spark reactions. That's natural. It reflects how much you care. "That's why we're positioning the Twins to compete at a higher level, not just in the short term, but in a way that can endure the ups and downs of a long season. That's the kind of team you deserve. "The mission hasn't changed. We're here to build a team that can win a World Series. "This is the next push. "Thank you for your support. It's your passion that drives us every day."

Prospects are lottery tickets. Neither guy they got are top 100 players. You don't know how prospects will turn out. Austin Martin was a "legit" cant-miss prospect. Total bust. I'm not shedding a tear for Varland, and I support the fire sale. I'm just questioning why they would make this move if they truly plan to compete in 2027 like you said. I don't think there is a plan. Falvey was told to cut a ton of money and this is him winging it the best he can.

It could turn out to be a terrible trade, you have no idea. Trading proven MLB talent on team friendly deals for lottery tickets if you are trying to compete just doesn't make sense to me.

The 2031 thing came from trading Varland, who is locked up thru 2030. Why make that deal if you are looking at 2027?

I don't know either, but remember, Joe Pohlad has run 2 businesses prior to the Twins and he ran them both into the ground. (Make it 3 for 3 I guess.) The Pohlads have probably cost themselves half a billion dollars over the past 2 years with how they've mismanaged this team - maybe a billion if you factor in the massive debt they tried to shelter with the Twins after mismanaging their other businesses. Point being, these guys are just terrible businessmen. They are fundamentally incapable of taking the long view, they only care about short term profits, an approach that will come to bite any business in the butt eventually. Maybe we're trying to make sense out of something that makes no sense. They're just incompetent and short-sighted, nothing more, nothing less.

I don't like Falvey, I want him gone too. The Pohlads obviously like him, because he does what they want and makes them money. A self respecting GM would have quit yesterday, because the Pohlads ensured the team will be worse which will reflect on him. This is what Terry Ryan did the first time around. But for some reason Falvey stayed. I suspect we'll learn why soon - either the Pohlads aren't selling and he just secured his job for the foreseeable future ("see, I can take orders, I can cut costs") or maybe he is going to receive some golden parachute when a new owner takes over so he's just hanging on long enough to cash in. Who knows. As long as the Pohlads are here, so is Falvey.

Burning it down doesn't help Falvey though. It only helps the Pohlads. You think Falvey is planning for, what, 2031 as the next window? There's almost no chance he's still here in 6 years.

Exactly right. Why in the world would Falvey choose to do this?

It's concerning for sure...could one explanation be that the buyer WON'T absorb the debt, or not all of it, so the Pohlads have been forced to cut costs to offset some of it? Most buyers buy teams to make money hand over fist, not to win games. This is standard in business: you don't have to care about (or know anything about) widgets to buy a widget company. So I doubt a potential buyer cares a lick about baseball at this point, it's all about the proforma. A buyer, if they care at all about baseball, will start caring about baseball after they've closed on the deal and set up shop.

Given what happened yesterday, if Rocco sticks around another 8 years to equal TK's 14 years, I'm certain this will no longer be the case.

Phase 2: new owners Phase 3: FO house cleaning. Top to bottom. Phase 4: coaching staff house cleaning. Majors, minors, everyone. The entire organization needs to be scrubbed clean to remove the stink of the Pohlads and the Falvey/Rocco era. The next phase is the hardest, and I'm still not convinced the Pohlads are selling....but once Phase 2 happens, 3&4 should follow...

Still wrapping my head around yesterday, but the more I think about it there's no way any of this was Falvey's idea. Why would he do any of this? I guess he could be showing a future owner how cheap he can be...otherwise he just punted on 2025 and 2026 too. Burning it down on his way out the door? I assume he wants another FO job if he's done here, no owner would hire him after a stunt like that. (Also the Pohlads could have just stepped in and stopped him if he was really going rogue.) I suspect the Pohlads gave him some really grim targets, and he did the best he could within those. If you squint hard enough you notice he didn't give up his top 3 starters, nor his best player (Buxton) - hard to call it a strategic teardown if you hold on to probably your 4 most valuable assets. He gave up most of the bullpen - well, nobody on the planet believes he can build a bullpen out of a scrap heap than Derek Falvey. But there's no plan on the baseball side. The plan is: cut costs. That's it, that's the plan. Falvey just did the best he could (in his mind) with the hand he was dealt. What worries me is the Outman thing and especially the Varland trade - there's no cost savings to be gleaned here. I'm a bit worried that the Pohlads realize they can't sell the team for what they want, so some of yesterday was an intentional F You to the fans, similar to how the Pohlads threw a hissy fit when they didn't get their government handout for a stadium and tried to contract the Twins out of existence. "Oh you like this hometown kid? Maybe you shouldn't have complained about payroll. Screw you, fans." Hell hath no fury like a billionaire who doesn't get everything he wants. I am nervous that yesterday signals that they maybe aren't selling, or aren't selling any time soon. The simplest explanation, of course, is that the Pohlads are cutting costs ahead of a sale. This is common in business, and the Pohlads have zero interest in the baseball side of things. I sure hope this is the case...but again, this doesn't explain why they traded Varland or Stewart.

Oh believe me, I don't want to be the Rays either, I'm just saying I think it's really hard for a serious mid market team to be competitive getting replacement-level production from 1/4 of your payroll. And yes, the Twins are not a serious mid market team, and why they wouldn't pry a better prospect or 2 out of the Astros is one of the many baffling things of this deadline. And of course the Pohlads won't spend it. Maybe I should have said "in theory" it was a good move.

Unpopular opinion but the Correa trade, even if made solely for money purposes, was a smart baseball move. Getting someone to take 2/3 of that anchor is good business for a 0 WAR player with a long injury history on the wrong side of 30. And if the Twins had a young SS in the wings who could provide similar production for 1/25th the salary, it would be a brilliant move - the kind that can help a mid-market team seriously competitive. People want the Twins to be like the Rays - well the Rays would do something like this. Actually didn't Houston do this exact thing with Correa/Pena?

Gleeman tweeted that during Correa's tenure the Twins had a winning record when he was out and a losing record when he played. Not saying it's all him, and I think his performance was overall a net positive when he was here, but he wasn't really a game changer.

This is the best entertainment I've had as a Twins fan since October 2023! At this point Falvey may as well get really crazy and throw out like a Lopez or Lewis trade.