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Most of them, the pitchers anyway, only ever saw Minneapolis because of the sell-off. Pereda was there for the catcher injuries and Julien was not in that category, he'd been up and down for several years.

Hey look, Gasper is back on waivers! See, these guys are all over the place, all the time.

Ohl had reached his peak and it wasn't going to play in MLB. The number of guys with only a change and no other offerings is vanishingly small. You can name them (Doug Jones, Jamie Moyer) because they're so unusual. Adams still has to condense his repertoire down to a solid core and focus on throwing his best 20-25 pitches in each outing, but he's already stopped thinking about the second time through the lineup. @nicksaviking has a point in that going to the pen really does involve a head shift and some actual learning of what does and doesn't work in that role. It's going to take a little time to guide Festa or whoever though that process.

They aren't DFAing Raya without giving him a full chance in the pen, not with redundancies like the army of corner OF, both Grey and Kreidler, and a guy like Jackson who would very likely pass through waivers.

I think the point is Adams will be the Dobnak of this spring: experienced but not really that talented and a bridge to the young/injured guys when they are ready.

One of the great bar league softball insults: "Are you sure you're right handed?"

That's the same thing as winning with Miranda, Wallner, Julien, Kirilloff, etc from four years ago except no foundational building blocks in CF or the rotation. Lots of hoping that all the kids work out at once plus the optimistic fiction that the year this comes together is right around the corner. That lineup doesn't win without an excellent starting rotation. There's just not enough scoring to make SWR and the best version of Ober stand up in the playoffs, and even the handful of fine SP prospects we have are not going to become World Series worthy in two or three years. Bradley already has three full MLB seasons, you think there's some corner ahead of him he's about to turn? If you want a "true long-term winner" then you absolutely have to hang on to the stars when you come across them and save money on the fungible parts that matter less (no news there.) So pay what it takes for the excellent starting pitchers and one or two offensive stars and then find excellence by parts for the rest. Meaning that if you can't find a very good two way SS, for example, you don't settle for an average one, you get one that's excellent at either offence or defense. Jeter was only a good-enough defender but hit very well. Cleveland kept Omar Vizquel around for amazing glovework despite his career 82 OPS+. To succeed MIN needs to spin through the kids faster to identify who will or will not be excellent at anything and swap them for others earlier. That's the magic of what Tampa Bay does so well: get rid of the average ones before they're so old that everyone else can see the lack of excellence. The organization messed up very badly after 2023. They are still digging out, but the shortcut to getting back is hanging on the foundational players. The old "will this guy be on the next great team" nonsense doesn't work because most teams never get enough better to be great as they keep sending the present out for another couple years of potential. Most of the time when a team like MIN trades a guy like Ryan for anticipated cost reasons they want back an awesome prospect, but it's almost never a guy that shows up in under two or three years. Our last anticipatory dump was probably Jose Berrios in 2021, which got Austin Martin and SWR, and those guys are still on the upswing. Teams buying that type of star usually want to keep their own players because they are winning, and weakening the current team in a trade works against that. A guy that'll bring the moon with two years left will bring a lot at one year, and still a bunch at the deadline. If you always choose to give up an extra year or two in advance you will not ever have a present. There's some art in choosing deadline vs one year vs two, but given the amount of talent that's potentially only a half season away this is not the time for this team to give up and wait for 2028.

Actually they need to move on from Sabato so that they can play some other people at 1B and create some depth. Even if it's not full time, have some of the OF at least learn the rudiments of the position this spring so they have flexibility when spots open up. If Bell gets hurt and Clemens sucks it would be great if, say, Wallner could slide in for a couple weeks and let someone play OF who is good at it. Longer term maybe Fedko or Gonzalez can spend more time there in St Paul this summer and see how they look. Draft is not destiny.

Maybe, sure. Right now they have a lot of starters on the doorstep, so sift through those and find out who can pitch. There are some hitters that are half a season away so get them in the game and see what you have. Move the ones that don't measure up to make room. Try not to block anyone, add where you have holes. Hey look, that's what they're doing. I won't defend everything this front office is doing. I think they could trade from their heap of young pitchers to get a real long-term 1B or C, for example. But they are moving on from some of the last wave of Super Prospects (TM) to make space for the new faces, so thanks and good luck to Miranda, Julien and we'll see who else in the coming month. Hail and well met to our new guys, let's see how the next couple weeks go.

Regarding Miranda, he had things figured out in 2024 when he was hit in the head by a pitch. He has not recovered from that, probably due to a concussion. Those can take years to recover from, so maybe in 2026 or 2027 he'll get back to where he was and finally have that career Twins fans were hoping for. Jose Miranda's HBP in head was 07/28/2024. https://www.mlb.com/twins/video/jose-miranda-hit-by-pitch-willi-castro-to-2nd Before HBP, Miranda was .324/.367/.517 OPS .884 wRC+ 149 BABIP .349, 5.0% BB, 13.5%K, .193 ISO After the HBP, Miranda was .211/.236/.303 OPS .539 wRC+ 48 BABIP .261, 2.7% BB, 18.9%K, .092 ISO

This is nonsense. Tell me the steps that "a true run at winning" look like, because I could sell them to about 20 teams. Until they move the team to 2015 Los Angeles and get a new revenue source they are going to have to go with player development and a little luck, just like most teams. If you want say "Keep trading away players until you get a great mix of can't-miss prospects and then strike" you're going to have to be more specific. MN has four on the fresh Top 100 Prospect list, so when should they go all in? Do you want anyone on this roster? Any of the many first rounders? Lewis sucks, can't stay healthy, hasn't proven anything. Bradley already has three years in, no future left so send him. Keaschall is probably too old since he won't be here in 2031 so we should trade him while he still has five years of control left. If you trade away Lopez and Ryan you leave the earliest possible chance at "true winning " as far away as it takes for three or four of the current youth (SWR and Ober have to go!) to lift themselves to top of MLB. You think three or four of those guys are here yet? Because Ryan and Lopez have to get us the catcher and 1B and SS of the future. Culpepper is no Jeter and True Winners need top talent. This is such nonsense.

Tatis can't pitch. I read here that we need relievers. Otahni, now he can pitch, and the deferrals should make him affordable to the Pohlads.

Julien came up as a batting eye guy that managed to hit in the majors until he couldn't. Last season in St Paul he finally got his act back together, but Keaschall blew past him at 2B in 2025 and he isn't enough of a defender to have use in a utility role. I hope he does well hitting in Denver, as he seemed like a decent guy who had the bad luck to lose his way during his short window of opportunity in MN. Ohl just doesn't have the velo to catch anyone's eye, and his control and stuff wasn't sharp enough to let him get away with much at the MLB level. Not sure that pitching in Colorado is going to do him any favors, but it's a weaker system so he should get opportunities.

And of course not what I said.

Jackson is insurance, not a major league player. He belongs in St Paul. It's a problem that he'll need to pass thru waivers, but that's the downside to how/when he was acquired. A slight misstep but if he doesn't make it guys like him and Paredes come across the wire all the time.

Neither of these things is at all certain. Many sources are indicating that the owners know they have to fix the revenue problems among themselves and that won't get easier by locking out players. And a few people stepping up in 2026 can make a big difference in what happens this season. A .500 record might put them smack in a race in this weak division, and anything happening to Witt or Skubal will utterly tumble the DET or KC seasons.

They need Lewis to step up, Lee to continue improving, Ober to be over his hip injury and the young pitching to mature. If the rest of the roster stands still that's enough to stay in a fight around 82 wins, and both history and direct communications from the front office indicate that the roster is not set yet.

They went through a month of no Jeffers last summer and it was very bad. Going into a season with the same weakness would have been stupid (at least Vasquez could play defense.) This way they ease into a post-Jeffers world, they have a viable backup in case one of their catchers gets hurt, and they finally acknowledge how lucky they've been with regard to catcher injuries over the past four years. Jackson was a dumb pickup, but Eeles was never a real candidate to make this team because he's not really a SS. And there's a good chance that Jackson can make it thru waivers at the end of camp once everyone has established rosters because he's just another AAA journeyman who had a good half season at the age of 30. He was far worse in much more time the year before and chances are that's who he really is.

Plus it sure simplifies things for writers. They can ignore what the teams say, write whatever they want, and use scary words like LIE. Occam's Razor says that management probably knows they've been incredibly lucky the past four years in how much catching they've gotten from Jeffers and Vasquez, and that the catchers behind Jeffers were unplayable last year. So maybe they want to have 160 games worth of decent talent on the 24 man roster just in case someone takes a foul tip off the thumb and we're not treated to another month of Gasper and Paredes levels of awful. Jackson may or may not play into this as it's unclear he can hit at all. His best performance in the majors was an 85 OPS+ six years ago (in 7 plate appearances.) (Oh sorry, that overlooks his 111 OPS+ last year. Consider me skeptical, especially since that was only 100 AB and he had a 26 OPS+ in 155AB the year before. 26.)

It may seem like all this analytic data has been around forever, but a lot of the swing data is quite recent. Baseball Savant wasn't able to add it until 2024, for example. So Lee was evaluated based on results, on his baseball instincts, how he looked, and all the other things that were state of the art in 2022 when he was chosen 8th overall. He was seen as one of the top college bats in the draft, based on both batting eye and terrific bat-to-ball skills and moderate power. He was a good bet to be a doubles hitting machine that might end up moving down to 3B or 2B if his range didn't stand up. EDIT: I had some browser trouble getting this to work. Lots of guys don't even approach average, so Lee being one of one a couple dozen that qualified in his cohort is actually an achievement. He's still only got 189 games under his belt, so there's plenty of room for improvement. But if he just manages to hang around average that's OK too, it'll play until a better guy appears. Also of note, here's a link to a Driveline Baseball blog post on how to use the swing data and how it describes various types of swing. It's a fun, nerdy read with lots of math and specific player names. https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2024/07/using-mlb-bat-tracking-data-to-better-understand-swings

I'd love Lawler but I think for his pedigree and potential they'd want more than the scraps you suggest. That said, I'd give them a decent arm for a decent SS candidate, and I'd do it tonight.

See!?!? See!!! They got cash from Seattle for Jhonny Pareda. With that infusion they can commence the hunt.

They already hired Hawkins to stand around and be wise. Taylor could add a lot, but his experience is only relevant as long as he pitches well. Veteran leadership is harder for pitchers than pinch hitters and backup catchers since as soon as he says "just work the edges and it'll get better" and then gets pounded again the kids will say "yeah, that totally worked." No one will listen to some superannuated dude with a 6 ERA who can't stay out of the meaty center of the strike zone. As long as he can stay effective they'll treat him like a sage and he'll offer something that Hawkins doesn't.

Agreed. This is a valid point, but should have been a single paragraph in a better article on something larger.

Finding an article this dumb online indicates we've reached the stage of winter when boredom and incomplete rosters is leading to frustration and hallucinations. I recommend staying away from the Submit button until Feb 10 when Truck Day articles are due, maybe getting some exercise, and lighting a candle for Derek Falvey so that he's able to complete his work without this noise in the background.