laloesch

Nope. My parents are Minnesotans and so are all my relatives. First-hand knowledge is not bias.

ahhhh the classic Minnesotan passive aggressiveness on display here. It's still word salad what he said.

it's still word salad. Trying to make something simple sound complicated and elaborate to intimidate readers or reporters thinking he's some masterful tactician.

Fair enough. Personally, I don't think they have much of a chance at all of finishing first or near the top of the division. The Tigers are for real, and the Guardians are always okay to good it seems. Kansas City had a down year in 2025, but I think they bounce back in 2026. That leaves the White Sox and Twins at the bottom and the Sox are getting better (slowly).

Yep. Considering they are not likely to extend either one of them you would THINK they would be exploring trade options to get good returns.

All three? I believe there are now three limited partners.

I agree. It sounds like boneheaded stubbornness to be honest. The Twins are not at all likely to significantly increase payroll. So extensions of Lopez or Ryan are extremely unlikely after 2027. You would think they would be listening to offers at the very least. I think it's all posturing to be honest.

Nutting is a horrible owner and has been for years

Bingo. And someone mentioned Ober for Vientos. I think that’s selling pretty low for Ober, no thanks. Ober is gonna bounce back

Yes. Hopefully it maximizes their trade values, because the Twins will be trading Ryan, and Lopez at some point in 2026. Buxton might enter that conversation too if the team is bad this season. There's been unconfirmed sources stating he's considering waiving his no trade clause to play for a potential champion before he retires and I don't blame him.

Sorry, that's just totally false and everyone knows it. A Hard cap is EXACTLY what this league needs.

Yeah sorry no thanks. Vientos is yet ANOTHER streaky strikeout prone hitter that's bad defensively.

Bingo. Correa was an albatross contract but there’s a stubborn contingent that could not accept that. He was not worth the salary by any stretch of the imagination. I’m glad the Twins unloaded him.

Bingo. And nobody wants to hear it here especially because of certain reasons but a HARD salary cap is DESPERATELY needed no ifs ands or buts. 200-250 million cap. You can’t have a handful of teams spending 400-450 million and then another slightly larger group below it spending 250-350 million and then everyone else in the low 100's and expect any parity in the league. The statistics don't lie. Those that spend big consistently make it to the playoffs and go deep into the playoffs and make it to the World Series on a consistent basis. This year was a perfect example of that. The Blue Jays were a good team but just couldn't compete with the Dodgers who are deep in almost every position but particularly pitching, because they have the money. But who are the repeat contestants in the playoffs year over year. Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, Red Sox, Phillies, Rangers, Astros, and now it appears the Blue Jays are going to be long term big spenders. The Braves and Nationals are on the fringe and the Giants, Angels, and Cubs spend big most years but have organizational difficulties and are poorly run and fall apart before making the playoffs, but they are still big spenders. So essentially you have 13 teams that are consistently knocking on the door in the playoffs and typically win the world series and the other 17 remaining teams occasionally make the playoffs but never win it. The Dodgers are set to DOMINATE the rest of this decade, till 2030. They are neck deep in good pitching prospects and hitters. They wouldn't be able to do that without the MASSIVE payroll and the deferred salaries they are giving out. I still firmly believe 2027 is gonna be a lost season. I think the league is not gonna accept anything less than a hard cap this time, despite the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and maybe one or two other owners, who are gonna fight it along with the Players Union of course. MLB is behind the times. The NHL, NBA, and NFL excepted rationality decades ago with salary caps, but baseball didn’t.

I can't understand the down votes to your post. Everything you said is absolutely true. The Twins have done NOTHING to improve this team. If Josh Bell is their magic pill (gags), it's gonna be another long season, not that I was expecting otherwise given what happened last season. It's not just the players but the slashed payroll, the down attendance numbers, the cutbacks at the stadium to concessions, the tv broadcast and streaming debacle......etc, etc. The Twins have a whole list of problems to address and it's not gonna be easy. Tom is gonna have his hands full. I'm not as ready as some to throw Falvey overboard. I think given the payroll constraints he's done a decent job, but the clock is ticking no doubt. We shall see.

I think the Correa trade was good. I really think he was an albatross contract they had to get out from under considering his production. I fully endorsed dumping him despite some of the opinions contrary to that here. The bullpen gut is a different story. I think they got shafted on the Duran deal but we'll have to wait and see how that works out. I think the moves were the Twins trying to right the ship financially but I don't expect them to add 20 million to the payroll as others have said. The new operating level is around 100-110 million in my opinion and that's depressing. That means the Twins CAN'T resign Lopez or Ryan in two years. They need to trade them soon and get maximum return for them in prospects if this is how it's going to be. The Josh Bell signing makes me want to vomit. I don't want him manning first base but that appears to be the direction in 2026, another Band-Aid one year fix.

That's what they should do to be honest. This team is light years away from competing for a world series as it's currently constructed. This team would get destroyed by the Blue Jays, Dodgers, half a dozen other teams in the playoffs if they make it at all. There are just too many holes. They keep slapping patches on a leaky boat but it is sinking. It's time to reboot completely. They aren't gonna be extending Ryan or Lopez again, so you might as well maximize trade value and deal them both. And sit down with Buxton and offer him an out. He has hinted recently he might be willing to drop his no trade clause to play for a world series contender before he retires. Give him his wish if that's what he desires. Reload on prospects and try again.

Actions speak louder than words. I'll believe it when I see it. This is all smoke and mirrors word salad from the Pohlads. I don't believe for a second that they were losing 40 million a year annually with the Twins. I do believe their revenues took a hit with the TV debacle, and dropping revenues, but they still were only at 140 million at one point as far as payroll goes? They were still in the profit zone. I still hold firmly to the earlier report that most of the debt was from Carousel motors (which they are selling) and their other commercial real estate holdings which tanked during Covid. As was reported by some months ago they shifted that debt to the Twins franchise knowing they were going to either sell outright or sell shares like they did and pay it all off. That was the angle all along. Pay off all of that debt and seed some control to other partners in exchange.

It's all smoke and mirrors talk. That debt was mostly tied to their commercial real estate holdings.

Yet another reason I think Shelton was a terrible hire.

Better than the last guy. 😁

I don't agree with this. Tall individuals appear to lack fine motor control because of their larger limb size and in general we (most average sized people) are not accustomed to seeing larger individuals on a regular basis and therefore interpret those visual movements as clumsiness and awkwardness, aka lack of fine motor control. But that is a visual perception problem. I will agree though that in general larger individuals are slower because of body mass difference. I'm 6'-5" and I played multiple sports in high school and college, but was never a speedster. Generally speaking once you get over 6'-3" you start to slow down because your just.... bigger. And when you get to 6'-8" to 6'-9" the difference is even more pronounced. But to say they lack fine motor control as rule of thumb? Well that's a fallacy and a generalization based on the brain misinterpreting what it's seeing visually.

This article belongs in the fantasy trade section of Twins Daily. It's not happening, lol.

And why did you down vote my post? just curious. Is it because i pointed out the debt from the Pohlads being shifted to the Twins franchise? That's fact, not conjecture.

I very much doubt it. In various offensive metrics, the team generally ranked around 23-24th out of 30 mlb teams. Much of that rides on the shoulders of Royce and Correa who both had horrendous seasons with the Twins last year. Unless the Twins add SEVERAL talented young hitters and Royce has a major turn around, this team is gonna be worse not better in 2026 and that's completely ignoring the bullpen. ZERO chance the Twins compete in the Central in 2026