Brandon Glick

Thankfully this is happening right in the middle of the peak time to hire a new front office staff and not weeks before spring training

As a Cubs fan, it would be a crime against all Minnesotans if you guys have to watch Vidal Brujan take an at-bat in 2026.

For those invested in #tankwatch, a loss today would guarantee the Twins finish with the second-worst record in the AL (and a bottom-five record across all of baseball)...

@Matthew Truebloodand I have teamed up to create something we're very proud of: a novel. The book is available now, exclusively on Amazon. You can read it for free via Kindle Unlimited or purchase an e-book or paperback copy. Available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FRGGPKD1 If you choose to check it out, we hope you enjoy it! Note: This thread will be moved in a few days.

Over at one of our sister sites (Talk Sox), one of our contributing writers did a primer on how teams can still add playoff-eligible players to their major league rosters for the stretch run. Might not be super relevant to the Twins this year, but still a good reminder that teams still aren't technically done tinkering. The Trade Deadline Has Come and Gone, but the Red Sox Can Still Add to This Team - Red Sox - Talk Sox TALKSOX.COM Many fans think that after July 31, there's no way to bring in players outside the organization. It may be trickier to work something out, but there are plenty of ways to bring in players...

Over at our sister site, Talk Sox, one of our analytical writers took a crack at crafting a three-team trade proposal involving the Twins, Phillies, and Red Sox. What do you think of the proposed deal? Lotta talent leaving MN to make this happen... Crafting a 3-Team Blockbuster With the Twins to Get Red Sox Some Pitching Help - Red Sox - Talk Sox TALKSOX.COM Can the Red Sox pull a third team in to facilitate a blockbuster deal with the Twins at the trade deadline?

This would be a really big sweep prior to a very tough series with the Cubs...

Can the Twins grab the series win today?

Over at our cousin site, Fish on First, managing editor Ely Sussman put together a list of players the Marlins might deal at the deadline. Is there anyone you want the Twins to pursue? Which players Marlins are most likely to sell at trade deadline - Marlins - Fish On First FISHONFIRST.COM Unlike last summer, the Marlins won't be tearing apart their entire roster to load up on prospects, but there are still opportunities for them to cash in on redundant players and sell...

Over at our sister site, Talk Sox, one of our featured writers put together a list of trade targets for some trade deadline buyers to peruse. Any players here you want the Twins to pursue? If the Red Sox Become Sellers, Expect These Players to Be Discussed in Trade Talks - Red Sox - Talk Sox TALKSOX.COM The Red Sox are hovering around .500 and somehow still within striking distance of a postseason position. Should that change before the end of July, they have enough talent on the big...

From our sister site Talk Sox, one of our writers did a nice deep dive into the differences between fWAR and bWAR for pitchers, as well the flaws (and positives) each site's formula contains. Pitching WAR Primer: The Math Behind Baseball's Least Understood Stat - Red Sox - Talk Sox TALKSOX.COM An analysis of the discrepancies between pitching WAR stats from FanGraphs and Baseball Reference.

There's nothing like having Chris Paddack face off against one of the best starters in the American League to brighten your Sunday.

This is the game where the Twins turn it around. This is the game where the Twins turn it around. This is the game where the Twins turn it around. This is the game...

A discussion on the Twins' slow start to the 2025 MLB season from Take Me Out To the Podcast. View full video

A discussion about the Twins' potential in 2025 if they can keep their core on the field, from Take Me Out To The Podcast. View full video

A huge new influx of players have been added to the Twins Players Project in recent weeks. Let's review some of the more notable entries. What is the Players Project? It's a community-driven, wiki-style project that focuses on Twins players of all stripes. It's open to all Twins Daily users and we've had contributions for current players, past players, and players who never even made the major leagues but played in the Twins farm system. Create your favorite player today! In this update, we'll be focusing on a group of players with vastly different legacies in Minnesota. All of the players here were written up by @William Malone and edited by @Brock Beauchamp, but it's important to note the incredible contributions from the entire community. The Twins Players Project is now up to nearly 170 entries thanks to everyone's hard work! Be sure to take a peek using the link above or the button below and feel free to add your favorite player! Torii Hunter is one of the best players in modern Twins history, with a long list of accolades that includes numerous team MVP and community awards, nine Gold Gloves, and five All-Star selections. He had multiple top-15 AL MVP finishes with the Twins, including a sixth-place finish in 2002. That year was the first of three consecutive AL Central titles for Hunter and the Twins, and the outfielder led the team in RBIs in both of the latter seasons, including his first career 100 RBI season in 2003. Mike Pelfrey was a risky free agent signing in 2013 following a Tommy John surgery that knocked him out for nearly all of the previous season, and injury troubles found him again in 2014, However, that year was sandwiched between two solid seasons as an innings-eater in the Twins' rotation, including a dominant ten-game stretch in 2015 when he stepped into the rotation for a suspended Ervin Santana and authored an 8-2 record and 1.89 ERA. In the three-year stretch from 2016-18, the Twins' OPS leaders were Brian Dozier, Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sanó, and Jake Cave. Do you know who ranked fifth on that list? Robbie Grossman (.771 OPS) was a bright spot on one of the worst teams in modern franchise history in 2016, eventually becoming a middle-of-the-order staple on the rapid turnaround squad in 2017. He is the only player here that is still active. Thanks again to all who have been contributing to the project — please stop by the Players Project by hitting the button below! The Minnesota Twins Players Project is open to all Twins Daily users. If you're a Twins history buff or just want to dive into the background of your favorite player, come on board! View full article

A huge new influx of players have been added to the Twins Players Project in recent weeks. These are some of the highlights. What is the Players Project? It's a community-driven, wiki-style project that focuses on Twins players of all stripes. It's open to all Twins Daily users and we've had contributions for current players, past players, and players who never even made the major leagues but played in the Twins farm system. Create your favorite player today! In this update, we'll be focusing on a triumvirate of players who dominated for the Twins in the late 2000's. All of the players here were written up by @William Malone and edited by @Brock Beauchamp, but it's important to note the incredible contributions from the entire community. The Twins Players Project is now up to 129 entries thanks to everyone's hard work! Be sure to take a peek using the link above or the button below and feel free to add your favorite player! Michael Cuddyer is among the most iconic and recognizable Twins from the first decade of the 21st century, having played 11 seasons (2001-2011) with the franchise. 2006 was the first time Cuddyer had a full time role with the Twins. He started 137 games in right field for them that season, also providing a breakout season at the plate, as his 41 doubles and 109 RBI were career highs. The outfielder is one of just four players in Twins history with 100 home runs, 200 doubles, and 30 triples (Joe Mauer, Tony Oliva, Kirby Puckett). He was inducted to the Twins Hall of Fame in 2017. Francisco Liriano had a wild 14-year career, with the first half of it coming in Minnesota. Though he's known well as the recipient of the largest free agent contract in Pittsburgh Pirates history — which, laughably, came in at just $39 million over three years — he earned Cy Young votes in 2010 as the Twins' staff ace and finished third in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2006. He also threw a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox in 2011 in which he threw barely half of his pitches for strikes (66 of 123). Another top-10 Rookie of the Year finisher, Jesse Crain finished eight in the voting in 2005 as a dominant reliever who served as the primary set-up man to Joe Nathan. His best season with the Twins came in 2007, when he went 12-5 with a 2.71 ERA over 75 relief appearances. Despite not making a start, his 12 wins were second on the team behind Johan Santana. Thanks again to all who have been contributing to the project — please stop by the Players Project by hitting the button below! The Minnesota Twins Players Project is open to all Twins Daily users. If you're a Twins history buff or just want to dive into the background of your favorite player, come on board! View full article

Will Chris Paddack win the No. 5 starter job for the Twins out of spring training this year? Will he even be on the roster come Opening Day? Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images / © Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images Chris Paddack, who is still on the Minnesota Twins — a fact you can check using our handy-dandy Chris Paddack tool — is in the final year of his contract and making $7.5 million this year ($4.175 million for luxury tax purposes). Earlier in the offseason, when it appeared the Twins wanted to do nothing but slash payroll, he was a lock to be traded. Then, the team (slightly) reversed course, signing Danny Coloumbe, Harrison Bader, and Ty France to (cheap) major league deals for the 2025 season. Even with a prospective sale of the franchise looming over every transaction and player, it’s clear that Minnesota isn’t totally punting on the idea of putting out a competitive team this year. Which brings us to Paddack. Can he actually contribute to a competitive team? He’s been very effective in the big leagues before, but his performance has leveled off since an impressive rookie season with the San Diego Padres in 2019. Do the Twins actually need Paddack to be his best self in order to have a chance in a loaded AL Central, or can they treat him as nothing more than expensive filler? What Went Wrong In 2024? Like most pitchers, the Sheriff’s struggles last season can be traced back to his injury issues. He was returning from his second Tommy John surgery in 2023, only to deal with constant forearm issues throughout the summer. When healthy, he maintained his usually-excellent level of control, which is promising considering that’s often one of the last things to return for pitchers trying to come back from elbow surgery. However, his fastball velocity (93.3 mph) was more than two ticks below his average speed in 2023 (95.5 mph), though the former number is subject to small-sample size caveats (just 34 fastballs thrown in 2023). The reason that dip in velocity matters is because it became harder for Paddack to fool hitters with his offspeed offerings without the threat of blowing something hard by them. From 2021 (his last healthy season) to 2024, only his fastball improved in terms of xwOBA allowed to opposing hitters. His changeup was smacked around to the tune of a .385 xwOBA in 2024, and it was downright catastrophic against right-handed hitters (.463 wOBA; for reference, Shohei Ohtani had a .431 wOBA last season). Neither his slider (.314 xwOBA allowed) nor his curveball (.396 xwOBA) were all that good either, with both getting crushed by left-handed hitters (.434 wOBA on his slider to lefty batters; .356 wOBA on his curveball). His fastball remains one of the better for-strike four-seamers in the league, but if he can’t differentiate between his breaking pitches, he’s not going to make a lot of headway as a starter. What Can Go Right In 2025? For starters, as laid out by Cody Pirkl, better health. Paddack has had elbow, oblique, or arm injuries in every single season since 2021. He’s thrown a total of 224.0 innings in the last four seasons combined, and nearly half of that workload came four years ago. Ever since arriving in Minnesota, he simply has not been able to stay on the mound. Likewise, when Paddack first began working with the Twins’ coaching staff, they implored him to add a slider to his arsenal, reworking a discarded cutter that got bashed around like silly in 2020. He tinkered with a sinker, too, though that doesn’t look likely to return in the wake of his second Tommy John procedure. Instead, all eyes should be on his firm slider, which, despite being crushed by lefties, was actually pretty dominant against right-handed hitters. Throwing it 177 times to same-side hitters in 2024 (23.6% of all his offerings to righties), Paddack’s slider generated a .208 expected batting average and .258 xwOBA. He induced soft contact with it and got batters to whiff on the pitch 29.3% of the time — not quite the elite figure his changeup used to average during his Padres days, but some of his best stuff with the Twins. At worst, the upside of this new breaking pitch gives Paddack a credible reliever profile, where his old velocity would also be more likely to show up in shorter bursts out of the bullpen. If he can hone the pitch (and stop throwing it to opposite-handed hitters) while finding a variation of his changeup or curveball that messes with lefty batters’ timing, Paddack could be a back-end rotation surprise for the Twins in 2025. How Will This Impact The Twins in 2025? Should the Twins have done more this offseason to add rotation depth and ensure Paddack wasn’t being relied on to throw 120+ innings this season? Probably, but you could say they should have done more at nearly every position on the roster. With Pablo López, Joe Ryan, and Bailey Ober entrenched as the top three starters, Simeon Woods Richardson looks to have the inside track on the No. 4 job heading into spring training. That leaves Paddack, David Festa, Zebby Matthews, and Louie Varland fighting it out for the final spot in the Opening Day rotation. Top prospect Marco Raya is also on the 40-man roster. By all accounts, Paddack should be the favorite for the job, at least as long as he’s on the roster. If his body just can’t handle a starters workload anymore, he could theoretically become a valuable long-man/opener in the bullpen, though that group is probably even more crowded than the rotation right now. Either way, with free agency looming for the 6’5” right-hander, Paddack will need to put together his best season in a half-decade in order to remain relevant within the organization. View full article

It's a good thing the Twins went all out this offseason by signing Bader, France, and Coulombe. Would be hard to see them as WS contenders without their new "Big 3".