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It means our outfield options are better than our 3B options so we chose, say, Larnach in LF and Gallo at 1b rather than Farmer at 3b and Miranda at 1b. Depends on who has stepped up and who broke down.

@Nashvilletwin I think winning gets butts in seats more than losing with style, but losing with style is better than losing ugly. Last year was ugly with a Capital Punishment U, and this is a new year with new possibilities. If we're winning then Rocco is going to do Rocco things, but if things fall apart I do believe they'll sell vets and go young. They have a lot of guys in the last year of their deal and could move many if the sun sets by July 20.

Honestly that last one looks different from the first two, with the hands so different and the left foot overloaded much more. EDIT: Maybe it was the hair that affected him early in the year. That's quite a mane in that middle pic.

I can't speak to your emotional attachments as they aren't supposed to bend to persuasion, but Farmer and Taylor were signed as backups. Well Farmer was placeholding the starting SS job for a few weeks, but he was never intended to hold it long. And Gallo is only here on a one year deal until we find out which of the kids can play at this level. When he was signed they only had Gordon, Buxton and Kepler with any real OF experience (excluding filler like Cave, Garlick et al) and none of them was a lock to be 500 AB of above average performance. They needed another real OF, and even after signing Gallo trading Kepler would be premised on having one of the kids emerge into a real major league starter as a rookie. That's not a given which is why they went another step down that road and picked up Taylor too. We just weren't that deep in proven fielders last November.

There was great pain in MN last season as team designers were forced to dig well through the bottom of the barrel to find enough guys to wear shirts and take paychecks while the major league ballplayers were injured. So a lot of work this winter was spent on depth, and never being caught with the likes of Cage AND Celestino AND Garlick AND Leon AND Hamilton AND Beckham on the 40 man roster together, much less on the field in the same month. Lots of contingency planning built around the guys who are not proven yet, the guys who have health issues, and who can be moved to make room for the ones a year away. No Correa and no one behind him meant they needed an adult SS like Farmer to buy time for one of the kids to grow into the role. Gallo removes the question of ever seeing that parade of crappy OF at Target Field. The fact that he's left or right handed isn't nearly as important as his defense, his health and his record of HR and BB. It's not beautiful baseball, but even in a calamitous down year his 79 OPS+ was about as good as the callow Celestino's 80 with FAR better defense. (See also Jake Cave's 84, Contreas' 24 or Billy Hamilton's -59.) And if you look at the OF names on hand when Gallo was signed, it was Buxton (half time), Kepler (full time) and then young Gordon, new Kirilloff, new Larnach, the unready Celestino, new Wallner, and the detritus: Garlick? Cage? Contreras? Billy Hamilton? Not to say bad things about darling Gordon, but when his babip fell below .300 in Sept/Oct his OPS+ dropped to 87. The FO was looking for a solid floor, so even after Gallo was in hand they went out and got Taylor to be Buxton's understudy. (BTW, I firmly believe that Taylor is only going to play CF and will only darken the grass in LF or RF when injury removes a better offensive option. The man is a fielder, not a hitter: in nine years he's maxxed out at a 104 OPS+ and then a 90 and the rest are below 80, though he is better against lefties. We can afford some poor defense in LF /RF to get a better bat than him in the lineup.) The fact that Gallo could back up 1B after seeing the health issues surrounding Arraez and Kirilloff was gravy. And later it turned out Arraez could be traded because Gallo was on hand to play first if Kirilloff faltered. Miranda was always going to third and Urshela was going to have to move out of his way. There was a herd of infielders coming, most were not staying SS and would need homes. Miranda was already on hand, costing $9m less, nearly hitting as well and improving rapidly, and if he faltered Lewis was there, and Lee was behind him, and Julien was coming and Polanco might get pushed from 2b. Like him all you want, but the corners were getting crowded and Gio was not moving from third so Gio had to go.

How Kepler is playing will dictate who would fill in for an ailing Kirrilof. Miranda moves over if Gallo is needed in the outfield, but Gallo can come in to first if Max is hitting well. There's no way we need the desiccated remains of Yuli Gurriel cluttering up the 40 man when there are this many AAA guys waiting for playing time.

You can try to mess with the swing, but if it isn't working (or the guy resists) then back off and work with what he's got. And in Martin's case maybe he spends time with a baserunning guru so he can identify more leg doubles where he takes advantage of inattentive outfielders. Buxton makes defenses play hard every time he's up, and Martin should be doing the same thing. I think his role should be in the OF and an emergency infielder, replacing Nick Gordon for 2024 or even late this year. I could see Nick moving at the deadline if we need something.

1. The ball that MLB manufactures dictates the baseline numbers for the league, so hoping for individual OPS or AVG numbers is a fool's errand until we see what shape of game the league wants everyone to play. Remember, AL batting average last year was only .243. I liked the places where the prediction was based on OPS+ rather than absolute numbers. 2. It's an odd year so Gallo is going to be great, that one's in the bag. 🤣 Actually I think his fielding will be fine where ever he's allowed to play, and his season will come down to making the contact often enough to keep pitchers out of the strike zone so he can keep getting on base. 3. I'm not too concerned about the performance of most of our vets, so I measure the success for a lot of these guys in plate appearances as much as anything. If Buxton can take the field he'll be one of our top players. If Correa is out there he's going to put up decent numbers. I want Polanco to return as Polanco and play games. Kepler is the only one with questions and there's a line of replacements out the door in the event he doesn't deliver. 4. Gordon needs to show if he's the full time player who hit so well in August or the full time player who fell off so badly in Sept and Oct. And based on his past fielding work and the other options available, he's not really seen as an infielder any more so the hitting standards are raised if he's to be graded as an OF. Austin Martin is going to be auditioning for his job in AA and AA this summer, so he's got to be August Nick rather than September Nick. 4. There's a queue of youngsters that need to prove they belong. Miranda is first, but Larnach and Kirrilof are both right there in needing to show they can stay on the field and pull their weight, and local boy Matt Wallner is just across the river working on his defense and swinging hard in the event Kepler doesn't start hitting grounders through the infield.

Maeda's career numbers are low because he hasn't been allowed to start full time. In retrospect it was probably the right choice because when MN let him do it his arm fell off. He'll get another chance to start here, but honestly he's not a big strong guy, he's had arm issues, and as much as he loves starting he's got real durability issues that make it a bad fit for him. I'd pitch him in a swing role to get his strength up and let him start during the second half, but let him go next fall when he wants to make 30 starts with that body. Someone will sign him but it doesn't have to be us.

He's got a ring, so making a showing in the MVP voting would be the other way to burnish the image. But for Correa the main point is staying on the field and playing more games. He's got 888 games at SS, so he'll need a pile more. Robin Yount only reached 1400, but he put in ten more excellent years in CF. Ernie Banks only played 1100 at SS (and 1200 at 1B) but he hit a million HR so he's in a different category. Most of the rest of the SS were around 2000 games or more, so he's got to hit a ton more or play another five years at SS before he heads somewhere slower to stack up the counting stats. All he can do is do his prep, play the games, stay close with the trainers and hope for the best. He's not unique enough to pull a Mauer and be at first by age 30.

Meh. Chafin is the only one I'd look at. He's consistently produced a FIP below 4 while getting results. The others have results all over the place while the FIP stays high. Moore is exactly the wrong guy, as he's only managed to be above average once since 2015. He had a great 2022, but he threw a 67 ERA+ in 2021, essentially missed all of 19 and 20, and threw ERA+ of 72, 98, 77 and 70 in 2015-18. You already have Pagan and his magical 2019, light a candle and hope that guy comes back next year and save whatever Moore would cost. EDIT: We have a raft of kids that need innings. Get Sands or Ronnie H a bag of seeds and send them to the bullpen to learn how to watch a game from the outfield.

Minor mistake: Rochester --> St Paul You've been doing this a long time Seth, so it's understandable. At least you didn't say Salt Lake or Toledo.

If you want to look at his minor league work check out the fancy 3.99 ERA in 390 IP (less than 5.0 IP per start, and there were only two relief appearances in there to dilute the numbers.) He's only made 5 appearances in AAA and pitched to a crisp 5.06 ERA in 16 innings, all in 2021. His best season as a starter was his second pass through high A when he put together a 3.23 ERA in 15 GS and 78 IP, but the team as a whole had a 3.12 ERA that year so it's not like he was anything special. The fact is he got special when he cut loose and stopped pacing himself. There's no way that he'd be the same guy trying to get through five times as many batters. And the league would have a better book on him if he was trying to throw that much more as well. I'm not certain the book matters when he can rear back and hit 102, but if he can't then the game changes a lot.

No to just about any rookie with fewer than 500 AB in the minors. The jump to the majors is harder than most people imagine and it's a lot of pressure on a 20 year old to have Buxton and Correa waiting for you to set the table. Also no to anyone who has never put together a .350 OBP season. Mr Taylor looks like a fine fielder, a good man in the clubhouse and a conscientious son, but he's a career .296 OBP and belongs in the 9 hole. I like just giving Buxton and Polanco the extra ABs even if they aren't typical leadoff guys. Also, Odd Year Gallo might be a guy you want in the 4 or 5 hole. You kind of have to wait and see who everyone is in spring training, after the carnage of 2022. Lots of new faces and guys that have to get the rust off. Looking forward to seeing how things come out.

Dylan Bundy, for good or ill, is a Proven Veteran with 160 starts, almost 1000 innings in eight big league seasons. He's a known and proven quantity. It's not great quality, but in a season where the Twins were going to be counting on a lot of Smeltzers it was good to have one guy in the #4 hole that they could count on and who might rally and move up to #3. Devin Smelter had 7 starts and 70 career innings and managed to deliver 70 more with a 5.23 FIP which was a run and a half worse than his ERA, indicating that it was likely unsustainable. If you want to be stomping around flipping off management about unfair treatment in a situation like that I'll just say that I'm glad you don't work for me. In his shoes it should always be a "Thanks for the opportunities, see you 'round" in case he washes out in Miami and needs a home in six months.

I think Lee will be ready for MLB well before Correa is ready to move off SS so he may end up manning 3B for a couple years. And honestly I expect him to slide in nicely there, so over the next 3-4 years I expect an infield of Lee, Correa, Polanco/Lewis/Julien and Miranda/Kirriloff. They should be good, and when the time comes to move Correa the parts may move in ways we wouldn't expect today. There may be another younger, better SS ready to go, someone like Salas, and then who knows what happens next. Don't get too far ahead, just let it unfold and enjoy the ride.

As much fun as a list like this is, a decent amount of the value some of them is going to provide will only come in the form of a trade. Don't fall in love, because we don't have room for all these guys to play here. With that in mind, I'm all in on @tarheeltwinsfan plan of going and getting Vazquez' heir via trade. AZ and TOR swapped stud young players a few weeks ago to fill organizational needs and we should consider it as well. Some things are very hard to do, so not everyone does everything equally well. We are cranking out the middle infield prospects these days and so we are trading from that wealth to buy things we haven't been creating in-house, mostly pitching. But it's also been a long time since we drafted and developed a non-Mauer catcher that anyone else thought highly of. I just checked: it was a 32 year gap between Jeffers leading the team in games caught in 2020 and Tim Laudner in 1988 with only Mauer in between. There is no indication that we're even trying to figure this out, so we may as well get shopping. BTW, out of nine positions last year, the Twins featured starters Polanco, Miranda, Gordon, Kepler, Arraez and Celestino coming up with the Twins and only Correa, Sanchez and Urshela debuting elsewhere. It was the same number in 2021 too, which is pretty darn good development and one more cool thing buried within https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/pos.shtml

The major surgeries are up, probably partly because they're getting better and more reliable and maybe because there are more injuries because larger guys are closer to the extremes of what the body can do. Some we will never know for sure. But there is injury data to be had that's pretty cool. I included the link below on a different thread around here a week or two ago and you should go out and look through it.

I'll do it. Let me try to get the day off and then I'll let you know for sure.

If you're worried about how often a guy gets on base you shouldn't look at batting average, you should look at his on base percentage, which measures that directly. In 2021 Gallo and Arraez were within .006 of each other and in 2019 they were .010 apart. Two of the last four years they were the same at getting on base. But in those two years Gallo out-homered Luis 60-6. Plus Gallo is a far better OF than Arraez is an infielder. Arraez' best defensive season was -2.0 runs in only 32 games according to Fangraphs. Gallo only ever had one year that bad and it was from when Texas was still thinking he could play third. And strikeout percentage doesn't directly affect your on base percentage: some guys don't strike out AND don't get on base, while TTO gods walk and strike out all the time. Besides which it's a junk stat that doesn't corelate with much at all. You can look up AB per SO (which is about the same thing) and it's a real mixed bag of decent players and randos (Kwan, Kirk and Yandi Diaz are 2-4.) And again, if the team hits .260 it doesn't mean much until you know who is doing the hitting. If you put nine Arraez clones out there and they all hit .270 (ten points higher!) you'll get wiped out. If Polanco comes back healthy and comes close to his career averages he'll hit .270 with 30 doubles and 20HR. details matter and batting average skips over a lot of important details.

If we hit .260 as a team it'll mean the whole roster hit 15 points above the league average and it would take some real strangeness to not be above average in runs scored. If you're going to be so concerned about batting average you should take a look at the league context. That list you're so worried about features exactly two guys below .243, the AL average in 2022, and those two guys are expected to be thumpers. But batting average doesn't really address the two real issues: getting someone on base and then driving them home, and improving the pitching to reduce how many runs we need to score. We've made a lot of good progress but we could really use one more solid bullpen arm.

Serious interest in Gurriel means that there are doubts about having a viable 1B on the roster, or because there's concern about table setting with so many hitters coming off poor performance, injury or simply new to the bigs. However the fact that Miami seems to be leading the bidding indicates it's not serious concern. I imagine we'd see a trade for this role before we'd see a free agent signing of a 38 year old with a slowing bat that the Astros both love and let walk away. This off-season isn't over yet.

Injuries happen when you're pitching tired, and you get tired by pitching too much on one day or too many days in a row. Rocco has proven he can manage the relief load and the outcome was far superior to the results Duran saw as a starter. Let it ride.

Pitchers making the move from starting to relieving pick up several MPH because they know they aren't pacing themselves or saving anything for later. Rocco was very vigilant about keeping him fresh, only pitching him back-to-back five times, and yet two of those second games resulted in a HR. Further, he only allowed 6 HR all year and the other four all came on or before May 5 when he was still settling in. And be honest about what he was doing as a starter in the minors: his best year was a 3.23 ERA at High A in 2019 when he was 21. He was still only throwing 5 innings a game and he was not blowing the league away, or even his teammates since the Ft Meyers team ERA that season was 3.11. Finally there is a difference in how pitching works when you only plan on facing a handful of guys. There was a good article on 538.com a few years ago that compared individual pitchers who had moved through starting and relief roles and compared their performance on the appearance length. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/relievers-have-broken-baseball-we-have-a-plan-to-fix-it/ Basically it says that when you go to a one inning role your velo picks up, strikeout percentages go up, and you can throw your third pitch a lot less often. Conversely, there's a big correlation between batters faced and strikeout rate (starting at the peak of around 4.5 BF) where the K% rate plateaus starting around 8.5 BF.

This isn't the problem you think it is for two reasons: most pitchers get hurt at some point so you just have to live with that, and contracts that price the injuries in can leave you the money to mitigate the gaps by having better backups on hand. Most pitching assets are distressed or soon will be. That is, MLB pitchers get seriously hurt all the time. Jon Roegele, a SABR researcher writing for the Hardball Times in 2018, did an article on Tommy John surgery that said 26 percent of major league pitchers used in 2017 had undergone Tommy John surgery. Today that percentage is 34%, and that's only the most serious elbow work, not shoulder, back, knee or hand injuries. His updated raw data is online here and it's fascinating. He's got every TJ surgery that he can confirm for MLB and MiLB players, including a list of unconfirmed and pending surgeries. Pitchers break, and break badly, all the time. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gQujXQQGOVNaiuwSN680Hq-FDVsCwvN-3AazykOBON0/edit#gid=0 As far as contracts go, Buxton was way below the market because he missed a ton of games and is expected to continue to miss games, but he'll get paid well when he stays healthy. Correa's deal was half the length that NYM and SFG were offering because of his health history. And even with those two studs on the roster we have acres of space on the payroll to accommodate whatever we need. We haven't spent it because we have a roster full of youth and uncertainty and it seems better to see what we have in the spring and go shopping again later rather than continue scraping the bottom of the barrel this month just because some fans can't wait for spring. At the bare minimum Maeda and Mahle are big additions to a rotation that was good when healthy last year. If they can improve on Bundy and Archer's work the whole roster changes starting with the bullpen workload. This focus on process has to leave room for things to work, not resolve themselves imediately.