chpettit19

Except in this very article and thread multiple people are telling you things that are true and your responses aren't to change your view it's to continue to stick to your disbelief of those things.

They had the information. MLB talked about the changing TV landscape during the CBA negotiations. DSG filed for bankruptcy before the Twins extended Lopez. It's not 20-20 hindsight just because you didn't know about things. They knew when their TV deal was expiring. Everybody who paid any sort of attention at all to such things knew they weren't going to get nearly as much in their next deal and that MLB wanted to create their own streaming network which the RSNs wouldn't like. RSNs were dying anyways. This isn't 20-20 hindsight. It's all things that us regular folk knew at the time and the people who's company had tens of millions of revenue depending on their TV contracts absolutely should've been making decisions based on.

MLB was talking about having to have their own broadcast capabilities during the lockout. To add to multiple other posts, MLB knew this was coming and was actively preparing for it years before DSG filed for bankruptcy. The DSG implosion was known at the time of the Correa signing. And happened before the Pablo extension (as another poster said). If reading these things is "unpleasant" for you it's likely because it goes against what you want to be true. The publicly known facts of the situation is that MLB was preparing for the demise of Diamond Sports, and RSNs in general, well before Carlos Correa ever wore a Twins jersey.

I'd say the Twins just have a middle-of-the-order-bat problem, but 1st and/or DH are places they could definitely use to fill that hole. The problem is they don't have any money to spend so it's really just about finding whatever offense they already have in house or making trades to try to improve the lineup. I hope they don't sell too much of the future, but there could be some savvy trades to be made. The Twins have plenty of guys who lack athleticism who they could hand 1B gloves tomorrow and tell them to get to work so I'd prefer their additions be at other positions if they're bringing guys in. Don't like the idea of moving Wallner there and taking away his best defensive asset in his arm. But Larnach could make sense. I'd prefer they just teach Lewis to throw a baseball instead of putting one of their best athletes at 1B, but if he can't figure out his throwing motion then he'd be an option. Miranda and Kirilloff are options, but all 3 of those guys (actually all 4 with Larnach included) have had health problems most, or all, of their careers. The Twins have a first base problem. But mostly they have a health and talent problem. Those are all connected, but the health problem is the biggest problem, and it can no longer be looked at or treated as a "bad luck" problem. You've built a roster of injury prone guys or you've built a training and rest and rehab program that leads to increased injuries. Either way it's hurting your performance. The Twins have some guys in house they can move to 1B. In fact, they have a lot of guys in house who's best position probably is 1B. The problem is they lack guys who can fill the positions they're currently in. Get healthy, talented players and 1B will figure itself out.

The Twins should explore trading everyone this offseason. Not in a "blow it up" kind of way, but in a "we're not good enough and we need to make changes" kind of way. Running it back minus the current free agents wouldn't be good enough. They don't have any money to sign legitimate veteran help. So either they go into next year happy to finish 3rd or 4th in the division around .500 again or they look to get creative in moving pieces around. Duran is a reasonable enough piece to look at moving if he can bring back help in another area and they think Paddack and Varland in the pen could cover for him no longer being there.

If Helman makes it through the winter on the 40-man he'll get his chance to take Farmer/Margot's spot. If he isn't successful early Keaschall is going to take his (and other's) job pretty quick (I hope). Will be interesting to see what they do with the 40-man and if they try to find ways to bring in more Farmer/Margot types are give guys from the system a chance. Can't call them "kids" because Helman and Keirsey aren't young anymore. Martin and Severino aren't particularly young either. But they're all cheap. If Helman is a large part of their 2025 plans, though, I'm not excited about their 2025 plans. No offense to Michael. He's far more talented than I've ever been. But he's not talented enough to be a large part of a contender's plan. Maybe he surprises me, and I like that he'd bring some athleticism to the squad, but the way this team likes to use everyone so much means he'd play more than he should. And I don't see that as a good recipe for wins.

Mr Eeles was the first name that came to my mind as well.

Every player should always be a trade candidate. Refusing to trade someone would be foolish. It's all about setting a realistic price for that player and then deciding if that trade would help the short and/or long-term health and success of your team. Should the Twins be shopping Ryan and Ober? Absolutely not. If they're in such dire straights that they need to worry about the salaries for those 2, things are far worse than any of us are imagining. But is there a reasonable trade that could be made for them that would help the team? Sure. Do I expect either of them to be traded? I have no idea. I have no idea where this offseason is going to go. I don't think any of us should be confident in what Falvey is going to do. He shouldn't have been feeling super comfortable in his job stability with the Pohlads in charge, but knowing he may have a new boss on the way should make him even more nervous, and nervous can lead to desperate, and desperate can lead to moves that none of us see coming. My guess would be that neither of these guys are moved because there isn't a trade that would help the 2025 Twins by trading them. There are probably a lot of trades that could help the 2026 and beyond Twins, but Falvey is likely more focused on the current iteration of the team than he ever has been. Because of that, I don't see it as very likely that he's moving his cheap top-end starting pitching. Unless the Pohlads think it's a smart move for their attempt to sell the team, I don't see Falvey making a lot of future-focused moves. But I don't feel confident in predicting anything he'll do over the next 6ish months.

The Orioles sold in 2 months. I think it's about setting a realistic price tag. 2 billion is not realistic. The Twins aren't worth that. If they're realistic and looking for 1.4 to 1.6 they can sell the franchise pretty easily, I'd bet. If they're asking 2 billion it's going to be much more difficult.

As far as just the Twins as a stand alone product, I think their attractiveness comes down to a prospective buyer's feelings on how well the Pohlads maximized the Twin Cities market. I've been quite vocal that I think they've failed miserably and there's a great deal of room to improve and draw more fans, and thus increase revenue. So I think they're pretty attractive when it comes to mid-market teams. The complicating factor is that it's not just about the Twins, it's also about MLB as a product. It's an interesting time to be trying to sell. Right in the middle of the switch away from RSNs as you switch to streaming. The prospective buyer must also trust the league office to maneuver through the next handful of years and find the right path to revenue growth away from RSNs. Or the new buyers have to have their own plan with a good understanding of the media market.

Too soon!

MLB is looking to expand. That's just as big a reason as any to expect the Twins, or some team, will be in MN. Nashville, Montreal, San Antonio, whatever city you want to name is going to be a smaller market, but the owners are also going to get some real nice expansion fees from new owners. Relocating the Twins won't be what the other owners want. They want their infusion of expansion cash. The interesting twist on that is that the Rays and As have figured out their stadiums which has been the holdup on expansion. Do new owners prefer expansion teams or the Twins? Does this help or hurt the Pohlad's asking price?

Well now I'm waiting on the new owners to see if we get along or not. Just keep this opportunity in mind when the Priests come calling tomorrow.

This is much like the talk of replacing the front office or Rocco or anyone. Could get better, could stay the same, could get worse. I don't think the Pohlads were the worst owners in baseball, but I don't think they truly cared about winning. The new owners may care about winning or they may care even more about profits than the Pohlads. Just like I'd like to move on from Falvey and Rocco, I'm happy to "move on" from the Pohlads. Not because I think they're the worst owners in baseball, but because I don't think they were the right people to lead the Twins to a championship (like I don't think Falvey and Rocco are). But I have to be realistic and understand that there's a lot worse possible outcomes, as well. My hopes are we get somebody who wants to stay in MN and has a vision for engaging and growing the fan base that will allow them to better invest in the team and get us where we all want to be. I would've liked this move more a few years ago before the Pohlads (and Dave St Peter) started completely alienating their fan base and making terrible decision after terrible decision when it came to their marketing and fan engagement, but a new owner can reignite the fans passion with some early wins in strategy. I don't need an owner that will pay to get themselves out of the low parts of the team building cycle, but I do need one that will pay to get themselves over the top during the high parts. An owner who cares about winning does that. That was always my complaint with the Pohlads. When it's bad, blow it up and make your profit with low payrolls. When it's good invest and don't worry about profits while you try to win. I think that's a reasonable hope for the next owner of the Minnesota Twins. But there's just as much of a chance we get somebody worse who cares even more about profits all the time. We'll have to wait and see how things progress and who jumps in on the bidding.

He called me early on but I declined until I knew what the payroll situation was and he said he'd just go it alone until I decided to join up. I'll bring you in as assistant GM when I make my decision after the Pohlads sell.

FYI, Falvey has basically said they aren't hiring a GM. They don't have plans for changes in the FO or something like that is how he worded it. So it's all on him now.

If their goal is to outdo their spectacular failure in fan engagement from the last 11 months then they should absolutely trade Correa to save money as they go into a season where they are relying on subscriptions for TV revenue. We could safely carve Joe Pohlad's face on the Mount Rushmore of terrible businessmen if that is the decision they make.

I don't mind the trade idea. Not one I'd pull the trigger on, but I think it's a reasonable thought process. Especially if you don't think Emma can stay healthy. He's never played 100 games in a season (did hit 99 in 2023). If he can't stay healthy the Twins do need more OF help as Buxton can't be counted on and Larnach and Wallner have their own question marks. What I don't like is the idea of bringing in a top-100 type prospect to make him a short-side platoon player. If you really think he can be a star you hand him a job and let him learn. I don't have the slightest idea of where the Twins go with this offseason. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see a trade of Jax or Duran or basically anyone on the roster. Also wouldn't be even a little surprised to see them run it back with the exact same team. Will be interesting to see how Falvey decides to handle things.

Still believe that they pocket whatever profit they can each year and don't roll it over to the next year? Absolutely. Why would we ever not believe that?

I was watching the Dodgers and Padres last night and found it fascinating that Michael King threw 173.2 regular season innings this year after having maxed out at 104.2 last year. 2.95 ERA and 10.4 K/9 for the year and a 1.57 ERA with 9.4 K/9 in September say he didn't "run out of gas." Is that just his DNA vs Twins pitcher's DNA. He was a reliever up until the end of last year. Wasn't great last night, but was incredible in his first postseason start. Why are the Twins players wearing down? Something isn't working. I find it very hard (impossible) to believe that they just happened to pick 20 dudes who all wore down. Outside of Royce Lewis who hasn't played near a full season in what feels like a decade, none of them should be wearing down. Need to figure that out if they want any chance of making noise in the playoffs ever.

Offense. Consistent offense. That's need #1. Add some improved defense to that and they're in a pretty solid place for contending for the Central.

Jeffers pop time is actually better than Vazquez's, and not really bad at all. Vazquez was 1.96 (54th percentile) and Jeffers 1.93, which was 75th percentile.

Garver played 54 games in 2022, caught 14. Ben Rortvedt didn't step foot on a major league field in 2022. A promising prospect at catcher is certainly needed, but your past Garver/Rortvedt combo left you 148 games short in 2022. In 2023 Garver played 87 games and caught 27. Rortvedt played 32. They left you 103 games short in 2023. Gerrit Cole made 33 starts in 2023. Ben Rortvedt caught him 13 times (of his 32 total games played for NY). Luis Trevino caught him 18 times. Not much of a "private catcher." The Twins absolutely lack catching depth in their system, and it's a self-made problem because they just don't put any resources into acquiring catchers. But trading Garver and Rortvedt was not a bad decision. And most veteran defense first catchers are not expensive. It's why the Vazquez deal was questioned so much when they signed him. Most go for about 4-6 million for a year or 2.

I've never understood this "young guy to mentor" idea as if Vazquez is some secret catcher whisperer that's going to make a young catcher better than he is. He's mentored Jeffers for 2 years and you're ready to move on from him. What evidence do we have that Vazquez would've done some magical work with a young guy not named Jeffers? Because, you know, Jeffers was a young guy for Vazquez to mentor for 3 years. And shouldn't have traded Garver and Rortvedt so they'd have them instead of Jeffers and Vazquez? You think the catching situation is bad now? Imagine having Garver (who has caught a whopping 67 games since he left) and Rortvedt who has played in 144 total MLB games in the last 3 years. That was the way to go? A DH and a AAAA catcher? Come on. Garver has been hurt so much while not even catching that you wouldn't have even had him and Rortvedt is so bad Tampa is openly talking about needing to add catching this offseason after the Yankees traded him because he wasn't good enough for their team. Your plan would've had the Twins out of viable catchers 3 seasons ago instead of 2026.

I disagree with the premise that it seems almost certain that the Twins will trade one of their catchers. Anything is possible, and this offseason could see a lot of turnover if that's the direction Falvey chooses, but Vazquez isn't the backup catcher because the Twins don't do backup catchers (or backups in general). The most drastic they'll get is 60/40 behind the plate, but they prefer 55/45 or 50/50. Because of that they need 2 guys they like behind the plate. Trading Vazquez, a prospect, and 5 mil to bring in Vazquez 2.0 for 5 mil means all you did was give away a prospect (they aren't trading a prospect good enough to have a team eat all 10 mil unless Falvey is crazy desperate and Joe should veto that immediately while firing Falvey). Trading away Jeffers for prospects to replace him with Jeffers 2.0 or Vazquez 2.0 for his same salary isn't a move you make when you're feeling the heat. Falvey may not want to blow up the top of his system to save his job this year, but he certainly shouldn't be worried about adding to it when he won't even be here next year if the big club loses again. I think moving a catcher is actually towards the bottom of the possibility list. Certainly don't see it as "almost certain." Feels more like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic to worry about switching out a catcher for no real 2025 MLB gain.