laloesch

The problem is the rest of the lineup. There weren't enough good pieces around him to have a consistent offense and let's be real here, Buxton has been up down up down his whole career with the Twins. Correa was the same too. That inconsistency and the lack of other key producing hitters around them is what sealed the deal. It's unfortunate.

Hopefully he starts a string of good seasons in the latter half of his contract. Unfortunately, they will be wasted on a bad team, but sometimes that's how the ball drops.

This is very true. If you control both assets the debt is 100% yours and you can't really leverage it on another entity if you control both. That's what they did by moving all of that commercial real-estate debt onto the Twins franchise. They thought they were pulling a fast one on a future buyer and that they would simply accept the debt as part of the purchase price, but they completely miscalculated. Jim Pohlad is apparently not as smart as the thinks he is. I have no delusions that Joe Pohlad had any part in that, the kid is barely competent at anything.

Yeah. I was not suggesting the Twins end up there after 2040, which is wayyyy down the line. I think it's an expansion locale, maybe #2 or #3 on the list, but there's no doubt in my mind Nashville is #1 on that list for expansion locations when MLB FINALLY gets to that point, probably within 5 years. They've already done a great deal of planning in Nashville for a future stadium, exploring different locations, discussed it with city council, etc., etc. They've even talked about ownership groups so they are dead serious on getting a team. I would like to see another midwest team before one on the coasts.

Don't forget Charlotte. Charlotte is up over 2 million people now in the metropolitan area and growing rapidly, one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. In fact within 15 years it's projected to be almost as big as Atlanta. I lived there for 10+ years, until 2023. They like their football down there, but the White Sox AAA affiliate there in their new stadium downtown is a smash hit. It fills up to capacity all the time during the season.

And if they ever left Minnesota they would loose rights to the Twins franchise name because that was part of the deal when they signed onto Target Field. That's a big hit to a team with history and championship banners.

But when they do get there, they will thrive. Vegas is all about entertainment. The knights have done great in Vegas, the A's will too. Oakland had too many challenges and issues for them. They tried working with the City Council but could never get everything to line up properly, some of it relating to acquiring the land and facilitating surrounding supporting development to create the right atmosphere. But I don't want to go into the debate about the financing because that's a whole rabbit hole to get lost in.

I doubt it will be that bad. The Oakland A's were playing in a toilet bowl of a stadium almost as bad as the Metrodome and never got a new one. They had a good farm system just not the new stadium and surrounding development to spur more interest and revenues.

Good and bad. Investors will expect high revenues, they always do. Given the Pohlads dumped over 400 million in other debts onto the team I'm not at all hopeful for a return to 2023 and 2024 payrolls. That shuffling of debt was a bad move by the Pohlads. Justin Ishbia was in a position to buy the franchise outright and while i don't have the direct proof, the shuffling of the debt from the Pohlads floundering commercial real-estate holdings to the Twins likely torpedoed that deal along with a very high asking price to start with. It means one of two things. The Pohlads were desperate to dump their debts and made a silly stupid decision and are now stuck with an asset they can't unload or they weren't as determined to sell the franchise as they sounded in their public statements meaning the revenues are still coming in from the Twins in healthy amounts, enough to make it advantageous to hold onto. Investors can be a good and a bad thing. They should hold the owners responsible for their actions making a competitive team a priority, but if they are more focused on bottom line they could encourage the worst tendencies in the Pohlads to be dirt cheap and pile up money to pay down those debts quickly. The dirt is in the details. How much control and pressure will the have on the Pohlads? Will they be hands off or more direct putting pressure on them? I guess only time will tell. Either way, very dissapointing. I think (myself included) many fans were hoping for a fresh change in ownership and leadership, this smells like more of the same, just adding a few more cooks in the kitchen, but still a bad head chef in charge.

It would be really nice to see Culpepper and Jenkins in St. Paul but seasons end. Culpepper could potentially be a big asset to the major league team next season as could Jenkins. Based on his minor stats he can play a variety of infield positions and DH. Jenkins too is hitting really well and can play CF and DH.

They clubhouse dynamic apparently wasn't working. I don't really know if any of us know the inner workings of what was going on but it appears something wasn't right. I still think Rocco should go at seasons end and hopefully that happens. They need a no-nonsense manager that's firm, dedicated to fundamentals, etc. A player makes repeated bone headed mistakes in the field, they sit for a game or two. No hard feelings, not personal, just a reminder that performance matters, in addition to having fun.

Your right about Correa whether certain posters are willing to admit it or not. One good season sandwhich by one mediocre one and one bad one don't make him a slam dunk. I'm glad the Twins unloaded him. He was far too expensive for his production, I don't care what anyone else here says, it was the right decision even if they are paying 11 million a year for the next 3 seasons. Better than 30-33 for the next three. Vasquez will likely be gone at seasons end, and I wouldn't be surprised if they trade Lopez either, so I'm expecting the payroll to be sub 80 mill next season, easily. But if what we are seeing post the selloff is a sign it was the right decision. I too hope they don't dumpster dive. Call up the kids and let them play. Now is the time.

I don't disagree. Although I hope they extend Ryan and Ober, but I'm not holding my breath that happens.

Luke Keaschall looks awesome. The more i see of this kid the more impressed I am. leave him at second base the rest of the season, he's earned it.

Not a full season though, he missed 3 full months and he had a massive 4 week drought mixed in during that time that he played out of. In 2023 he was mediocre at best and in 2025 he was downright awful with a 2 month stretch where he literally hit nothing and grounded into double plays over and over again, plus strikeouts. That's how he was in 2023 too. Long droughts, strikeouts galore. The Twins got lucky and unloaded him.

The other thing to consider is the bally sports diamond bankruptcy and disruption of their TV and streaming services. That hurt the Twin's revenues A LOT! That factored in this decision to cut back the payroll beginning last year. It was hard for all of the fans to witness, but that's why it happened. All that said, let's not kid ourselves. The Pohlads have a ton of commercial real estate holdings and commercial real estate has been floundering badly since Covid wracking up massive debt for them. People need to remember these guys were the king pins of slash and burn grabs during the depression and post WW2 in the upper midwest. They decided with the botched cable streaming rights with Bally that it was time to dump all of it, and in a shear stroke of utter stupidity decided they would shift a lot of those commercial debts onto the Twins franchise pulling a fast one on the next buyer. They pushed Carousel motor group's debts onto the Twins and all in all almost 400 million dollars. Unsurprisingly, Justin Ishbia saw right through it and wisely backed out. I mean anyone who's been to Target Field recently may have noticed all of the closed food stands and beer stands and that's because they are operating at a 40 million dollar loss this season. It really does look like a bankruptcy if you ask me. The sooner they sell the team the better. It would be a shame for them to jettison Lopez, Ryan, Ober, etc. Them dumping Correa's contract brought them back to solvency +++++ for next season. Essentially payroll will be 48 million + arbitration raises dropping from 125 million this season. They had better extend Ryan and Ober this offseason with that big of a drop.

Rebuilding has to happen in certain cases. I understand why the Twins did it, aside from the 40 million dollar loss they were taking this year due to messed up TV and broadcasting issues ongoing from last year, which is on them partly. I think a lot of the long timers here at TD are just bitter about it and are having a real hard time coping with that. It's a game, teams retool and rebuild. I'd rather they take the chance and reboot / rebuild once in a while instead of languishing in mediocrity (which still could happen if it's not handled well). The previous lineup was just not constructed well for consistent winning. It needed to happen. At least they were bold about it and dealt what they dealt. I took think they should have hung onto the Varland but oh well he's replaceable. Let the chips fall where they need to fall, time to move forward.

Riddles. Let's play chicken then and fill in the blank.

yeah. Hey I admire Buxton wanting to stay in Minnesota, that's admirable, but eventually he's gonna regret that decision because the one thing that always will elude him is a championship.

Hold on. These guys are getting 15-20x the average yearly salary of most Americans. Treat like Crap? Yeah right! They ALL make more money in one year than most of us make in 10 lifetimes of toiling away at normal jobs, so the "who treats who, loyalty, bla bla bla stuff between the players and owners," talk (scoffs) makes me sick hearing commenters whine about it like it's their own personal plight. It's not. They (players and owners) are all spoiled rotten MASSIVELY overpaid babies playing a kid's game as adults.

boooo. Completely ignores his 2025 stats, and his massive multi-month droughts going back for years including 2024. That's the problem with hanging your hat completely on WAR and OBP. Forgetting the cold stretches and just remembering the final year end stats.

Yes. I've had enough of Julien for some time now.

Meh let's just all relax and put our swelling bleeding hearts, emotions, and pride to the side for a moment. Buxton is a good guy there's no doubt, and the Twins have failed in many regards especially the Pohlads, in giving him better teammates lately, but up until this season (11 seasons into his career) he was largely a source of the problem himself. He's been wildly inconsistent in his offensive stats just like Correa was this season, going through massive sometimes multi-month droughts, where virtually every night is an ofer with multiple strikeouts, even when he wasn't injured. Let's be truly honest and candid here. Aside from the Pohlads trying to sell and being 400 million in debt and 40 million in debt this season alone, Correa and Buxton are part of the reason the Twins made the decision to reboot. It just wasn't working on offense. This season has been THE lone exception for Buxton where he's stayed healthy and had awesome stats without prolonged droughts. Correa on the other hand didn't show up until the very tail end of May. A team can't consistently win when their supposed two super star players and team leaders take two months to get going offensively. It's just not gonna fly.

Pretty good summary I think. I believe that the Pohlads decided not long after Correa was signed that they were gonna sell especially after the debacle with broadcast tv deals with Bally. They checked out and started penny pinching again, especially with all of their commercial holdings lagging still from Covid. It was really bad timing. I think Correa would be fine if he had a Mauer, Moreau, Stewart types alongside him, but as a stand alone star it’s tough to be effective for most guys. Not ideal and honestly he’s not what he was when he was with the Astros he’s definitely declined

Yeah I know. One season out of what 5. The fact remains he was absolutely horrendous this season and even in 2024 he was wildly inconsistent at times and that was also true in 2023. I look at the complete picture throughout the season, not end stats and OPS only. He has always been a double play machine and a rally killer for long stretches. He’s not at all the player he once was which is part of the reason Falvey moved him besides the contract.