LyleCole

I think the move to the bullpen is way past due for Connor. As a major league pitcher that is probably his best role. He might have the stuff of a starting pitcher, but for all of his career the innings limit and arm concerns are going to linger. In the last six seasons of baseball (including 2 years in Alabama) he has thrown 258 innings. In 4 years of professional baseball that total is 220 innings. Move him to a relief role. This will increase his velocity and movement, and mitigate the need for utilizing his secondary pitches. I think he will be a very effective relief pitcher, and maybe a high end closer.

I mentioned this in the game thread, but one of the keys to JP Smith II becoming a legitimate major league prospect is his poor conditioning. When I was at the Miracle Mighty Mussel game recently he trotted out to be the first base "coach" and it looked like an overweight guy they brought in from the stands. He can obviously hit, but the 6-2 240 they list him at is probably understated. Spend this offseason conditioning and building muscle. It would be a worthwhile investment for the Twins to find JP a personal trainer and nutritionist, and a well conditioned JP Smith at a real 6-2, 240 could become a MLB level hitter.

JP Smith can really hit. What I would suggest to him is starting the very first day after the end of the season he really works on his conditioning. Seeing him in person, he was really pudgy. But he seems to have the frame that if he can get in better shape and add muscle he could become a player like Josh Bell.

As I had pointed out when the trades were made, there was nothing really wrong with the individual trades they made. I actually like the Dean Kremer trade a lot getting a 4th starter type player with experience and one more year of reasonable team control for a low level minor league player. The Minter rental was a reasonable acquisition to try to take a shot at the playoffs and he has performed very well, maybe enough the Twins could be in contention to retain him. The Hoffman cost was the highest move, although it was reasonable. He would be the only question mark but he might be a good person to have in the bullpen next season no matter what hte course. But the real issue is that while these were BIG moves by Twins standard, they really were half way moves to try to just squeak into the playoffs either as the bottom wild card team or winning a very weak AL division. To me you either commit to rebuild and trade away the assets you have at high value that cannot be part of your rebuild, or you commit to becoming a team that will field a payroll similar to other teams in the league. Minnesota is tens of millions of dollars below median and average major league baseball payrolls. That means they have lots of opportunity to sign free agents this offseason if they so choose. But I expect more of the same from ownership. They will target the bottom of the playoff level as their goal and limit the signings to low cost players.

Well, we don't want another rookie like Culpepper coming up and hitting at a .900+ clip, right?

Sorry, you are not correct about "everyone saying this".

Can you imagine the haul of prospects we could have got for Buxton before the start of the season? He was coming off perhaps his best season of his MLB career, only the 3rd of his 12 season in which he played more than 95 games, and was still a high impact hitter and fielder. Contending markets would have looked at his contract, which is huge for the Twins, as petty change for the value they would be getting. Sure, he had a no trade clause and stated he did not want to be traded, but that would have changed when he would be looking at being on a real contending team. Instead, we pretended we were contenders and probably lost a chance to maximize our returns on player like Buxton and Joe Ryan, and to a lesser extend Trevor Larnach and Ryan Jeffers. Perhaps the ownership has turned around and will spend money to keep Jeffers and add real talent in the offseason. But does anyone really believe that? And then, when the next rebuild starts and we confront the problem of not having quality pitching in both starters and relievers, we need to remember these decisions made start to finish in 2026.

The time to call Emmanual Rodriguez up to the majors is NOW. His main problem has been injuries, so instead of being injured at the minor league level, lets get over our fear and let him get injured at the major league level. At least we can get him some plate appearances and see if his approach can carry over to the highest level of ball.

Players who are defensive liabilities but can produce offensively just slide to the left of the defensive spectrum. This offseason I would suggest they continue his OF development as best they can and then buy him a first baseman's glove. Is there enough power for him to be at that end of the spectrum? I think the really, really slow start impacted him in the power area and he is not a true power hitter. But there is still a lot of pop in his bat. Get him 50 games in LF, 60 games at first, 10 games at 2B and 25 as the DH. As his defense improves then slide him more to left, if not slide him to first. But make sure that his defense is a priority in offseason work.

It might be over except for an improbable run, but their current record is 60-65. To get to 500 they need to go 21-16 over the next 37 games. That is a .568 win percentage, or a 92 win pace.

When I went to a recent Miracle Mighty Mussel game, one guy that really needs to advance up the Twins prospect list is Luis Fragoza. He is a pure hitter with a solid approach at the plate, and in the couple of chances I saw of him in RF he looks like a solid corner outfielder. While speed is not his game, he is 16 SB with just 2 CS. He is listed at 6-1 160 lbs but he has obviously added muscle to his frame and I would estimate he is at 190 lbs. I think he is a much better prospect than Reyes, whom we traded. He now has 30 XBH with 13 HR. He is hitting .316 with a .587 slugging percentage. He will turn 20 in late October so he is facing competition that is an average of 2.0 years older. Lots of time to work him through the minors and see if he can continue this approach as he moves to higher competition levels.

So, why did the Twins call up Kaelen Culpepper and then sit him two games into his stint with the big league club? Is he injured again?

Lets make it clear that the Varland issue is not a mistake of being market sellers at the deadline. It is a mistake of player development and evaluation. When you draft a player into your development system your team should be the biggest expert on their potential. Minnesota developed Varland as a starting pitcher through the lower minors and the statistical results were very encouraging. But they just could not seem to get Louis over the hump as a starter in the higher minors and his three stints from 2022-2024 with the Twins as a starter. They finally moved him to the bullpen in 2025 and he was getting solid results, with a 2.02 ERA (what is surprising is that Varland's K/9 in these 49 innings of relief were the lowest of his career, 8.6). My view on why the Twins traded him was that they viewed Varland as a failed starter and never bought into his role in the bullpen. They considered his statistical results in 2025 as one of those statistical blips that can happen in the careers of relief pitchers and believed they were selling Varland high at the deadline. And as with the Sam Darnold saga with the VIkings, just because a player has success with another franchise does not mean he would have success with yours. Darnold would have struggled with the Vikings offensive line failures, and it is doubtful that Minnesota would have used Varland as a late inning closer like the Blue Jays. LIke I said, I just do not think they believed in him in that role. And, before we short circuit this trade, lets see how Kendry Rojas develops. Varland is 28 years old and he reached the majors when he was 25. Rojas is 5 years younger and has already touched the major leagues and shown some talent at that level. One issue I have with Rojas though, like Varland, will the Twins make up their mind if he is a starter or a reliever?

I wish they all could make it. Gonsalves was really good at the beginning of his minor league career. Did he wreck his arm in 2019?

No on all of them. They are all just names from the past.