Andy MacPhail

I like your 4 steps, But more than likely, step 1 won't happen. Yet we can find a good substitute with even more years & follow through with the rest of the steps, hoping that step 4 will happens but not obligated to do so.

1. I'd trade Ryan straight up for Suzana, I feel Nats would be looking for more experienced SP or work out a 3-way trade. I forgot to remove Ryan on the list; I'm working on my 3rd 2. I feel Quero is being squeezed out of CWS, they might be open for a trade

If you trade Caratini, how are you responsible for the $7MM?

Vladimir Guerreira, when approached during a slump after his contract, stated the truth & shocked everyone; "I'm not paid for what I do, I get paid for what I did". Salaries are based on past stats, so he figured that this was all it was about. There are no guarantees, Twins got burned many times with long term FA contracts, especially lately. IMO, long term FA contracts are a bad crap shoot. For years, I've advocated to trade from our surplus (mainly LH corner fielders), to fill out our holes, instead of FA. FA should be a last resort, not our principal solution.

I'm thinking the Twins offering him the QO, in hopes he'd decline it, not him accepting it. Offhand, I don't recall any Boras client ever accepting one,

Jeffers knows our pitchers, I'm willing to give him 4yrs. if that was a factor. Because Lackey would take a while to take over the primary catching role. But for us to sign Jeffers, his market would have to totally crater under Boras. Him being the top catching FA, I don't see that happening.

That's the main thing, the money shouldn't be spent on utility, Utility isn't somewhere we need to look to for offense it's defense. We need to look at RF, we should get a big boost from Jenkins. DH, maybe sign Bell for less to man only there, if Twins are serious about offense. 1B, IMO, Lewis figured it out until he ran out of gas (this is by far the most games he's played since his surgeries); he should be better. Keaschal is a big plus offensively at 1B, with Clemens helping against RHPs. LF, Emma would be a wild card which could better the offense, 3B, Lee can only be better with more experience & a full year at 3B. Defense has been the bigger problem, even though we didn't lose that much defense, it's still a problem. IMO, Kreidler is just fine as an emergency SS sub, even though Houston needs more development offensively, his glove is ready. So, he adds depth.

I don't give Bowden any credence. Most everything he comes up with, I scratch my head, wondering how he came up with them?! This is another one of them, it makes absolutely no sense. The smart thing to do is what MIL does, to develop & play our own players. In this case, if we stick to our own, it'd be cheaper & better now & much better in the near future. Bowden is not worth quoting, I avoid listening to his ideas pertaining to these subjects. Crawford's position now is 3B, what do we do with our GG nominee, Lee? Our biggest INF problem is 2B, how does Crawford solve that? Why do we create an expensive inferior logjam when Houston is knocking at the door, whose glove is already MLB-ready? Let's find better ways to spend Twins' money.

Feeling a bit more inspired, I went big in high-leverage FA RPs, I doubt if the Twins would do the same, Also a FA RH OF Tyron Taylor to help out against LHPs. Traded Larnach & Ober & picked up Quero (C) & Susana (SP). IMO, we can be very competitive with this roster. I'd also trade Ryan for a promising young MLB-ready SP. C: Ben Rortvedt ($2.00M) 1B: Royce Lewis ($5.10M) 2B: Austin Martin ($1.00M) 3B: Brooks Lee ($1.00M) SS: Kaelen Culpepper ($1.00M) LF: Emmanuel Rodriguez ($6.30M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Walker Jenkins ($1.00M) DH: Luke Keaschal ($1.00M) 4th OF: Tyron Taylor ($7.00M) Utility: Kody Clemens ($3.60M) Utility: Ryan Kreidler ($1.00M) Backup C: Edgar Quero ($2.60M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($10.00M) SP1: Pablo Lopez ($21.50M) SP2: Christian Zazueta ($1.00M) SP3: Dean Kremer ($6.50M) SP4: Jarlin Susana ($1.00M) SP5: Taj Bradley ($4.50M) RP: Jeff Hoffman ($7.25M) RP: Alex Vexia ($11.00M) RP: Connor Prielipp ($1.00M) RP: Yoendrys Gomez ($1.00M) RP: Bryan Abreu ($9.00M) RP: Kyle Hurt ($1.00M) RP: Andrew Morris ($1.00M) RP: Zebby Matthews ($1.00M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M) Payroll is 7.89% under budget

I thought it was automatically included.

Feeling a bit more inspired, I went big in high-leverage FA RPs, I doubt if the Twins would do the same, Also a FA RH OF Tyron Taylor to help out against LHPs. Traded Caratini, Larnach & Ober & picked up Quero (C) & Susana (SP). IMO, we can be very competitive with this roster. I'd also trade Ryan for a promising young MLB-ready SP at the deadline. C: Ben Rortvedt ($2.00M) 1B: Royce Lewis ($5.10M) 2B: Austin Martin ($1.00M) 3B: Brooks Lee ($1.00M) SS: Kaelen Culpepper ($1.00M) LF: Emmanuel Rodriguez ($1.00M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Walker Jenkins ($1.00M) DH: Luke Keaschal ($1.00M) 4th OF: Tyron Taylor ($7.00M) Utility: Kody Clemens ($3.60M) Utility: Ryan Kreidler ($1.00M) Backup C: Edgar Quero ($2.90M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M) SP1: Pablo Lopez ($21.50M) SP2: Joe Ryan ($9.60M) SP3: Dean Kremer ($6.50M) SP4: Jarlin Susana ($1.00M) SP5: Taj Bradley ($4.50M) RP: Jeff Hoffman ($7.25M) RP: Alex Vexia ($11.00M) RP: Connor Prielipp ($1.00M) RP: Yoendrys Gomez ($1.00M) RP: Kody Funderburk ($1.00M) RP: Raisel Inglesia ($16.00M) RP: Andrew Morris ($1.00M) RP: Zebby Matthews ($1.00M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M) Payroll is 7.44% under budget

I like Arraez. there is no active player's ABs I'd rather watch than Arraez. But that's the only attribute that I like about him. His BA is very good, but his OPS isn't outstanding, a stat which I put more stock in. He can't run & has very little power, which is a bad combination. Arraez still doesn't have natural range although Washington taught him how to better position himself. I'd rather have the goose that lays the golden eggs than a golden egg. Meaning, I advocated to bring in Tori Hunter as Twins' manger because I'm sure he could have influenced his good friend, Washington (the goose that lays golden eggs) to join him, to revolutionize the INF (golden eggs). Washington may have risen some points of Arraez's defensive game but still it's not enough to make him any better than who we have, plus paying a premium.

When you are discussing how Jeffers can return, you left out the major denominator, Boras. Jeffers employing Boras, tells me that he wants top dollar, not staying in MN. Hitting 1st catcher, Wilson Contreras got 5yrs, for $87;5 MM 4 yrs. ago. Jeffers is no Contreras & Contreras lasted only 1 yr. at catcher. The only way that Jeffers returns to MN is if his market crashes badly.

Although, I'd love to have a Cruz type, who has embraced DHing & is very productive; with players like Buxton more than likely have time there, IMO, Twins won't look for a DH. Frankly, I don't like Buxton playing DH, because he doesn't have the hang of it & he plays so much better overall playing in the field. I'd also state that the Twins were in the top 10 teams all year in runs scores, even when many of the top starters were disappointing, especially the 2nd half. HRs are not the problem, if properly coached we can do much better with the team we have, The biggest problem is defense & we still need help in the BP, That is where our focus should be.

I have to admit that this blueprint is not inspirational because I'm a little uninspired, I appreciate the response. I think we can do some things now that can help now but IMO, the focus should be on the future (especially with SPs) when Lackey & Houston come up.

Athletics Hire Brewers’ Cam Castro As General Manager By Steve Adams | at November 4, 2026 12:03pm CDT 12:03 pm CT: The A’s have officially announced the hiring of Castro. 10:31 am CT: The Athletics are hiring Brewers senior vice president of player development and performance Cam Castro as their new general manager, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. He’ll serve as the No. 2 executive under newly hired president of baseball operations Taylor Smith. I really like Zoll, & I'd hate to fire him. Though I'd keep him, I've always advocated to poach someone who has good feel in how the Brewers' system operates to head our FO. Athletics has woke up, I believe Castro would be a good candidate. He's headed the Brewers' great pitching department, managed & involved in org. player development. Twins need to be more like the Brewers, this would have been a good start

Thank you so much Cody for this article. I love this post season watching good teams using their BPs, more so than any other time. Teams that have a good BP & knows how to use them, get to the postseason & prosper. Twins need to abandon their old fashion mindset of stretching out their rotation until it snaps, while burning out their BP. They seem not to care about proper pitching workload management. Forget about the old fashion tabus of long relief that includes BP games, piggybacking & the such. Twins rarely use long relief & when they do, it's when they have no other choice & they enter the game thinking it's a lost cause. Twins need to change their mindset & really sell it to the pitchers, like other good teams have done. CWS started the '26 season with a poor pitching core. Instead of sending all their extra SPs to AAA (wasting their bullets there); they plugged them into long relief. Those bullets went a long way in relieving the rotation & BP in proper workload management (keeping everyone fresh). For some reason, Twins like to use RPs w/o any options left, handcuffing the BP. Why don't we use our pitchers who have options? I really respect Pat Murphy, IMO, he should win the NL manager every year; he stated early in the season that CWS are a team to be recogned with. IMO, one good reason is how they use their BP. I have advocated for years about this.

If Ryan could be extended, he'd be extended already. I don't think he's interested. So the question isn't if he'd be traded but when.

I have always stressed defense, but defense hasn't been very important to the Twins & many fans that bought into that. IMO, we can improve in most areas including pitchers. "Kody Clemens is a fine defender, but has limited range", IMO, that is an oxymoron, especially for an up the middle position, To be a fine defender, you need to have good range besides having a steady glove. Twins need to reprioritize their priorities. We need more than a new pitching coach to improve our defense.

Thank you, I haven't heard that. His # s are still pretty good, if he chases too much, he'll need to adjust before he gets to the MLB. It doesn't matter to me if he's a slugger or not.

I like Rortvedt better than Caratini; Rortvedt is much better than Caratini defensively & when used properly can be better offensively. We may start out with Larnach & Ryan but I'm open to trade both. I'd keep Keaschal off 2B C: Ben Rortvedt ($2.0M) 1B: Luke Keaschal ($1.00M) 2B: Royce Lewis ($5.10M) 3B: Brooks Lee ($1.00M) SS: Kaelen Culpepper ($1.00M) LF: Trevor Larnach ($6.30M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Walker Jenkins ($1.00M) DH: Kody Clemens ($3.60M) 4th OF: Emmanuel Rodriguez ($1.00M) Utility: Austin Martin ($1.00M) Utility: Ryan Kreidler ($1.00M) Backup C: Caratini ($7.00M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M) SP1: Pablo Lopez ($21.50M) SP2: Joe Ryan ($9.60M) SP3: Dean Kremer ($6.50M) SP4: Bailey Ober ($6.90M) SP5: Taj Bradley ($4.50M) RP: Jeff Hoffman ($7.25M) RP: Alex Vexia ($11.00M) RP: Tommy Nance ($1.20M) RP: Yoendrys Gomez ($1.00M) RP: Kody Funderburk ($1.00M) RP: Connor Prielipp ($1.00M) RP: Andrew Morris ($1.00M) RP: Zebby Matthews ($1.00M) POS: Add Dead Money Here ($0.00M) Payroll is 11.52% under budget

Overall (through 11/1): .358/.485/.604 (1.089 OPS) Many speak out their concerns about Debarge's GB rate & that he needs to put the ball in the air. By his stat line, it looks like he hits a lot of line drives & many of his GBs are getting through the INF. I wouldn't try to increase his FB rate that'd increase his FB outs.

Thank you, Cody, for encouraging us through your parallel comparison of last lockout. I like what fell into our laps except the Rogers/ Paddock trade, they should have tried to extend Rogers. I also loved setting up their initial progressive philosophy on piggybacking but hated after setting up piggybacking they reversed themselves & scrambled to overextend all SPs. Looking forward, I'm hoping for the same opportunities & for them to take full advantage of them.

IMO, it's best for both parties if he declines. For Jeffers, he had a very good 1st half before his injury IMO, teams will take that into consideration; giving him a good chance of landing a pretty good multi-year contract. Why gamble on a one year contract to try to copy the same results? He could get hurt & have a terrible walk year. And for the Twins, they'll grossly overpay for one year of Jeffers; hamstringing their payrole & one year isn't enough to cover the time needed until Lackey is ready, I'd trade for someone good that can be around for at least 2yrs.. Plus, Twins receive another high draft pick

Jeffers had a career 1st half before his injury. Boras is his agent, this is his opportunity, he's going to take it, He'll decline the QO.