MMBoys93

How many WS have that trio of teams won while managing their resources well and not spending? You can compete without spending but none of those 3 have won a WS with that philosophy. As I’ve said many times, one team with a bottom half payroll has won a WS in the last 30 years.

More and more the twins ownership and front office’s decisions and talk remind me of the Mets minus the money. thats a scary place to be lol

No one is cheering for losses, I’m simply hopeful for a consistent competitive team. Trading part of the future away to say a Hail Mary for a team that’ll likely be ranked 24th in payroll or worse come next year is dumb. there are ways beyond free agency to increase payroll to contend. The Pohlad’s chose to cut almost 30 million after winning a playoff series and did nothing to boost the roster. There’s nothing that tells me they’ll own the Twins any differently moving forward. As for Ryan, I don’t want them to trade him either but there’s likely a lockout next year that severely impacts your potential to deal him after this trade deadline. Teams that don’t spend letting good free agents leave knowing you’re not resigning them is the formula to perennial 90 and 100 loss teams.

They didn’t spend after the 2023 season. They wouldn’t spend this past offseason. Buying at the deadline sounds like hurting the farm potential to hopefully sneak into a wild card spot, while the team remains a bottom 10 payroll team year in year out. So they’ll let Jeffers walk and get nothing back because they’re not going to extend and they’ll likely let Joe Ryan walk as well all because they’re Pohlad’s don’t want to lose more fans for a Hail Mary chance to sneak in as the last wild card team. Textbook scenario of how not to manage a low to mid-market team. Don’t be shocked if we get perennial 90 to 100 loss teams down the road if this is how it works out.

Agreed, it’s a bummer to see so many twins writers paying minimal attention to more advanced metrics. I’ll never stop shaking my head at the Mike Trout comps that originated from baseball writers for Luke Keaschall last year

It seems more and more that we’re going to see an unexpected trade before the deadline. Moving Royce around to other positions and now Luke in the outfield while having six major league quality outfielders in Saint Paul means that something has to give here. You deal from a point of strength here and retool for the future. There’s no way to get everyone ABs with 2 corner OF spots. I have a couple names in mind that I could see getting moved but will keep it to myself for now.

They’re still 24th in baseball against winning teams and I can guarantee you that if they make the playoffs they’ll only be playing teams with winning records This seems to always be the twins issue. They feast off weak competition. 2019 they won 101 games, had a record under .500 vs teams with a winning record. Got swept by the Yankees and everyone was somehow shocked. The point is if you can’t beat good teams, then buying at the trade deadline seems silly

On a team where every young player with potential is defensively limited to corner outfield, the twins add another lol

For the 2 team expansion that Manfred is planning before he steps away, yes.

But he started his career in Detroit. That was my point

Agree on Gomez, he’s under control till 2032, a couple months of success isn’t going to net much of anything. Another case of don’t trade someone with control if the value isn’t there for me.

I love what Clemens has brought to the team but he’s 30 and players typically start the decline at 32, he has control which other teams would like and Kreidler has absolutely shown he can take his super utility spot. Absolutely hilarious that this marks the 3rd really good super utility guy the twins have nabbed from Detroit in the last 5 years for nothing 🤣🤣🤣 Martin could even be the super utility guy down the road as well. As for Wallner I’m definitely super down on the guy as well but I’m of the opinion that you don’t trade guys when their value has never been lower. Give him the rest of the season and then make your decision in the offseason.

The MLB as a whole would never allow the team to move states. At least not in the next 10-20 years

Bradley has been the better pitcher AND he has two more years of club control. Pretty big win for the Twins at the moment

14-23 vs teams better than .500, good for 24th in baseball, 13th in the AL and worst among the division. Comes out to a 61-101 pace against winning baseball teams. Aggressively buying would be a giant mistake. Hope the Pohlad’s don’t force that because they finally realized they made a giant mistake 3 years ago by dropping payroll by 30m. Trade expiring contracts like Jeffers and Bell Trade Clemens and Larnach Jeffers hasn’t played in weeks and the Twins can replace the other 3 internally without losing much offensive ability. If they play decent baseball before the deadline, they can add 2-3 cheap expiring contract decent relievers and you’ll still come out ahead on the farm system while giving a chance at a wild card spot allowing everyone to be happy.

The Wild and Vikings have packed houses because they have a history of winning. Wild have made the playoffs in 12 of 14 seasons and Vikings have had at least a .500 record in 8 of the last 11 and haven’t been a truly awful team since 2013. The Twins on the other hand have 4 playoff appearances in 15 years with plenty of truly awful seasons and an ownership group who has committed publicly to not spending money since November 7, 2023. I’m honestly shocked the drop in attendance hasn’t been higher but when you’re just giving tickets away it’s the revenue more than anything that’s impacted. The Pohlad’s deserve all of this and more. Here’s to hoping summer ticket sales are truly pathetic.

Ahhh ok so Zoll should just sit on his hands and do nothing and not even try and trade him cause if he wasn’t traded last year that means 100% that he won’t get traded this year. I simply said the Twins should look to trade him so that Sabato could get a look, as part of a much longer message. Idk why you’ve decided to focus so much on Josh Bell.

He’s a super utility guy who plays good defense and has hit righties at an .800 ops the last 2 years. Any team outside of the Dodgers would play him almost every day against righties. If you hit you play, that what Castro and Bader did last year. Clemens is hitting. This isn’t that difficult

I’ll add Tampa to that list as well. I know they’ve spent more recently but are still bottom third. I love how Tampa isn’t afraid to trade their prospects for an MLB talent, and vice versa. That’s the gold standard for me. They put money into scouting and development, know when to make a trade, aren’t scared to resign young talent and know when to move on from someone. Unfortunately for us, the Pohlad’s cut the scouting department during the payroll crunch after 2023. They’re the biggest problem. They don’t care about wins, just the bottom line and they seem to just be dumb nepo babies. That satire post that Cody made this morning was so much truer than it needed to be.

29 of the last 30 World Series were won by teams with a payroll in the top half. Only Miami in 2001 was bottom 15.

Bell is a known slow starter. .689 OPS in April and a .760 OPS or better in all other months.

Clemens has a .753 ops over his last 30 games. He's been worth a 2.25 bWAR average per season since coming over (better than Castro during his time in MN) He also plays at least league average defense at 4 MLB positions and he's beginning arbitration next year. They don't have to trade him, but once Culepper comes up Kreidler has shown he can be that super utility guy. Kreidler doesn't start arbitration for a couple years, Clemens starts next year. Brooks has been worth -6 OAA at SS this year, he's not going back to SS.

You raise some really good points here, but as MN fans we've been told there's a chance every year since 91. So why hasn't it worked out in those 35 years? It all comes back to one thing---Money. I mentioned above that 5 of the last 60 WS were won by teams with less than 90 wins. Did you also know that 1 of the last 30 WS were won by a team with a bottom 50% of the league payroll? Only the Marlins in 2021. Many were won by top 10 payroll teams, but there were plenty in the 10-15 range as well. The Twins have been top 15 in payroll 3 times during that 30 year stretch (2010-2012). Yeah the Rangers barely made the playoffs that year, but they had 90 wins and they increased payroll 100 million that year and were 5th in payroll. They also brought in Jordan Montgomery, Max Scherzer and Aroldis Chapman at the deadline. These cost them 2x top 100 prospects and 2 more ranked in the team's top 15. They did this because they had the money to and were getting pressured for results for their all-in approach. The Twins don't have the luxury to go all-in or even boost the team at the trade deadline in a meaningful way. A team that sits in the bottom 25% of payroll has to keep the farm top 10 or they risk being a perennial 100 loss team. If the Twins won't spend money then the farm has to either come through or they have to use the farm to trade for MLB talent. Unfortunately the Twins haven't been strong at player development yet are still averse to trading top prospects for MLB talent. In the last 10 years they've only traded good prospects for established Major League talent twice as far as I can remember (Mahle and Gray). Every other trade has included low level prospects outside the top 15. If they aren't developing enough MLB talent, won't make big trades and won't sign at free agency, then it comes down to only the farm. And if they let the farm dwindle because they don't take advantage of trading expiring contracts they won't extend for a chance at a WC spot when the team is under .500, then you're just throwing up a hail mary and the chance of the team being even decent in the future takes a huge hit. Baseball is not as random as people give it credit for being. I've seen nothing that points to Tom Pohlad changing his ways. He's a corporate head trying to keep the peace with his words, but his inactions show that payroll will at best stay stagnant.

What’s potentially changed is that Bell is on an absolute tear right now and if that continues then there’s absolutely value there. I can’t predict the future though, but if he continues hitting well, a switch hitting guy with an .800 OPS is absolutely valuable. He’s not gonna bring back much but allowing Sabato to take some of his innings is valuable to me.

Bradley also has team control that Jax does not And Castro brought back 2 SP prospects. Both have had a tough year but they were regarded ok. Clemens, Bell, Larnach could bring back similar level returns to Castro and Bader with Clemens potential bringing more back because of his control.