Twins33

I'd disagree on that. The "great" part at least. This is the first time I can recall the Twins being interested in a top SP available (Darvish). Never heard the Twins interested in Greinke, Price, or Scherzer when TR was the GM. Pretty confident that they never even talked to them at all. This is a change. They still may not get a Darvish and can pull the "we tried" thing (though this is a different FO), but no way TR would be talking to Darvish right now. This FO is. This is just my opinion but I'm not even sure TR would have went after Lynn this offseason if he was the GM. A Hellickson or Cashner seems more his top level.

Maybe Darvish loves Abe

This seems to bring truth to the rumor that he already has a top five since he's eliminating teams so quickly. Still many teams to drop, but that was the speculation out of Japan (though the Yankees were on that list so that part was wrong).

Twins out. Which I think most realistically expected

Not surprised:

This wouldn't surprise me at all considering you don't have to fly over all or half of the US to get to Japan. My thought all along was the Mariners. And the Padres don't seem like too insane of a choice either since they have a top 5 farm system.

Yeah the Yankees were definitely a big threat since they are an up and coming team too...along with being "the Yankees."

And Heyman with this:

Heyman seems to be the only one saying it's not official, but also mentions the "small market" rumor which now may not be a rumor.

Nice to have one down

Copy/pasting from another post I made: There is speculation going around out of Japan that he's already narrowed it down to five teams. https://twitter.com/devanaltman/status/937026619369230336 Not sure how true, link is from cubsinsider and the cubsinsider link includes the link to the Japanese article which supposedly says 5 teams. Anyone able to read Japanese? The Japanese article seems to suggest Padres, Yankees and Dodgers based on an image in the article. The other two are not known. Some are saying it's just his preferred choices and others think everyone else is already out of the running. Like I said it's all speculation, but if he signs rather quickly we may found out it was true. Then there is also this:https://twitter.com/cubs1611/status/936734985570091009 I don't watch MLB network and don't see that they've tweeted that. Just figured I'd pass that along too. Personally I'd trust the link from Japan before I would trust MLB network, but it could still be incorrect.

There is speculation going around out of Japan that he's already narrowed it down to five teams. https://twitter.com/devanaltman/status/937026619369230336 Not sure how true, link is from cubsinsider and the cubsinsider link includes the link to the Japanese article which supposedly says 5 teams. Anyone able to read Japanese? The Japanese article seems to suggest Padres, Yankees and Dodgers based on an image in the article. The other two are not known. Some are saying it's just his preferred choices and others think everyone else is already out of the running. Like I said it's all speculation, but if he signs rather quickly we may found out it was true. Then there is also this: https://twitter.com/cubs1611/status/936734985570091009 I don't watch MLB network and don't see that they've tweeted that. Just figured I'd pass that along too. Personally I'd trust the link from Japan before I would trust MLB network, but it could still be incorrect.

I'm on the side of keep him for now. If you get three starters in the offseason, then trade him. That is probably a less than 1% chance of happening. Look at it again mid-season depending upon how the team is doing. I don't expect him to be a Twin in 2019. Just a gut feeling.

i can see it both ways, it doesn't help that the last front office was so clingy to their players. I don't think they would have only protected three players in the rule 5. I don't think they would have removed Rosario or Tonkin. We don't yet know if this FO will be clingy to their own drafted players, but they don't seem to be with the previous FO players. If the Twins get Darvish and/or Ohtani or make a trade for a SP and they pitch well are people really going to complain that they are blocking Gonsalves or Littell? I know they will complain if the acquisition sucks, but you can't do anything about that except scout/analyze to the best of your ability and hope a player doesn't get hurt. If anyone is going to be blocking those two prospects it will likely be Gibson, Santana or Mejia. And they should have no problem ditching the first two for Gonsalves or Littell if needed. So this whole blocking thing shouldn't be an issue until three years or more from now since there is for sure one SP spot open now and could be 1-2 more depending on what they do with Santana/Gibson in the future. And it's hard to see what the pitching depth will be then since we don't even know what they'll be able to accomplish in the next couple of months. And just FYI, I'm not counting on May or Hughes in any of this. We don't know if they'll contribute anything meaningful or how soon they may be able to. Blocking may be the right word if the FO decides to not cut bait when it's obviously necessary but technically that's more mismanagement/stubbornness than a true block. At least that's my way of thinking about it. It's probably just semantics, but I can safely say that in my opinion no one was blocking Berrios and no one was blocking any one of the RP so the Twins have never had this problem. (Sorry about the Park thread hijack. I don't think the Park/Nishioka failures should stop them from going after Ohtani or any other Asian player)

We keep using the word "blocking" (I've done it too) but has a player ever actually been blocked? Berrios maybe, but that argument could go either way in my opinion. I was for him being up even earlier than he was, just for the record. Nolasco, Duffey and Gibson sure shouldn't have been blocking him as they were all terrible. That's the FO fault for not replacing one with Berrios sooner. They weren't blocking him by pitching well. And Berrios had a rough 2016, but I would have been fine with him taking his lumps over watching those other three. It's been said for 2-3 years now, we can't sign RP because we have all these stud RP prospects. Then they keep getting injured and we say the same thing the year after. It's a cycle that's happened for many years now. No one ended up being blocked. SP: Three SP (May, Hughes, Santiago) were lost to injury last year and another (Gibson) was terrible for a big chunk of time. No one in the rotation would have been blocked last year either. We keep worrying about players being blocked, but it seems like it never happens due to injury (mostly) or poor performance. I think we need to stop saying it and stop worrying about it until it actually happens. When it does happen, it's one of those "good problems to have." Too many healthy, good players is a good problem. The Twins haven't had that problem. I don't want to block say a Gonsalves either, but I also don't want to pretend like there won't be any injuries or any poor performances that he can replace. Both of those things are likely to happen. There's also the possibility that Santana and Gibson are not on the team by midseason or end of season.

Not exactly sure what you mean but you can lose as many guys as other teams are willing to take. There is no extra protection. So the Twins can lose every player they left unprotected, unless the other team returns them and the Twins want them back.

He was an option I wanted if the Twins were going to sign a one year guy. Definitely would have done 1/$4.

Right. I was just pointing it out in case you weren't aware. I think there are certain levels of seriousness of the injury, so maybe he'll be fine. There is small sample size of pitchers who have had the surgery, I think like five, and the results are bad. Personally I don't think the Dodgers are going to trade for a 2B again. They'll hope Forsythe is healthy and better in the regular season than he was last year. He did decently in the playoffs. Having a good 2B seems more like a luxury for them rather than a need. They won a lot of games without Forsythe's help.

Urias has the same injury as Johan Santana. I remember seeing reporters tweet that they fear his career may be over. Wish I could remember which reporters but it was mentioned during and after the season on twitter. So they may not be so clingy about him anymore.

Yes. A whole lot easier to convince a MN boy and a Wisconsin boy to come "home" so definitely yes.

Nothing changes. The player is still in the Twins org and not on the 40 man.

Seconded.

FYI for those who don't click the link, there's now a Monday deadline on this negotiation. Updated this morning. They may not stick with that deadline though.

https://twitter.com/joeschmitkstp/status/930959854713425920

I don't remember it ever happening. They were always only mentioned for bottom or middle tier FA.