NYCTK

I actually wore my Twins cap for the first time in a year yesterday because this team is actually making real decisions. Are they good? Obviously not, not at this point, but at least they're done lying to themselves and pretending they were.

We know exactly who Larnach is, a 105-115 OPS+ guy with bad defense. That's not useful. Wallner, there's still a little bit of hope his bat is good enough to play at DH. But not all that exciting.

We agree, he can stick around for another year but only because there's literally no one else. He can either be penciled in, or viewed as a backup, not really any difference. He's arbitration eligible, and likely due, what, $2 million next year? Yeah, that can be rostered. But Kody Clemens is a known quantity. There's no upside there. He was never a hot prospect, never performed well for long stretches. He's a fine player. He's not going to suddenly become a hot commodity next season, in his age 30 season. I remind you, we're all thinking Correa is on a downward trend at that age.

That's no way to talk about the greatest high school baseball player in NY State history.

TBF that was the ****** dad. But the dad was the only one that was any good at business. Twins are another shining example of why generational wealth usually only lasts 3 generations. The 2nd generation are failsons that just get into their business because it was handed to them on a silver platter and they aren't exceptional in any way. The third generation have never had to do anything their entire lives, going through the motions not understanding (or caring) about anything. Bill, the only good Pohlad.

He doesn't wanna go. Not to say he's not a competitor, but maybe he's not one of those intense competitors that values WINNING above all else, like a psycho. He's always been a pretty poor clutch performer, and if he were shipped off to the Mets, who asked about him, he'd be hearing boo birds at some points (even Soto has heard them) and maybe he'd just rather be the best player on a bad team than go through that BS. That, and stability, might be way valuable for his well-being.

ClemEns He's got one more option year, and I don't see the Twins in a real rush to DFA him, so he's gonna be a Minnesota Twin for one more season. What role he'll play...probably a bad one.

I think it's fine keeping him around for 2026. But fans have to really reset their expectations for the guy. He had a great 3 week stretch, and in the 150+ trips to the plate since returned to being Kody Clemens, which is a sub 700 OPS guy but, like you mention, with pretty good intangibles and baseball IQ. I think his best case scenario is something like .240 / .290 / .430 with 20 HR which is fine, especially if paired with good defense and baserunning, but let's just pump the brakes on throwing him into the Twins longterm plans. Two actually. Both Wallner and Larnach should be removed from the OF. If that means one of them is no longer a Twin next season, so be it.

Roden has looked real bad, but he needs to be given a real shot. It's extremely atypical to double your strikeout rate from AAA to MLB. The difference in quality isn't that much. He should be playing nearly every day to see if he can figure it out. There's way more chance of him contributing on the 2027 Twins as compared to Larnach or Martin.

Yeah, can bring him in and always DFA him, I don't care. But the Twins should try to make sure they are also trying to bring in pitchers with options when possible. Alcala is gonna bounce around the league, much like Tonkin did, because of the fact that he doesn't.

You're making longterm assessments on a player that should be given a real audition, all based on a very small sample during a time when the Twins are able to run players out there and not actually be concerned about the Ws and Ls. Travis Adams could be the next Louis Varland, in fact the Twins are effectively betting on it. Not Adams, specifically, but on the fact that they can take other failed starters and turn them into useful bullpen arms. In fact, at Adams age, Varland had pitched significantly worse. The incredibly ironic thing is if that Varland trade happened on March 31st in stead of July 31st, everyone here would have loved it. It would have been declared the heist of the century.

I, frankly, don't care about that at all. But I'm a local kid that left so that makes sense. But even so, I basically think his upside is the other Minnesotan Glen Perkins. Which is a good nice career. Something he should be really proud of, obviously, but ultimately for naught. He was a darn good relief pitcher on really bad teams. If given the chance, the Twins would have been foolish not to go back in time and trade him in 2011 for two of another organization's top ten prospects and try to bet on some actual upside. I expect Roden to be about 6 WAR over the next 3-4 seasons and Rojas to be anywhere from a -2 to +10 WAR player over that same period. It's a good gamble for someone that is, at the end of the day, a good relief pitcher. I am more optimistic on Roden than most anyone else here, but that's only to say I think he is a step or two above Martin due to the fact that he has shown SOME power and has shown SOME defensive competency in the OF. Rojas seems like he must be Rule 5 eligible, explaining why Toronto was more willing to trade him away. Easy enough for the Twins to keep him on there all next season with no expectation he'd get a call-up. Seems he should start the season in AAA and maybe he eventually makes it up. Any maybe he's even someone, especially with that youth and the fact that he's not ever lasted a long season, that is best suited for the Crochet career path: coming into the bullpen initially with the plans of stretching him out as he gains strength and experience. 2026 will be filled with patchwork solutions, and if things break right they can compete, but the Twins really shouldn't force players up just because there's a hole. Make sure they've proven themselves worthy. "Current" 2027 Depth Chart - C: ?, ? IF: Royce, Culpepper, Keaschall, ?, Lee, Eeles OF: Buxton, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Roden, Mendez DH: Wallner, Gonzalez SP: Ryan, Lopez, Matthews, Bradley, Festa, Ober, Abel, Rojas, Woods Richardson, Gallagher, Prielipp RP: whatever failed starters the Twins decide, truly no one should be overly concerned So the catching is a huge question mark, and the IF is looking iffy. There's enough depth in the OF and the top prospects being exciting enough that I think it will be fine and the pitching looks deep.

I don't know what the hell that's supposed to mean, as a confessed Mets (and Twins) fan. I'm glad you feel you treated your employees well. Did they get equity in your business? This is all just to say, work isn't all there is to life. Which is perhaps why Buxton doesn't care to leave.

Why is this clear? Why do people keep saying this? Just because payroll is lower? Payroll SHOULD be lower if you're not trying to compete.

I don't get how that follows. So just because a roster has players that other teams expect to perform well that means they have performed well? The Twins also traded away 4 offensive players. Does that mean the offense was performing well? I look at the bullpen as a whole and I actually see a unit that has been about 20th in every results oriented metric. And while I certainly don't expect that to improve this season, I don't really have concern that the team can't rebuild a bullpen in 2 seasons time that can replicate that "success".

Was the bullpen actually a strength this year? I keep hearing that it was, but I take a look at the numbers and I'm not convinced.

Point being, that team was obviously a good, up and coming team, as shown by the 90 win season that immediately followed (not to mention the second World Series victory). No one was looking at this roster and thinking that. They were given 3 seasons as a mostly intact core to prove they might be, and they showed through their play that that wasn't the case. And even so, as this post says, the team hasn't been completely torn down. Only the bullpen has been, as of yet.

Rangers won 90 games. The 2004-2005 Cardinals each had 100 wins. That was a dynasty or sorts, not some miracle season. That 87 Twins were a bit of a miracle, but proved it winning 90 games 3 of the next 5 years. If you're not even sniffing a 90 win season, then you're not a contender. Counting on sneaking into the playoffs with 84 wins and crossing your fingers is not a winning mentality and not a franchise that is any fun to watch.

I don't agree the Twins got better return, but this board wouldn't have been satisfied with an 18 year old prospect many years away from the bigs. My favorite is that fans insisting that the Varland was an intentional Eff You to fans. Yes, I'm sure Falvey and/or ownership really cares about your personal feelings about one specific relief pitcher just because he happens to be born in Minnesota. They were smoking cigars and discussing how best to piss you, specifically, off.

Who?

Keirsey tracker: He has been the worst (non-pitcher) hitter in Minnesota Twins history with at least 90 PAs, by wOBA.

Don't disagree with any of that. Just comparing, in the wake of the fire sale, how people are talking about him versus how people are taking about Roden, who is, I'd argue, the much better bet.

Just like Kirby Puckett... Fans need to stop acting as though they know someone because of their public persona. Buxton MAY be the world's greatest guy, but not one of us actually knows him.

It is pretty funny how biased people here are towards Martin. And it makes sense for two reasons: He's been in the system for 5 years now so they've grown attached to him as well as and this sunk cost fallacy. Fans want to feel like they won the Berrios trade (which they arguably already did). And he looks like a good athlete, a proper ballplayer. Just like the scouts in Moneyball, people have a hard time looking at players objectively.

I don't think anyone should really feel bad for him because his baseball team stinks. He has the chance to change that and actively chooses not to. And you can just as much make the argument that he (or rather his porcelain body) has failed the Twins. We'll see if he gets to 500 trips to the plate but it's looking less likely, and that would be 8 straight seasons. If he was good and healthy in 2023 or 2024 would the front office have pushed some chips in and tried to make a splash? We'll never know. Anyways, loyalty to an employer is always stupid. They don't care about you. Whether you work for McDonald's or the Minnesota Twins.