LyleCole

I disagree in part. The direction is the rebuild. The plan should be to create this lineup for Game 1 of the 2028 season: OF; Jenkins, Rodriguez, Mendez, Gonzalez IF: Culpepper, Keaschall, Houston, Winokur, Lee (Winokur might be pushing) C: Lackey, Diaw Maybe Clemens would be the veteran presence. There might be other players knocking at the door like Caden Kendle or Jaime Ferrer or maybe even Luis Fragoza in the OF, or Tait or Tinney at catcher. Would be nice if Kyle Debarge pushed too. But these guys are the replacements for if any of the prospects higher in the development chain falter. The reason why REBUILD should be the direction, and should have been this last season, is that our pitching pipeline is not as robust as our position players. We need a major influx of talent. Most of the position players are ready to play right now. That does not mean they will be at 100% of their potential immediately. It takes time for players to develop at the MLB level. You have to lose like the 1982 Twins did (and that brings in more talent in the pipeline via the draft). But if the bulk of these players like Jenkins and Culpepper are true, then we should be able to field competitive teams, especially if we fill any holes at "maturity" with smart pick ups and trades like the 87 and 91 teams did.

The answer is almost certainly no. He just never developed the way they hoped. It sometimes happens when a prospects performance is heavily influenced by their relative age to competition i.e. he is three plus years younger than the competition.

I think the word success is being stretched here. Brooks Lee is a starting player, but frankly I think he has been a disappointment. I thought he would be much more of a professional hitter with above average bat to ball skills. But he really hasn't. He has a career OBP under .300, a career batting average under .240, and a career slugging percentage under .400. His career OPS+ is 87 which to his credit improved to 101 this season based on a decent increase in power raising his slugging percentage up to .429. Perhaps there is more improvement to come and as a utility man maybe that is good enough. But from a guy drafted in the top ten? And amongst the pitching selected in that draft, Prielipp, Morris, and Matthews, I guess if "success" is defined by reaching the majors they have been successful. But they clearly have not demonstrated that they have established a role at the major league level to date and there is significant uncertainty to their futures if we are being realistic. Given that they all were college draft picks and all of them are 26 years old (rounding up a little for Prielipp and Lee), they are no longer kid prospects that have their full developmental timeline ahead of them. Their improvement needs to happen in a big hurry for them to become true successes.

Exactly. If they add one higher end hitter to that lineup they are contenders for the World Series rings.... but they didn't so they were just good enough, with limited exceptions, to sneak into the playoffs and get bombed by better overall teams. THE WINDOW WAS THERE. The ownership refused to make the commitment.

I always say that I wish all of these young men can make it to the big leagues and have a great career. Even the misses are such talented baseball players who until they reach that certain limit were probably always the best player around.

During the Mauer-Mourneau-Santana-Liriano years if they just bring the payroll up, they are real contenders for the World Series and probably recoup all of their incremental investment. They had good young stars and good supporting players, a high level closer. They just had to rely too much on guys like Rondell White and Lew Ford and Nick Punto.

I have a 2nd home just north of Chattanooga so I went to the Chattanooga Lookout game (Cincinnati Reds AA Affiliate). The Lookouts have a brand new stadium that opened this year so I wanted to take a look at it, and fortunately I was able to before the season ended. I am glad I did. It was a beautiful stadium that was built in a former industrial area so they kept a lot of that rustic look in and around the stadium. They drew a nice crowd on Fan Appreciation night and put up some runs for the home crowd. Really don't follow the Reds a lot. The AA team did not have a lot of their higher minor league prospects. The best hitter in the lineup was Carter Graham, a 2023 8th round draft pick out of Standford. He had not had much success in his minor league career before 2026 with all of his minor league season posting sub-.700 OPS. But this year he has split between A+ and AA and posted 31 2B and 29 HRS, along with 80 BB for a OPS of .990. He absolutely crushed a home run early in the game and then hit a laser right at the LF. I thought their catcher Alfredo Duno was a decent hitter, a big Venezuelan kid who has hit all through the minors. Their DH Ruben Ibarra has played 2 seasons for Nooga, hitting 20+ home runs each year and was very popular with the crowd. He is listed at 6-3, 290 and he tomahawked a high fastball deeeeeep into LF. The Lookouts have a the Reds 2022 first round pick(18th overall) Cam Collier at 3B. But he has struggled all season and really did not look good at the plate. The other is Austin Hendrick, their first round pick, 12th overall, in 2020 out of high school. He has really struggled to get past AA ball. He started teh season at AAA but only had a .566 OPS there and was then sent back to AA for his 3rd sting at the level. The pitching wasn't anything to write home about for either team. Both starters had ERAs above 6.50 entering the game. Both relief pitchers who finsihed the game had ERAs above 6.50. But Chattanooga's first reliever was a former Twins 2021 draft pick, Jonathan Lavallee. The Twins released him near the end of the 2023 season. He signed with the Blue Jays organization and was with them for a couple of years. Then signed with the Reds in 2026. He pitched well in AA, but was promoted to AAA in June and he did not perform well at that level so he was sent back down to the Lookouts. If you get a chance to go to a game in Chattanooga I highly recommend it.

This is why the rebuilding strategy made so much more sense at the deadline than the half way buy strategy they attempted at the trade deadline. You have an entire outfield of higher rated minor league prospects ready to play, all at AAA or higher: Jenkins, Rodriguez, Mendes, and Gonzales, along with Roden and even Matt Wallner. You have Culpepper and Lee at the MLB level at infield with Marek Houston probably ready in AA. Kody Clemens and Luke Keaschall can be the 1B/2B/OF type of utility that you can use in DH role too. The only position that has no immediate answer is catcher but the pipeline starting at the AA level is very loaded, and I think they should give Diaw an opportunity to win a roster spot next season because he is a professional type of hitter (natural lead off man with .400+ OBP that ahs held at every level). The biggest weakness of this team is long term pitching, and we should have used our very valuable trade pieces to fill in those holes. Rebuilding helps the Twins financially and by tanking they get high draft picks to keep the prospect pool filled. You then use attrition to figure out the lineup, and then if you can make smart moves like finding useful players like Chili Davis, Shane Mack, Big Train Willis, and Brian Harper to fill the remaining holes you can convert a rebuilding team into a winner.

What is sad is that there has not been one word said, either in the column or the comments, about the Twins signing Ryan Jeffers to a long term deal. When the fans just assume that the Twins would not even think about offering a contract for Jeffer means we really are not a legitimate MLB franchise. The market value of Ryan Jeffers in the modern day economics of professional baseball is not extreme. He will be a catcher turning 30 next season. A long term deal is 3 years, especially since in his solid contract year he missed almost 2 months of the season with injury. Online, for what it is worth, the range of this contract is basically $36-45 million for the 3 years. Maybe Boras can get him more, but those offers would be more outliers from what the Twins management parameters they should use in their decision making. And if you look at that range, an organization like the Twins simply cannot offer the Qualifying Offer to a 30 year old catcher. The compensation value the Twins would receive if he moved on, most likely a Comp B pick (contract under $50 million) is not worth the risk that he takes the $24 million. Going back to legitimacy, once the Twins decided not to trade Jeffers at the trade deadline into what could have been a lucrative trade market even at rental prices, a legitimate team in MLB would never make that decision IF THEY DID NOT PLAN ON RESIGNING JEFFERS THIS OFFSEASON. And that should be the plan. The Twins should offer a very competitive offer for Jeffers to remain a Twin. 3 years, $42 million with a club option 4th year at $16 million. We "bought" at the trade deadline and ownership babbles about investing in the team. So Jeffers should be only the first step in an offseason plan to move the team into competitiveness. They should target at least a $150 million payroll even though $170 million is what the Twins fans deserve. But I doubt the Twins are a legitimate franchise and they will most likely return to their standard practices.

I am glad they gave him a chance at the big leagues. Hopefully he recovers from his injury and has a long professional baseball career.

Thanks for making my argument for me. Even if you include the "trade candidates", they really do not have much depth and the value of Kremer is just to go out there every 5 days and give a mediocre performance because there simply isn't anyone there to replace him. Maybe if Riley Quick was ready to be promoted to the Twins the calculus would be different, but he isn't at this time. Like I said, the downside risk of that is very minimal. If he sucks, designate him for assignment and move on. If he pitches well, then the team might be doing well, OR you might recoup your investment and more at or before the trade deadline to a team looking for rotation help. The Twins minor league system is not really stacked with available pitching. Quick is (based om mlb.com) the #7 prospect. Wachsmann, a 2026 HS draft pick is #12 (essentially replacing Dasan Hill). Brett Renfrom, a 2026 college draft pick is 14. Charlie Soto is #18, but he has only pitched 15 innings in the most recent 2 seasons. The rest of the guys are outside the top 20: some 2026 draft picks that have yet to make their pro debut, longtime prospect Marco Raya who looks like he has flamed out,

Injured. #2. #1. Injured. Injured. Currently not much beyond a 4/5 and whose health has been suspect. Probably should be in the bullpen and far from proven. Another 4/5 guy. Another 4/5 guy. Add David Festa as another unproven and injured pitcher. If we had some sparkling starting pitching prospect, I would perhaps agree with you. But, the best pitching prospects in the Twins system will almost certainly not be in the rotation next season.

I essentially disagree. Kremer is a 4th-5th starting pitcher and has a reasonable record at that level. He still has a year of team control on what is estimated to be a reasonable salary for a MLB starting pitcher of between $5-6 million. The fact is, the 4/5 starting pitchers in the major leagues have good games and bad games. I think the Twins should plug him into the rotation in 2027. The worst case scenario is that he just isn't that good and there are better options to put into the rotation although I am not sure exactly what those options are at the moment (perhaps someone has some ideas). The best case scenario is that he pitches well to the deadline either helping the Twins to a playoff level record, or failing that, he is a pitcher that we can more than recoup our investment in. That is a very reasonable set of outcomes for trading a young, lower level, international, and outside the top-25 prospect list like Reyes, who in 95 plate appearances for Baltimore's A minor league team he has a .611 OPS. And, while I usually am an advocate of not using half way measures in building a roster (either rebuild or compete), I just do not think the Twins system has enough rotational arms to fill out the 2027 starting rotation.

Here has been a common theme of the Twins organization for a while, through many front offices and managers: They are afraid of calling up prospects and they do not do well and they are simultaneously afraid of calling up prospects and they flourish. The second clause is all financial because then they lose a year of control and will have to pay them. The Dodgers and Yankees do not have these concerns.

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.