IndianaTwin

Yeah, I think you have to read into to it to get that from Falvey. From the OP: “If two teams are both trying to compete and both have needs, and different ways, how can you swap them? It led to us in our Pablo acquisition a few years ago,” Falvey said. “They wanted Luis Arraez, and we wanted Pablo López, and that was ultimately a fit for us and a fit for them at the same time. It does not always happen like that, but we certainly are looking for that this time of year. We will see if we can execute.” I think he's saying that the ideal trade at this time of year (and I would say at any time) is one that improves both teams. And by definition, pretty much every trade means giving up what the other team wants. If the other team doesn't want what you have to offer, they aren't going to make the trade! The idea that one team "winning" a trade means the other team "lost" that trade is a fallacy.

From MLBTradeRumors: The Astros kicked off the offseason by downplaying the idea that they would consider dealing away either third baseman Isaac Paredes or first baseman Christian Walker to clear the infield logjam the summer’s Carlos Correa trade created, but more recent reporting has suggested at least some discussions involving Paredes with the Red Sox. Paredes has played a reasonable amount of 1B, though I don't know how well. MLBTR also projects him at $10M in arbitration. If there's willingness to take on that amount in free agency, they could do so in a trade, perhaps especially if it started with Ober going back. I don't know the Houston roster well, but it appears the Twins have more SP depth, at least if one is a believer in the Bradley/Abel/Festa, etc., crew.

Another reason Casas may not be needed by the Red Sox is because according to the MLB.com depth charts, it appears Boston plans to start Romy Gonzalez at first, second AND third base. 🤣

I had some of the same thought, though I do like O'Hearn. I don't mind that he bats LH. They face many more right hand pitchers and the Twins already have Buxton, Lewis, Keaschall and Jeffers/Jackson as righties expected to play every day, plus Lee as a switch hitter. Add Martin and they don't really need another RH batter. The only LH batters facing a LHP would be O'Hearn, the RF and the DH. In general, the guys expected to play every day are RH batters. The question marks in terms of playing time are mostly LH batters. @Cory Engelhardt or @Greggory Masterson, I would trust either of you to give us a solid listing of guys who could realistically be acquired in trade. By "realistically," I don't mean the "Hey, the Orioles just signed Alonso. Maybe they would trade Basallo or Rutschman" articles we get from time to time. I mean, Mountcastle/Mayo, Casas if the Red Sox resign Bregman, Vientos had Alonso resigned with the Mets, etc.

I don't think calling it a big drop in talent if they go from $135M to $110M is that helpful. Take Correa's $22M out of the $135M and it's comparing $113M and $110M, roughly the same. There's correlation between payroll and talent level, but it's not a 1:1 correlation. Outliers make a difference. Said another way, they could add $38M to the roster by trading for Rendon and not help the team a bit.

In his announcement press conference, he made a big deal about the amount of learning/reflection he did in his time off. The two quotes from the press conference that most stuck out to me were: Falvey's, "The thing I came away with I was most impressed by was when he talked about how he spent the last four months really diving into what could he have done differently, what could he have done better. How could he have done it in a way that would have led to more success?” Shelton's (in response to a question about what he would do differently and after his own comments on the reflection period), "You have to have conversations and then you have to have follow-up conversations, because what is heard and what is said and then how it is retained sometimes loses it's place and because of that you don't always get the best out of the situation and out of the player." It will be interesting to see if these comments and the one in the OP point to a greater willingness to go with the young guys and consider your B statement.

Technically true, though the three you added averaged less than 300 plate appearances per season and totaled 0.9 bWAR among their six seasons. On average, each started 61 games per season those two years, with none of them starting more than 90 games in either year. The three of them frankly contributed more to the seasons between the two World Series than they did to the championship teams. In signing Pags and Davis and calling up Knoblauch in '91, the team knew they couldn't be successful with Bush, Larkin and Newman as regulars.

<Snip> Hitters Starters who could reasonably have a better 2026 than 2025: Lopez (by being healthy) Ober SWR (by being healthy) Festa Matthews Bradley Abel Will they all? Of course not. Will some of them? Most likely. Could others have worse years? Sure, but other than Buxton, Ryan, I'm not exactly sure who we'd say had a good (for them) hitting pitching year (Let's deal with the bullpen, but yeah, @amjgt, I'm with ya.)

If the Twins were to trade a top-10 or top-5 prospect, I'd much rather it be for relief pitching/1B where there are known holes and a low ceiling on the current roster. At least in the case of Lewis, there's a high ceiling already in place. Count me among those who are optimistic that a fresh start and coming off having played in 64 of their last 66 games at better than 25/25 HR/SB pace points to Lewis being ready to be a major contributor.

I don't think they did. They essentially traded McCusker for Caraballo and an open roster spot on the 40-man.

I'd be fine with redrafting David McCarty himself if it guarantees a World Series title in 2026. (Though I'd rather not redraft him in hopes that it wins a title.)

1. Depends on whether you put more emphasis on last year's experience vs. LHP (.832 OPS in 109 PAs) or his career (.642 in 346 PAs). One would like to think that a person progresses in their career, so the more recent data carries more weight, so how does a .750ish work going forward? 2. The sample size is getting smaller, but his career OPS against LHP starters is .791 (in 273 PAs), but his OPS in the 73 PAs against relievers is bad enough that it brings his overall OPS down to .642. That distinction makes some sense in that his PAs against LHP starters were probably disproportionately in the time with the Padres, when he was hitting LHP better in general. It may also speak to teams bringing in a specific type of LHP to face him in relief in the past and maybe he's addressed that weakness. At any rate, it seems like there was enough progress against LHP last year to at least dig deeper. Also, given the relative youth of the rest of the infield, I prioritize 1B defense even more than I typically would, which it seems he also brings.

I get the idea of trading Jeffers so that he doesn't walk for nothing, but if the team is looking to add relievers and a power bat, it seems counterproductive to trade one of their existing power bats. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/twins-rumors-relievers-power-bat-first-base-free-agency-trade.html I also view catchers differently than other positions. With the number of young pitchers who will likely be part of the staff, there's also a value in continuity that comes with a returning catcher as opposed to bringing in two new receivers for them to work with. So no, don't trade Jeffers other than the whole "yeah, we'll listen to offers in case we get blown away" concept.* *But don't expect to get blown away. He's good, but he's not that good.

Great in concept, but... The issue is you've then only got six guys to cover the other starts, which are guaranteed to have a bunch of back-to-days. And, if you don't get a full nine innings out of the piggy back pairs, one or more of those six guys has to pick up a few innings on those days as well. When they've done this in the minors, they've used the piggyback guys on a four day rotation. Your plan has them pitching four innings and then going on five (or even six) days.

I reached 10 years of service time on TD last February, so I’m going to invoke my 10-and-5 rights, particularly if it’s a trade to White Sox Daily.

Over the past five years, an average of 12 pitchers have started games each season. A handful of those were used as Openers, but there wasn't a year in which less than eight starters were used with some regularity at some point in the season. The average number of guys to serve as true starters was around 10. With that in mind, I don't mind heading to spring training with full rotations for both the Twins and the Saints. However, given the reality of the rest of the roster, I'd consider turning one into a bat as seems to be the inclination of folks on the related string that's going right now.

TD: The Twins are going to trade Ryan, Lopez and Buxton. The Athletic: The Twins are not going to trade Ryan, Lopez and Buxton. TD: Okay, let's try an article on how the Twins are going to trade Garver...

Right -- but they don't have to make 26-man decisions at this point. So I'd gladly add a Coulombe to the 40-man at the cost of using an option to send Kreidler or McCusker back to St. Paul now. And if they magically make it through spring training without injuries and have to make a 26-man decision then, optioning Ohl isn't an issue. You're right on Jackson likely cutting Pereda from consideration for the Opening Day mix, but I have to assume they see enough in Jackson to view him as a step up from Pereda if both are healthy. And if one (or Jeffers) is hurt, the IL resolves the question.

I think "cutting" from the roster is a relative term when McCusker, Kreidler, etc., are on it.

Below the median, technically. 🤣 I'm curious about your choosing different plate appearance minimums

I think the accusations were that he was letting the other team know what pitches were coming in hopes that his team would lose a playoff game to have the season come to an end more quickly.

Fat-free Ranch? They make that?

I'm not going to bet the house either, RB. First, there's the issue that I don't tend to bet, and second, I don't think the HOA guidelines allow it. And NO WAY am I betting Mrs. IT. She's too awesome. The kids are amazing as well. We do have a 2004 Honda Accord that I'd consider. But I'm with you in saying I'm willing to bet some hope, or at least have some willingness to be in the boat with you. I'll nuance my take a little bit. I've liked how you've used Ty France as your archetype for the type of player you don't want them to sign, so I'll use that as well. Starting pitcher: I feel really good about what's currently on the roster. Outfield: They've got Buxton. I like your analogy of flooding youth through the filter. I see Wallner, Larnach (both not fully youth, but not vets either), Martin, Roden, Outman, Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Mendez, Jenkins and I think there's enough talent to flood through the filter to make a pretty solid, maybe even good to very good, outfield. I don't want them to sign a Ty France here (or a Michael A. Taylor). 3B/SS/2B: They have started the flooding. They are still in the growing pains, but I'm willing to read something into a 1-1 draft pick playing something like 64 out of the final 66 games and doing so at something like 27 HR/29 SB pace (Lewis). I'm willing to put some stock in a rookie cranking out 2.0 bWAR in 49 games with an OPS+ of 128 (Keaschall). And yes, I'm willing to put some stock in a guy who hasn't yet turned 25, was very recently being seen as a Top 50 prospect and who was suddenly thrown into the fire as a full-timer at the toughest non-catcher spot (Lee). I haven't seen Culpepper, but folks on here seem ready to flood the filter with him as well. I wish there were a couple more guys to consider flooding so they could have the little more room for error that they do in the outfield, but I don't want them to sign a Ty France (or a Kyle Farmer). I want them to ride with these guys. 1B: Here's the primary place I slightly differ from you. I don't see Clemens and Julien as flooding the filter. I don't see others in the pipeline. I value 1B defense, particularly when the rest of the infield is so young. I agree that Pete Alonso isn't coming to save the day, but here's where I'd like to see them spend $5M and get this year's Carlos Santana to play great defense and bat 7th or so. I don't know who that is, but between Santana and France, they've found some guys. C: I like Jeffers getting more games and feel good about that. Instead of an every-other-day pattern, methodically give him two games out of three and that's a manageable 108 games. They aren't ready to flood the filter with Tait and the other guy that I can't remember. I would have liked to shoot a smidge higher than Jackson (think Victor Caratini at $3M), but I'm not sure they still couldn't. And if not, I'm okay with them trying to unleash something in Jackson and maybe stretching Jeffers to 120 games. Bullpen: The huge unknown. There's a small handful of guys in Sands, Topa, Orze and Funderburk to start with. There's a couple that have gotten coffee (Adams, Ohl). There seems to be a plan for some transitioning of starters. I don't think they are far from flooding the filter, but it takes a LOT of bodies to do this on the mound. I'd like to see them spend $10M on three relievers on one-year contracts (Coulombe is my archetype) to give some sense of stability, particularly at the beginning of the season. And probably some guys on minor league contracts. It may start the season as a 30th-percentile bullpen, but they've historically done a better job of improving the bullpen over the course of the season than people have given them credit for. If they can turn this into a 60th or 70th percentile bullpen with a rotation that's top notch, that's a pretty good overall staff. I'm willing to take Falvey at his word that he's more interested in adding than subtracting. I did my upgrades with a very modest $15M-18M. Is that a 95-win team for the season? No. Is that a 90-win team? Probably not. But is that a team that can play the first third of the season at 76 win pace, the second part at 83 win pace and the third part at 91 game pace and play meaningful games in September. I'm willing to believe it can be. And if it doesn't happen, this year's France at 1B and three relievers can still get something at the deadline that will supplement the rest of the flooding that has been happening as they further gear to 2027 when the only pieces on this entire page that they lose are Jeffers and the France/relievers quartet. Meanwhile, they've done a lot of that sorting you've been talking about, including a sorting out of owners, and are very well positioned for next offseason. But yes, all that changes with a trade of both starters and Buxton.* (I actually think they can withstand trading ONE of the starters as long as they get MLB talent back. And by MLB talent, I don't mean another MLB-"ready" talent like Jenkins. I mean two actual major leaguers who will be locked in at 1B and a bullpen spot on Opening Day, for example. If nobody offers that, no can do.)

No, no, no. Simply putting any ballpark food into a plastic helmet erases all the calories. It's also an established fact that any food tastes at least 40 percent better when served in a plastic helmet.

Dead on. And on your last sentence, one of the things that I've appreciated about the front office is that it has seemed to be pretty transparent with players behind the scenes. They seem to be in regular contact with the top-end players and their agents. I think that's good. Overall, I try not to do much psychoanalysis on what players are thinking based on a comment or two here and there. It was just a few years ago that much of TD was convinced Byron was on the first train out of town when he got the opportunity because of the Twins having sent him to the minors when he was hitting .156. Then surprise, surprise, he signed a seven-year deal.