Major League Ready

I see four guys that need to be protected for sure. Camargo, Severino, Prato, Soularie. Maybe Kiersey too given the position he plays. They could protect 2-3 others. Take your choice. If you could pick up a BP arm for one of the others that would be great. I don't see any of the others bringing an impact bat.

Who are you thinking they can't protect? There are 7 players with expiring contracts. Plus, Celestino, Sands, and Henriquez could come off and be not much of a loss. There just are not that many players that need to be added next year that I see this being a problem. I guess you could trade the three I mentioned but that would not bring back anything that would make a difference.

Time to invest in the future rather than throw away future assets on a short term run for a very mediocre team. Get Wallner and Larnach up here and invest in the development of long-term assets. Give Winder and Balazovic a shot too.

Kepler has actually been pretty decent in June with a wRC+ of 110. Gallo has been the one that has really struggled lately with a wRC+ and I would be inclined to let Gallo go before Max. The best move IMO would be to cut Gallo now and bring up Wallner. Keep Max around until the deadline and reassess at that point. 1 Donovan Solano 80 17.5% 18.8% 0.93 .281 .425 .484 .909 .203 0.8 .326 -0.6 0.0 -0.2 15 5.4 .400 161 2 Royce Lewis 75 4.0% 25.3% 0.16 .333 .360 .472 .832 .139 3.3 .420 -0.1 0.2 0.0 12 2.7 .362 134 3 Edouard Julien 51 11.8% 33.3% 0.35 .289 .373 .422 .795 .133 4.6 .464 0.2 0.1 0.1 8 1.4 .351 126 4 Ryan Jeffers 46 10.9% 32.6% 0.33 .282 .364 .385 .748 .103 1.5 .458 0.0 -0.1 -0.1 6 0.6 .334 115 5 Max Kepler 55 7.3% 27.3% 0.27 .235 .291 .471 .761 .235 0.1 .250 -0.6 0.0 -0.1 7 0.4 .327 110 6 Carlos Correa 83 4.8% 26.5% 0.18 .228 .265 .494 .759 .266 3.2 .250 -0.8 -0.5 -0.1 10 0.1 .320 105 7 Christian Vazquez 48 8.3% 18.8% 0.44 .233 .313 .395 .708 .163 1.0 .273 -0.3 -0.1 -0.1 5 -0.6 .304 94 8 Kyle Farmer 52 5.8% 21.2% 0.27 .234 .308 .362 .669 .128 1.9 .286 0.5 0.2 -0.1 5 -0.8 .298 90 9 Trevor Larnach 25 12.0% 32.0% 0.38 .182 .280 .364 .644 .182 5.4 .231 0.0 0.1 0.2 2 -0.7 .285 81 10 Michael A. Taylor 66 0.0% 31.8% 0.00 .206 .215 .460 .676 .254 6.5 .231 0.1 -0.2 1.0 6 -2.0 .281 78 11 Willi Castro 69 5.8% 24.6% 0.24 .226 .290 .306 .596 .081 6.8 .289 0.3 0.4 0.7 5 -2.8 .268 69 12 Byron Buxton 40 5.0% 40.0% 0.13 .135 .200 .405 .605 .270 1.1 .111 0.3 0.1 0.0 3 -2.0 .258 62 13 Alex Kirilloff 73 6.8% 26.0% 0.26 .194 .260 .299 .559 .104 0.3 .255 -0.3 0.3 -0.1 4 -4.4 .245 53 14 Joey Gallo 38 5.3% 50.0% 0.11 .139 .184 .278 .462 .139 0.1 .250 0.0 0.1 0.0 1 -3.6 .202 23 15 Jorge Polanco 26 3.8% 19.2% 0.20 .120 .154 .320 .474 .200 0.1 .105 0.0 0.1 0.0 1 -2.5 .201 22

I think the discussion on this and many other players demonstrates that those supporting a transition to younger talent recognize that most prospects won’t become superstars. However, we also recognize things that you are ignoring. The relative certainty of Kepler / MAT or Gallo is even lower. We know what they are and they are not the type of player that elevates a team. These players tenure here will be short. Therefore, they offer nothing to sustained winning. Prospects like Wallner at least have a shot at being difference makers. Young players cost far less which provides payroll dollars to be used on filling holes as they did with Vasquez. Recognizing these things leads to the understanding that nothing is more important to developing a winner than developing young talent. The greater the revenue disparity the more essential it is to develop young talent. We don’t think these prospects will all become superstars. We just recognizing for the reasons above that hanging on to mediocre veterans when you have good young talent ready is a very good strategy if the goal is to remain mediocre.

What the hell does this have to do with anything. You are comparing a guy playing SS to CF.

Lewis. Maybe not so much Day 1 but long term I would expect Lewis to be much better than MAT.

I don't see the 40 man as being any problem. They have 7 expiring contracts and the only one among them I could see being resigned is Gray. There are 3 others (Sand / Henriguez and perhaps DeLeon) that would not be much of a loss. Martin and Enlow are the only two I can think of that need to be added but to be honest I have not looked yet. There are 43 guys on the 40 man and IL so they are going to have 7 open spots. I am sure there are a couple other beyond Martin and Enlow but it should not be a problem.

He had a moment (the 2019 season) where he was great. The moment is gone. He is never going to be a difference make so at some point we will get Walner up here and see if he can be an impact player. My guess is the FO wants to move on. However, they are not going to just DFA him this early in the season. I think this is partially out of respect for a longtime member of the organization and partially because of what happened last year.

You can stick with the same guys in the same positions. I am sure you know what they call it when you do that and expect a different result. MAT is a mediocre player. Why not look to get better. You are so stuck on veteran players you can't see any other possibility. Take a look around the league. Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Arizona, Cincinatti, and Miami all doing very well by developing young players.

MAT turned 32 in April. I don't think it matters if he is 32 or 35 because there are better options beyond this year. I have been on the Lewis bus for a while now. Martin sounds good in theory but I have not seen him in CF. Does he really have what it takes to play CF? I am skeptical. Keirsey can play center but he is going to need to maintain this level of offense at AAA for me to believe he has "broke out". 26 at AA without any past offensive success makes it hard to trust this is sustainable but it would be a nice find. If only they had drafted Corbin Carroll instead of Cavaco. Talk about the perfect player for our team.

I hope this is an option available to the Twins!

We just need him to keep it up for another 5-6 weeks. His wRC+ for June is 149.

I was assuming Petty would be the primary piece in the trade but I would expect it would be 2-3 players. Let's hope the offense looks like it did today for the remainder of the season and this discussion becomes moot.

Maybe they can trade him for Petty. Cincinatti is 40-35, good for 1st place in the NL Central. 😄 BTW ... Petty has a 1.29 ERA this year at A+. I think I would make that trade.

Top starting pitchers bring a king's ransom at the deadline so how is there nothing to sell? The logic of we don't have multiple players to sell so let's just ignore the one player that would bring back an elite prospect makes little sense. I also don't agree he is the only player that could bring something back. Gallo is certainly capable of playing well enough to fetch a decent prospect. Solano is playing well enough to get something back. Maeda could easily do enough between now and the deadline to bring back a good prospect. There are plenty of possibilities. I think Vanimal's plan has plenty of merit.

Solano has a 396 OBP and a wRC+ of 136 for the last month. Not sure I would put Miranda or Williams in his place unless you can get a good return by trading Solano.

Have you ever done an internet search to try to understand wRC+ or are you just marginalizing without attempting to understand it. It's not that complicated in theory. wRC+ utilizes many aspects of offensive production and measures against all other players and then adjust for the ballpark. It's the most complete measure of any stat I am aware of and by comparing against all other players it provides a very good relative measure of a player's offensive performance. It does not measure base running so that should be taken into account in terms of comparing players.

Are you saying that it can't be proven that Buxton won't add 9 wins if he continues to play the same way?

Buxton, Polanco and Kepler have been brutally bad the past 4 weeks. Buxton has literally been the worst offensive player in the league over the past 4 weeks. Kepler is the 3rd worst. OPS wRC+ Matt Wallner 1.692 370 Edouard Julien 0.9 151 Donovan Solano 0.86 147 Willi Castro 0.829 132 Alex Kirilloff 0.709 107 Carlos Correa 0.742 105 Ryan Jeffers 0.715 103 Michael A. Taylor 0.737 99 Royce Lewis 0.709 97 Kyle Farmer 0.639 83 Trevor Larnach 0.644 81 Christian Vazquez 0.638 79 Joey Gallo 0.485 51 Kyle Garlick 0.445 23 Jorge Polanco 0.474 22 Max Kepler 0.381 1 Byron Buxton 0.175 -52

Agree on Gallo for sure. Not sure about Vasquez. I don't think Castro is the kind of player that brings much at the deadline. Plus, I really like the idea of having him on the bench for 2 more years. Polanco in due time. I am just not sure it's time yet. Of course, the right return could move up the right time.

I think we mostly agree. Trading short-term assets for long-term assets is far more important to sustained winning than trading prospects for proven players, especially for teams in the bottom two-thirds in revenue. Joe Ryan and Jhoan Duran are examples on our team. They also need to balance winning in the present. It's a matter of how much do you invest or what type of returns do you forgo to win in the present. IMO, this team is not worthy of investment but I also would not sell off. The odds of them being truly competitive in the post season are very low. However, there is a small chance this roster comes together and they play competitive playoff baseball. For me that's not worthy of sacrificing much of the future but I would not totally give up on the present. Let's see what the situation looks like in 5 weeks and what type of offers we have for expiring contracts. Gray is the one guy likely to bring a return. He is also someone we will need to make a post season run which of course is why he would net a good return. We can make room by letting Kepler / Solano and Pagan go.

It's not the perfect stat but you just can't admit that the premise Buxton will make a 9 win difference playing as he has is absolutely absurd!

The FO view was that Buxton would produce as well or better than their other options at DH. That was a reasonable position when they made it, especially if the goal was to ease him back into a CF role. What is not a reasonable IMO is to look at what has actually happened and conclude the team is 3-5 games better off because of Buxton which is where this started. That's my only point and you want to make this about something else. I assume this is because you don't want to try to make the case that using the mid-point of your calculation would produce 9 WAR from a DH hitting exactly league average. Do you think it's reasonable to suggest that if Buxton's performance remains the same he will have been worth 9 WAR? Of course, the 9 WAR assumes a replacement level player took his place.

Kepler will need to have a major bounce back before the team considers exercising his option. The chances he is here next year are very slim. Polanco just needs to be healthy. Larnach and Wallner are not going anywhere because they are needed now and the future. Celestino isn't bringing anything on trade. Miranda is the only one with any mystery in terms of what they do with him, IMO. I can't see them selling low on him. Over the next 6 weeks I expect they continue to audition Headrick / Winder and DeLeon. Then, as the deadline nears we shall see how these guys are doing and if the team is looking like they have any chance to make a post season run.