KirbyDome89

They're hanging onto a sub replacement level player to be the 3rd string option at a defensive position he hasn't played in 5 years? Idk. I'm sure the Twins can find an actual C who can't hit if things fall apart at that position.

Nobody is asking for CC every offseason. Nobody is saying this organization is done everything wrong. C'mon.... In vacuum I'm sure you can justify any move. In reality, there was real reason to question Margot and/or Farmer's presence on the roster, or the back end of the pen, or actual SP depth before the first pitch was thrown opening day.

We're watching Julien butcher balls at 2B, Martin struggle to track balls in CF, and Castro play a passable (at best) SS while Farmer and Margot, the two guys who were supposed to be the backup at premium positions have been deemed unfit to play there. Those two have combined for -1.3 bWAR this season. You're honestly telling me you can't do anything to fix that problem? No, I'm saying that if you're going to rely on oft injured players (and there is nothing wrong with putting some faith in Buxton, Lewis, or Correa) you better have a contingency plan in place that's more than replacement level players or guys you could be signing to minor league deals. If your opening day CF has a lengthy injury history, is a light hitting OF who happens to be a defensive liability and is only capable of starting 25% of the time a viable backup? Probably not. If you're relying on Brock Stewart to be a bullpen linchpin, does it make sense to fill half of your pen with journeymen/castoffs? Again, probably not. To put a point on it: What type of production and/or how many games did you expect from Buxton before the season started? I'm guessing if I told you he'd post 3+ bWAR, play 90 games, and spend 82 of them in CF by late August you'd take that every single time. Now that he's started to break down it's bad luck? Oh, and the need to have an adequate CF option on the roster somehow came as a shock to the Twins? Lewis has played 124 career games in nearly 3 full seasons. Should we be surprised that he's been on the IL twice this year? How many innings did you think the Twins were getting from Stewart? How many innings did you expect noted ironman Chris Paddack to eat post TJ? I hope you're not talking about DeSclafani with that #5 remark. When you trade for a guy with elbow issues (especially one who isn't good to begin with) it isn't awe shucks bad luck when those issues don't magically disappear. If you're counting the two week absence of Brooks Lee and his .640 OPS amongst the bodies you're stretching... Is this team not fortunate that SWR has filled in for 100+ innings after Varland flamed out? Have the relative bounce backs from Miranda and Larnach not been favorable? Has Bailey Ober seemingly overcoming serious durability concerns not been a godsend? Ect, ect, ect. I'll say it again, despite the "woe is me," attitude many fans latch onto, this team doesn't have it that bad.

The bullpen is missing Stewart, a guy who hasn't topped 30 IP since 2017, otherwise what has plagued that unit is poor performance and inconsistency. Ryan's injury is the first extended absence for the rotation in 2+ seasons. It hurts, no doubt, but he's been gone for 2 weeks. Lopez has had a down season thus far, Varland flamed out, Ober has been solid, SWR has stepped up, and it's TBD with Festa/Matthews. The Twins have gotten more production, both with the glove and the bat, from Buxton this year, and he has already eclipsed his number of games played from last year as well. It's a dead horse, but the guy is consistently unavailable. Ditto for Lewis to this point in his career. Idk what to think about Correa missing time in back to back years with heel injuries. Larnach and Miranda have been healthy. Both catchers have been healthy again. It's been business as usual as far as health goes for the position players. Twins fans love to think this team is snake bitten, but you reap what sow when it comes to relying on guys who are oft injured with waiver wire fodder or platoon (at best) type guys tabbed as the next man up. Players missing time is part of the normal ebb and flow of a 162 game season. The "challenges," we're concerned about have much more to do with roster construction/strategy, a lack of investment, and inconsistent performance, i.e. they're self created.

No, it wasn't, they sat in nearly the same position just a few years prior. Big spending? Lol, when did having an average payroll become "big spending?" We're moving the goalposts now... If we're talking about which relief arm with a salary under $1M this team could've acquired at the deadline to patch a unit that was falling apart you're making my argument for me. Yes, Falvey made choices, and yes, he gets to share in some of the criticism, but the fact that the ownership imposed restrictions under which he is forced to make these decisions is being hand waived seems disingenuous at best.

Ownership slashed payroll to Metrodome era spending relative to the rest of the league this offseason. If you want to pretend that kneecapping this team during the offseason and the last two deadlines hasn't negatively impacted the club don't let me stop you, but that's a horrible take, and it's infinitely more tiresome than the "nonstop whining," about the budget...

Varland's issues as a starter don't play particularly well as a reliever either. He's probably better than Okert or Richards, but that's an incredibly low bar to clear. Neither of those guys belong on playoff rosters, or probably MLB rosters at this point. I don't think Varland as depth is really much of an upgrade over Boushley ect. I also don't think he'll necessarily stop the bleeding in the pen or be the plug/savior others seem to think he'll be either.

The Twins were obviously comfortable feeding him playing time if he was Buxton insurance. What left handed bat were they going to platoon with him in CF?

Not moving the goalposts for what constitutes pitching wonderfully? Today was a typical Varland start; hard contact, traffic on the bases, and home runs. He was lucky nobody was on base for either of the bombs he surrendered.

And he hasn't caught any breaks? I thought you wanted to argue the results? Nobody is blaming him for today's loss.

Did you watch the game?

10.2 IP, 16 hits, 3 HR, 1 BB, 7 Ks, 6 ER in his last two games. That's at best neutral as far as contributing to a W. If you want to argue that simply avoiding implosion provided the chance to win today, ok, but that's a pretty low bar.

Absolutely terrible AB from Garcia there. Swinging 2-0 with Witt on deck, then K'ing on ball 4 that was nowhere near the zone. **** happens, but I don't know how a Major league hitter can be that clueless. Also, Richards can be gone at any point.

Honest question, does Richards have more WPs than Ks on his vaunted changeup thus far in his Twins career?

It was a quality start in name only. Sequencing luck isn't reliable, i.e. if you're going to bleed baserunners and yield hard contact, including serving up way too many bombs, you're asking for trouble. Yes, the Twins are in this game, but they'll be out more often than in if Varland continues to pitch as he has.

Huh? They've had much more success with the bullpen compared to the rotation.

There is no "pipeline." A segment of this fan base won't let that moniker go, and every year this argument gets rehashed with new names, new profiles, new timelines, yada yada. Hopefully SWR's first handful of starts weren't a total mirage and the more recent regression means he'll settle in a back end role with some mid rotation upside.

Just going through the arb process he's going to make a decent chunk of that $80M. Vlad Jr. is making $20M in his penultimate arb season following a good but unspectacular 2023. Of course Lewis needs to be available more often, but why would he not bet on himself being able to do that, especially if buying out his arb years + FA doesn't provide anything other than catastrophic injury insurance?

Why would Lewis agree to delay hitting FA to play for a below market rate? He's essentially ****ed either way in regard to salary until 2029. The Twins can spin the arb buyout as throwing him a bone, but the buyout would have to be sizable to entice Lewis to give up a prime season and push back FA. I'd imagine Lewis is looking at the contracts Witt Jr. or Wander Franco signed and starting there. Similar to all the hypothetical trades tossed around on this site, if you're comfortable doing it, it likely isn't enough. If I'm the Twins, I'm in no hurry to throw $$ at a guy that hasn't been available for massive chunks of the last 3 years. A long term extension doesn't really make sense for either side right now.

Is Festa a solid/reliable MLB starter now? Varland certainly isn't. The hope is that SWR can lock in a spot in the back half of the rotation. Ober is entrenched. Is that really a "pipeline?" SWR is the closest anybody has come to sticking in the last 3 years. Ober is the only other starting arm this FO has graduated since 2017. Again, is that really a "pipeline?"

Take a breath.

Quality vs. quantity is real.

I know the broadcast box isn't 100% accurate, but the only actual "miss," according to that box went Richards' way. Also, we're up to 2 wild pitches and 5 walks already. Idk how you expect to get any sort of borderline call when you're all over the place.

Of course it can. I could buy into Detroit or Chicago asking for 80 cents on the dollar from the Twins rather than the 75 they pitched to other clubs, i.e. a throw in or something along those lines. I absolutely don't believe either of those clubs were wasting their own time on deadline day sending ridiculous offers to the Twins. The rivals narrative provides pretty convenient cover, and using a nebulous term like "premium," while floating a top prospect inquiry and doing nothing to better your own team reeks of damage control to me. Agreed, ultimately the self imposed limitations are what has continued to hamper this club.

It (MN being bullied by rival teams) isn't an impossibility, I just see it as highly unlikely given what we know about the Twins and how they handled the offseason and the last 2 deadlines. I'm unsure how/why it would be fallacious to avoid giving the benefit of the doubt to a team that has shown zero desire to spend for a calendar year now. Did Chicago and Detroit collude to ensure the Twins got nothing at this deadline? At some point, if you can't get anything done with 29 other teams + FAs, you're the problem. Occam's razor right? Is it more likely that two rivals were simultaneously acting in a wildly incompetent manor, possibly colluding, and only chose to act this way with the Twins, or was the hometown team window shopping? I said it in another post, we just watched this organization trot Falvey out to ensure the masses that financial constraints had nothing to do with the deadline inactivity. Why anybody should take this organization "leaking," post deadline damage control seriously is beyond me.