Western SD Fan

Since my MSN homepage promotes Puckett's Pond instead of Twins Daily (boo!), I get to see their headlines. Their headlines actually mirror what I was going to say on this thread. The Twins have potentially drafted their replacement for Correa. The timing may be right as there are at least three more years left on Correa's contract and Houston is probably the only true SS in the system that has the defensive chops to match Correa at the moment. Time will tell as he goes through the minors, but first glance seems encouraging.

The first half has been fun with all of you. The team pushes on my alcohol content at times! I will see you in Colorado! Finally get to see the Twins play this year.

I've been wondering that ever since they brought him back up the first time off the IL for the Baltimore series in early May.

Still has Coulombe and potentially Sands if you believe that he can come back after 19 pitches yesterday. I'm warming up Festa or Paddack if it goes any farther than that.

Paddack is the one with the expiring contract. You may have missed the part where I said that if you trust that potential rotation without Paddack, then you try to trade him before the deadline.

Rocco was updated. Zebby was taken out after 4 innings and his replacement promptly coughed up a run.

Zebby just takes Adams spot when he's ready. The tougher question is what to do with Ober when he comes back. If it's before the trade deadline, you may try to move Paddack if you trust a group of Ryan, SWR, Matthews, Ober, and Festa to get you to when Lopez comes back.

Zebby update from across the river. 4 IP, 1H, 0BB, 9K, 56 pitches

Makes it easier since he is still active.

I believe I heard they were having the ABS for the All-Star Game. We need to bring back Angel Hernandez to be behind the plate this All-Star game. I would love to see if there can be some kind of record set for the number of missed calls overturned by ABS.

Again, I would say that is why you have a coach. In that case, it's his pitching coach reminding him where the pitcher is in the batting order, what his numbers are that third time through the order, and who is actually coming up to help Rocco make that decision.

I'll be the Rocco defender in this situation. Given the overall situation, big lead and Buxton has had a great day at the plate, Rocco was probably looking more at trying to save his legs a little by taking him out early. Rocco has done it with both Buxton and Correa throughout the season. Rocco even said in the interview that it's his coaches that bring up those things, such as a cycle watch, hitting streaks, on base streaks, etc. He did say that once they brought it to his attention, he wasn't taking him out. I bet that if you asked all of the MLB managers about whether they keep track of these things, most of them would say no.

I don't mind the Vazquez play of the hit and run. It turned into a sacrifice to get the runner to second. Two chances to get Bader in.

Joey Gallo 2.0: The slower version that can't play 1B

You're right that we would need a shortstop. If you're trading Joe Ryan, I'm also guessing you're trading everyone under the sun not nailed down for the next one to two years and preparing for a 70-80 win season the next two years rather than retooling. If that's the case, I'll bring up Will Holland or Eeles and see what I have while have Lee covering SS in the interim. You're also right that Correa's contract may not be the albatross that I'm making it out to be. Quite a few people called Mauer's contract an albatross, and I believe it was proven in the long run that Mauer definitely earned his contract. I do have a real concern that Correa will never be healthy enough to be the player we signed up for. Through half of the year, Correa is -0.2 WAR per baseball-reference. I still think this entire discussion needs to take place in the offseason and not before the deadline.

I would surmise that if talks were in the final stages that the new owners would have some input. With that being said, I do not believe that negotiations are that close. I also would imagine that if the Pohlads want what they are asking in a potential sale, they would protect the value of the team as much as they could, which would likely not trading Joe Ryan at the deadline. I do agree that no one should be viewed as "untouchable", but Joe Ryan should be as close to that as possible. I have one crazy idea that likely wouldn't be available but would be interesting if it could be swung. The FO sees if there is any team that Correa is willing to break his no-trade clause for and match with Ryan accordingly. Someone with access to Baseball Trade Values would have to do the work to see if this is even possible. I may be willing to part with a potential pitcher such as Ryan if I can gain the flexibility of being released by the Correa albatross of a contract. I'll use that money to bolster my roster in the offseason and I'm likely better off in the long run.

Here's one thought that nobody has really addressed yet in terms of future planning, which starts with this upcoming trade deadline: a potential lockout of the players following the 2026 season. Think of it as a hurricane out in the Atlantic that we know nothing about its track, but we need to be cognizant of its potential impacts. At worst, you're looking at a 2027 season that could be shortened or cancelled. For the first time, MILB players are part of the MLBPA and its negotiations. It would be unlikely in the wake of a work stoppage that the minors continue to play games and players will continue to develop like they have in the past when there has been an MLB labor stoppage. One other thought would be the upcoming post-ASB schedule, 3 @ COL, 3 @ LAD, 3 v WAS, 3 v BOS. That's a reasonable schedule to go anywhere from 7-5 to 9-3 and now you're above .500 and likely within 3 games of the Wild Card. With that thought in mind, here's where I think the August 1 roster should be and I love playing this like a bad Choose Your Own Adventure Novel. 🙂 As always, I reference my go-to on these matters: Sportrac's Multi-Year contract page here - Minnesota Twins Multi-Year Table Option #1: Sell Hard - This means you've given up on 2025 AND 2026 and you're shooting for 2027 or maybe even 2028 and just trying not to be the White Sox or Rockies for the next two years. You trade all the usual suspects (Castro, Bader, Coulombe, Paddack, France, Vazquez (provided you can find a buyer, may have to sweeten the pot to get a taker), and possibly Topa since it's unlikely in this scenario you're picking up his $2M club option anyway. Then you sell anyone with potential value to pick up cheaper MLB players and/or prospects in AA or AAA since we want their ETA to be sometime in 2026 with the expectation of trying to compete in 2027 or 2028. This would include Ryan, Jax, Duran, and maybe even taking calls on Stewart and Larnach. I would have included Pablo Lopez here, but he is still on the IL and wouldn't be available by the trade deadline. If I sell everything that isn't nailed down on this list, I clear almost $48M in payroll for next year. This is of course before the remaining spots are filled by AAA players or trash heap pickups in the offseason, which will likely add another $20-30M in payroll for 2026. I do not see this as a likely scenario as this will kill any goodwill left with the fans and possibly lower the overall value of the team right when ownership is in the middle of negotiations to sell the team. Option #2: Sell Little - You're still selling the usual suspects, but you're taking offers on most anyone, but they better be really good offers as you're planning on running some form of this team back next year. This may even include a conversation with Castro, Bader, or France that you really do like them and would like to take a chance at resigning them in the offseason, but you're still trading them. This is one of the more likely outcomes, but it will depend on how they come out of the gates post ASB. Option #3: Do Nothing - Only thing I would add to this is they may do very little selling or buying in this scenario. Maybe you trade Castro because you're blown away by an offer and with Keaschall coming back, that provides you with the IF flexibility to trade him. Maybe you get a role player, say, a Keirsey Jr type player with better hitting skills that you could actually stick in the lineup. Maybe you still trade Paddack with the expectation the Matthews will be back before the deadline and Ober won't be too far behind (or vice versa). Either way, you're expecting to run this team back and you'll deal with the payroll issues in the offseason, maybe with a dream that the team will be sold by then. Given the FO tendencies and the upcoming post-ASB schedule, this seems to be the likeliest scenario, much to the chagrin of many of us in Twins Territory or on Twins Daily. This scenario also does the most to protect the value of the team while in negotiations of selling the team. Option #4: Buy Baby Buy! - To borrow from the YouTuber UrinatingTree: We Gonta World Series! Let's buy for the upcoming stretch run with our high-end talent out there! Considering many of our arbitration players are on the wrong side of arbitration and without a class of prospects ready to graduate in the next year. I also do not think there are any potential players out there that will help this team make the kind of run we need to justify this scenario. This is an obvious one-word answer. NO. Even when we have been in a position to do this (2023), we haven't pulled the trigger with anything of substance. This is more unlikely than the burndown option I started with.

You have to start thinking there's something about Minnesota. Since Alcala has been traded, he's went 9 1/3 innings and has only given up one run in the same situation that he was pitching in Minnesota: low leverage situations.

I would also give an honorable mention to Travis Adams. Picks up his first win, manages the game through 4 innings of 1 ER ball. It didn't look pretty at times, but he gave us what we needed, and the offense came through to make sure we didn't need to burn through our high leverage bullpen guys.

I think it's always been with the caveat: WHEN he is healthy. It seems like he rarely slumps when he's healthy.

One piece of good news is that the Twins open up the 2nd half in Colorado so Buxton will get to ease into the post All Star Break swing.

A double and a triple. I'm guessing he has run out of at bats to reach it.

Exactly. When the ball finally finds his bat in his swing wheelhouse, he can hit something. Otherwise, he can't hit a beach ball.

I don't necessity want to fall in love with Clemens as to keep him on the roster at the expense of a prospect. But if he is willing to sign a $1M-ish 1-yr contract for next year, I definitely would keep him on the roster past this year. EDIT: Maybe he can be the answer at 1B while we wait for a more permanent solution. EDIT #2: If I would have done 1 minute of research, I would have realized that he's a Pre-Arb player that may attain Super 2 status in the offseason so he will be with the Twins as long as they don't release him.