MikeNC

The Twins organization has changed fundamentally from what it historically was: Great at producing top hitters, league batting champs. Now we see batters flailing away and guys who started great going down and not coming back up, Conversely, they would scrape to find even 2 quality starting pitchers. Now, SOMEBODY in that organization is developing and improving pitchers, again and again. Please keep the pitching pipeline. Get some coaches WHO HAVE ACTUALLY HIT MLB PITCHING to coach the young guys how to succeed. All the stats in the world CANNOT tell you how to hit a curve ball.

If you truly want to compete, then I don't see any starting corner OF on the roster now. (Ok, maybe Austing Martin if he can continue to improve his OBP and be the leadoff). Buxton, the team's best power hitter, should not be leading off. You don't win many games with solo homers, you win a lot more with 3-run homers. If he's all headcase when in the heart of the order, then I guess leadoff is better than being a whif-o-matic. Speaking of which. Wallner just isn't getting better, and Larnach has little power, and neither is defensively adequate or acceptable without a big stick at the plate. Outman is just plain a poor hitter. No idea what Roden can do, but considering all the other "incredible" gets from the trades I'm gonna be pessimistic on that too. (Except T. Bradley, I love that guy's potential).

Is he hard to find? What does Jose say???

Too . .. depressed . . .after . . . .Sox sweep. . . .

Be careful what you ask for. The TDS aside, as i noted a month ago there at least 6 major cities, with LOCAL ownership, who are looking to lure a MLB team. The Nashville Tunes (my name, not theirs - yet) being the leading candidate. We all remember Norm Greed, right?

The $21M Lopez salary, absolutely. No sense paying that on a non-competitive team. Joe Ryan will be more affordable, even after arbitration, but he really wants to go. Only paid $3M this year, he will make a boat load of $$ with a big market team. FA in 2027, so sadly I think they should let him go and get his $$, he won’t get them here. You can’t rebuild a half-burnt down house. Raze it, then begin again with the ONLY model that can work for the small market Twins: A bunch of young guys that come together and gell into a team that can get to the playoffs, and with 2 top pitchers can win a 7 game series. THAT was how they won the World Series. THAT was fun beyond description.

I was wondering why Correa seemed invisible to me during July, stats show he hit .300. Oh but wait, for the entire month, 70 ABs, he had 3 RBIs. Luke had that many in his first two games back - BOTH of them! Correa just wasn’t the same guy this year. Lack of clutch hitting, more errors both fielding and throwing, some were saying his range diminished. I was so relieved when they unloaded 2/3 of his salary. Time to move on for sure.

Finally someone brings up the ARB. I like your plans. Much criticism regarding Jax and Varland loss of team control, but Jax is eligible for ARB and Varland in 2027 (assuming he's not a Super 2). ARB salaries cost a lot more than the MLB $760k minimum that all those Prospects will come in at. Jax at $2.365M this year will be higher in 2026. How high? Guerrero got $28.5M, Soto $31M. No they won't get that, but Millions, yes. Twins are betting their pitching coach continues his magic at making castoffs and retreads effective. As for hitters, It suddenly looks like Jeffers, Larnach, and Wallner are currently playing like they have a 50 game audition, I think they do. Maybe Ober too. (But wouldn't it be nice to have 1 primary catcher who combines Jeffers hitting and Vasquez' arm?).

Whatever the Twins are paying their pitching coach, they should double it! Castoffs and retreads somehow getting the job done. Oviously having Skywalker knock in 3 runs a game helps a lot, but do you remember what a project Varland was? Jax was? 4+ innings out of Hatch today, who's MLB average in 40 appearances over the past 6 years is less than 2. He did have a respectable 4.18 ERA in 171 Minor League appearances going back to 2017. He also spent 2024 in Japan and got raked for an ERA of over 7. Even Funderburk (shudder) is getting outs now. Remarkable.

About that TV money. According to a 10.9.2024 TwinsDaily article their Bally deal went from $54M in 2023 to $43M in 2024 and of course -0- in 2025. The MLB TV deal, says San Diego, gets them about $5M/year, although they do have some cable deals as well. The Colorado Rockies lost their $57M AT&T deal and are also with MLB TV in 2025 and expect "a revenue decrease of $40M to $50M". Sooo, an estimate of Twins 2025 TV money is maybe $10M. You can't even pay Buxton with that.

The Twins lost $30M last year, and are $425M in debt. Revenues continue to fall. Do you know what happens to most BUSINESSES in this situation? They file for bankruptcy. I believe that the salary dump was an attempt to shore up the cash flow to get to the end of this year. There have been at least 6 MLB bankruptcies including the LA Dodgers and Seattle Pilots (now Milwaukee Brewers). What comes next, whether they file or not, is a "distressed" sale of the team. And, as just noted above, sometimes those teams get moved to a new market. We're talkin' the Nashville Tunes baby!

Oh right! Blue Jays guy.

Who is Alen Roden? Just hit the MLB roster.

And now the two pitchers as well.

And Ryan Fitzgerald.