Twins33

Napoli really wants a contract from the Twins apparently, as he's supposedly trying to recruit Darvish to the Twins

Darren Wolfson just mentioned on the radio that the Rays like Kepler..

To add, he just said on the radio that the offer is four or five years but he doesn't know for how much.

I know it's just an example but reports are that Darvish has multiple 100M+ offers and Martinez has one from the Red Sox. I personally don't think collusion, just because it's always been bad to give older players big money and lots of years. They did it anyway. Now front offices are getting smarter and looking at the aging curves and data that has been out there for a long time and deciding "why were we doing this? That was dumb."

I wouldn't want them to do it unless Darvish is out of the picture. If they miss on Darvish then I'm all for it. I'd put Martinez in Grossman's role. Part time OF, primary DH. Not sure he'd accept that though. Mauer, Sano and Vargas would still need some DH time too, but Martinez would be a big upgrade over Grossman.

Agreed. Darvish is the only big money FA pitcher out there. He'd be number one in the rotation. Even though they need SP, if they can't get Darvish it wouldn't be a bad thing to go after the big money hitter. The Sox offer seems perfectly reasonable to me though and not a lowball. I don't think I'd want the Twins to go higher than 5/140 for JD, but he's definitely a guy I wanted the Twins to go after when the offseason started.

My guess is they thought it would heal. I've never heard of a player starting to throw sliders in December. They may start playing catch at that point but not throwing sliders. And maybe they did not know sliders were the indicator at the time. If he plays catch, reports nothing because there is no pain...then they assume time or the shot healed it. That's not their fault or Santana's for not throwing sliders months prior to the usual time of doing that, unless they knew all along that sliders were the trigger which I'd have a hard time believing right now.

They found nothing significantly wrong when they did the end of year physical and gave him a shot. Now, I think we're all frustrated that these surgeries always end up happening at a big delay, but surgery is always considered the last resort. Surgery is serious, even routine ones. According to Levine (1500 Espn interview) he didn't start hurting again until he started throwing sliders in bullpen sessions. So it's not really hard to see why it took this long. It's unfortunate that it happened but they aren't ever going to recommend surgery as the first resort unless there are zero other options.

This tweet is a reply to someone, but it says the Twins have made an offer to Darvish. In a later tweet replying to someone else, he said he doesn't know when the offer was made.

I would think not since it may only wipe out his April. Wouldn't think insurance kicks in until significant time is missed and I doubt they count spring training.

Yes, it can vest due to 200 IP. Not happening now it seems, but I believe it then turns into a club option so the Twins could still pick it up.

Ive found the pirate.

Always something.

I don't pay for it either but googling for sites like this for the Dodgers says that he's not on BA's list either. Buehler, Verdugo, White and Ruiz are on BA for them. I don't think BP's list has come out yet, unless I'm terrible at locating it. I only can bring up the 2017 list. And no one is talking about it in regards to the Dodgers...at least in the quick search I did.

6/150 is as far as I'd want them to go. I prefer four to five years.

To add to that...pitching-wise, Kershaw and Keuchel aren't coming here either. Those are the big two next year, if Kershaw opts out.

That may be right but are they going to go on another 20ish game win streak again? I'm thinking not, though they could win a game every other day and still accomplish a similar result in the end..but my point is that I don't think the teams will be 18 games apart next year if the Twins improve the rotation. The Twins and Indians scored the same amount of runs last year but the Indians pitching was obviously way better. The Twins could possibly catch up with an add of Darvish and the improved bullpen. How much we have no idea. The Twins shaved 101 runs off their runs allowed from 2016 to 2017. We know the 2016 team underperformed but to allow 100 fewer runs seems like a big jump (not sure how common it is to make a 100 run jump in a positive way) and was mostly due to defense. They need to shave another 100 to be up there with all the big boys. The Indians young players could improve too, but I feel like adding Darvish plus the improved bullpen gets us closer than 15 out. Especially when they lost Santana, Jackson (good part time player) and Shaw. Those aren't huge losses but it makes a dent. Though I have zero clue if they lost significant time due to injury for any of their players so that would/could easily make up for the player losses from the offseason. And if our guys slump or don't improve on last year that will hurt too. There's a number of factors involved but I could definitely see a scenario where the Twins are within 5-7 games of the Indians. They absolutely need to improve the rotation for that to be possible though.

Bcs4: not quoting your post because ours combined would be gigantic, but here's my response: In this market, Darvish is what helps the most so that's where we differ. Unless we're trading for Strasburg (not available, Archer (possibly available), Duffy (possibly available), DeGrom (not available), Stoman (probably not available), Syndergaard (not available), Ray (not available) etc...there is no better option than Darvish. Archer and Duffy are it. So Darvish, Archer and Duffy or wait until this unknown time where the exact right player is available sometime in the future which could be next year or could be ten years from now. Again, sounds like what they've been doing already...waiting for that "perfect" moment. I think their moment is right now. They may never get another shot at a FA like or better than Darvish ever again. That's reality. It's time to strike. The factor that you are missing is that the Twins were terrible when they signed the majority of the guys you listed (Nolasco, Milone, Correia, Pelfrey and Worley). Who was begging for the Twins to sign those guys? Besides Milone, they had a history of being fifth starters in terms of talent (fourth starters at best). I didn't want to sign the majority of them but what studs were they blocking? Berrios in 2015 or earlier in 2016 is something I wanted, but he was the only stud. If you go with non-studs, then yeah I also would have preferred Wimmers, Duffy, Meyer, May, Gilmartin, Wheeler etc to that group. Who is arguing otherwise? And why are we comparing Darvish to fifth starters as if he is one? If you think that Darvish = Nolasco et al then that explains why you are thinking the way you are. That's the only explanation I can come up with. Because Darvish > all of those combined as far as talent level. Lynn and Cobb and below are more of the Santana, Nolasco, etc level. Darvish is above that tier. Darvish isn't immune to becoming a Nolasco, but he'd have to fall far for that to happen while Cobb/Lynn wouldn't have to fall nearly as far. And to add, I don't mind Cobb as a fallback option if no Darvish, but I don't think Cobb gives this team anywhere near the same boost that Darvish does which is why I'm all about Darvish while he's still available. Darvish would be the clear number one on this staff where Cobb would be the two or three depending on how Santana ages. And Darvish occupies one spot in the rotation. He doesn't block prospects coming up. As it stands now it could be Darvish, Berrios, Santana, Gibson (or a prospect), Mejia (or a prospect). Potentially two open spots for someone to take. There is a spot for Gonsalves or someone else to grab. And Santana and Gibson may not be on the team in 2019 so that makes it Darvish, Berrios and three open spots. I fail to see the problem here and I don't see the point in not trying to better the rotation (waiting). Better rotation equals more wins, unless you're really unlucky. And more wins is a good thing, isn't it?

And if the perfect scenario trade/FA never comes along in the future they just never sign or trade? Keep hoping they develop three stud SP? Ever single scenario, one way or another is going to have warts. Waiting to do something is what they've been doing for 15 years now. Always waiting for the future while the young core ages. Then run into another rebuild and repeat. Going after Darvish right now certainly has a few downsides to it, but the upsides far outweigh those. For the most part, they are not having to compete with the high money teams. If those teams were able to sign him without luxury tax concerns Darvish wouldn't even be mentioned as coming here because the Twins would have zero chance. Their chance right now is already low enough, but better than the zero it would be otherwise. The Twins need SP and they need it now. Right now. This season. The guys they have right now probably won't get them to even the WC game this year because other teams have improved. Anything can happen in baseball, but I think most would agree that they are on the outside looking in as of today. 85 wins is very likely not going to be enough this year. So they need to do something and Darvish is technically the cheapest option as he only costs money. If they trade it'll be prospects and money, which to me is a much higher price to pay. It'd be worth it for the right guy but it doesn't seem like many are out there. Archer and Duffy might be the only guys actually available in a trade and like I said, they need the pitching now. Right now.

LoMo is the guy I want too. Austin Jackson was my first choice but he's gone now.

He was in the Garcia trade to the Twins. All I know is that he's a FA.

Yes. Personally, the one good thing about the slow market is that it's almost February already. In the past most of the big signings would be done in December and then it felt like for-freaking-ever to get to pitchers and catchers. This year, we're two weeks away for P&C and there are still big fish out there. For me, even though it's been slow...it's also somehow felt way faster in getting to February. Maybe if the Twins weren't "in" on one of the remaining guys it would have felt longer like it usually does.

I like Mejia, but I agree with this. In half his starts, he didn't even make it to five innings. That's not acceptable, even from a fifth starter. He posts workout videos on instagram occasionally and his face looks slimmer in those videos, but it doesn't in still shots so hard to say if he's lost anything.

He'll be wearing a Cubs uniform. That's what I've thought for a month now. I'll be happy if I'm wrong and he's a Twin instead.

I pick Sale too, but I go Darvish out of those available. (Also I swear I read/heard that Sale or the Red Sox discovered he was tipping pitches against the Twins. He did better against the Twins in the two games last year).