DJL44

I could see an open competition and use spring training to pick one to carry all season. Worst case is they don't have one in the organization going forward, but that's the case even if they don't have a competition. I think I'd rather take a chance on one of the Yankees arms in the bullpen than auditioning Susac.

Cal Raleigh gets paid $17.5M a season. Jeffers is no Cal Raleigh. Realmuto made $23M but he's a potential Hall of Famer. Catchers don't get paid that much. Jeffers is most likely getting 3/$36 if he goes to free agency next year. Including this arbitration season, that's a 4 year $42M contract.

I'll keep hoping for a contract extension. The team has a need at catcher for several years and the cash to pay him.

Sounds like he is headed back to Arizona. Twins don’t have to worry about him.

Have you seen the other AL central rosters? Someone could win the central with 82 wins.

If anyone has any other bad contract to add, put them in the comments.

If the Twins decide to sell Lopez, Ryan, Buxton, Jeffers and Ober they would end up with a payroll less than $45M for 2026. That gets them into MLB grievance territory. Generally, a rebuilding team is going to play young players who don't earn much more than the minimum. The teams who are interested in buying talent from the Twins are big spenders who are either close to or over the luxury tax. If they're trying to win now, they want to shed any dead payroll and would be willing to give up minor league talent to do so. In addition, a bad contract for a team over the luxury tax counts higher than the contract value because of penalties they have to incur. The benefit for the Twins is two-fold. One, they are able to acquire more and better prospects by taking on high value contracts that other teams no longer want. Two, as those contracts get paid down with time, the value of the asset they acquired can only go up. It's possible the Twins can acquire a player, pay them for a while and flip them elsewhere later. Here are some overvalued contracts from teams rumored to be interested in trading for Twins players. Sean Manea - Mets: He received CYA votes in 2024 and his peripherals were good in 2025, though his health wasn't. Owed $50M over 2 seasons with $14M deferred. Could eventually turn into a tradeable asset, or at least good enough to dump the remaining salary elsewhere. Masataka Yoshida - Red Sox: A 32-year-old DH with $18.6M owed for each of the next two seasons. Gets on base, but the Twins have no need for another left-handed hitting DH. Eduardo Rodriguez - Diamondbacks: A bad pitcher on a terrible contract pitching for a team trying to cut payroll from all-time highs. Owed $40M over 2 years. Maybe the bullpen is his future? Aaron Nola - Phillies: A borderline Hall of Fame talent for his era but his remaining 5 years, $120M looks like an anchor. Contract runs too long for the Twins to want to risk taking it all on. Nick Castellanos - Phillies: Owed $20M for 2026, this contract is over quickly. I don't expect him to enjoy playing for the Twins at all and I don't expect the Twins to be able to turn him into a tradeable asset. They would be better off releasing him if they acquired his salary. Teoscar Hernandez - Dodgers: Conveniently makes about the same salary as Byron Buxton over the same time period (3 years $45M). Has been rumored to be available as the Dodgers look to reallocate money. Still a solid, everyday player. Probably works best if there is a 3-team deal because the Twins will be looking to unload him immediately. Tommy Edman - Dodgers: 4 years left on his deal at $12M a season. Also more likely to end up elsewhere in a 3-team deal rather than having the Twins keep him. Blake Treinen - Dodgers: Owed $13.5M for 2026, he would look a lot more attractive at the trade deadline with only $8-9M remaining on the contract. Would be the Twins closer until then. Hyesong Kim - Dodgers: Would be a starting infielder for the Twins at a modest $4M salary for each of the next two seasons. Also has club options at $5M for 2028 and 2029. Had a decent debut season and may have untapped potential. Sean Murphy - Braves: A former All-Star and Gold Glove catcher who is recovering from a hip injury. Owed $15M for each of 2026, 2027 and 2028. Could easily make another All-Star game as the Twins token representative. Jurickson Profar - Braves: Owed $15M for each of 2026 and 2027. Would be one of the Twins better bats and can play 1B. Potential to flip him immediately. Aaron Bummer - Braves: $9.5M remaining for 2026. Would be interesting to see if Pete Maki can unlock his 2024 performance.

I believe this is true, correct me if I'm wrong, but these projections are for rosters as-is, which basically means the Twins could finish 82-80 if all the free agents on the market retire. As the free agent talent gets allocated to other teams that 82-win projection will drop. I think the other thing adding helium to the Twins win total is the division they play in. They play a lot of games against the weak AL Central.

I keep wondering how many prospects they can get to take bad contracts off the luxury tax paying teams. If they’re willing to take on Manea from the Mets, can they get even more talent?

Andujar's speed has dropped so he's not really an outfielder anymore, but I think he can play first base. The Twins can apparently coach anyone to become a gold glove first baseman, though that was under the previous coaching staff.

I don’t think that’s why they want to trade Ryan and Jeffers. If the Twins trade Buxton, Lopez, Ryan and Jeffers, they should spend some of that enormous amount of available money on free agents who can be flipped in July for more prospects.

He's a great value at the $5-7M range and quite tradeable in July if desired.

It goes back a long time. In the early years, it was agreed that the home team shares the gate with the visitors (otherwise they wouldn't travel to the game at all). The other part is me reclassifying "local" TV money as "national" which acknowledges that there is no "local" in media in a post-cable, streaming landscape.

Right now, the owners only get 52% of each local dollar spent and send the other 48% to the league. I'm proposing that all national revenue gets split evenly 30 ways (TV, radio, licensing, etc) and all gameday revenue gets kept locally. The overall percentage of shared revenue would be about the same as it is now but the incentive to put butts in seats would double overnight. Owners could cut ticket prices in half and make the same marginal revenue, or they could enhance the "gameday experience" (cheap beer?) or they could spend money to create a winning team. If overall baseball attendance goes up, that's a win. I don't really care about parity if MLB draws 7 million more fans to the ballpark (10% increase).

Correct, incentives matter. 100% of locally generated revenue should to the team. If you don't want to spend, nobody will attend your games, use your parking lot or buy your concessions and you'll make less money. TV money doesn't ebb and flow with team success but attendance revenue correlates very well with trying to win. The only teams that draw well without winning are the Rockies and the Cubs and that's because it's a huge beer blast with a baseball game attached.

The current Democrats are a bunch of Rockefeller Republicans. There aren't ANY communists in American politics. Bernie Sanders is a social democrat, which is a centrist in Europe.

Yes, that is definitely true. If you're fast but throw lefthanded you're an OF. If you're not fast but can field grounders well you're a 1B. Keith Hernandez would have been a SS except he threw lefthanded.

I would make the trade for Tong, Reimer and Kussow

This is probably necessary. The Twins are never going to be successful if the Pohlads are using them as a piggy bank to fund their other business failures.

The Twins could desperately use a mediocre SS and a mediocre 1B as well as a few mediocre relievers.

If they draft one more their next one is free. It’s a CBA loophole that not many know about.

I’d be pretty irritated if I had to endure a professional sports draft. What a horrible way to spend a weekend.

Then I wouldn't get too obsessed that the Twins "didn't get a top 100 prospect". The Yankees got unranked Luis Gil for Jake Cave. 1/3 of the future top talent will spend time in the foreign rookie leagues. Quantity in prospects is a necessary hedge. If you want lower risk (only picking from AA and AAA players) you're going to give away potential upside.

Dalton Rushing, River Ryan, Hyesong Kim, Justin Wrobleski, Bobby Miller - several interesting players who aren't on prospect lists anymore.

It's the revenue sharing, not the salary cap. Adding a salary cap doesn't give the Tigers any additional resources. MLB already has a soft cap in the luxury tax system that forces more revenue sharing dollars to the smaller market teams. Take that away and they'll have even LESS revenue. OTOH - if they get the incentives right for revenue sharing, they don't need a salary cap at all.