Jeremy Nygaard

On this Across the Meadow Podcast: - Reviewing all that has happened over the last week. - Was sending Cron the right move? - Do Rocco and Wes know what they're doing in terms of bullpen usage? - Who are the other bullpen options behind the current guys? - The good and the bad of the lineup. - Pimping Home Runs.You can listen directly here or download directly from iTunes here. Additionally, you can access all the previous episodes as well. Let us know what you think and thanks for listening! Click here to view the article

On this Across the Meadow Podcast: - Final 25-Man Roster - 30 guys made the trip north with four slated to go on the DL. So what's left to decide? - Ryne Harper - surely you've heard the name if you've been following Spring Training at all. - Jorge Polanco Injury - should we be concerned? - Pitching Contracts - everyone else is extending their pitchers. Is it time for the Twins to extend Berrios? - Season Predictions - why bother with watching all 162 games when we tell you how it's going to play out?You can listen directly here or download directly from iTunes here. Let us know what you think and thanks for listening! Click here to view the article

It's been about a month since our last episode, but with the signing of Marwin Gonzalez, we couldn't stay silent any longer. We also discussed the recently-signed extensions, some other potential extensions and much more.You can listen directly here or download directly from iTunes here. Let us know what you think and thanks for listening! Click here to view the article

It's been over four weeks since our last recording, so we cover all (both?) of the major news items. Additionally, we were able to find 90 minutes to talk about this and other things you know you want to listen to.You can listen directly here or download directly from iTunes here. Nelson Cruz Signing and Possible Extensions: 1:58 Martin Perez Signing: 10:07 Craig Kimbrel? Other Free Agents & Payroll: 23:07 25-Man Roster Predictions: 45:50 Question from the Audience (Perez, Media and the fans, Free Agents) : 1:11:10 Let us know what you think and thanks for listening! Click here to view the article

Teams usually leave a spot open in advance of the Rule 5 draft whether they draft a player or not. You typically have some play on your 40-man over the course of the offseason. For this particular exercise, we wanted to keep a roster space, cause that's what most teams will do in advance of setting their 40-man roster.

John and Jeremy revealed their Offseason Blueprint during a 90-minute often-exhilarating Across the Meadow podcast on Tuesday night. The 40-man roster decisions, arbitration-eligible player decisions, free agent predictions and potential trade targets were all examined. There are other topics covered as well, such as the coaching staff carousel that made a few stops on Tuesday afternoon.For much greater detail, listen to our podcast. You can listen directly here or download directly from iTunes here. As it stands currently (with the six free agents), the Twins have 37 players on their 40-man roster. Both Jeremy and John are going to pare down that number by outrighting Johnny Field, Zach Granite, Chase DeJong, Tyler Duffey, John Curtiss and Aaron Slegers. John will outright Alan Busenitz additionally. Neither are tendering a contract to Robbie Grossman (who could be brought back for less than $4 million). This puts Jeremy's roster at 30. John has 29. By November 20, teams must add Rule 5-eligible players to their 40-man. Both Jeremy and John will add Nick Gordon, LaMonte Wade and Luis Arraez. John will also add Jake Reed and Tyler Jay. Jeremy will add Johan Quezada. This puts both rosters at 34. Our intention was to leave an open spot to draft an Rule 5 players and keep our payroll under $125 million. If you've listened to the podcast before, you'll know that Jeremy has been a big fan of Nathan Eovaldi (even before his great playoff run). Both Jeremy and John would sign him to a 4 year, $58 million deal (contract projection from Twins Daily's offseason handbook). John will spend more handsomely on the bullpen adding both Andrew Miller (2 yr/$24m) and Joe Kelly (2 yr/$14.5m). Jeremy, never a believer is spending big on bullpen arms, is only adding Sergio Romo (1 yr/$3m). On the offensive side of things, it's Jeremy who is opening up the wallet. He's adding Jose Iglesias (2 yr/$18m) to play shortstop, allowing Jorge Polanco to slide over to second base and providing a bridge to Royce Lewis. He's also hoping for Josh Donaldson (1 yr/$15m) to regain health and dominate Target Field once again, limiting his time at third base (60 games) and letting him DH 50-70 times. His last add provides positional flexibility, adding Marwin Gonzalez (3 yr/$33m) who can play all around the infield and the outfield corners. John plugs D.J. LeMahieu (3 yr/$38 m) in at second base, electing to keep Polanco at shortstop and swings for the fences, adding Adrian Beltre (2 yr/$30m) to provide leadership and guidance to the young core, especially Miguel Sano. All told, Jeremy's projected payroll comes in right around $125m while John's is a little higher, around $130m. All of these signings may be unlikely, but during the podcast we talk about alternatives as the Plan A guys come off the board. Listen and let us know what you think. Click here to view the article

Both Liriano (2008) and Perkins (2009) had service time issues with the organization. But both were about keeping them from Super 2 status, neither of them had free agency pushed away. I also think both of them had grieve-able cases. Neither got to that point. Personally, I think Buxton has the best argument out of any. The only players who didn't get the addition besides Buxton were Thorpe and Romero (two pitchers who have hit their innings limit) and Granite (who is out for the year). Any argument about not enough playing time is ridiculous. There's also no standard to "deserving" it when literally everyone else who was able got the call.

John and Jeremy cover every angle of the Twins decision to not bring Byron Buxton up in September. At a minimum, it's a curious decision. Some might call it shady. How does this effect the relationship between the organization and Buxton's camp? How could this impact the future between the two? All of this and more in the most recent episode of Across the Meadow.Listen here. You can also view and download all of our episodes on iTunes. Click here to view the article

Since the activity of the trade deadline has died down, there have been a number of changes at both the Major League level and throughout the affiliates. We covered the week in between the deadline and present in Episode 3 of our podcast.You can find us on iTunes. You can listen to the latest Twins-related episode. It's also available on our Across the Meadow website. In addition to that, you can also listen to us preview each football team for the upcoming fantasy football season. We'd love for you to listen and let us know what you think. John also mans our Twitter account and will definitely engage with you. Click here to view the article

Twins Daily has done a great job covering all of the action that happened over the last week as the Twins were very active at the trade deadline. In addition to that, the beginning of a new month also brings all sorts of Player of the Month recaps. And there's always the main staples of Twins Daily: the daily minor league reports and Twins game recaps.I'd like to introduce Twins Daily readers to something new. You may have noticed - or maybe not - that my writing and commenting has been much more sporadic this season. There are plenty of reasons for that... mostly growing kids and more responsibilities at work. But my interest in the Twins and their affiliates has never waned. I don't follow any less and I'm still certainly not short of opinions. What became of that is that I'd have a lot of Twins conversations with my neighbor. I'd be out with my dog or getting the mail or rolling the garbage to the end of the driveway and sometimes my neighbor, John Miller, would be outside. Our conversations would typically be about the Twins. We'd have these conversations across the road that splits our property, Meadow Lane. (Which is where we came up with our somewhat cheesy name.) He's been a long time reader of Twins Daily. (But never attended Winter Meltdown or a Touch Em All Pub Crawl. We'll have to fix that.) We'd talk about different things that have been written or commented on these very pages and he's said a number of times that he was thinking about starting a blog. And he should! At some point in time - probably after attending Gleeman and the Geek's first Taproom Tuesday of the year - we started talking about doing a podcast together. And last week, leading up to the trade deadline, that finally happened. If you're into podcasts, give it a shot. Give us feedback. We've jumped through the hoops to get our podcast on iTunes. You can listen to the Trade Deadline Preview (Episode 1) or the Trade Deadline Review (Episode 2). It's also available on our Across the Meadow website. We'd love for you to listen and let us know what you think. John also mans our Twitter account and will definitely engage with you. Click here to view the article

Before returning to action after the All-Star Break, we took a look at potential landing spots for the two biggest trade chips/rentals that the Twins have to offer contenders. Since then, the Twins got swept at Kansas City before getting back on the right track on Monday at Toronto. Dozier has one hit since his walk-off grand slam and a whole bunch of strikeouts. Escobar has gotten a couple hits and looks, hopefully, like he is starting to hit his way out of the slump he previously found himself in. There was also the Ken Rosenthal report that the Brewers had asked the Twins about acquiring both players. This article isn't about Dozier and Escobar... but I'll give you a little dessert after the main course.As teams look at the market, it becomes a balance of “what have you done for me lately?” and “who is this player typically?” When the answer to both of those questtions is very good, you’re getting a lot in return. Negotiations become slightly more difficult when the answers don’t match up… especially when the player is on the wrong side of 30. Today, we’re going to look at a few other players who, for one reason or another, stretch those questions a little bit further than Dozier, a top second basemen who is having a down year, and Escobar, a versatile defender with a solid bat. Kyle Gibson is having a great year. He’s got an additional year of control, his slider is nearly unhittable and when he’s not producing outs by strikeouts, he’s getting them on ground balls. He’s a great example of a player who, if he continues pitching the way he has since the second half of last year, could really help the Twins get back into contention in 2019. The Twins, though, appear poised to head into spring training with more viable rotation options than any other year in recent memory. In short, maybe it’s worthwhile to shop Kyle Gibson. Though there isn’t an urgent need to move him - there are worse things than plugging him into an experienced rotation next year - it’s worth taking a look around to see who might be interested. For me, there is one team that sticks out: the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies are in the midst of a NL West battle that may last until the final days of the season and have gotten productive seasons out of four of their five rotation members. Their fifth member, Chad Bettis, is currently on the DL with a blister. In his place, Colorado has been starting Antonio Senzatela, who himself just returned on Sunday from his own blister issues. I’m not going to pretend I know a lot about their rotation, but it seems like blister issues are typically a recurring problem. Enter Gibson, who has made 27 or more starts in each season since returning to health after Tommy John surgery. Colorado, where no free agent pitcher ever wants to go, should be motivated to add a groundball pitcher with another year of team control, even if they don’t stay in contention to win the division. The targeted headliner in a return package from the Rockies should be 23-year-old AAA infield Ryan McMahon. McMahon played almost exclusively at third base until shifting over to first base. The Rockies have all-world Nolan Arenado to man the hot corner for the foreseeable future, so McMahon was moved to help accelerate getting him into the lineup. He's also played quite a bit of second base. McMahon is a good hitter, has a good understanding of the strike zone, hits for power and also can steal some bases. Now here’s where the problem starts. If you’d paid close attention to Gibson over his last calendar year, you think he’s turned the page and is now a mid-rotation starter and his trade value should match that. “Yeah, but…” would be how every other team in baseball responds to that. I would think McMahon isn’t enough. I’d want someone in addition who is closer to MLB ready. The Rockies might think McMahon alone is too much. To move Gibson, though, the offer would need to overwhelm. Fernando Rodney is another example of a player who might not get the value his performance has dictated. Understandably, too, as he’s 41 years old. If not for his age and the rapid decline that will set in at some point - though there is nothing in his peripherals that suggest that decline is going to happen soon - Rodney has value, under contract for $4.25 million next year. The Braves, having recently lost their closer, seems like an excellent match. Would the Twins have interest in 19-year-old RHP Freddy Tarnok, a third-round pick last year who is new to pitching and having success in low-A ball? The Braves didn’t seem to have too much interest in Jeurys Famillia before the Mets dealt him to Oakland. One of the reason had to do with not wanting to deal from the top of their stash of prospects. Tarnok doesn’t fit into that group, but his potential certainly does. I don’t think any return for Rodney is going to include much. Is it worth it to deal away a controlled, affordable, mostly reliable closer for what amounts to a lottery ticket? It might be easy to say no to that from the Twins perspective. At the same time, the Braves might ask if it is worth trading a high-ceiling lottery ticket for a guy who is over twice the lottery ticket’s age. They might pass on that as well. Lance Lynn and Ervin Santana have both done enough (or not enough) to stay safe through the July deadline. Logan Morrison is having such a disastrous season, it’d be hard to merit any return. So I guess that leaves Joe Mauer. I’d accommodate Mauer if he wants to chase a championship. Regardless, I’d consider it more than likely that Mauer is back in a Twins uniform next year. But that might be a conversation for a different day. *** BONUS BITS: Typically trading multiple pieces to the same team will reduce the return. Dealing Escobar and Dozier to the Brewers in the same trade might enable them to ask for one of their top prospects, like Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta or Corey Ray. (I still don't think the Brewers have any desire to move any of those three.) The other thing that adds intrigue to this situation is that the Brewers just lost a starting pitcher for the rest of the season. How much might Milwaukee give up to secure a pitcher like Gibson? Might they be interested in Lance Lynn? There are a number of questions that can only be answered in time. But I certainly wouldn't rule out a creative deal that packages multiple players together. Likely? No. Possible? Sure. Click here to view the article

Machado was going to require a king's ransom. Beyond that we've only seen moves in the RP market. Hard to comp for Dozier or Escobar so far. I thought the return on Familia was light, but not sending money and getting IFA money back adds variables that make that trade unique.

Is there something lower than "no value"? I guess Sano could balloon to 400 pounds and that would be lower... but right now the club could get nothing of value for him.

I was asked the same thing on Twitter... there aren't a lot of teams looking to deal catchers. The best catching prospect in baseball got traded today (and he's no lock to stay there) for the best reliever on the market and another reliever. The value of a catcher is super high. I would be shocked if the Twins could make a deal that nets someone projected to be a catching regular.

Trade for guys who have started. If they don't work, they can relieve. Kilome would be fine in that role. Less convinced you want to trade for a minor league reliever, especially one that just adds to the AAA logjam.

I prefer Hernandez as well.