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Let's say goodbye to these three and a few more. I have no expectations for next year but I do not want to see, watch, listen or read about these kinds of fillers. Experiment, but with some hope. SWR has gone through a lot of criticism. I am pleased with him and his work. He has ignored the comments and has just kept improving. I am done with Larnach, disappointed in Wallner and hoping for some young new OF talents. But most of all, hurray, the season is over and we are 0 - 0 again for the next one.

I have to say I am tired of Falvey, Pohlad, Rocco and the Twins season, but not baseball. Imagine what this season has been for baseball fans outside of Minnesota. A catcher hitting 60 Hrs. Ryan Jeffers has 68 HRs for his career - Joe Mauer has more career HRs than any other Twins catcher 102. Earl Battey 91, Tim Laudner 77 and then Jeffers. No other catcher in our 64 years has hit 60 HRs in a career with the Twins. Buxton has broken out with 34 HRS. Ohtani has now hit 54 HRs two years in a row and Judge has 53 despite being on the IL and missing 10 games - four times he has hit 50+ and Kyle Schwaber has 56. That is four 50 HR batters in one year with Suarez on HR short with a day to go! What a year. Harmon Killebrew is the all time Twins single season record holder with 49 twice. And 6'7" Judge is leading the majors in BA! We had the big collapses - Mets and Tigers and the amazing run for the top by the Guardians wile Colorado and the White Sox let us forget how bad the Twins were. There is poor Houston out of the playoffs for the first time in 9 years. Skenes 197 era and Skubal 2.21 are elevating starting pitching as so many of us have wished for and proving wins are not all that count, but Max Fried has won 19 games! Remember when pitchers like Spahn and Koufax regularly won 20. And Crochet and Rodon have 18 each. Yes wins count too. Now the playoffs give us a chance to see if Ohtani both hits and pitches the Dodgers to victory. Can the Guardians maintain their season magic? Do the Red Sox beat up their biggest rival or do the Yankees run over them? Can the Blue Jays hang on? Will we see Varland and France in the winner locker room? Will the Tigers regain their footing and stop the slide? What can the Reds do? Can Elly run wild? Can Greene dominate the mound? Will former Twin Steer become a hero? Will Duran be the winning secret for the Phillies? And will Bader continue to be a key to their offense like he has been since the trade? Will Milwaukee continue to prove Pohlad and Falvey wrong? Can they, like the Guardians show that team baseball can beat superstar baseball? Can the Padres finally catch and pass the Dodgers? Are the Cubs real? Can Tucker earn his big paycheck? Can PCA dazzle under the playoff lights? I can be a Twins fan (painful as it is) and still care and want to know what is happening in these series.

I am in agreement with the two most recent TD essays but I wonder what we will read the rest of the off season if these are happening before the playoffs even begin. Please cover the playoffs and give us some real baseball before our winter baseball blues set in.

The downward spiral is a tough one to stop. The article lists so many ways that ownership has failed the fans and yes the fans are the key to any sport. Fans drive sponsors, television, radio, and ticket sales. But when you pull the rug out of an excited fandom after winning (finally) a playoff series then you start with anger and need to reconcile. It never happened. Falvey can try to sell hope, but two years in a row winning streaks that started to garner hope turned out to be empty promises. Next year even a 12 game winning streak will lack luster as fans do the been there, done that routine. It will take a full, sustained year to gain momentum again and that means less revenue in, less money out and thus we have a spiral that points downward.

Two years ago this might have been accurate, but the additions and subtractions did nothing to improve our status. Instead KC holds third and the Twins threaten the White Sox.

I would not like it. Develop a young catcher we have plenty in the system. His bat will not be hard to replace

You are right, we miss the daily misery during winter. Not being a fan of the NBA, once a week NFL does not fill the void - I know they now have Sunday, Monday and Thursday, but mostly it is speculation and prognostication - or rather fluff and fill. At least baseball gives us something tangible. I hope TD will start a playoff column daily so that we can keep stories going through the series - it beats taking up the NFL prognostication and prediction essays. I still wonder why we had Vasquez at the end of the season instead of a potential catcher for 2026. You brought up something that always bothers me - the official scorer giving basehits when it should be errors. Is this a league memo? Finally, the Twins seem to be really intent on selling Travis Adams as a RP - it started when they put him on the 40 man really early and it continues as we watch him come in an almost automatically give up runs. He has a -4.2 WAR in Minneapolis and had a -2.3 in St Paul. 7.64 era and 1.697 whip. I will never understand why we did not give more young arms some BP experience to end the year instead of Hatch, Cabrera, Adams, Tonkin.

And because we believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny we believe in Falvey!

Did someone show the team the rule book after they had lost all hope? 9.07 Stolen Bases and Caught Stealing The Official Scorer shall credit a stolen base to a runner whenever the runner advances one base unaided by a hit, a putout, an error, a force-out, a fielder’s choice, a passed ball, a wild pitch or a balk, subject to the following: (a) When a runner starts for the next base before the pitcher delivers the ball and the pitch results in what ordinarily is scored a wild pitch or passed ball, the Official Scorer shall credit the runner with a stolen base and shall not charge the misplay, unless, as a result of the misplay, the stealing runner advances an extra base, or another runner also advances, in which case the Official Scorer shall score the wild pitch or passed ball as well as the stolen base. There is more, but it amazes me that the team only took half a decade to figure out that hitting the ball out of the park was not the only way to score and win. But can this lesson be retained?

When I look at your list of winners it is now awe inspiring. Let's hope Hill rises higher than the past choices.

Early for speculation - right now they do not have a closer.

Thanks for essay - the number one and the honorable mention look like they will be part of the 2026 roster - from this list who else would you see as a Twin next year? I have to say that Adams does not look good and there are plenty of RP on the current edition that can be and should be replaced.

Since the choice is probably Larnach or Wallner I suspect the 22 HRs will win. Then I put him at DH. Time for athletic OFs.

We cannot restructure the BP in four games - Cabrera, Adams, Hatch, Tonkin are not part of a successful BP no matter what the structure is. So far we have Ohl for middle innings, Sands and Lawyerson for the seventh and eighth and Funderburk for the ninth (based on what we have right now). Some big changes are needed. Nice to see Helman get a chance to play. 244 - 5 Hrs - 19 RBIs. I would happily trade Outman for him! How are the other players we traded or DFA'd doing this year? Varland has poor stats with Toronto, but his last five games he has only given up one run. Griffen Jax last five games look really good with no runs allowed. Duran could end up in the WS and has a 2.29 era for Philadelphia. He is their closer, but his last five games are not as good as Varland and Jax. Coulombe has a bad era because he had one bad clunker of a game in the last five. Correa has 286/348/427/775 for Houston which is better than he had with us. And Ty France has a 277/320/372/693 line with Toronto which is slightly better than he had with us. Let's hope Keaschall can get back to the excitement we saw this year. Lewis was exciting too until he had multiple injuries so it is wait and see.

Interesting list because it really is a look at where the Twins roster stands for 2026. Ryan should be back, but probably traded. Jeffers has leverage unless we think Perada is going to blossom into a star of Vasquez is going to sign for $1m and suddenly find the fountain of youth. Otherwise they are all replaceable at this point. Lewis and Ober are the most interesting and Thielbar's ascendency with the Cubs shows how dangerous it is to give up too soon.

This is like soccer with a division for the lesser talented teams - with the premier league and then a number of levels in what they call a pyramid. Lousy teams go down, better teams go up. The Twins are now comfortably in their league with Texas. Then there is CO, A's, White Sox, Braves, Pirates and we have the next league down. I have become indifferent to wins and losses. Mostly I am glad Zebby had a good game and will always be puzzled why Vasquez is up for his farewell tour.

Let the 2025 punishment end before this speculation starts. Save something - you have months to fill with what ifs.

At this point we are all so frustrated that you need to give us time to flush the 2025 season out of our minds (a little bit) before putting these questions forward. When it comes to Twins decisions does it matter what the fans think?

Nope - they both fail

I replied to another posting - which players did Lavine acquire before Falvey took over all the acquisitions?

Where does Lavine fit? Which of them did all the early acquiring?

Nice to have Martin get some press, but the thinking of Falvey and the FO are too confusing for me to speculate. Having acquired Roden and Outman Falvey might continue to push for playing time for "his" acquisitions despite their lack of production. The list of OF candidates is long, but how many have potential to be more than replacement level or below? How do they rank? I prefer the prospects, not that prospects always reach their potential, but because the other players have already shown their abilities and that is not good enough.

Its done - move on

The system just worries me - which means a do over - FO, Manager, and all the coaches: Here's a breakdown of the 2025 coaching staff: Manager: Rocco Baldelli Bench Coach: Jayce Tingler - what does he do? What has he contributed? Assistant Bench/Catching Coach: Hank Conger - an assistant to an assistant! Hitting Coach: Matt Borgschulte - well that worked out well Hitting Coach: Rayden Sierra - which one gets all the Mendoza line batters? Assistant Hitting Coach: Trevor Amicone - more help and the team line is 239/312/397 Pitching Coach: Pete Maki - excellent job - team era 4.69 (where are his assistants? First Base/Infield Coach: Ramon Borrego Did he get lonely? Bullpen Coach: Colby Suggs - Why don't we get rid of all the major league arms and see what he can do? Quality Control Coach: Nate Dammann - Okay where is the quality? Third Base Coach: Tommy Watkins - his biggest strength is staying employed. The minor league coaches prepare the minor leaguers - the major league coaching are supposed to build on their accomplishments, but - how many do better their second or third season on the team? I am even worried that Keaschall is slowing down as the season ends. Luckily for you - there is another week you can summarize.

I might have liked the essay but when you put a shout out for Julien you really lost me. Have you looked at his batting average. Have you seen the futility of this man who is supposed to take a starring role in the upsurge of the Minnesota twins. I'm sorry but Miranda is just as good as he is and neither one should be on a major league team at this point. Neither should outman or gaspar All teams lose and all teams win it's just a some win a lot and some lose a lot. So to make one victory out of this morass is not enough to start seeing all the positives. If SWR is our new ace next season really looks long. It's not that he's a bad picture it's just that he's not good enough to carry a team like an ace supposed to. I like enthusiasm but these reports have to be realistic too.