Loosey

My hypothetical was based on him declining again in 2016 and this discussion taking place next offseason. I may not have been clear in the original post.

I don't think it would have to be covert. Bobby Bonilla's agent did something very similar 15 years ago. The Mets deferred $5.9 million for 10 years at 8% interest. They now owe him $30 million over the next 25 years. How does Bonilla say no? He didn't and he will be making $1.2 million dollars a year until 2035.

The future payroll part is sort of moot in the grand scheme of things. If Joe Mauer has ever heard of time value of money he most likely would say no. To the team $4M of extra money 20 years into the future is a drop in the bucket + they would likely earn far more than 2% on the deferred money over the 18 years. It clearly benefits the team more, the caveat to me would be what does Mauer get on the open market in the years he was cut and only receiving $11.5M from the team. If he can get the other half back he does it for sure.

At least I didn't hypothetically move him back to catcher. . . .

Let me start by saying the odds of this happening are close 0.000001%. But were in the off season now and sometimes thoughts like this pop into my head and I wonder if others think about them or if they don't if they think my thoughts are straight up crazy or would actually make sense in world in which people are logical thinkers with no emotional attachments to, people, places, events, things, etc. So here we go: Joe Mauer has 3 years remaining on his contract at $23M per year or $69M remaining. Let's say Joe continues the trend he has been on for the last two seasons and performs worse than last year. If Joe's line next year is along the lines of .255/.320/.360 (.680 OPS) do the Twins offer him a deal to leave the organization? If the Twins are playoff contenders again next year and actually take that next step in spite of Mauer, it might make sense to cut him and make room for a better, younger, cheaper option at first base. I know baseball contracts are guaranteed so if he is cut he still gets paid. However, deals can be made to make things better. Sometimes it benefits both sides, sometimes not. Here is where I get to who says no first: Lets say the Twins and Joe's agent discuss him leaving the team after 2016 season with $46M remaining on his contract. If the Twins said they would pay him $11.5M each of the remaining two years and defer the final $23M for 8 years at which time they will pay him out in installments over a 10 year period + 2% interest on money earned over the 8 year annuity period. Once payments start interest earning stops (this is most likely too simple but am using it for this hypothetical). So the interest earned would be $3.95M we'll round up to $4.0M. So beginning in 2027 the Twins would begin paying out Joe's annual installment payment of $2.7 million dollars through 2038. Assuming Joe signs with another club in 2017 this may make sense for him as an overall investment depending on what he receives. For the Twins they only spend an additional $4 million dollars spread out over 18 years. So who says no first - My guess is Mauer would, or would counter with a Bobby Bonilla sized settlement.

Here is how the conversion would go with Terry Ryan and Greinke's agent. Terry: So what's the starting point to make an offer on Greinke. Agent: Nothing less than $25M/year. We can discuss number of years after that. Terry: *Click* Agent: Hello?? You still there?

Jeter Comp is crazy, but I'll gladly accept him being equally as good as his brother but a Full Time shortstop. That would be fantastic.

A trade I can see happening this off season is Arcia being dealt. I doubt he will be a hot commodity but if they Twins have no intentions of rostering him this year, he will be picked up by someone for nothing. I don't have other team's prospects readily available to discuss, but I could see a team needing some RF pop such as Baltimore giving up a AA reliever like Mychal Givens or Andrew Triggs if they are desperate for more power than they received from their RF/DH platoon this year.

I don't understand the hurry in extending Escobar. He has 3 years of Arb left. Let him play out 1-2 full years. If he goes nuts next year to the tune of something like .275/.330/.450 then buy out his 2 years and a year or two tops of FA. If he has a similar year to this year, which was very good I would still possibly wait another year and then if he has one more good year buy out the final arb year and a few FA years. By that time a SS prospect may be ready to contribute as a utility player/platoon etc until it their time. Or if the contract is team friendly enough and Escobar outplays even the extension you can trade him if someone is ready to take his place or trade a prospect. But now is not the time for an extension. Sano extension however, I would be on board with that sooner rather than later.

I've loved the site since it began. I think that for the most part what separates you from other sites is you invite the readers to also be the writers. Reading comments I notice lots of commenters also write their own small stories on the forums page and can then banter back and forth with people who read it. Additionally, it's different from larger sites in that it does strangely have a community feel on a website. The comment section isn't so much a comment section as it is a discussion section. It's weird how happy I get when I see someone either liked s comment I made or even better quoted it and commented back. It's nice to have discussions with very knowledgable baseball fans. In my real world life 90% of the people would think I've lost my mind if I mentioned something called OPS or xFIP. It's nice to have these discussions even if I know none of you in real life.

It was already mop up duty by the time they came in yesterday. In a 0-0 game I would hope Molitor would roll with something a little more reliable.

The Twins should have gone with a Bullpen game yesterday after the 1st. After he got out of the first inning jam, Molitor should have called the pen and said, "You guys got the next 8 innings, who's up?". I could tell watching at home that Pelfrey was going to have one of those games were he doesn't throw strikes and just gets pummeled. Molitor should have noticed that too and taken him out.

So if my math is correct, If the Twins sweep today/tonight and the Astros and Angels both lose the Twins will be tied for 2nd Wild Card Spot with the Angels and a half game up on the 'Stros. Win/Win/Lose/Lose

Duffey deserves to be penciled in. The good thing about pencil is it can be erased if a mistake was made. Regarding May, why not give him his fair shot to be a starter again. If he struggles or is only decent and the bullpen needs an arm and Berrios is doing his thing in the month of May then move him back to the pen. My Rotation would hopefully look something like this: Santana Hughes Gibson May Duffey Pelfrey - Gone Nolasco - Possible Trade Milone- Possible Trade Berrios - AAA to start season Basically the Twins will have 8 guys competing for 5 spots. But really they will have 6 guys competing for 3 spots since Hughes and Santana are locked in due to salary obligations and the Twins will never ignore salary = playing time.

As the OP I am actually going to change my grade from a B+ to a B/B- after reading some of the comments. We are allowed to do that right???? My main reasoning is due to the fact that Twins waited until the deadline to add obviously needed BP help and the fact they didn't get anymore. I agree it should have been a complete overhaul for the most part. I was in the boat that a catcher was needed, but since August 1 Suzuki has actually played better than his career average. AJ was the guy a lot on TD were throwing out as a potential target, but here is how the two compare: Suzuki: .271 .327 .354 .681 Pierzynski: .309 .347 .419 .766 AJ probably would have helped the offense for sure and either would have been a VERY GOOD backup when you compare to either Herrman or Fryer. Would he have been enough to get the Twins an extra win? So I am torn on the no moves for a catcher. If I was convinced I would give the grade a solid B-, but because I am not I am in limbo between a B/B-. Still better than the D I gave them at the deadline.

We have had about 2 months now to dissect the Twins trade deadline move now and give it a grade. The Twins only deadline move was a trade for reliever Kevin Jepsen and a waiver deadline trade for Neal Cotts. At the time of the trade for Jepsen I would roughly estimate 85% of Twins fans were very upset for one reason or another. Either they were upset the Twins traded away Hu for Jepsen or/and they were upset that was the only move the Twins made. The Twins were rumored to have been in contact with Colorado for Tulowitzki, San Diego for James Shields and Benoit, Milwaukee for Carlos Gomez, and a handful of others that were pretty speculative in nature. When the dust settled it was Kevin Jepsen for Chi Wei Hu and Alexis Tapia. People were pissed. People were pissed for one of two reasons or both. 1) It was the only deal at the deadline 2) They traded a prospect that may turn into something at some point 3) Both I'm not going to lie, I was in camp #1 and was straddling on #2 whether to be upset about that or not. Fast Forward two months and here is what has happened: Jepsen has been a savior to the bullpen with Perkins ailing and struggling. He has grabbed the closer role in the interim and has been very effective. Troy Tulowitzki was a pipe dream, but Eduardo Escobar has outplayed him since the deadline. James Shields has pitched James Shields-like but if he was acquired it most likely would have meant Tyler Duffey would not have been called up. And Frankly Duffey has pitched better than Shields since his first big league start. Carlos Gomez is a Carlos Gomez. Wasn't a necessity since Hicks took off and became a very good outfielder the 2nd half of this season. Of that list the only one they didn't Acquire who would have been a nice addition over what they have would have been Benoit. Having one more quality arm in the pen would have been nice over the few week swoon the team had with pitching injuries. Neal Cotts has been a decent middle reliever, but nothing more than bridge guy to get you to your stud relievers. So, after looking back not making moves may have actually been the right call for most part. Jepsen has been better than expected and necessary piece. Overall I give the deadline moves a B+.

Should have Punto'd it and been at 3rd. In reality I couldn't care less if teammates fight. It basically was a little shoving match and the media made a big deal about it. If it wasn't Papelbon or the probable NL MVP it would have been a little blip in the game notes about a dugout altercation.

Choking out your teammates after they don't hustling. Man that gets old.

Sweet! Thanks!

Alex Wimmers: This is the first season in his pro career where he really was fully healthy and was able to pitch in a full season without being limited by innings. Was he happy with this season and does he expect to have a full-time role out of the bullpen in the future after being pretty much lights out after August's move to the bullpen? OR does he still expect to be a starter going forward?

Stephen Gonsalves: Ask him what his realistic expectations are for next season in terms of progressing through the organization? Does he have any relationship with Berrios and does he plan on going through a workout regimen like he did in order to go from a really good prospect to fantastic?

The depth this team organization has is really pretty amazing considering where they were in 2011. They went from completely bare cupboards to being fully stocked in a very short period of time. And it is not just a handful of studs at the top of prospect lists, it is very good players at many positions spread throughout that will hopefully be contributors at the big league level someday. Much different from the past when they had very few top prospects and then no depth built up throughout. Great work Twins Organization.

Something that will be said for hopefully the next 12 games is, "Tonight is the biggest game of the season". And tonight's matchup is no different, "Tonight is the biggest game of the season." Tonight matches up the Twins against Corey Kluber who has absolutely dominated them this season. In three games against the Twins this season he has pitched 26 innings giving up 7 hits and 4 runs while striking out 25. DOMINATION. In my opinion if the Twins want to reach the post season these are the types of games they are going to have to win. It's not illegal to win a game your are not supposed win. Tonight represents one of those games. Indians are favorited to win this game on the Twins home turf. I don't expect the Twins to put up a huge run total against Kluber, but hopefully they can get a few across and give them a chance. A win tonight would be a direct strike to the Indians playoff chances while being confidence booster and huge win in the Twins as they continue to stay within striking distance of the playoffs for the first time since 2010. Go Twins, Go Angels!

Clearly Kepler knows how to win, having 3 championships and all. Good thing we got him up here to show the rest of the guys what to do!

I tried the catcher conversion question with Plouffe about a month ago. It was purely hypothetical, but I don't think a month in Arizona will turn someone into a ML catcher.