Chembry

I don't see the Twins spending much this offseason, just some bullpen help. Will their payroll be under $100M...who knows. Nobody knows what the Twins number is, but it is likely they will have to have a payroll close to $100M to avoid a grievance from MLBPA. I do see the them being active on the trade market. I can see them making moves that help now and in the future. For example, there is quite a bit of speculation that Aaron Judge is moving to first base after this year That moves Ben Rice behind the plate and the need to fill RF. Austin Wells has been seeing limited playing time recently . I can see the Twins trading Larnach or Wallner (plus a prospect if needed to even out) for Austin Wells (who can play C or 1B) who would be under team control through 2029. That is purely a hypothetical trade, but I can see the Twins making moves similar to that.

I was at the game last night...After Lewis flew out in bottom of 8th, Buxton had his arm around him and they were talking the entire time between innings. It was a big spot...I can't imagine anyone is putting more pressure on Royce than himself...Hopefully, Buxton can push Royce to get back on track. If not, Culpepper may be on the brink of coming in next year.

I was there last night, I would say that number is fairly accurate. I have definitely been to worse attended games this year.

I don't think they are waiting until Sep 1st for Bradley. As you say, he has quite a bit of MLB experience at a young age. I saw an interview with him. He is working on his split finger at AAA: https://kstp.com/minnesota-sports/twins-new-acquisitions-abel-bradley-and-outman-settling-in-with-triple-a-st-paul-saints/ My guess is they will want to see if he can continue starting at the MLB level after he starts getting more consistent results with his pitches. Even though he struggled this year, he had a sub 4 ERA heading into June.

This exactly...Marek was on the Twins TV broadcast and said he was trying to get back in the swing of things after taking some time off. Yes, he did strike out a bit more than historical numbers, but that is solely based on small sample size. Judging his first 12 games in pro ball looking solely at K% ignores his other offensive stats, that were pretty stout. He hit .370, .868 OPS, and .488 BABIP. Let's hope those numbers keep translating as he moves up.

Maybe Royce needs some tough love... Spencer Torkelson had a good year in 2023, but was down significantly in 2024 and was demoted to AAA where he spent quite a bit of time. AJ Hinch told him that he wasn't guaranteed a roster spot in 2025 and would have to earn it. We all know what he has done since. This was published in the Detroit Free Press: https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2025/03/13/spencer-torkelson-giving-detroit-tigers-lot-to-like-spring-training/82342571007/ Maybe that would give Royce some incentive to work hard this offseason. I am not saying he doesn't, but maybe he works harder. He still looks unsteady in the box with his feet moving and front shoulder flying open. But, I don't think his roster spot should be guaranteed. Especially with the defensive utility of Lee and Culpepper (who played 3rd quite a bit at K-State). I am assuming Culpepper is invited to spring training and we will see him some time in 2026.

Your judging Houston on 12 games in low A? Nobody "backed away" from Houston. He was the 15th rated prospect by MLB, 22nd by ESPN and was drafted 16th. The scouting report stated he is a plus defender and contact over power profile. That has held true through his first 12 games in low A. I am quite surprised he hasn't been promoted to A+ yet. 1. You are ignoring the fact that he is hitting .370, .868 OPS, and .488 BABIP...That's pretty strong. Yes, his K rate is up a bit from college (16% at WF vs 22% in A (13K in 59 PA)), but very small sample size creates significant variability. 2. You are using Kaelen Culpepper as a comparison for K rate, but his BA and BABIP numbers are worse than Houston's. (.297, .907 OPS, .273 BABIP) Again, I am not saying he is going to ever be a fantastic hitter in MLB, but let's not judge someone in 10-12 games using only K% as a metric.

He also doesn’t play defense very well. At least Outman is very good defensively. Hopefully he can figure something out and get back to his 2023 form.

Not sure you can make that judgement on Roden yet. He has a total of 150 plate appearances. He is a career .302 hitter in the minors and was hitting .331 in AAA this year. He won the starting LF in Toronto out of spring training hitting over .400 with >200 wRC+. He is a plus defender. The guy can obviously hit. I am not saying he will be a great major league hitter, but he should be given every chance the rest of this year to adjust. Outman has struggled for the better part of 2 seasons at the major league level. Why should he be given the opportunity over Roden? I understand that may be the move if Roden goes on the IL after his thumb injury.

I think the vast majority agree... My biggest gripe is if we are going younger and using 2025 as tryouts, why do we have 35 year old journeymen relievers on this team? Lets call up some young arms and let them get their feet wet. Now that we are at August 15th, maybe we should call up some younger guys and they can maintain their rookie status for next year.

No lingering effects for me. Immediate effects were pain, tingling, and swelling, but those went away as healing progressed. Buxton had a similar issue earlier this year and people were jumping all over him for missing a few games. I had to come to his defense in that case. It's different getting hit in the hand versus thigh or the backside of the body. All those small bones in your hands can really impact grip.

I didn't see the play, but getting hit in the hand with a 90+ mph fastball hurts like hell! I have been there. I was hit by a 94 mph fastball in college. Xrays were negative, but it was a good week before I could grip a bat or ball with any confidence.

No I didn't miss the point...this thread was about building a dominant bullpen and not about an entire rebuild. I didn't say they were going to keep Lopez/Ryan/Ober. I said IF they keep Lopez/Ryan/Ober...I think it's likely they trade at least one, but I am not making any judgements until it happens. I also agree that the Twins probably trade Larnach or Wallner, but again I am not making judgements until it happens. It would be fun to see Emmanuel Rodriguez (if he can stay healthy), Walker Jenkins, and Kaelen Culpepper...In fact, I would rather see them in 2026 than what we currently have... I never said anything about rebuilding or competing in 2026...I said IF the rotation remains the same, converting 1-2 starters that are competing for the #5 spot in the rotation would help build that bullpen. That is all I said...

Here it is. I missed the word hypothetically so it's probably not completely accurate:

I am trying to find the video...I just watched it last night

I don't recall

LOL! Did you read anything else in that post or anything else I posted? I never said saying they are going to replace all of our previous relief pitchers with starters...I stated many times that given no trades/injuries our top 4 in the rotation are more than likely Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Matthews. That leaves the other 6 potential candidates fighting for 1 rotation spot. Then I said it wouldn't take much convincing to convert 1 or maybe 2 of those starters to a bullpen role... never once did I mention converting them all to RP roles

I recently listened to a podcast on Twins daily where they mentioned Seattle offered Harry Ford and Jurrangelo Cijntje (switch pitcher who hits 97-99 with both arms). Ford and Tait are quite different prospects. Ford is a guy that will hit for average over power and might steal 20-30 bases bases, while Tait has that 30-40 HR/year upside with a big arm behind the plate. I saw he recently hit a couple balls with exit velocities at 108 and 116 mph...That pretty impressive for an 18 year old. Let's just hope he keeps on the trajectory he is on. Personally I would have liked if we could have received Harry Ford and Tyler Locklear. Locklear would lock down 1B for a while. He went to AZ in the Eugenio Suarez trade. in 11 games with AZ since the trade, he is hitting .220 with 2 HR. He strikes out at a decent clip (~25%), but also has that 30-40 HR upside and draws a lot of walks (~13% walk rate).

I agree with you that starters are more valuable that relievers. However, your argument is #4 or #5 starters get paid more than relievers. I agree with that to an extent. I am saying if a fringe starter, especially one that is competing with 5-6 others for one spot in the rotation, may be better off switching to a bullpen role if they have the chance to be a very good high leverage reliever. If that is the case, they will get paid as well, if not more, than a #4 or #5 starter. Here is the data. These depth charts were taken directly from ESPN.com and the salaries from Sportrac. As you can see, on average a #4 or #5 starter is mostly pre arbitration guys. However, the ones that are post arbitration make similar money as average relievers. There are guys whose salaries are inflated due to history of being a #1 or #2 starter (Aaron Nola, Chris Bassit, Jose Berrios, etc...) SP1 SP1 Salary SP2 SP2 Salary SP3 SP3 Salary SP4 SP4 Salary SP5 SP5 Salary Kyle Bradish IL60 2,350,000 Zach Eflin IL15 18,000,000 Dean Kremer 2,950,000 Trevor Rogers 2,600,000 Tomoyuki Sugano 13,000,000 Garrett Crochet 3,800,000 Brayan Bello 2,500,000 Lucas Giolito 19,000,000 Dustin May 2,135,000 Walker Buehler 21,050,000 Max Fried 22,000,000 Carlos Rodon 27,000,000 Luis Gil 804,125 Will Warren 767,600 Ryan Yarbrough IL15 2,000,000 Ryan Pepiot 774,600 Shane Baz 1,450,000 Drew Rasmussen 2,250,000 Adrian Houser 1,375,000 Joe Boyle 760,000 Kevin Gausman 23,000,000 Shane Bieber IL60 3,172,017 Max Scherzer 15,500,000 Jose Berrios 19,000,000 Chris Bassitt 22,000,000 Aaron Civale 4,602,151 Shane Smith 760,000 Martin Perez IL60 3,500,000 Sean Burke 760,350 Davis Martin 765,450 Tanner Bibee 5,000,000 Gavin Williams 780,300 Logan Allen 777,200 Slade Cecconi 765,000 Joey Cantillo 762,800 Tarik Skubal 10,150,000 Jack Flaherty 25,000,000 Casey Mize 2,340,000 Chris Paddack 7,500,000 Charlie Morton 15,000,000 Cole Ragans IL60 1,250,000 Seth Lugo 15,000,000 Michael Wacha 18,000,000 Michael Lorenzen IL15 5,500,000 Noah Cameron 760,000 Pablo lopez 21,500,000 Joe Ryan 3,000,000 Bailey Ober 3,550,000 Zebby Matthews 760,000 David Festa 760,000 Jeffrey Springs 10,500,000 Luis Severino IL15 20,000,000 Jacob Lopez 760,000 J.T. Ginn 760,000 Jack Perkins 760,000 Hunter Brown 870,000 Framber Valdez 18,000,000 Spencer Arrighetti 794,200 Cristian Javier 10,400,000 Luis Garcia IL60 1,875,000 Yusei Kikuchi 21,225,000 Jose Soriano 790,000 Tyler Anderson DD 13,000,000 Kyle Hendricks 2,500,000 Victor Mederos 760,000 Luis Castillo 22,750,000 George Kirby 4,300,000 Logan Gilbert 7,625,000 Bryan Woo 783,300 Bryce Miller IL15 800,000 Nathan Eovaldi 30,100,000 Jacob deGrom 40,100,000 Merrill Kelly 7,000,000 Tyler Mahle IL60 16,500,000 Jack Leiter 2,050,000 Spencer Strider 4,000,000 Chris Sale IL60 22,000,000 Bryce Elder 800,000 Joey Wentz 775,000 Hurston Waldrep 760,000 Eury Perez 769,500 Ryan Weathers IL60 779,100 Sandy Alcantara 17,300,000 Edward Cabrera 1,950,000 Cal Quantrill 3,500,000 Kodai Senga 14,000,000 Sean Manaea 20,212,526 David Peterson 4,625,000 Clay Holmes 13,000,000 Tylor Megill IL60 1,975,000 Zack Wheeler 42,000,000 Ranger Suarez 8,800,000 Jesus Luzardo 6,626,000 Cristopher Sanchez 2,050,000 Aaron Nola IL60 24,571,428 MacKenzie Gore 2,890,000 Mitchell Parker 767,200 Jake Irvin 774,600 Brad Lord 760,000 Cade Cavalli 760,200 Shota Imanaga 13,000,000 Matthew Boyd 10,000,000 Jameson Taillon IL15 18,000,000 Cade Horton 760,000 Michael Soroka IL15 9,000,000 Hunter Greene IL15 6,000,000 Nick Lodolo IL15 1,975,000 Andrew Abbott 770,000 Zack Littell 5,720,000 Brady Singer 8,750,000 Freddy Peralta 8,100,000 Brandon Woodruff 5,000,000 Jose Quintana 2,000,000 Quinn Priester 760,000 Jacob Misiorowski IL15 760,000 Paul Skenes 875,000 Mitch Keller 15,411,500 Mike Burrows 760,000 Andrew Heaney 5,250,000 Braxton Ashcraft 760,000 Sonny Gray 25,000,000 Matthew Liberatore 775,800 Andre Pallante 2,100,100 Miles Mikolas 17,666,667 Michael McGreevy 760,000 Zac Gallen 13,500,000 Eduardo Rodriguez 20,000,000 Ryne Nelson 825,000 Brandon Pfaadt 799,400 Anthony DeSclafani 2,000,000 Kyle Freeland 16,000,000 German Marquez IL15 10,000,000 Austin Gomber 6,350,000 Antonio Senzatela IL15 12,000,000 Bradley Blalock 762,000 Yoshinobu Yamamoto 10,000,000 Shohei Ohtani 28,216,944 Tyler Glasnow 32,500,000 Blake Snell 28,436,867 Clayton Kershaw 7,500,000 Michael King 4,000,000 Nick Pivetta 2,500,000 Dylan Cease 13,750,000 Yu Darvish 21,000,000 Nestor Cortes 7,600,000 Logan Webb 12,000,000 Robbie Ray 25,000,000 Justin Verlander 15,000,000 Landen Roupp IL15 765,000 Kai-Wei Teng 760,000 Average 11,733,542 11,709,680 7,334,374 6,126,639 5,110,729

You are probably right, but he hasn't shown the durability to last a season as a starter...yet. And his numbers haven't been great this year at AAA 1-8 6.42 ERA. Although he has had several good starts recently.

The point of the post I quoted was that it would be difficult to convince a fringe (#4 or #5) starter to convert to a reliever based on salary. There are 20 relief pitchers in 2025 making $10M/year or greater. Yes, that is the top 10% of relievers. But, it's simply not true that relievers can't make as much as a #4 or #5 starter and have more success. Here is my opinion: Every team needs 8 relievers... most of the fringe starters are fighting for the #4 or #5 spot in the rotation and could very well spend the vast majority of their time in AAA. Given nobody is traded in the offseason, we have Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Matthews, Festa, SWR, Bradley, and Abel that have MLB experience. Then we have Raya and Morris at AAA, Prelipp at AA. Again if no trades/injuries occur, our top 4 is more than likely set at Lopez, Ryan, Ober, and Matthews. That leaves the other 6 (7 if you want to include Prelipp) fighting for the #5 spot. I am not sure it would take that much convincing to move 1-2 into the high leverage bullpen situations, especially if they have the chance to be very good. I would argue that we have several potential starters that may very well fit the mold of high leverage relievers: Festa, SWR for example... Maybe Raya, Morris, Prelipp (depending on durability,)

Not true. Edwin Diaz signed a 5-year $102M deal in 2022. Josh Hader $19M/year. Tanner Scott 18M/year. Raisel Iglesias $14.5M/year, Ryan Pressley $15M/year...I could go on High end closers, which we have a few potential candidates, will get paid once they hit unrestricted free agency.

Wonder if the Twins could have got Harry Ford and Tyler Locklear from Seattle for Duran. That would have solved C and 1B going forward. Edit: I was talking to a friend of mine who lives in the pacific NW and a big Mariners fan. He was surprised that Ford wasn't traded. He doesn't believe Ford will ever play for the Mariners, due to Raleigh. Twins were trying to get Painter. Maybe that was smoke and mirrors knowing Philly wasn’t going to let Painter go. My guess is Philly said, instead of Painter and Tait, we can give you Abel and Tait…Pure speculation on my part. It was widely publicized that the Twins asked for Painter though.

Keaschall was just named AL player of the week. Been fantastic since coming back off the IL. Another note, Maple Grove native Isaac Collins named NL player of the week. Good for both of them. https://www.mlb.com/stories/players-of-the-week-aug-11-2025

All that I heard on TV was that he had a cut on his arm on Tuesday. By Wednesday, he could barely lift his arm. He went to the hospital and they cleaned and flushed out the wound. He is still in the hospital on IV antibiotics and fluids. Definitely a scary situation.