chpettit19

Kyle Isbel is my Keirsey comp. And if that's who he is, I'm totally fine with him being the 4th or 5th OFer. Both were 2018 picks. Isbel in the 3rd round, DaShawn in the 4th. Both entering their age 28 seasons. Isbel's AAA line: .270/.360/.454/.814 Keirsey's line: .292/.370/.451/.821 Neither is lighting fast, but neither is slow. Neither is a gold glover, but neither is you or me out there. The Royals are trying to win the division with Isbel as their starting CFer. If Keirsey is our backup with Emma and Keaschal as added support I'm good with it. I don't think he's a star, and I wouldn't want him or Isbel as my starting CFer for the season. But if Keirsey is Isbel I think we're alright to start the year with him in the 4th or 5th OFer/backup CF spot. Especially because I think Emma or Keaschal take the reins if/when Buxton is out for a month plus. On a side note, these 2 are good examples of the organization you're in mattering. Keirsey missed time with injuries, but if he's in a different org he may very well have gotten a real crack at the majors one of the last 2 years. Like Isbel has gotten multiple times.

The article also stated "Let's explore the Twins' top players in their age-25 season or younger." The title was misworded, but the article itself states they're looking at age-25 and younger seasons. So Zebby fits. That doesn't change that there aren't a significant number of young players on the Twins 40-man roster who aren't also prospect eligible, but the article explained why Zebby was on the list. It also makes David Festa eligible. So now you're at 4 guys on a top 10 list. And that's a pretty hefty number of guys. And technically it makes Ronny Henriquez eligible as well, but I doubt we'll see him on this list. But now you're at 5 guys instead of the 2 you claimed. So, yes, the title should've been reworded, but the article itself explains the criteria quite clearly.

The Twins didn't try to turn Martin into a "strikeout prone home runs hitter," they tried to turn him into pre-2024 Bo Bichette. Which is a .290-.300 hitter with 20+ HRs. Instead of being a .290-.300 hitter with 5 HRs. They tried to do what the Guardians did with Steven Kwan last year. Teach him to look for balls to pull for power early in the count before going back to his normal approach with 1 or 2 strikes. Which lead to a .290 hitter with 14 HRs instead of a .300 hitter with 5. The Twins tried to turn Austin Martin into a .290-.300 hitter with 15-20 HRs. I don't get why people think that was a poor strategy. He just couldn't make the adjustment so is doing things his old way now and struggling to have an MLB career because of it. Jenkins already has the ability to pull the ball for power so they don't need to teach him that, just refine it. Hopefully he's able to earn a September call up this year and an opening day gig in 2026.

Sorry for the delay, haven't been on in a few days. Tanner Swanson is also a major league catching coach. He used to be the minor league catching coordinator here, but he's now the major league coach in New York. He's their Hank Conger, but with a different title. He's also their major league field coordinator. I'd doubt he's working on their minor league catching development while traveling with the major league team fulfilling those 2 job roles. Tucker Frawley is the Twins minor league catching coordinator. I think you'd find this interview with him interesting. He was both infield and catching coordinator at the time of this interview, but is only catching coordinator now, I believe.

How good of a defender is he? 104 OPS+ isn't anything to write home about but he'd be strictly platooned here so that'd likely be higher with fewer ABs against lefties. If he's an upgrade defensively at a cOF or 1B spot he could make some sense. The Twins still have at least 1 open lineup spot and they can use it to rotate people through the DH spot so I'm not at all worried about Larnach and Wallner in the corners. A strict platoon at 1B with Miranda would be a waste of Miranda, though. Don't like that idea at all. But they should be able to easily get all 4 guys in the lineup against righties at this point in time. But Miranda had an .856 OPS against righties last year compared to Burleson's "breakout" .805 OPS against them. Miranda doesn't need a platoon. He's got a better OPS against righties than lefties in his MLB career. I don't get why people are trying to short side platoon Miranda.

Twins wouldn't win the NL West with the teams they have. Would you be happy being under .500 just because the team is in a different division, though? That's the argument? Its OK the Preller is below .500 for 7 straight years because they have to play the Dodgers and Giants? The AL Central had 3 playoff teams last year so I assume you're good with missing the playoffs cuz the division was better? I've never said that isn't Falvey's job. Never. Not once. I did point out that you have a complete misunderstanding of what Hank Conger's job is because he doesn't develop minor league catchers. That flat out isn't his job. It is Falvey's job to hire minor league coaches and development staff that develop minor league catchers. The fact that you still think it's Hank Congers job is mind blowing. He travels with the Twins. He's a major league coach. Do you think it's the major league hitting coaches' job to develop minor league hitters? Those coaches are with the Twins all year. They travel to all their games. When do you think Hank is working with minor league catchers during the season? It's not his job. They have entire minor league coaching staffs and development teams. That its Falvey's job to hire. Conger doesn't see those minor league catchers outside of spring training. How is he supposed to make educated decisions on players he doesn’t see 1 single time between April and October? AJ Preller is the president and GM. He's in charge of everything. He, like Falvey, is given a budget by ownership/the business department and then it's all up to him. You called him a "great GM." Don’t claim your point wasn't his ability because you flat out said it. Being proactive isn't useful if you make bad trades. That argument doesn't make any sense. "Hey, he may build bad teams while trading away stars, but at least he makes a lot of moves!" You actively complain that Falvey makes trades because you think he makes bad trades by trading away players "they need" while acquiring players they don't. But when Preller makes bad trades its good because at least he's proactive? That logic doesn't track, sorry.

7 straight years below .500 isn't bad luck, it's bad performance from the man in charge. There's no parsing needed. Apathetic fan bases? The Padres have been drawing 2+ million fans going back to the mid-90s. They drew 1.9 million in 2009, but that's the only year under 2 million since 1995. Until his owner threw massive amounts of cash at the team, they weren't doing any better than they were before he got there. 2017 and 18, his 4th and 5th season in charge they were back down to barely over 2 million. You don't need to parse anything. AJ Preller didn't do any of that, the owner throwing an unsustainable budget at him made up for his awful performance and got the fan base excited. You would not call 7 years below .500 fun. Or, if you would, then you've been having a lot of fun with the Twins.

Being able to develop players is Preller's job. Literally. Him not being able to build a minor league system that can develop all these stars he's traded away isn't a badge of honor, it's another mark against him. "He can't control how other teams develop players?" What does that mean? So, it's not his fault that his organization can't develop players even though other teams can develop them? It's literally his job to make sure his team can develop players. His job isn't just to "buy and sell." He's been in charge of the Padres for 11 years and has been trading away stars the whole time while finishing under .500 for the majority of his time in charge (7 of 11 years under .500). He's been awful. He didn't find success until his dying owner threw the budget out the window and let him spend like crazy. He's made the playoffs 3 of 11 seasons. You think Falvey's been bad and should be fired? He's been in charge for 8 years. Preller's first season of finishing above .500 was in his 8th season in charge. Preller's been horrible. Totally terrible.

AJ Preller took over the Padres in 2014. In 11 seasons with him running the show the Padres have made the playoffs 3 times and finished above .500 4 times. Their best season was the shortened 2020 year. They didn't finish above .500 for the first time until his 8th year, which was 2020. Then in the 9th season they dropped back below .500. Since then they've finished above .500 all 3 years, but 2023 they won 82 games. Just like the Twins just did and people are acting like the Twins are a disaster. Year in and year out is a drastic exaggeration of the actual results for the Padres under Preller. AJ Preller has an awful track record. The Padres dying owner won over their fan base by throwing their budget out the window for a handful of years that are now coming back to bite them as they're needing to do things like trade Cease to cut salary. They're locked into multiple long-term deals that are already starting to look bad. You don't have to look at playoff results to say Preller hasn't been successful. Falvey has been in charge for 8 years. Again, at that point Preller had only finished above .500 once, in a shortened season in his 8th year, before immediately going back below .500. Their "year in and year out" success has been 3 years with 1 of them being the same record as the Twins just finished with.

I know what "from the same mold means." It's why I've easily shown that they're not from the same mold. Yadier Molina was not a defense only catcher. He was a two-way catcher. He doesn't prove your point because he's the proof against your point. In 2011 he was the 40th best hitter in all of baseball according to wRC+. In 2012 he was the 18th best hitter in all of baseball. In 2013 he was the 28th best hitter IN ALL OF BASEBALL. They are not the same mold. Christian Vazquez is a defense only catcher. He has been for his entire career outside of 1 full season. Yadier Molina was a star with the bat for multiple years and well above average for even more. It's not the same thing. They're not the same mold and it's ridiculous to claim they are. Catchers do add more than their hitting. But their hitting matters. Your guidelines are the point. Not the exact numbers, but what you're trying to represent. I understood the point about the difference of OPS at each position and I showed you you're wrong about how big of a difference there is based on position. I showed you, with actual data and evidence from actual player performance, that Vazquez level hitting would make the Twins one of the bottom 5 hitting catcher positions in baseball. The exact number doesn't matter, just your general split idea. I understand that. What you're not understanding is that Vazquez is so bad that he's under your already too low of a number and that matters. Yes, they bring more than just offense. Of course they do. But they have to provide some offense. And Vazquez doesn't. I get that your point is how much weight you need to give to OPS/hitting vs defense at each position. And my disagreement is with your weights you give to them. Your exact numbers were just proof that your idea of the importance of offense is too widely varied between the positions.

I don't disagree that Cease would help. I don't think I'd call it an outsized positive effect in the postseason, but I can understand the argument that he'd be more helpful there than a LF or 1B. But I think the difference would depend on who the bat is. Upgrades to LF and 1B in general are much easier to get anytime, but if you're talking about a position player that's equal to the type of pitcher Cease is it isn't much of a difference. If you're just trying to improve on Martin (for example) in LF then that's way simpler than getting front line SP. But if you're trying to get a front line bat it's still crazy expensive and hard to come by at the deadline. I can't say I think it's outrageous to try to take advantage of a questionable AL field this year, but I don't think Cease makes the Twins the favorites. It's reasonable to want him. I just don't trust the team enough to give up what it's likely to cost to get him. Especially if Vazquez is included in things as that just raises the financial or prospect cost of the deal because he's a negative asset.

Christian Vazquez has had 2 seasons of 100 or higher OPS+ numbers. And one of them was in 2020. Yadier Molina had 3 seasons over 120, including one at 137. He had 7 seasons over 100. I already pointed out the only 2 seasons even close to what Vazquez is hitting. Career OPS for Molina (over 19 seasons until he was 39 years old) is .726. Vazquez is .673 and he's going into his age 34 season. Through his age 33 season (13 MLB seasons compared to Vazquez's 10) Molina's OPS was .738. Vazquez OPS+ 81. Molina 99. Vazquez has been out of Boston for over 2 years. He's been here for 2 years. If it takes him that long to "study a whole new pitching staff & system" there's problems. Teams go through dozens of pitchers every year. They're constantly learning new pitchers. They need to be able to do it much quicker than 2 years. Molina and Vazquez are not the same mold. 1 is a first ballot Hall of Famer. It's a terrible comparison. Do you have evidence of catchers being better once they're settled? After apparently 2 years. Martin Maldonado is a similar catcher. He was in Houston for 4 seasons and didn't suddenly get better as a hitter. You like Ben Rordvedt, but argue he figured out his hitting in year 1 with the Rays. I'd be willing to bet if you actually looked up the numbers there wouldn't be any correlation at all. But instead, catchers follow the same general hitting curve as every other position. Vazquez was reported on many times at the beginning of last year about how he went and did special training to get his bat figured out for last year. He wasn't sitting at home studying pitching charts he was out changing his swing and preparing to hit better. I'd say that directly refutes your idea that he hasn't focused on hitting since he literally said that was his focus last offseason. And he got worse. That isn't my standard to gauge everyone no matter what. Defense matters. I've never disagreed. The disagreement is in the weight given to defense. I've never said fundamentals don't matter. Never said taking or stealing bases doesn't matter. Bunting is a bad strategy in the vast majority of situations, though. Hit and run can be useful. Clutch hitting is obviously super important but isn't a skill that's separate from simply being a good hitter (I know you don't care about stats, but there's stats that prove this point). Striking out too much is bad. We don't disagree on most those things. We disagree that you can, or should, have 3 spots in your lineup that you almost don't care about offense. We disagree that Vazquez does anything special with the pitching staff or his defense to make up for an unusable bat. Seattle is a great pitching and really good defensive team. They missed the playoffs last year, and nearly every year for 2 decades, because they can't hit. You can't throw away offense at multiple positions. Especially SS in this day and age. You're ignoring what's actually happening in baseball and what teams that win actually look like. Your defensive weights are off. And WAR overcompensates for defense, not under. It's a pretty universally held stance. Thus, Myles Straw showing WAR is a questionable stat. Because he has too much WAR because his glove gets too much weight compared to his horrid hitting. You're disagreeing with basically the entire baseball community. If there's a question about defense in WAR it's that they credit it too much. And I didn't twist anything. If you don't want people to refute your numbers don't give numbers. You gave specific numbers for specific positions. If you didn't mean those then you shouldn't have written them.

I didn't say "pitching is good, we need hitting." I said offense is their bigger question mark. They can use more pitching. Everybody always can. But I have fewer questions about the rotation than I do about the lineup. Cease would help. I said that in the original post you responded to. But if I'm giving up the type of package it'd take to get him I'd rather give it up for a bat. I can fill out a rotation with 5 names I believe are good enough to be in an MLB rotation. I can't fill out a lineup with 9 names I believe are good enough to be in an MLB everyday lineup. So, to me, offense is the bigger question mark. Especially when you add in that the biggest names in the lineup can't be trusted to stay healthy. The Twins have potential all over. But almost every offensive member comes with a question mark. The Twins getting rid of the Thielbar, Jackson, Okert, Richards type arms (whether by choice or budget limitations) gives me even more faith in their pitching. If you're picking between their rotation and their lineup, which do you trust more to perform this season?

Don't bad mouth Eeles! I love that guy. But I'm with your point in general here.

And during their collapse in September they scored the 20th most runs in MLB. They collapsed because their offense fell apart. Not their pitching. And while I don't expect Santana to continue to hit at the level he did last year, he was one of their better bats and he's gone. They have 8 regulars for their lineup right now. They have a full pen and rotation. I stick by offense being their bigger question mark.

Let's start with Molina. He only had 2 seasons in his 19 year career where he hit as bad as Vazquez has the last 2 years. When he was 23 and 39. He was a premium hitting player, not catcher, player for his prime and was still putting up 100+ OPS+ numbers into his mid-30s. From 36-38 years old Molina was putting up OPS+ numbers 20 points higher than Vazquez is. His career OPS is .726. He's a first ballot Hall of Famer. Comparing him to Vazquez is quite the stretch. Now for your OPS by position numbers: SS- A SS that is only OPSing .650 better be out of this world in the field these days. Have you looked around major league baseball and seen what shortstops are actually hitting now? There were 10 SS to OPS over .800 last year and another at .794 (Willy Adames). That's 1/3 of the league. Dansby Swanson is considered the best fielding SS in baseball by many and he OPS'd .701 in a down year. His previous 5 seasons were all at basically .750 or higher. Jeremy Pena and Ha-Seong Kim are 2 other elite gloves at SS who OPS at least .700. A .650 OPS is way low for a SS in 2025. There were 22 teams with OPS over .650 from their SS last year. You're asking the Twins to have a bottom 25% hitting SS. 2B- .700 is a reasonable number. There were 12 teams with OPS over .700 from their 2B last year. So .700 is a good target spot. 23 teams over .650 just as an FYI. CF- Dalton Varsho is considered one of the best fielders at any position and his OPS was .700 last year and has only been under .700 once in his 4 full seasons. His other years were .750ish. He's never had a full season OPS+ under 84. Kevin Pillar and Kevin Kiermaier were "glove only" CFers who were also putting up mostly .700 marks for an OPS. Never 60ish OPS+ numbers except for last year for Kiermaier. 18 teams over .650 OPS from their CFers last year. 2 others at .649 and .644. So, you're targeting roughly the 33rd percentile in CF hitting with .650. C- There were 23 catchers with at least 200 PAs last year who OPS'd at least .700. 31 were at at least .650. There were 26 teams with an OPS of .600 or better for catchers last year. 20 at .650 or better. You're targeting being one of the 5 worst hitting catcher positions in all of baseball with your mark. If you put together the team you're describing with an up the middle 4 who OPS .600, .650, .650, and .700 you wouldn't make the playoffs. Go ask Seattle. You're asking to put the team in the bottom 1/3 of hitting at 3 different positions and average at 2B. Having 4 guys in your lineup that have the OPS numbers you're suggesting would give you one of (if not the) worst offenses in baseball. Because your other position expectations are too high. There were only 26 guys in all of baseball to OPS .850 or higher last year with 200 PAs. You can drop it down to .800 and still not get to 2 guys per team as there were only 54 guys to do that. You're asking for 5 guys to do it so that 1 other guy can be an OK/below average contributor (2B) and 3 others can be complete non-contributors to half the game. DH- 4 teams hit that .850 mark. RF- 2 teams hit the .850 mark. 1B- 2 teams hit the .850 mark. LF- 2 teams hit the .800 mark. 3B- 1 team hit the .800 mark. You're asking the Twins (or your hypothetical team) to be in the top 4 for hitting at 1 position, top 2 at 3 others, and the very best hitting in the 5th. So, to make up for your below, or well below, average bats up the middle you require the Twins to have essentially a top 2-4 hitter at 5 positions. Do you feel that's realistic?

Oh, his throwing accuracy is atrocious. I don't know how he can look so uncomfortable throwing a ball while being such a great athlete. But on 130 throws last year he topped out at 85.8 MPH with an 84.4 average. This year in 125 throws he maxed out at 85.5 with an average of 83.7. From 3B specifically it was 129 and 114 throws with an average velo of 84.4 and 84.0 over the 2 years. Brooks Lee had 153 throws this season with a max of 83.1 and average of 81.5. Not enough throws (27) from 3B to get an average velo there from baseball savant, but I think it's safe to say it wouldn't have been 84ish when he maxed out at 83.1. Not a massive difference, but Lewis has the stronger arm according to the data we have available. And I don't know if throwing from 2B would help, hurt, or be neutral on his throwing struggles. Different arm angles used so could go any which way. I really hope he's ironed out his motion over the offseason, though.

Torres was in A ball at the time of the trade and was dealt at the deadline from a Cubs team trying to win their first title in 100 years. Ramos was a borderline top-100 prospect and that trade was pretty roundly despised the moment it was made. They weren't global top 10 prospects ready to step on a major league field. I'm not saying the Twins shouldn't be making calls on anyone and everyone they can, just that getting Lawler for a reasonable price is going to be incredibly hard.

I legitimately don't understand why you keep sending me defensive stats I've told you I don't care about because I know how they're compiled and they aren't good indicators of ability. I worked at SIS. I've literally helped compile the data for these stats. There are a lot of flaws in the data collection process and quoting these stats as proof of anything doesn't impress me. I've told you this many times yet here we are again. I get it. You don't like rookies. Trust below average veterans before you trust a rookie. Message has been received. And, for the record, that's no shot at SIS or the people working there. They're all wonderful, hardworking people. It's just that the tracking of these kinds of things is super hard without the type of technology that statcast type things have. They're relying on human beings to do things because it's their only option and that leads to a lot of problems with this kind of data. Its why defensive metrics are doubted so much.

Yeah, I have no idea who's available beyond Nolan Arenado, but that's not a huge win as he's expensive and on the decline (even though I still love his glove and watching him play). Pulling top-10 global prospects who are MLB ready from teams trying to contend is a nearly impossible task. If Jenkins debuts at the end of this year and is set to be on the opening day roster for the Twins in 2026 what would it cost to get him? It'd be a pretty crazy price tag for the Twins to give up 6 years of an MLB ready Jenkins. I think the same is true for Lawler. I just don't think there's any way you're actually getting him unless you're throwing them an absolutely unreal package.

Every trade needs considering. And it's always possible they can pull off the multi-deal magic it'd take to make an improvement on the 2025 team. Kike isn't someone I'm interested in as a Castro replacement. Castro is no star with the bat, but he's at least average to slightly above. Kike is a below average bat and making this offense worse is not something I'd be a fan of. Iglesias is an interesting case. He's help defensively, but last year was a massive outlier season for him. He didn't even play in the bigs the year before because he was just a league average bat in AAA and couldn't get a job. He's been a below average bat the rest of his career outside of 2020 and 2013. If I felt better about him being at least as good as Castro that'd be a decent enough deal, but he'll likely cost in the 5-6 mil range so you aren't really saving much, if any, money. Interesting possibility, though. I like that they're looking for moves. I'm not saying they shouldn't or there's no way to make it all work. It's just a big task and 1 year of Cease is going to be expensive so you better have the rest of your team straightened out if you're going to give up what it costs to get him.

I was surprised to see Cease as the name the Twins are looking at. He'd help for sure. Has Cy Young upside. But, to me, they'd be building the Seattle Mariners of the Midwest with that kind of deal. They missed the playoffs because they couldn't score. The Twins biggest question mark, to me, is their offense (the defense is bad so not a question mark). We saw what happened at the end of last year when the team couldn't score. The pitchers had to be darn near perfect to win and they couldn't get it done because that isn't realistic. So Cease is a weird target to me even though adding a potential Cy Young winner is always good. If you're going to give up what it costs to get him I'd prefer they give it up to get a bat instead. I'd love Lawler, but I don't think there's any reasonable offer that would get them to give him up. And I'm not a big fan of the Twins making unreasonable offers for guys.

I think the "self-imposed" was more than a creation of the writers. Multiple beat writers all mentioned the same thing from sources. The FO and owners said they weren't going to reduce payroll but were all pretty clear they weren't really adding either. The 130 number looks like it was a little off, but adding Cease would push the payroll over 140 and there's been nothing from anyone connected to the Twins, including FO and ownership quotes, to suggest they are willing to increase the payroll like that. Obviously moving some other contracts would clear money as well, but I don't see any reason to believe the Twins are open to adding another 8 million or more to the payroll. If they're willing to get up to 145ish then I'm even more annoyed by the absolute no show of an offseason so far. If they're moving Castro for a non-MLB player beyond Cease I have no interest in that. You know I'm all for starting Emma on the opening day roster and I think Keaschall is going to be better than Lee, but trading for Cease is a "win in 2025" move. They're already a bat short (why I'd start with Emma on the roster) and trading Castro would make them 2 bats short of a starting lineup. Better have a plan to fill those spots before bringing in Cease for a big swing at 2025. To me, it just feels like the cost for 1 year of Cease is going to be too high if you're also trying to move Vazquez in the deal. You have to make up for Vazquez's negative value due to his contract then you have to pay the cost to get Cease on top of that. It can be done, but if it also costs them Castro in that deal or a separate one that's simply a money dump deal for a prospect I think the 2025 Twins are no better but now they've shipped out multiple prospects and/or a young MLB pitcher. They may have a few rabbits to pull out of a few hats, but it's going to take multiple deals to make everything fit and that's a hard trick to pull off.

He said "as of right now, I think he's more likely than not to play third base for us. But is there a chance he plays some second base? I think there's a chance." After talking about the makeup of the rest of the roster being uncertain and playing a role in where he plays. He's not sure because he doesn't know what the roster will look like. Royce can get all the instruction and work he wants at 2B. It's the offseason, he has time to work at however many positions he wants. He's got nothing but time to work at both spots. If he can't work at both 3B and 2B during the offseason there's much bigger problems we need to worry about with him. Did you read the article I linked? He's good with things now. He started working at 2B in the offseason on his own. He's happy to play anywhere on the dirt. He has been sending videos of his workouts to the Twins. Rocco was determined during the season because during the season they had Miranda to play 3B and nobody to play 2B. The situation was different. The makeup of the team was different. And the need was immediate. The goal is always to get your best players on the field, Royce at 2B made the pieces fit best at that time. Now the situation may be different. He's being as committal as he can be. If the roster changes who plays where can change. If the Twins trade for Nolan Arenado tomorrow Royce Lewis is no longer playing 3B for the MN Twins this season. If they sign Alex Bregman he's no longer playing 3B for the MN Twins this season. If they sign Pete Alonso Royce is moving to 2B so Miranda can play 3B because that gives them their best players on the field. Those are obviously very unlikely situations and it's why Rocco said "as of right now, I think he's more likely than not to play third base for us." But if the roster changes Royce's role can change. Just like Mookie Betts role changes. Or like Tatis Jr's role changed. Or Oneil Cruz's role changed. Or Aaron Judge's role changes. Or Rafael Devers role may change. Or Gunnar Henderson's role changed. This is normal operating procedure for any MLB team, not some crazy failure of Rocco and the Twins. If the Yankees can bounce Aaron Judge back and forth to different outfield spots and the Dodgers can ask Mookie to play both outfield and infield as needed, I think it's ok if the Twins ask Royce Lewis to work at more than 1 infield spot during the offseason.

I don't think San Diego would do that. That's the challenge of trading Vazquez. This whole scenario is pretty complicated unless the FO has the green light to add some significant money. The Padres are trying to cut payroll so the Twins likely have to pay all of Cease's 13+ mil plus they'd have to eat a large chunk of Vazquez's deal. The Padres would, in my opinion, see Festa as balancing out the deal with no extra prospect being needed on their side. Let's say the Twins have to eat 5 mil of the Vazquez deal which is what most people seem to think, they're adding 8 mil to the payroll on this deal which would push them over 140 mil. Do they have that in the budget? Or would Paddack and/or Castro deals also be required? A lot of moving pieces here. I'd be a much bigger fan of a deal including Festa if they were also getting a prospect arm back, but I don't think that'd be likely. The comp pick is part of why I don't think it's likely they'd add another prospect. Will be interesting to see if they can get something done and what the deal looks like. I just don't think this team is 1 starter away from a serious WS run and would prefer to keep the MLB ready arm they have than have a comp pick after the year.