CoachDW

Henriquez is one that is a complete head-scratcher. In two seasons with the Twins (age 22 & 24) he pitched 30 innings, giving up 28 hits with 8 walks, 24 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.00 (ERA+ of 173 and 131). The Twins waived him, he was picked up by the Marlins where he promptly put up a record of 7-1 with a 2.22 ERA (195 ERA+). In 73 innings, he gave up only 53 hits and 27 walks while striking out 98. All to hold onto Tonkin/Dobnak. Incredibly short-sighted. The Twins also gave up on Steven Okert too soon, in my opinion. He was no youngster when the Twins acquired him, but he already had a strong track record of above-average relief pitching (ERA+ greater than 100 each year). There is no question that he pitched poorly with the Twins in 2024, having to adjust to a new experience being in the American League after spending his whole career in the NL and battling injuries (he was shut down in August). The Twins made no effort to re-sign him, and over the past two seasons he has combined for about 140 innings, giving up just 90 hits with 150 strikeouts and ERA+ of 135 and 194 with Houston. Another bullpen arm who thrived prior to and after leaving Minnesota that did nothing when he was here.

Maybe it is not so much the Twins failure to unlock the talent or develop it as it is that the pitchers have not reached their prime or the level of experience to thrive as a major league pitcher. Megill and Cano are two examples of guys that definitely had all the tools and the stuff to be good relievers but didn't have the control or maybe the experience necessary to be a useful part of a relief staff. The Twins had both of them in 2022 when both were 28 years old. Neither had much big league experience at that point - Megill had thrown only 24 innings with the Cubs the year before while Cano broke in with the Twins. Both had live arms and had more strikeouts than innings pitched with Minnesota. However, Cano gave up 17 hits and walked 11 batters in just 13 innings while Megill gave up 50 hits and had 17 walks in only 45 innings. It is easy to see why the Twins would decide to cut these guys loose, pitchers with potential but who were inexperienced at the big league level, couldn't control the strike zone, and were not relatively young. In the four years since leaving the Twins, both have improved their control - this year, Megill walked 15 hitters in 61 innings and Cano 13 in 49 innings. Was it better coaching that improved them, or was it more learning how to pitch gained through experience and maybe reaching their prime physically? Maybe some of both. Teams need to make judgment calls about personnel all the time, and sometimes they are just wrong. However, I can't say I really blame the Twins for moving on from these two at the time they did.

Target Coby Mayo of Baltimore, acquire him, then pencil him in as your first baseman for the next five years.

Nick wasn’t harsh enough on Luis Garcia? He gave him a F and wrote “gets no worse than this”, “nine excruciating appearances”, and “washed-up” all in just 25 words. It doesn’t get much more harsh than that.

He would slot right into the Twins bullpen, with his two walks per inning and 9.00 ERA...

Exactly this. I feel that it is time to move on from Royce Lewis, and no other prospects anywhere in the Twins organization is ready to step up and make a difference. Prior to this season, I stated that it was time for the Twins to quit the signing of veteran first basemen (Solano, Santana, France, Bell) and to finally make a plan to acquire a young first baseman who can be a lineup mainstay for the next five or six years. I said that the guy to target would be Coby Mayo of the Baltimore Orioles. Mayo is a 6-foot-5, 225 pound righthanded ripper who is only 24 years old but has hit 24 HR in only 383 at bats, good for an OPS+ of 111 this season. There is still a bunch of swing and miss in his game, but I think he is on the verge of really being an impact player, given regular playing time. If Mayo is not the guy, find the guy. The Twins definitely need to identify the player that is right for them who can fill there long-term needs at first base and trade for him. Enough with the stop-gap veteran merry-go-round at first base.

Woo Sukked. Go. You could see this one coming a mile away the moment they acquired him.

Wash, rinse, repeat... "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." April 21, 2026 Signed Luis Garcia as a free agent. April 23, 2026 Selected Christian Roa off waivers from the Houston Astros. May 3, 2026 Zak Kent selected by the Washington Nationals off waivers. May 6, 2026 Purchased Yoendrys Gómez from the Tampa Bay Rays. May 10, 2026 Christian Roa selected by the Baltimore Orioles off waivers. May 20, 2026 Released Matt Bowman. Released John Brebbia. May 23, 2026 Released Justin Topa. May 25, 2026 Released Dan Altavilla. May 26, 2026 Luis Garcia granted Free Agency. June 2, 2026 Purchased Justin Lawrence from the Pittsburgh Pirates. June 3, 2026 Simeon Woods Richardson player rights sold to the Toronto Blue Jays. June 4, 2026 Signed Austin Voth as a free agent. June 8, 2026 Purchased Taylor Rashi from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Those top five picks indeed ended up being pretty underwhelming, as were most picks in the first two rounds of that 2017 draft. There were some intriguing players picked later in the first round of the draft, including Jo Adell (10), Jake Burger (11), Shane Baz (12), Trevor Rogers (13), Clarke Schmidt (16), Heliot Ramos (19), Tanner Houck (24), and Drew Rasmussen (31). The Twins used a first-round compensation pick to select Brent Rooker (35). Some good major league players on the list, some All-Stars (including Rooker, but alas, not with the Twins), but no real superstars. The second round included Luis Campusano (39), Griffin Canning (47), Gavin Sheets (49), MJ Melendez (52), Mark Vientos (59) and Daulton Varsho (68). Any of those would have been much better draft choices than who the Twins took with the very first pick of the second round - high school righthander Landon Leach (37). Ouch. All in all, 2017 was a pretty slim draft, but the Twins could have had better than what they ended up with over those first two rounds.

Kody Clemens challenge on the FIRST PITCH of his at bat was just stupid. Nobody was on base at the time and only would have reversed an 0-1 count to 1-0. It left the Twins out of challenges that they could have used later. What if the home plate umpire had called the last pitch a ball? The Twins couldn’t have challenged. Players have to know the game situation before mindlessly making a challenge on a pitch that has no major bearing on the game as a whole. That Clemen’s boneheaded challenge could have been a killer, and for really a minuscule advantage. That can’t happen again.

Hey Matt, I loved your Kennedy joke...made even better with the line about costing the author "thousands of dollars in tuition." Very nicely done. It's not even June, and the Twins have already set a franchise record with ten different pitchers earning a save. "Closer by Committee" has become more common in recent years all across baseball, but the Twins, either through desperation or dumb luck (likely both) have seemingly perfected it. The 2021 Tampa Bay Rays and 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers, who both won their divisions and made the post-season, had 14 different pitchers garner saves and the Arizona Diamondbacks set the record last year when they had 15 guys post saves. With the way the Twins bullpen fluctuates from week to week, with new guys being brought up from the minors and veterans being added endlessly via the waiver wire, the Twins have the opportunity to shatter the all-time record -- maybe by the All-Star break. It's easy to see that Brooks Lee, with his limited lateral range, is much more suited for 3B than SS. I think that Luke Keaschall has made defensive progress at 2B from where he was last year, and I think letting him play there everyday instead of moving him around into the outfield has helped with that. Keep playing him at 2B day after day, and with his athleticism, I think he will become very proficient there. We all need to remember that he didn't play a ton of 2B in the minors as the Twins were moving him around from 3B, 1B, and the outfield over the past few years, and he only played 41 games there last season in the majors due to injury. Pencil him in at 2B everyday, live with the growing pains, and you will have a very good defender before too long.

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**Voting closes Friday, April 8.** Did you mean to write Friday, May 8th?

Once a team uses up their two challenges, the umpire can then go back to “their” zone in calling pitches, knowing that their calls can’t be challenged. Hunter is an old-school umpire, used to calling pitches an inch or two off the plate strikes, which doesn’t conform to the ABS system. Once the challenges are gone he can revert back to calling those pitches strikes with impunity. Eventually we will get to a system where as soon as the pitch crosses the plate, “ball” or “strike” will be announced immediately over the public address system for all to hear and the ABS pitch location is shown simultaneously on the scoreboard for all to see. No need to ever challenge balls or strikes again.

It's hard not to go with the Bomba Squad and their 101 wins as the most successful of the Falvey era. If not for several questionable pitching decisions by rookie manager Rocco Baldelli in the playoff sweep by the Yankees in the ALDS, it might have turned out much differently. The Twins won the AL Central by 8 games and Baldelli had ample opportunity to line up his pitching heading into the ALDS against the Bronx Bombers. Jose Berrios got the start in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium and pitched pretty well, throwing 4 innings with one earned run and six strikeouts, exiting after 88 pitches in a 3-3 tied ballgame. Baldelli then made one of quite a few head-scratching decisions he would make with his pitching staff in this series, going to rookie Zach Littell instead of a more veteran arm. Yankee Stadium in the playoffs was an intimidating stage, and Littell was understandably rattled, walking Aaron Judge, throwing a wild pitch, and then plunking Brett Gardner before exiting after only 8 pitches. Tyler Duffey, who led the Twins bullpen that year with a 182 ERA+, inherited the mess and struck out the side, but not before giving up a 2-run double to Gleyber Torres that put the Yankees up 5-3. Miguel Sano led off the top of the 6th with a homer to cut the deficit to 5-4, but instead of keeping Duffey in the game or going to another veteran reliever, Rocco mysteriously went to another rookie, Cody Stashak, to pitch the bottom of the 6th. Two solo homeruns later, the Twins were trailing 7-4. In the bottom of the 7th with the game still in the balance, Rocco decided to go with Kyle Gibson, who had started 29 games during the season and had appeared as a reliever sparingly during his career. After three walks, a bases-clearing double by D.J. LeMahieu gave the Yanks a 10-4 lead and effectively ended the game. Two rookies and a starter pitched with the game on the line while relievers Trevor May, Sergio Romo, and Taylor Rogers were left in the bullpen. Then Rocco questionably decided to start rookie Randy Dobnak in Game 2. Dobnak had pitched only 9 games all season (5 as a starter, 4 as a reliever). Dobnak gave up 6 hits, two walks and four earned runs in just 2+ innings and it was 8-0 Yankees after two innings in a game the Twins lost 8-2. Trevor May threw one pitch in this game and Sergio Romo only 2/3 of an inning, both after the game was well out of reach. Rocco finally pitched his veterans in the do-or-die third game, starting Jake Odorizzi and then bringing in Taylor Rogers (finally an appearance by the 30-save reliever), Romo, and May but the Twins lost 5-1 to end the series. It could be argued that the Twins just didn't have the overall pitching depth to defeat New York in the 2019 ALDS (and if so, that's on Falvey), but the decisions Rocco made with his hurlers during the three games were undisputedly odd. Rocco managed these contests like they were spring training games rather than a playoff series and it was a definite head-scratcher.