Eris

A rebuild was coming anyway. Aside from Buxton, Keaschall and possibly Jeffers, which position players have played well enough to lock in a starting role for the next few years.

Nice to see the ex-Twins do well. Even Ty France got the job done getting a run home in the 7th.

It would have been hard to predict that that the performance of just about every position player who contributed to the winning 2023 season has fallen off of a cliff. Ryan Jeffers has performed similarly. That is about it. Buxton was injured most of the season. I think blaming this all or mostly on money negates a discussion about a team that has failed in player development and in making meaningful adjustments to changing dynamics of the game.

The winningest manager in Twins history played 1 year (49 games) with 0.181/0.262/0.244 and a WRC+ of 43. Nick Punto played to his fullest capabilities. If everyone on the current roster did that, the outcome of the last 2 seasons would be different. One of my frustrations with the current team is there didn’t seem to be any consequences for not hustling on the base paths. Hopefully the new manager will change that.

The 2007 Twins had 5 players with more than 3 fWAR. The 2025 Twins had only Buxton with more than 3 fWAR. Although Bader would have reached that level had he not been traded. I view the Twins Way as a focus on playing fundamentally sound baseball. Play good defense, smart base running, good situational hitting and awareness, and throwing to the correct base. What I am struggling to understand is why that is not the expectation now for every player who puts on a uniform.

“Even in a down year, Wallner remained one of Minnesota’s more productive hitters” There was previous discussion on TD about Wallner. The main takeaway was despite having great numbers, he has a negative WPA. From fangraphs, for 2025 his WPA = -0.87. The values were ~+0.5 in 2023 and 2024.

I have muted the TV and am listening to the Seattle radio broadcast via MLB at bat. The delay is not bad. Almost in sync with no effort on my part

Adam Amin — play-by-play A. J. Pierzynski — color analyst Adam Wainwright — color analyst Tom Verducci — reporter in the past I would sync my TV with radio broadcast using an electronic delay adapter. I wish I would have set this up for tonight’s game.

International signees pose special challenges as many are signed at 16 and frequently are Rule 5 eligible before they are ready to contribute at the majors. Because of how difficult it is to project, the Twins have chosen quantity over quality and seldom sign a top 10 IFA. An exception to this was Miguel Sano who was the top ranked IFA in 2009 and signed for a then record 3.15 million. In recent times, Boston and Atlanta have been punished for circumventing rules on IFA. The Twins signed recently released The Twins signed recently released Yunior Severino when his contract was voided Currently 4 of the Twins top 10 prospects (per MLB) are from Latin America. Only Rodriguez was signed by the Twins. Tait, Rojas and Gonzalez were acquired via trades. I am not certain this would constitute an under representation. Of these only Tait seems an almost certain major leaguer—which is one of your points regarding lack of development. Edited to correct that Rojas was acquired via a trade with the Blue Jays. Also there is no reason for the bold type regarding Severino. It was a cut and paste and I have not been able to correct this.

It’s too bad. I would have loved to see the Phillies beat the Dodgers. It was a brain freeze. Watching the replay, Realmuto was pointing to first base.

I thought this was one of the aspects of pitching that Craig Breslow demonstrated later in his playing career. By lowering his arm angle he could increase revolutions and therefore movement on his pitches.

A couple of items in context. Austin Meadows, and right-hander Tyler Glasnow were traded to the Rays for Chris Archer. So on this list, only Gerrit Cole was traded because of lack of affordability. The Chris Archer trade was a horrible trade for the Pirates. Worse than Sending Garza and Bartlett to the Rays for Delmon Young. However, I don’t think it should be used as an example for the point the author is trying to make.

Baseballsavant’s fielding run value ( sorry unable to paste the link) shows that there are about 5 elite shortstops, a few very good shortstops. Then everyone else. Interesting on this metric Lee grades out better than Correa (-1 vs -3). Neither of which is very good. For comparison, Bobby Witt Jr is +20.

This is exactly the challenge. Bottom of the ninth, tie game or trailing by a run, Runner at 3B with 1 or 2 outs. A strikeout is one of the worst outcomes.

Unfortunately the statistics are true. Over the course of a season the team that scores the most runs wins the most games. The stat most closely related to runs scored is ISO, and ISO is not correlated with strikeouts (i.e., strikeouts really don’t matter). The challenge comes when applying statistics that are true on a large sample size to a much smaller sample size. For the first round on the playoffs. Every team that advanced scored the most runs—except the Guardians. The Guardians lost the series to the Tigers primarily because of very poor defense especially in the first game.

I think in general many mlb pitchers with TOS do not regain their previous level of performance. Matt Harvey, Phil Hughes, Stephen Strasburg, Josh Beckett are examples.

Anyone else tired of listening to the same stupid commercials on MLB At Bat. They really need to hire a marketer who realizes that presenting a commercial 10-20 times a game is a major turnoff. (I am listening to the games as I dispatched cable TV more than 30 years ago). If I was watching I would mute the commercials, which was a response to the excessive number of sports betting commercials during the regular season

Yes, of course the new manager will be in a difficult position. The reality is the was a poor team filled with DH types. While there is some hope the Lewis, Wallner, and Martin may up their game next year, this team played much of the year in need of upgrades at 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, RF, backup C and possibly SS. It could have been much worse as Bader and Castro played well before they were traded. Other than hope (and Keaschall), there should not be much expectation that this improves for next year.

One other concern I would add is the unpreparedness of many players to play fundamentally sound baseball when called up to the big leagues. The vaunted Twins way seems to have disappeared when Tom Kelly retired. There are many examples one of which is Austin Martin who when first called up seemed totally incapable of playing a serviceable OF. One of the reasons is the Twins had him playing SS in the minors, a position no one expected him to play in the MLB.

"This wasn’t the corner turned in 2023, when Minnesota finally won its first playoff series in two decades. That team felt like the start of something. Instead, ownership slashed payroll...." It seems too easy to lead the discussion with money. The Twins payroll is approximately equal the Tigers and greater than the Brewers, Guardians and Reds. As I write this all these teams are in the playoffs or still in the race (Reds). A detailed analysis is far more nuanced than just money. The 2023 team made it into the playoff from a 2nd half surge led by Julien, Kepler, Castro, Lewis, Jeffers, and Wallner. These were career years for Julien, Lewis and Jeffers. The 2nd best careers years by fWAR for Kepler, and Castro. Since then, Julien and Kepler will likely be out of baseball next year. Lewis has been one of the worst hitters in baseball for past year. Wallner's career has failed to take flight. What the h*** happened that all these players did so will in the 2nd half of 2023 (and the first half of 2024). In addition, the Twins have had a horrible success rate with first round draft picks. Buxton, Lewis, Larnach and Lee are the Twins 1st round picks that are on the active roster. Lewis, Larnach and Lee combined for 1.4 fWAR this year. Martin was also a first round pick for the Blue Jays. That is a lot of failure in the scouting and development department. Also worth of a detailed analysis. The Twins perhaps have learned from the years of failure by drafting more athletic players with their first pick. The Twins lack of success with high draft picks is one of the main reasons for years of failure on the diamond. The Twins have continued to fail on the baseball field despite having success in their starting pitching department. Poor defense, lack of situational hitting, lousy baserunning all seem to contribute. Money will not fix these issues. I spent my evening last night watching baseball. A gem by Apel, several good defensive plays (Martin and Outman). Afterwards I watched the end of the Ranger-Guardians game.

The reason it feels like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel is that the trades didn’t address the core issue which is the position players as a group are significantly underperforming. To have a competitive team, the Twins need upgrades at 1B, LF, RF, possibly SS and 3B. That is half of a starting lineup. Maybe some of the upgrades will come from current players performing to their potential, otherwise we are waiting for the next generation of talent.

I don’t recall reading any analysis about Walker Jenkins defensive skill set in CF. Does he profile as elite, above average, average or below average in CF.

I am wondering if the information is actually correct. Yes. Falvey did say that they chose MLB ready prospects over higher ceiling players that were further away, but you would expect a GM to say that we traded for players that will allow the team to compete next year. You would not expect a GM to say we chose players who will be MLB ready in 3 or 4 years because our team will suck until them. Without knowing who the other players are, it is impossible to properly evaluate whether or not they could have had a better return.

While I would have love to see the Twins resign Sonny Gray and get his current level of production. The Twins main problem is they can’t hit, they can’t play defense and many players lack base running skills. I doubt that Sonny Gray would have solved those issues.

There is nothing indifferent about the final weeks of the season. I am sure the teams fighting for the last playoff spot are expecting a full effort on games that potentially impact playoff standings. Some players are playing for arbitration stats. Others are playing for a spot on the Twins or another team. Still others are playing for their last chance at a professional career. One such individual is Mickey Gasper, down to his last gasp in Major League Baseball, pinch hitting in the 9th. While the outcome is not what I would have liked, Mickey Gasper had a quality at bat.