MeleMouth

No, I wouldn't bring Nance back for sure, but he's in the top 8 right now. Bad trade.

Yes, you were just asking for a comparison. Gomez does not have an option left, however.

They don't need a great catcher, but they need a catcher and pickings are slim. There aren't many decent defensive catchers available, and of those, even fewer would you want to bat more than once a week. Alternatively, they could try to patch it for half a season with a Rortvedt or Leon type and just accept the bad offense, while hoping that Diaw's defense is acceptable by July. Trading for someone like Fermin from San Diego is also an option, but harder, because they need a #2, also. Another thing to try would be to get a glove wizard from another team's minors who could be sent back to the minors, but his hitting would probably be even scarier, and pickings are slim here, too. Maybe Drew Millas from WSN? I rank catcher higher than the bullpen because (1) it affects all pitchers and (2) replacement-level options are not within the organization.

You identified what is needed to improve the ceiling of the team to being truly competitive. Perhaps even more important for the floor is to also get a decent #1 or #2 catcher. Elsewhere, I have written that, for the 2027 bullpen, a solution would be to move Lopez and Ober into it.

Many indicators besides surface stats predict a better future for Morris than for Gomez: Second half: Morris - 3.97 xERA and 4.23 BB/9; Gomez - 5.82 xERA and 7.33 BB/9*. *On a full year basis, would be worst by more than 1 BB/9 among 389 MLB pitchers with at least 40 innings. His full year walk rate of 5.24/9 is 20th worst. Stuff+, Location+, Pitching+: Morris - 107, 102, 106; Gomez - 113, 81**, 93. **2nd lowest (bad) among 389 MLB pitchers with at least 40 innings. GB%: Morris - 45.0%; Gomez - 26.2%***. ***7th lowest (bad) among 389 MLB pitchers with at least 40 innings. FB%: Morris - 35.9%; Gomez - 48.7%. Neither are great nor terrible, but lower is better. LD%: Morris - 19.1%; Gomez - 25.1%****. ****Tied for 8th highest (bad) among 389 MLB pitchers with at least 40 innings. Full year: Morris - 3.33 xERA, 3.29 FIP, 4.03 xFIP; Gomez - 5.48 xERA; 4.40 FIP; 5.09 xFIP. Other than for counting saves, Gomez pitched well only for a little more than one month. He also has some good qualities, such as his Stuff+ being almost top 10%, so, like you said, he should get a shot in spring training with the new pitching coach to see if he can improve on some of his weaknesses. If he doesn't, however, he should be let go. In particular, if he's a middle innings reliever instead of the closer, his high walk rate will be devastating. Morris, on the other hand, didn't have an incredible year, but he was a rookie who was called up unexpectedly. He's also two years younger, which gives better odds for further improvement. As a rookie without the bad extremes of Gomez, and as a pitcher with options, Morris should get a longer leash.

I would be interested in researching two other hypotheses of when it could be worthwhile to sign free agent relievers, but that's for another day. Hypothesis #1: it's worthwhile to sign free agent relievers when you're rebuilding with an otherwise very low payroll and you want to support developing starters while also considering the relievers to be mid-season trade candidates. Hypothesis #2: it's worthwhile to sign free agent relievers when you already have All-Stars throughout your line-up and starting rotation and have extra funds to lock down another inning or two (Dodgers).

Based on the current roster, only five relievers who were on the year-end roster should be considered likely to be in the Twins bullpen in 2027: Hoffman, Morris, Funderburk, Nance, and Adams, and even three of those come with question marks. Eight relievers are needed, so the Twins need to fill three spots. Where could candidates come from? 1. Other relievers on the 40-man: Gomez, Orze, Anderson, Acton, and Raya. 2. Relievers who have been on the IL: Sands and Festa. 3. Inexperienced starters who convert to relief: Rojas and Matthews. 4. Free agents: adding salary for free agent relievers has typically been a high risk, low reward game. In a small sample of World Series winners since Covid, very few teams signed a free agent from another team who made a difference. Hector Neris, a middle reliever for the 2021 Astros, was probably the most successful. However, many interesting names are available this winter, including Bednar, Morejon, Phillips, Loaisiga, Matsui, Vesia, old friend Okert, and new friend Minter. 5. Veteran starters who convert to relief: Ober and Lopez. If it were me, I would move Ober and Lopez to the bullpen and, unless either Festa or Sands look great, add whomever between Gomez and Raya looks better in spring training. Reasoning: 1. Start with who is being excluded. Anderson, Acton, Raya, Sands, Festa, Rojas and Matthews have options, assuming they don't find other spots on the active roster. Of the pitchers without options, the loss of Orze would be relatively easy to take. Losing Gomez would cause more consternation, based on his successful surface results in 2026, but putting him on the 2027 roster would cause even more consternation if he pitches like he did in the second half of 2026: 5.79 ERA, 5.82 xERA, 7.33 BB/9. 2. Then deal with complicated roster issues, which include projecting pitchers returning from injury and a combination of too many starters for the active roster and too few in the organization. The Twins have a weird posture regarding starters, in that they seem to have more than needed to start the year but may not have enough in the system to make it through a season. At the same time, only one starter, Bradley, appears to be a lock. Assuming Ryan and Kremer are retained, they make two more. In my mind, Prielipp showed more than enough in 2026 to consider him a starter in 2027, leaving one opening. Leading candidates are Lopez, Ober, Abel, Matthews, and Rojas. Assuming health, Abel would be my top choice. Like Lopez, he is returning from injury, but it is a less severe injury, and he may have the highest ceiling among the five. 3. Decide what to do with Lopez, Ober, Matthews, and Rojas. Ober and Rojas are relatively easy. Rojas goes to AAA to continue as a starter. Ober has the lowest ceiling and looked like he was getting by with wiles instead of talent. Among the nine candidates to be a starter, he could be #9 in talent. However, he provides a unique pitching style that could give a unique look coming out of the bullpen and retaining him would allow the Twins to return him to starting if necessary. Matthews should join Rojas in St. Paul's rotation. Some people have talked about converting him to the bullpen, analogizing Matthews to Varland. This is a reasonable position when comparing pitchers, but is less relevant when comparing teams - adding a power reliever to the 2023 team helped make that team competitive for the ALCS; the 2027 team will be competing to squeak into the wild card. If things look more optimistic in July or August, of course, Matthews could be a candidate to switch at that time. For now, he has shown enough as a starter to still think that he could succeed. And that leaves Lopez. Coming off his second TJ, it is highly doubtful that he can immediately return to being a top starter for a full season. However, he's on the team. My recommendation is that he follow the example of John Smoltz and take over closer duties. 4. With this plan, the Twins don't need to take the risk of signing an expensive free agent reliever to a multi-year contract. Those deals rarely work for any team, and expensive free agent contracts for any position rarely work for the Twins. As we have seen, veteran relievers are often available during the season for an extra boost. However, the bullpen as constructed here includes only one lefty, Funderburk, who doesn't have the most reliable track record. If the Twins want to sign another lefty, that could be a good decision. If the Twins bring in another lefty reliever, it is likely that Adams would be sent to St. Paul, because Nance does not have an option. Thus, your 2027 Opening Day bullpen: Lopez, Hoffman, Morris, Ober, Funderburk, Nance, Adams and [Gomez or Raya].

What is your data for this assertion? None of the Rays, Brewers, or Guardians sign expensive free agent relievers and they make the playoffs regularly. If anything, they tend to do the opposite, which is trade their relievers as they get close to free agency. Of 2026's free agent relievers, only four of the twenty most expensive AAV signings pitched as relievers for playoff teams (Iglesias, Suarez, Phillips, and Matz), and two of those were pitchers who re-upped with their 2025 teams (Iglesias, Phillips). One other free agent reliever pitched in the playoffs (Martinez), but he was mostly a starter. Of the twenty largest AAV's for relievers who switched teams to pitch as relievers, only two (Suarez and Matz) pitched as relievers in the playoffs. Suarez was 4th and Matz was 15h among AAVs. Also, Armstrong and Newcomb also pitched in the playoffs, after receiving the 21st and 23nd highest AAV among free agent relievers in 2026. The free agent reliever who received the 12th highest AAV, Dominguez, did actually sign with a team that made the playoffs, but he was dumped mid-season, so he didn't pitch in the playoffs. If two out of 20 free agent relievers who switch teams actually pitch as relievers in the playoffs, that would be a 10% chance of success, which is a lot of risk for little reward. In combination with the fact that signing free agent relievers is rarely done by several playoff teams, particularly for high AAVs, your apparent thesis - that it is necessary to take a chance on expensive free agent relievers in order to make the playoffs - is incorrect.

Hitting-wise, Bell's peers last year were Herrera, Bellinger, William Contreras, and Kody Clemens, which shows that he wasn't bad. He was also good in the clubhouse. The value and need for that on the 2027 Twins, however, is unclear, particularly because they need to get off the treadmill of signing new mediocre veterans every year.

Wikipedia on former Twin Rick Reed: In 1995, which was Reed's 10th year of pro ball, he agreed to be a replacement player for the Cincinnati Reds during the 1994 Major League Baseball strike.[2] Reed's mother, Sylvia, was a diabetic without health insurance, and he was paying her medical bills.[3] On July 21, 1995, Reed was recalled by Cincinnati to the consternation of several of his teammates who had gone on strike.[6]

I'm not sure if management would let in union members who accepted working rates below what is required by the union. It probably differs from lockout to lockout, industry to industry. But the other union members would probably be VERY unhappy.

Interesting idea, but they'll still be members of the union. It would be weird for both management and the union if management locks out all players except those who accept less-valuable contracts, which is what accepting a minor league offer at any salary would be.

There is no such thing as "trusting" a baseball player, or at least it's very rare. Kirby Puckett is probably the last Minnesota Twin that, at the beginning of a season, could be "trusted" to stay healthy and put up good numbers, but even he, at this time of the year after his last season, could not be "trusted, because he suffered an unexpected illness that ended his career at the end of the next spring training, when he had been playing great. Right now, these three players should be considered the starters at their positions in spring training. They should hold their jobs as long as they are playing adequately or demonstrating progress. However, all three of them have injury histories and have had runs of inadequate performance. Certainly, if healthy, they are probably the most talented players in the organization at their positions, but that does not mean that future performance can be "trusted." To the people who think the team's pattern of giving opportunity to mediocre veterans instead of young players is a problem, I agree with you, but that problem is not one of trust. Instead, it's an effort by management to avoid blame if things go wrong. In traditional organizations, if something goes wrong while playing veterans, the ready-made story is to blame the veterans - "they've done it before, but they let us down this year" - but if something goes wrong while playing rookies, the instinct is to blame the person who decided to play the untested players.

If you think Stearns isn't asking Falvey to use his network to improve the Mets, then you've never worked with an executive. An executive like David Stearns, if he's typical, never stops adding to "his people." He's going to try to connect with the network of other senior executives, particularly ones who now work for him. Maybe you worked for a company that never wanted employees to recommend potential new hires, because the CEO had preexisting relationships with everyone he or she wanted to work there and wasn't constantly trying to meet new people to see if he or she could find anyone good to add to the team, but that would be very atypical. Apparently, even Stearns wanted someone who wasn't in "his people," or he wouldn't have hired Johnson.

So this is a thread about how long-time Twins exec Deron Johnson just joined the Mets, shortly after Falvey did, and you're arguing that Falvey and Stearns won't discuss people in the Twins organization and Stearns is going to stay with "people that he knows he can trust"? Do you think Johnson's hiring was a total coincidence and Falvey wasn't involved?

Think of Stearns and Falvey sitting in front of a whiteboard or in front of computers. The two most common conversations they have will be about (1) players and (2) management staff. In their conversations about management staff, two common topics will be Stearns asking Falvey what he thinks of various people in the Mets organization and if he knows anyone that would be a good addition. Who does Falvey know best? People in the Twins organization. Also, regardless of what people on twinsdaily might think about Falvey, it is likely that many people in the Twins organization remember Falvey fondly and keep in touch with him. In their conversations, it is likely that they discuss whether the current Twins person would be interested in seeing if Falvey could help him take a step up in his careers with the Mets.

Colorado, Cincinnati, and, at least for a few months more under current management, the Angels exist. Colorado actually has some similarities to the Twins: below-average use of analytics; odd free agency signings; not trading veterans to rebuild when most of the rest of the baseball world thinks it would be a no-brainer to trade them; non-baseball factors motivate ownership to retain management staff, even though few other teams would tolerate the consistently bad results without making a change; prospects regularly flame out; supported above what their record deserves by their stadium experience. . .

Just a nit: their Base Runs and Pythagorean records were actually two wins lower, at 75-87. Assuming that those stats are more predictive of the future, you would say they need to add at least 12 wins, if you make the assumption that 87 wins should be enough to make the playoffs again in 2027, as it has been for most of the past few years. There actually are paths that aren't crazy, although everyone should recognize that the idea of relievers equivalent to Duran, Jax, and Varland walking through the door is highly unlikely. Also, a goal of 87 wins is once again setting the goal as squeaking into the playoffs instead of being a dominant team.

It isn't that complicated. 1. The Twins need a catcher. Availability of catchers is scarce. 2. If they think Jeffers would be an acceptable catcher and they don't see enough good options, they should give him a QO. 3. If they are interested in having Jeffers fill their catcher opening, money or overpaying should not matter - his career earnings are about $17 million, yet he's provided approximately $87 million of value to the Twins over his career. They don't need to win the balance of value every year with every player. Further, if they were interested in Jeffers and concerned about overpaying for 2027, they should have made him an offer in 2024 or 2025. 4. If they don't think Jeffers would be an acceptable catcher or they see enough good options, they should change the letters just a bit and give him a nice PR send-off.

Or at least someone who has been deep in success. Zoll was an assistant to the manager for one year with the Dodgers before he came to Minnesota. Click spent many years with the Rays, ending as Vice President of Baseball Operations, before winning a World Series as Houston's GM. I'm not wedded to Click, but that's the kind of guy who should be Minnesota's GM, not someone who's learning on the job.

This is a core issue. As I said in the OP, they are basing decisions on love and hope, instead of making rational baseball decisions. In another post, I said the #1 thing the Twins should do this offseason is replace Zoll with Jim Click. However, they probably do know that Zoll's resume is bottom three, but they've built a relationship with him, and for better or worse, that gets a higher priority here than it does in most other competitive organizations. Indications are that getting along with the boss is also prioritized higher here.

OK, dude, I'm about 90% agreeing with you, but that percentage seems so insufficient as to be bothersome to you. Certainly, the president of baseball ops likely was heavily involved in budget-setting and major hires, but do you really think he was involved in scouting, drafting, trades, or development strategies? You raised that he criticized fans, which I agree with you isn't that cool, but how did that affect baseball ops? My not agreeing with you on that point seems to be the kernel of your ire. One other disagreement: I don't assert that I have any insight into this organization, at least no more than you claim. As I said before, this thread is focused on baseball ops, and my comments are about what I consider to be errors in speaking and actions by baseball ops leaders - which I believe is similar to the theme of many of your comments. Also as I said before, you can go after Dave St. Peter all you want, but your last few posts have felt like they were at least in part non-responsive to the points I actually raised and were more about going after me, which leads to one final point of agreement: you're right, when I agree with someone about 90% and then that person starts making the conversation about me in an unfriendly manner, particularly for asking for evidence underlying his disagreement about the points raised, further conversation is pointless.

Could be the first of many Falvey people to follow him to New York. Zoll is poorly-equipped to deal with the loss of Falvey people, because the bulk of his career, and thus his network, is also with Falvey people. But, hey, he's apparently a nice guy who gets along with Tom, so a decision about replacing him probably won't be even contemplated for a few years, as opposed to the "go big" guy saying, "we need to get the best possible guy now!" Maybe the way the Twins make decisions and spend money should be termed, "A Few Hundred Days Late and Several Million Dollars Short."

Prielipp has pitched way too few professional innings to say that his upside is a #3 starter. If he can get more movement on his fastball and make relatively small improvements to his command, with a little more experience he could be very good.