The Great Hambino

I hope they're planning on a lot of Oliver & Ham in max protect schemes if they plan on letting Rouse be involved in any way. It's not a simple as "just give him a shot and see what happens" when it puts the young QB you've staked your entire professional reputation on in a shooting gallery

I'll be ... let's call it irritated if they're willing to pay a free agent reliever more than Duran's $7.6MM projected arb figure

Very well said. In the first of what somehow turned into several embarrassing open letters to the fans coming from Twins leadership, Falvey tried to sell us on how the returns from the trades were going to deliver an immediate impact. As we enter 2026, that "immediate impact" at the major league level appears to be a couple of backup outfielders and two young starters that very well may be competing with each other for the final rotation slot. But they're still operating as if they plan on competing this year. It's hard to be honest with your fanbase when you can't even be honest with yourselves. So what will it take to win back trust? Time. The organization is fundamentally broken and there are no quick fixes. If they really want this to work in the long-term, they're going to have to be willing to endure some more tough times to build this thing back up. I'm not sure they can damage fan morale any more than they have already, so I don't think that would make things much worse on that front. Then, once they've actually built a sustainable core, follow through on your promises and do what it takes to push that core over the top. Nothing short of a World Series will get the fans' trust back, so plan and act accordingly. And no more excuses. I don't want to hear the word COVID from a Pohlad's or a Pohlad lackey's mouth ever again. No other MLB teams racked up that much debt because of it. No other Minnesota sports teams racked up that much debt because of it. The failure was yours, full stop. Want to regain fan support quickly? Sell the team.

Calling it now: Seahawks lose at Carolina next week but still somehow get the one seed while the Panthers miss the playoffs anyway

Joe will definitely have to play Boar On The Floor (IYKYK)

Random ominous thought: why did the family pick Joe to run the team before Tom in the first place?

High bar to clear for the rest of this week's slate

They should

I think the Monstars stole Stafford's talent some time around the end of the third quarter

This is feeling like a tie or a defensive score is coming our way

See also: Manning, Eli (I will absolutely die on that hill)

Announcers suck, Part Infinity Seahawks biggest plays have been screen, long run, punt return, busted coverage, and the flukiest 2 pt conversion ever Translation: Is Sam Darnold about to win the big game?

How does the Holy Roller rule where another player can't advance a fumble on 4th down/inside 2 minutes not also apply on conversions? I bet it will next year

In hindsight, maybe it should've been more telling that the Astros went to Jim and not Joe to get the Correa trade going

The Rams are his kryptonite

I'd be curious what the effect of OAA/DRS/etc has been on their second basemen as they've moved their first basemen closer to the line. Regardless of where they're put, you have 4 guys to defend the infield. Shortening the range required for one means you're asking more from another. So any gains made by the first basemen should be netted against any losses by the second basemen created by asking him to cover more ground by default. I'm not saying it's a bad strategy - it makes sense to have guys with limited range cover less ground and guys with more range cover more ground, and the point someone made that balls down the line being more likely to be extra base hits is valid - but the effect this puts on second basemen shouldn't be ignored. They certainly haven't been churning out gold glove second basemen going this route

What can Tom do relatively quickly to show there's a change? He can start by not following the exact same strategy of making marginal additions to a deeply flawed roster in hopes it results in a legitimately competitive team, which is what they've done for the past two years. For all his talk of "we can't keep doing the same things and expect a different result," every indication based on the moves they've made thus far and what Falvey has stated the free agent budget to be is that they are, in fact, using the exact same strategy. And based on Tom's quotes and the supposed timeline of Joe getting pushed out (a month ago), this is Tom's strategy, or at least one he's agreeing to go along with. They are not a Pete Fairbanks away from having a competitive bullpen (no one currently on the roster is worthy of a top 3 slot in a competitive bullpen - not yet, anyway). They're not signing O'Hearn (which I wouldn't hate in a vacuum) on top of Bell with the budget they have and all their other needs. They are not set up to be competitive with a $115MM payroll and the current make-up of the roster. Before someone brings up the Brewers, that roster was balanced perfectly. They were above-average in just about everything. The Twins as currently constructed are ... not. That would leave two options - well, three options, but it's probably too late in the offseason to can Falvey at this point - to demonstrate change. 1. Crank up the investment in the roster if you insist that you can be competitive while you still have control of Lopez/Ryan. At a bare minimum, that means restoring payroll to at least the level of last year so you can demonstrate that the Correa savings actually are being reinvested into the roster. That would go a long way toward showing fans that it really was a baseball move and not a cost-cutting one. This path would be more fun, but probably not fiscally realistic at this time. Plus, the flaws in the roster might be too significant for even that level of investment to overcome, and a failure of this strategy would put them in the worst possible position when Lopez/Ryan/etc are gone. Which leaves: 2. Start the rebuild for real. Move your most valuable assets and target 2028 for real competition. Surely this would disappoint some fans, but just as many would see this as a path toward actual competitiveness; a sign that we're finally getting off the hamster wheel and making moves with an actual championship window in mind. You can still do all the fan engagement stuff you mentioned. If you're targeting kids to fill the seats (which I agree you should be), they're not going to be turned off because they won 65 games instead of 72. But they will be able to start to identify with the young players that would be the core of a team that's ready to rock in two years. Now compare that hypothetical roster - one that's been supplemented with the returns from the trades of your valuable assets, plus the truly impactful free agents they'd be able to afford - to whatever would be in place after another couple failed runs at mediocrity. The difference is night and day. That's my realistic/pessimistic (depending on your point of view) take. If you truly believe that they can be legitimately competitive (not outside-shot-at-the-third-wild-card competitive) with this roster and budget, then I think we're in "agree to disagree" territory

On Gleeman's podcast, he went into further detail about Tom's answers to some of the questions posed. Tom mentioned that the change in power was more or less agreed upon a month ago. That would mean that Tom is on board with all the actions they've taken so far this offseason. It would also mean that when Falvey suggested they have about $20MM to spend in free agency at the winter meetings, this was coming from Tom. It was also mentioned that Tom really thinks the Twins can compete this year. That means they're sitting on their valuable assets and making small additions at the margins (Bell, for example) and expecting to compete that way. In other words, they're going to operate the exact same way with the same core (minus Correa) they have the last two seasons, only now they don't have a bullpen. In other words, nothing is changing. If I wanted to try to spin this as a positive, I suppose I could guess that Tom is giving Falvey one final chance to show that his plan can work. And when it inevitably doesn't, he'll clean house. But that's just wasting another year on mediocrity, eroding the value of those valuable assets, and doing nothing to pull fan morale out of its current tailspin. He can say whatever he wants. His actions thus far suggest nothing is changing in how they operate. The more I hear from him, the more discouraged I become.

I get what you're saying, but I think that issue will resolve itself. Teams aren't going to differentiate their offers with price since he's guaranteed his salary by the Dolphins no matter what. So he'll get to choose the environment he wants the most. If being a clear #2 to a younger guy isn't something that interests him, then he'll simply choose someone else that will give him a cleaner path to starting. As you said earlier, he matches up with the Raiders pretty well

Here's another Tom quote from Gleeman's article. He's speaking in reference to retaining Buxton/Lopez/Ryan “We owe the fan base something. We owe our veteran and star players something. And we owe this organization something. And that something is hope. And I think that’s the needle we’re trying to thread.” So he's saying that simply retaining what was already on hand in a season of disappointment and cratering attendance qualifies as providing the hope they "owe the fan base." That is depressing and insulting Tom clearly bought Falvey's line that they can legitimately compete this year. (Or he very foolishly thinks that being this year's Reds - sneak in as a 6 seed, immediately become cannon fodder - will generate the same rejuvenation of the fanbase that 2019 or 2023 did). There better be real consequences if they don't. Because they're reducing the potential quality of their organization from 2028 onward to follow this pie-in-the-sky wishful path.

The only appeal to me is that if he gets cut, whoever signs him only has to pay the minimum while the Dolphins would foot the balance of his guaranteed salary. At least that's my understanding based on the Russell Wilson-Broncos experience. So it would be veteran quasi-competence basically for free. If JJ takes some meaningful steps forward this offseason, he might not see the field much. And if JJ doesn't, they're screwed anyway

So it seems like the difference between Joe and Tom is that when Tom insults our intelligence, he'll do so more directly. I guess that's technically progress

WTF? That's basically the dictionary definition of a half-measure.

This is like the lamest episode of "Succession" ever