Major League Ready

Anyone besides Martin included in the candidates? Prato player some LF. He might be a sleeper.

I don't think the root of their problem is availability although it certainly does not help. The younger segments of potential viewers have grown up playing Soccer, Lacrosse, etc. and being exposed to extreme sports that were not nearly as popular when some of us were kids. The game is slow and just does not appeal to a growing percentage of potential fans. The changes they made will help a little but the league has a multitude of challenges.

I too would take a pitching addition above Soler but the difference makers are Montgomery and Snell and that seems highly unlikely. I also don't think Soler is getting $17M AAV but it could happen.

I am fuzzy on the timeline. Were the financial woes of Bally's / Diamond Sports known when Correa was signed? The fact that the Twins had an additional $30M in BAM money is also impacting the reduction but I have not once seen that acknowledged. Another way to view this is that they pushed the 2023 budget by spending on some 1-year deals because they had extra money for one year.

Right now the bench is Vazquez / Castro / Farmer and Santana with one spot remaining to be determined. This assumes Kirilloff is good to go. I could see Gordon being that last guy if he is not traded soon. He has some positional flexibility and if nothing else they could build his value for a future trade. Give him a couple months and move on if necessary. Soler would look better for the last spot.

The sport is in real trouble if fans don't find coverage of 162 games to be worth $120.

or at least switch Gonzalez for E-Rod. I much prefer the guy with a good approach at the plate.

Ortiz is a great fit as well. I heard a couple different radio shows where they thought he would play 3rd this year and then move to SS when Adames becomes a free agent next year. Obviously, Ortiz is not ranked as high as Lee but he had significantly better numbers than Lee at AA and AAA. Milwaukee might not have seen much difference. Hall is a bit of a wildcard. Top of the rotation stuff if he can control it. Good trade for both sides. The Orioles farm system is deep and they did not give up their top prospects.

I really liked the idea of Duvall until I looked at his splits. His career splits are almost dead even and he has been almost exactly average from both sides of the plate. Last year he only had a .91 wRC+ against LHP but did very well against RHP with a .124 wRC+. I think someone with strong LHP splits is a better fit although Duvall could backup Buxton. My preference would be to roll with Martin given Duvall's splits and fringy defense in center.

You are probably right about only wanting one-year contracts which explains these moves. They will probably have close to $30M in increases next year between Lopez, Paddack, and arbitration increases. However, they have 28.625M coming off next year between Kepler / Farmer / Thielbar and DeSclafani. It seems like they could make it work if they thought he was a difference maker.

Does Soler not having signed yet make you wonder if his price might not be quite as high as expected. He is probably seen as a DH with no defense value, right? Who knows but the fact he has not signed yet makes one wonder. I don't see him as anywhere near a $20M/year guy but I am not the guy writing the checks. Seems possible his market drop to 3/39 but I could be in LF. (see what I did there)

I don't think so. Castro has a career wRC+ of 91 vs both LHP and RHP and only 82 vs last year. His break-out with the bat last year was hitting left handed. (121 wRC+) I hope they can find a way to get Soler.

I think giving public money to organizations that can pay employees hundreds of millions is absurd but this has very little to do with the relevance of expecting a team with below average revenue to have a league average payroll. In addition, market size does have some correlation to market potential but alone is a rather weak indication of revenue potential. Are you in possession of a rather in depth marketing study we don't know about. That's what it would take to make any sort of credible statement as to how good a job they are doing. I expect fanatics ignore anything that does not support whatever they are fanatical about but it reaches a point of absurdity when adults ignore revenue when making an argument about spending.

You are forgetting they had $30M in BAM Money which is 20% of what they spent last year. More importantly, market size may reflect earning potential, but earning potential does not pay the bills. If a team in the 12th largest market generates the same amount of revenue as a team in the 18th largest market, they run out of money at the exact same time. Every adult here knows that a budget is based on income. This measure is a desperate attempt to come up with something to justify the Twins should spend more. It makes absolutely no sense and fans know this but use this logic anyway.

I never understand why posters use Major League Average to measure how aggressively a team is spending. A team that generated 120% of average revenue should be expected to spend roughly 120% of league average. The Twins generated 78% of league average in 2022 and might have been a tick higher in 2023 with playoff revenue. Why would we use major league average to set expectations for a team significantly below average? To put numbers to this .... The 2022 Washington Nationals were the closest to league average revenue in 2022 at 103%. They generated $89M more in revenue than the Twins. Why would we expect a team $90M under average to spend an average amount? 2022 MLB Revenue

A healthy Matt Canterino has a decent shot at the big league club this year.

My initial reaction was yuck but Mike Sixel took that one. My thought was that they were sitting at $114M in payroll before this move so they had $15-20M to spend assuming the TV deal goes through. There has to be someone better and I would rather give Miranda or Severino a shot because they provide an upside that would impact the team for years. After giving it some thought, Santana did have an .807 OPS against LHP last year which is much better than Kirilloff and Julien. He is also a better defender than Kirilloff / Miranda and Severino. It definitely won’t hurt to have another guy on the team that will demonstrate how to take good Abs. Rocco loves to play match-ups and Sanatana will improve the team in a platoon role if he can maintain the level of play he produced in 2023 but that’s a fairly big if at age 38. It's also possible he is the only guy they could get on a 1 year deal that was worth having. They have 11 that will be arbitration eligible next year and Pablo gets a $13M raise so I can understand if they were only interested in a 1 year deal. I was hoping for Soler. Maybe that's still possible.

Yes. I just clicked on career splits instead of year by year.

According to Fangraphs Soler has a wRC+ of 129 as a DH. What is your source? Season Position BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO BABIP wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+ Total as LF 10.8% 27.4% 0.39 .216 .304 .401 .705 .185 .261 49 -2.3 .307 93 Total as RF 9.5% 26.3% 0.36 .245 .321 .438 .759 .194 .298 199 12.7 .326 102 Total as DH 11.2% 26.6% 0.42 .251 .346 .523 .869 .272 .287 229 56.4 .365 129 Total as PH 18.8% 35.4% 0.53 .205 .354 .410 .764 .205 .300 7 0.8 .339 114

I would add Austin Martin to the list. He would not be brought up in strictly an IF role but his ability to cover 2B in addition to CF/LF will provide an expanded opportunity.

No doubt it's a lot for one year. I was just trying to get a grip on what we would have needed to offer as to better judge the cost. This seems about equivalent but then again, I don't know their players/prospects. Ortiz seems roughly equivalent to Lee and Hall to Varland.

The Brewers received Joey Ortiz, DL Hall and the 34th pick in the draft in exchange for Corbin Burnes. The Twins don't have prospects that are really similar but they do have prospects of similar value. What would an offer from the Twins have looked like that would have beaten out the Orioles offer? Would Lee / Varland and the 33rd pick be equivalent?

Generally speaking, people with a BA in communications are not inclined to believe they are experts on how business valuations are derived with the exception of internet forums of course.

The reason could be that they have become confident in signing a TV deal or even get a deal done. Beyond that Hoskins plays 1B and we have Kirilloff with both Miranda and Severino as possible back-ups. We could also cover 1B with Julien if Kirilloff goes down and if Miranda or Severio has not earned a shot. Soler can start in place of one of our LH corner OFers. He is poor defensively but the offensive improvement is great enough to over shadow his defensive limitations. Our only option to cover the need for a RH OFer is Martin. Soler probably fits a little better.

I did not imply anything. I said straight up that your lack of support puts you squarely in opposition with ESPN / Fangraphs and others who have scrutinized this trade. Therefore, given the divergence in your opinion, the only possibility is that either you or all of the sources that wrote about the trade must lack understanding. One side has to be wrong where the opinions differ so greatly.