Richie the Rally Goat

Pitchers are limited to 13 roster spots. I like the idea of a 6 man rotation, but Winder can’t be in the utility spot. good job showing your work on a fairly realistic trade.

5 players short of a full roster

Names or it didn’t happen also Jeffers in there twice

Isn’t the catcher Willson Contreras?

What did you give up for Jansen and Roberts?

Absolutely!

2022 was Swanson’s final arbitration year. By outs above average Swanson is the best fielding SS by a VAST margin. 20 outs above average puts him in the 100th percentile of all fielders across the MLB. with a 115 OPS+. Going into his age 29 season Swanson will get PAID! Backup the Brinks Truck! At least 7 years $200M

For those upset that coaches heads didn’t roll this fall, I have one suggestion. It’s a big ask, not everyone can afford it, but if you can, I can guarantee you won’t regret it. Go to spring training in March 2023 I conspicuously notice the people that I see at spring training, most years, aren’t upset that these coaches didn’t get fired. I’ve watched Tommy Watkins work with these players, fairly up close and personal for a few instances, a couple days per year. I’ve missed a couple spring trainings over the last decade, but generally I go. It great! I learn more about baseball in those brief moments, than I ever learned anywhere else, including when I played highschool ball. They do coach fundamentals. Really well! this is two things, one: a pitch to go to spring training, becausd it’s my favorite three or four days of the year. two: it’s an empathy/reality check. Players for the MN Twins get coached by Baldelli and team for a few years, but have been coached by dozens, maybe hundreds of coaches over a decade or more, before they get to the bigs. The Selig ball, where giving it a sharp and discerning stare could knock it out of the park, drove coaching decisions since McGuire, Sosa and Bonds captured the greatest stage in 1998. Baldelli and team can’t undo a decade in one or two spring trainings. we’ve been reading about the minor league affiliates putting more base running tactics into games. While my sample size is small and only my (fairly ignorant) perception, I think the coaching staff is doing the right things. I’m not sure about the FO, but the coaches I feel good about.

Royce had his second ACL surgery in 2 years in June, 2022. He will likely start the season on the 60. not sure what the plan for Larnach is

Lewis blew out his ACL, had surgery June 21, 2022. Planning on starting him 8 months post surgery seems pretty aggressive, especially since that’s his second ACL in 2 years. Cutch in LF makes Josh Willingham look like Usain Bolt. No thanks.

I like the idea of Duran starting. I toyed with this idea, but as @Riverbrianpointed out I was too stuck on labels when I filled my roster out and couldn’t justify the plausibility of Duran going from 60 innings to 120+. whatever label you give him, he needs to pitch more than 60 innings next year

Me too!

Poor Louis, he’s working for free

I believe Ober does have options left, however his career high innings pitched in a season was 2021 at 108 innings. I believe he will never get you the 150 innings per season to be a good mlb starter. agreed on your concern about the ‘24 rotation. SWR, Winder, Paddack (assume he starts season on 60 day) and Varland will all be important reserves in 23 and need to step up in 24.

Elvis Andrus would be willing to take a short contract to backfill Royce in ‘23. i couldn’t stand seeing Kyle Garlick in the lineup anymore, so Pinder seemed like a relatively better option for a similar role. Christian Vazquez is the backup C because I’m too lazy to re-type out who’s in what role. Prolly a 50/50 time share anyways. the big acquisition is Carlos Rodon, not sure 25/year does it this go around…. Re-signed Fulmer Ober to the pen getting converted to short/middle relief Winder is the swing man. C: Ryan Jeffers ($0.70M) 1B: Luis Arraez ($4.50M) 2B: Jorge Polanco ($7.50M) 3B: Gio Urshela ($9.00M) SS: Elvis Andrus ($12.00M) LF: Alex Kirilloff ($0.70M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Trevor Larnach ($0.70M) DH: Jose Miranda ($0.70M) 4th OF: Chad Pinder ($2.0M) Utility: Nick Gordon ($0.70M) Utility: Gilberto Celestino ($0.70M) Backup C: Christian Vázquez ($5.00M) SP1: Sonny Gray ($12.00M) SP2: Tyler Mahle ($8.00M) SP3: Kenta Maeda ($9.00M) SP4: Joe Ryan ($0.70M) SP5: Carlos Rodon ($25.0M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Lopez ($3.00M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($2.00M) RP: Bailey Ober ($0.7M) RP: Michael Fulmer ($5.0M) RP: Josh Winder ($0.7M) Payroll is 8.79% under budget

T&R, I liked your thoughts and suggestions. The dollars seem pretty realistic. really creative moves that did a good job filling the holes. no way they happen, but I hope they do

That’s it? I think Lewis playing SS 8 months after ACL surgery seems like the most likely of the transactions listed. I liked all of the concepts, but don’t see them happening

Hopefully Correa re-signs

The willingness/probability of something like this to actually happen depends on if you saw the Donaldson trade as a planned and causal move specifically to sign Correa, or if you saw the moves independently and Correa just fell into the Twins’ lap. I think the FO was offloading Donaldson independently and Correa just fell in their lap.

Randball Stu on a Sunday, how did we get so lucky for such hilarity twice in one week?!

I was way more down on the Twins in the late 90s. Puckett…contraction… the next wave looked far off and Pohlad wasn’t going to give Ryan two nickels to rub together. those were dark days. today is easy-peasy by comparison

I don’t think “the plan” is the issue as much as having healthy and durable pitchers capable of pitching 30 starts of 6+ innings or a deep enough bullpen to overcome the deficient rotation. Coming into the season, Bundy, Archer, Gray, Ober and Ryan weren’t going to get you to 750 to 1000 innings. If you want your rotation to get you that 750+ injings, they still need to acquire 4 more arms that can do that. Right now it’s Ryan that’ll get you 150+ next year and that’s it…

Baldelli and his coaching staff need to emphasize the fundamentals. So too must all levels of the minor league coaching staffs. The FO needs to be working with each level on comprehensive plans to improve players’ ability to do the basics. Hold coaches accountable for failures in executing last offseason’s plans. There may need to be some changes made. Acquire better pitching. The plan to acquire pitching failed miserably last offseason. It better be comprehensive plan and executed flawlessly this off-season. Acquire or develop better position player depth. A lot of the challenges with staying on the field, will persist next season too. Kiriloff, Larnach, Buxton, Arraez, will all be back next year, likely Kepler and Polanco too. Need to have better options and greater flexibility when the inevitable injuries happen. Competently backfill Correa (or keep/resign/extend him).

60 day IL is Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training through World Series. Players cannot be added to the 60 day after the conclusion of the regular season. Paddack has to be added to the 40 man shortly after the conclusion of the WS. Historically that’s around Nov 1, but with the new format looking to be a bit later.

1) 100% agreed, however this isn’t 100% on Baldelli and his staff. The players get 12 to 18 years of coaching before Baldelli gets his hands on them. You can’t undo a decade in one spring training. 2) again 100% agreed, but I think you may weight this one more than I do. See 8 3) 100% agreed 4) go back to 2019 and I think you saw a 100 win team that over achieved during the season against better teams. They ran out of gas in the post season, but during they absolutely played it up. 5) Agreed 6) Im skeptical that Baldelli had free reign to hire his staff and am certain he had little to no say on the medical staff. I don’t think this gets attributed to Rocco at all. 7) if you acknowledge not knowing the clubhouse, how can you presume to know this one? 8 ) Agreed, however I can’t imagine he has much room to be “creative” either. Look at the roster he was handed… zero flexibility. His pitchers were all short inning options. All injuries waiting to happen. What kind of lineup could he reasonably construct against a lefty? Most importantly, have you worked in a matrixed decision making company before? There is nothing more micro-managed stifling than the never ending barrage of cross functional team meetings. ”what happened during the 6th inning Rocco? Why didn’t you stick to plan?” While I agree with you on most every point, I don’t come to the same conclusion. I don’t love the manager. He’s fine. I don’t know of any better options reasonably available and I don’t think there are significant things in Baldelli’s control that could make a big change in how fans view him.