Tom Froemming

I could also point to how poorly Berrios debuted as a reason to be encouraged about some of the young guys taking a step forward, but what does any of that have to do with 2019?

The top 25 stat was in the American League, but this works too. I'll take three of the top 45 starting pitchers in all of baseball.

Adalberto Mejia has a 108 ERA+ in 122 2/3 career innings.

Yup. Lance Lynn 5.10 ERA in 20 starts Ervin Santana 8.03 ERA in five starts The big X-factor will be how they react when someone struggles. They can't afford to keep sinking innings into lost causes. With the amount of options they have waiting in the wings, that shouldn't be necessary.

I think Twins fans to some degree are stuck in this mentality that we need starting pitching. Two things on that topic ... 1) That's not a team weakness right now. Berrios, Gibson and Odorizzi were all top 25 WAR for AL pitchers. Add Pineda and a bunch of good options for the fifth spot and you've got a playoff-caliber rotation. This team needs to score more runs and get a better performance from its bullpen. 2) Take a look at the 2018 Milwaukee Brewers rotation. Their best starter last year was roughly as good as Odorizzi. They still went 96-67 and were a game away from the World Series. There's no such thing as too much pitching, and the rotation does thin out after next season with Gibby, Odo and Pineda all set to become free agents, but I still wouldn't do anything drastic such as trade away Lewis to upgrade the rotation.

Those two would make the Twins sooooo much better, but there are money concerns and not just with Cano. Do you think the Mauer contract prevented the Twins from competing? I'd say no. Cano is also better than post-concussion Mauer, so I don't feel like his deal would hold the Twins back. The issue with Diaz is if you keep letting him rack up saves he's going to get ridiculously expensive through arbitration. Why anybody would give save chances to pre-arb or arb-eligible players is beyond me. You're burning money. Let them pitch the eighth. Now to the actual question, what would I give up? Well, not a lot, something like ... Brent Rooker + Nick Gordon + Jake Cave + Zack Littell The big benefit to Seattle in this offer would be on the financial side. They're taking back quite a bit of money in that Mets proposal. I'd imagine the Mariners would appreciate both not having to take on bad money and getting guys who could contribute in 2019. If Seattle is truly desperate to get out of Cano's contract and terrified of what they'll need to pay Diaz, this could work. This same line of thinking could work in other trade talks. The Twins have the ability to provide salary relief to a team looking to get out of a bad/big deal (how weird is that to say?). I don't think you need to give up a ton of talent in a scenario in which you're taking on a hefty contract. Cano's deal is particularity scary, there are some others that aren't nearly as bad. Looking at you Toronto. I don't think the Blue Jays want to pay Marcus Stroman and Ken Giles what they're going to get via arbitration the next two years (proj. $13.8M combined for 2019), I'm sure they'd love to get out of Troy Tulowitzki's contract (2 years, $38M guaranteed) and Russell Martin (1 year, $20M) is already on the rumor mill.

Six years of Royce Lewis? Yes. There's still some uncertainty around the next three years of Thor too. There are no guarantees. I believe Royce is a shortstop, but even if he moves to the outfield you're going to get an awesome defensive outfielder. Not all of his value is tied up in the ability to stick at shortstop. If the Twins were one ace pitcher away from winning a World Series, I'd feel differently about this question. But right now, I believe six years of Royce Lewis gives the Twins a better chance at winning a World Series at some point than three years of Noah Syndergaard.

I wouldn't give up Royce for him.

I've got one more item to pass along. Shortly after this published, Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs reported that the Mets are motivated to trade away Noah Syndergaard. Thor has had some injury issues, but he's also managed to top 150 innings in three of his four seasons with the Mets. That also comes with a 2.93 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 9.9 K/9 and 4.94 K:BB ratio. He's under team control via arbitration for the next three seasons and is still only 26-years-old, so I'd have to imagine the asking price is going to be very high.

Nathan Eovaldi is one of the hottest free agents on the market right now. Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported that the Astros have joined the mix of 10 teams confirmed to have interest in the 28-year-old right-hander. With that much competition, Eovaldi figures to land himself a handsome contract. It’s difficult to see the Twins coming out on top of the bidding war should they join the pursuit, but what they really should be doing is trying to find the next Nathan Eovaldi.Eovaldi had a solid 2018 season, but his postseason performance for the Red Sox really put him over the top. He missed the entire 2017 season and the two years prior to that pitched to a 4.45 ERA in 279 innings with the Yankees. Sounds a lot like Michael Pineda, right? Fingers crossed. In trying to come up with a similar buy-low, high-upside option I landed on Eovaldi’s Boston teammate and fellow free agent Drew Pomeranz. From 2014-17, he had a 3.24 ERA in nearly 500 innings. Forearm issues caused him all sorts of problems in 2018, including a dip in velocity. He had a 6.08 ERA for the Red Sox last year and was demoted to the bullpen. So obviously there are some red flags, but MLB Trade Rumors predicted that he’d be available on a one-year, $6 million contract. I’d take that gamble. I floated that idea out on Twitter, but Darren Wolfson of KSTP was kind enough to let me know the Twins had not made any contact with Pomeranz at this time. Maybe that will change once they address more urgent matters, who knows? Also, for those wondering, Drew is not related to former Twin Cities broadcaster and minor league pitcher Mike Pomeranz. Doogie also noted on Twitter that the Twins have been in contact with Patrick Corbin’s agent. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that Corbin, the top pitcher on this year’s free agent market, is expecting to receive six-year offers. Corbin has met with the Phillies, Nationals and is expected to meet with the Yankees. Jim Pohlad is notoriously averse to long commitments, and there’s some logic in that stance, so it still seems the Twins would be a long shot to land the lefty. It seems pretty odd that Cleveland is apparently forced to shed a lot of payroll this offseason, but even more strange is who they’re inclined to move. Bob Nightengale of the USA Today reported that there’s a sense the team is more amenable to send away Trevor Bauer than Corey Kluber or Carlos Carrasco. Not only is Bauer the youngest of that trio, he also had the best 2018 season of that group. Jon Morosi of MLB.com reported today that the Dodgers are in trade talks with Cleveland and its believed one of the members of their rotation would be headed to LA if any deal is agreed upon. The Twins could certainly use a boost in their rotation, but I doubt Cleveland would be motivated to deal one of their best players to their top division rival. Still, someone like Bauer potentially leaving Cleveland, along with their other pending free agents, will obviously give the Twins better odds of winning the division. Rob Huff of MLB Trade Rumors projected the Twins to have a $125 million payroll for 2019. That means they'd have $48 million to spend this offseason. Given the comments by ownership and the front office, I would be surprised if they went that high. But again, if Cleveland sheds talent the Twins should absolutely get aggressive. The Indians are already losing Michael Brantley, Andrew Miller and Cody Allen. The fact that there’s so much speculation that they’re looking to shed payroll means they’re certainly not going to be signing any big free agents. Michael Clair of Cut 4 predicted that the Twins would win the AL Central next season. One of the things he points to in the team bridging the gap to Cleveland is luck. So many things went poorly for the Twins in 2018 while Cleveland avoided a lot of those unforeseen issues, outside of their bullpen problems. If they traded Bauer and one of Francisco Lindor or Jose Ramirez was forced to miss a significant amount of time, that team would be very ordinary. The first Twins Hot Stove Show of the offseason was recorded Wednesday night. You can listen back to the full episode here. Derek Falvey and Rocco Baldelli were the guests. There was a lot of talk about culture, leadership and forming partnerships. A couple members of the 2018 Twins are moving on to other organizations. La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Trib provided details on Jeff Pickler joining the Reds coaching staff and Chris Gimenez becoming the game planning coach for the Dodgers. Over at Twinkie Town, Hayden looked back at the 10 dumbest things that happened to the Twins in 2018. I laughed, I cried, I realized there was lots of dumb stuff I’d already blocked out of my memory. A name you can expect to be hearing a lot is Yusei Kikuchi. The Seibu Lions are expected to post the 27-year-old lefty next week. He’s already in the US and was spotted at an Anaheim Ducks game. Here’s some video of Kikuchi on the mound: I haven’t seen the Twins linked to Kikuchi in any way, but he seems like a player they should definitely have interest in. He has a 2.81 ERA in more than 1,000 innings in the NPB. If you’re interested in learning more, Yankees site River Ave Blues did an excellent job profiling Kikuchi. Click here to view the article

Fun article. If the Twins are trying to win in 2019, Fernando Romero to the bullpen makes a ton of sense. Long term? That's really difficult to say without knowing whether they're going to be willing to extend Gibson, sign free agents or trade for starters. The 2020 rotation is looking really thin (no Gibby, no Odorizzi, no Pineda). I'd do it. If your season goes down the tank, you can always send Romero back down, stretch him out and get him ready to start again in 2020.

Glad to hear, thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking of incorporating a rundown/news and notes/link dump element like this into next year's game recaps.

Part of it was he swung at up and in pitches that were out of the zone way too much last year. After offering at those pitches 43% of the time in 2017, that jumped to 58% last season. He's not very good at making hard contact on inside stuff anyway, so he'll want to cut that down. Even if the Twins aren't interested in Schoop, Cano or Dietrich, those guys hitting free agency/the trade market will still help them. Second base is already pretty flooded this offseason. I wouldn't be surprised if the front office has a few guys they're interested in and will wait for the market to come to them. It's a really nice year to be shopping for a 2B.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe interviewed new Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and reported that the Twins were among the teams who’ve expressed interest in Sonny Gray (it’s a long article). His bi-polar name is quite fitting. On the “Sonny” side: He’s still only 29, had a 3.17 ERA on the road and won’t take a king’s ransom to acquire. On the “Gray” side: He’s averaged less than 140 innings pitched the past three seasons, had a 6.98 ERA at Yankee Stadium and is only under team control for one more season.Other teams Cafardo mentions in the mix for Gray are the A’s, Braves, Padres and Rangers. The main thing that stands out as an advantage for the Twins is they seem to be better suited to take on payroll. So if the Yankees are primarily looking for financial relief, boy does that feel weird to say, the Twins have a great shot. Gray is expected to make somewhere around $9 million through arbitration. La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reported that the Twins “have expressed some interest” in DJ LeMahieu. A three-time Gold Glover at second base, former batting champ and two-time All-Star, LeMahieu certainly has an attractive resume. Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs also highlighted his ability to barrel up balls, speculating a power breakout could be possible with an adjustment or two. Still, LeMahieu’s career .264/.311/.362 (.673) line away from Coors Field scares me. I’m pretty surprised the Twins (and every other team in baseball) passed on the opportunity to claim Derek Dietrich. He actually has a higher career OPS+ than Brian Dozier and has hit .272/.351/.465 (.816) away from Marlins Park. One non-tender candidate I could see being a target for the Twins is second baseman Jonathan Schoop. The Brewers acquired Schoop at the trade deadline, but he’s expected to make $10 million ins his final season of arbitration eligibility. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwakee Journal Sentinel wrote that Milwaukee is “believed to be somewhat torn about what to do” and that the decision could go either way. Schoop, 27, had an incredible 2017, blasting 32 home runs while posting an .841 OPS, but he came crashing down to Earth last season, hitting just .233/.266/.416 (.682). Mark Feinsand highlighted one non-teneder candidate for each team for MLB.com. Schoop was among those listed, but there were plenty of other names I could see fitting nicely on the Twins, including relief pitcher Chaz Roe. Give me all the ex-Rays! Roe, 32, had a 3.58 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 9.5 K/9 in 50 1/3 innings last season for Tampa Bay. The Twins added Nick Gordon, LaMonte Wade and Luis Arraez to the 40-man roster and released Alan Busenitz, allowing him to sign with a team in Japan. We could have some further re-shaping of the 40-man roster coming later this week, as Friday marks the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. It’s interesting that the trio of 40-man roster additions could potentially help serve as replacements for the Twins two most logical non-tender candidates. Robbie Grossman and Ehire Adrianza have been fine as role players, but neither offers much upside. It’s not as if those two are expected to break the bank, as they’re expected to cost around $6 million total, but there may be better ways to invest both that money and space on the 25-man roster. Here are the projected arbitration salaries via MLB Trade Rumors. Now that the Twins have added C.J. Cron, things are looking especially bleak for Grossman. Michael Achterling of the Pioneer Press gathered what basically amounted to a scrapbook of Joe Mauer highlights from the publication’s coverage of the homegrown star. Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors passed along some notes on both Zack Greinke and Paul Goldschmidt’s market. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the Mariners are actively trying to move Robinson Cano. I’d imagine those teams would have to eat a significant amount of the money still owed to those players ($104.5 million to Greinke, $120 million to Cano) in order to make a deal. Another name to note on the trade market: Madison Bumgarner. Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com reported the Giants are “willing to engage teams” in trade talks for MadBum. Bumgarner has built quite the legacy already thanks to postseason heroics, but he’s only under team control for this upcoming season and his FIP has gone up each of the past three seasons. Andrew Simon of MLB.com listed nine sleeper free agents to watch. One name I found particularly interesting was Carson Smith. The right-hander only has one healthy season under his belt, but it was a great one. Back in 2015, Smith saved 13 games for the Mariners while pitching to a 2.31 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 11.8 K/9. Intriguing buy-low option for the bullpen. Also from MLB.com, Mike Petriello took a look at the most extreme home runs of 2018. Guess who homered on the pitch the farthest off the plate? Yup, Eddie Rosario. Another prospect list! Eric Cross of FantraxHQ revealed his top 25 prospect list for the Twins. He’s particularly high on Akil Baddoo, who he has in the sixth spot. It’s a fun list, and Cross goes into some more detail on each player than a lot of other outlets. Just a friendly reminder: The 11th annual Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook will be available later this winter. Over at Twinkie Town, Thomas Reinking did a deep dive on the value of investing in free agents. The results were not encouraging. Click here to view the article

C.J. Cron is the best hitter on the Twins ...

Reed's first half usage 2018: 41 G, 41.0 IP, 667 pitches 2017: 41 G, 42.2 IP, 658 pitches 2016: 43 G, 41.2 IP, 657 pitches That's a lot of work across the board, but it's not like Molitor abused him. It's possible enough was enough and his arm finally reached a breaking point, but I wouldn't pin that on Molly. I don't envy Rocco, this appears to be a difficult first assignment in learning how to manage a bullpen. Hopefully the front office/ownership can provide him with enough arms so that Reed and Hildy don't need to be immediately forced back into high-leverage roles.

The Twins held a Fan Forum for season ticket holders last week and made the audio available on their site. The entire forum lasted more than an hour and included some really great contributions from the fans, but the final question fielded was particularly strong. At about the 59-minute mark Judy from Big Lake asked this: “First of all, I wanted to tell you what a horribly disappointing season this was for season-ticket holders; and I want to know how long do you think it’s going to be before you put a competitive team back on the field?”Wow, Judy bringing it! That’s both scorching and direct, exactly the kind of stuff that makes these fan forums unique. The team deserves some credit for allowing that question to come through. They could have very easily rejected her request, I’m sure there were many more fans waiting in the queue who didn’t have the opportunity to ask their questions. Thad Levine apologized for what transpired last season and admitted the season didn’t go the way they had hoped it would. He added this: “Our goal and our commitment to the fans is we want to put together a team that has the ability to complete year-in and year-out and have a long window for success. So we’re clearly in the building process – we’re not rebuilding, we’re building – and I think we’re building off of the successes of each of the last two seasons with the hope that we’ll take a meaningful step here in 2019.” I’m not sure how Judy from Big Lake received that, but I’m guessing any Twins fans thirsty for success weren’t exactly swept off their feet by that answer. Derek Falvey and new Twins manager Rocco Baldelli were also on the call. One of my favorite exchanges from Baldelli included this quote: “I tend to be curious and like to surround myself with curious people who like to stay open minded.” He also stressed creating a fun atmosphere and making sure the players enjoy showing up to work every day. Here are some other interesting items of note to come out of the forum: -Baldelli is going to try to get down to Georgia over the winter to visit with Byron Buxton. -Miguel Sano will continue to get every chance to play third base. -While Levine rained praise upon Willians Astudillo for both his performance and clubhouse presence, he also said “he’s going to need to earn it again,” implying he’s not being penciled into the Opening Day roster. -Falvey anticipates some changes revolving pace of play going into next year. He didn’t make any predictions as to what they may be, but he made it sound like nothing was off the table for the upcoming Winter Meetings. In his column for the Pioneer Press over the weekend, Charley Walters had some quotes from Jim Pohlad that should temper expectations for this offseason. Here’s what Pohlad said regarding Joe Mauer’s contract coming off the books: “It’s not like ‘OK, we’ve got this money now, and we didn’t have it before, so we can do so much more. I don’t feel that way.” The stove has been extremely cold so far this offseason, but since there have been so few moves, the Twins Daily Offseason Handbook remains very fresh. Just a reminder that the handbook is available as a PDF at whatever price you’re willing to pay. I’m also very happy to report that the Twins Prospect Handbook is progressing along quite nicely. There were a ton of additions to the minor league system at the trade deadline, so you’re definitely going to want to pick up a copy of this year’s edition to study up on all the new names. Speaking of prospects, Mike Berardino recorded a podcast for Baseball America in which he and Kyle Glaser reviewed his top 10 prospect list. Of course there was a lot of talk about the individual prospects on the list, but they also opened things up for a big-picture discussion on where the Twins are headed and made some good observations. Paul Sporer of FanGraphs took a look at what went wrong for Brian Dozier in 2018. I doubt a reunion with the Twins is in the cards, but Dozier does seem to be a really good buy-low option among this year’s crop of free agents. The first huge move of the offseason went down last night (no offense, Eduardo Escobar), as Jeff Passan of Yahoo reported the Yankees had a deal in place to acquire lefty starter James Paxton from the Mariners. Seattle won 89 games last season and Paxton still has two seasons of team control, though he’s projected to make $9 million through arbitration this upcoming year and obviously more than that in 2020. Still, I don’t think it’s a good thing in the grand scheme of things that a competitive team from the prior year is already apparently throwing in the towel for 2019. The Yankees gave up MLB Pipeline’s No. 31 overall prospect in baseball Justus Sheffield and two more players in Erik Swanson and Dom Thompson-Williams who both slot in as top-15 prospects in the Mariners’ system. Given Sheffield’s prospect status and the fact that he already reached the Major Leagues it’s difficult to come up with a similar package the Twins could have offered had they been interested in Paxton. MLB Trade Rumors held a reader poll on where the top 10 free agents would sign. More than 6,800 people voted and the only player the Twins had more than two percent on was J.A. Happ. Minnesota was the destination selected for him 3.1 percent of the time, which trailed the Yankees (30.9), Blue Jays (9.2), Angels (8.2), Brewers (6.5), Phillies (4.7), Astros (4.4) and Nationals (3.7). Along with all the free agents already available on the open market, several more players will be added to the pool of available talent shorty. Brandon Warne highlighted some intriguing names who could be non-tendered over at Zone Coverage. I thought he made a particularly compelling argument for current Marlin Derek Dietrich, pointing out that he’s actually been a better hitter than Marwin Gonzalez over his career and brings comparable positional flexibility. Former Twins prospect Chih-Wei Hu has joined a division rival. He was traded from the Rays to Cleveland on Monday. Originally sent to Tampa Bay in the Kevin Jepsen trade, Hu has pitched to a 3.52 ERA in 23 innings with the Rays over the past two seasons. Ballpark Digest honored the Twins with their Best Renovation award for Target Field’s switch from the Metropolitan Club to Bat & Barrel. I know that change rubbed some season-ticket holders the wrong way, understandably, but the difference in utility between the Met Club and Bat & Barrel is night and day. The Met Club was mostly a giant waste of space and the few times I visited there was very little atmosphere. It was just way too stuffy. The few times I visited Bat & Barrel this past season it was a completely different vibe, it was always buzzing in there. I also love the Adam Turman murals and all the awards on display. Here’s hoping the Twins can be a repeat winner for their renovations taking place at Gate 34. Click here to view the article

Thank you for sharing this. I'll take it as good news for now but the phrasing "as of today" and "at this time" makes me a little nervous. I'm going to a Gopher women's hoops game for the first time, and it looks like Williams Arena has pretty strict bag restrictions. It'll be just the two of us, so luckily no need for a diaper bag, but my wife will need to downsize her regular bag for sure. I doubt she owns any clear bags, because why?

I was surprised Austin led the vote with 34%. Among the options presented, I'd definitely rather have Carlos Santana and would probably lean toward Bour or Adams over him as well.

Target Field is undergoing yet another fairly major update this offseason, the focus being around Gate 34. Rochelle Olson of the Star Tribune relayed an update on the project and noted that there will be added security measures. Though no specifics were reported, Olson wrote that all of MLB is moving slowly toward full NFL-level security.Reading between the lines, that more than likely means there are going to be bag restrictions at Target Field in the future. Here’s a link to the NFL’s current bag policy, which is basically any bag that’s big enough to fit more than just your cell phone needs to be clear. This is obviously a hindrance in particular to women, families and persons with disabilities. The way it is right now, all bags are hand checked by security and all fans pass through metal detectors. I don’t see how restricting bag size and forcing people to use clear bags is going to improve security at all. If there’s a traffic issue, maybe they should just designate certain gates for people bringing in bags in order to keep things moving quickly elsewhere. I guess I don’t have the perfect solution, but then again, there doesn’t really seem to be a problem to fix in the first place. Also from the STrib, some 49-year-old knucklehead who got banned from Target Field for being an annoying rube is trying to worm his way back in. The Twins took action because “he had violated the Twins’ code of conduct for guests by his overly aggressive behavior in chasing down the balls. The Twins allege incidents have included physical altercations and approaching families and asking to trade their game-used souvenir.” The most surprising thing to me about this story is that he was only banned for a year. But the real kicker is this turd plans on violating the ban and showing up to the stadium next season. Really dude? I’ve got nothing against memorabilia collectors, I’ve got a bit of the stuff myself, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about things. Being obnoxious and ruining the experience for other fans is most definitely the wrong way. There’s some really great reporting by Randy Furst in that article linked above, the whole thing’s worth a read. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette shared a lot of interesting details surrounding the Twins’ hiring of new pitching coach Wes Johnson. A particular item of note is that the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels had expressed some level of interest in Johnson and that the Twins’ offer is well north of $350,000 per year for multiple seasons. Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press was first to break the news that Joe Mauer’s wife Maddie delivered their third child, Charles Joseph, Wednesday evening. Congratulations to the Mauer family. I assume the Twins have already assigned a local scout to track Charles' development. Over at Twinkie Town, Andrew Bryzgornia highlighted seven names as potential Mauer replacements at first base. There was also a poll included asking readers who their preference would be. I was surprised by the results. Cliff Corcoran of The Athletic listed the five favorites in each league for the 2019 Rookie of the Year awards. No Twins cracked the top five in the AL, but guess who he listed as contender … Willians Astudillo! Yes, his rookie eligibility is still intact. Dave Schoenfield wrote a fun piece at ESPN that projected a blockbuster offseason move for each team. He had the Twins signing Josh Donaldson, Daniel Murphy and Nathan Eovaldi. Not sure if that quite busts my block. Those would certainly be major upgrades, but that’s closer to the type of offseason additions I am expecting the Twins to make, not a blockbuster offseason. Last week, the staff over at USA Today shared their predictions on where the big free agents would sign. Six of their writers gave their best guesses on five of the top talents available: Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Patrick Corbin, Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel. Nobody predicted the Twins would sign any of those players. Richard Justice of MLB.com shared his seven teams most likely to make big free agent signing this offseason. The Twins were not included, but the White Sox were. Also at MLB.com, David Adler hinted at the three potential fits for a Zack Greinke trade. The Twins were not on this list, either. There’s been a lot of buzz about how much money the Twins have coming off the books, but the national media certainly doesn’t seem to be buying them as potential major players on the free agent or trade markets. Expect there to be backlash from some of your friendly local columnist, talk radio hosts and casual fans (read: Vikings fans who are aware baseball exist) if the Twins fail to make significant investments. Now that Mauer’s contract is off the books, they have a lot more ammo. The guys over at 1500ESPN had a good conversation on a number of topics, but they touched on offseason expectations. Derek Wetmore basically asks why not the Twins? Why can’t they sign a Manny Machado or someone like that? Co-host Jake Depue walked him back from that stance a little bit, pointing to the team's lack of activity at the top of the market as reason to doubt their ability to make a huge splash. There's validity to both Wetmore's sort of "why not us" stance and Depue's maybe more realistic response, so it made for a good conversation between the two. That discussion came somewhere around the 25-minute mark, then rolled into some speculation on other free agents and trade options. The whole thing is worth a listen. That outlet does an excellent job of covering the team. Wetmore also wrote a piece about the potential of both Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano switching positions in 2019. He shared some interesting quotes from Derek Falvey from an interview he did on the 1500ESPN airwaves. Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that the Phillies placed first baseman Justin Bour on waivers. Bour has reached 20 home runs three times in his career, but his extreme platoon splits make him more of a part-time player. The 30-year-old has hit .269/.354/.499 (.853) against right-handers but just .220/.303/.335 (.639) against same-sided pitching. Tyler Austin mashes lefties, so an Austin-Bour platoon would make a ton of sense. The big question is can the Twins manage to carry two players who are only able to play first base? That’s a difficult thing to do in the days of three-man benches. Click here to view the article

Dan Hayes of The Athletic is reporting that the Twins will hire Wes Johnson to fill their pitching coach opening. Johnson has been the pitching coach for the University of Arkansas for the past two seasons.Prior to joining the Razorbacks, Johnson was the pitching coach at Mississippi State for a season and before that he filled the same role at Dallas Baptist for four seasons. His profile at Arkansas' official site has a wealth of additional information. Additionally, Hayes' report over at The Athletic also has some interesting details on Johnson's skills with modern technology, specifically TrackMan. Arkansas advanced all the way to the College World Series championship this season before losing to Trevor Larnach and the Oregon State Beavers. That should make for a fun reunion at spring training. UPDATE: John Shipley of the Pioneer Press is reporting that Jeremy Hefner will be transferred from being a member of the team's analytics group to bullpen coach. Stephen Sullivan of KATV Little Rock detailed some of Johnson's climb up to the college ranks, which included a decade coaching high school teams. A quick search of Johnson's name on YouTube brings up a wealth of interviews as well as instructional segments. Here's a good profile on him that goes into his use of TrackMan at around the 2:00 mark. Here's an interesting video that shows Johnson addressing his players on his first day of work at Mississippi State back in 2015. To say this is an under the radar hire might be an understatement, as you don't see coaches make the jump from college ball to the majors all too often. This is a move that further establishes the Twins as a forward-thinking organization that's open to going outside the box. Johnson takes over a role Garvin Alston held for just one season. The Twins ranked 22nd in ERA in 2018. Click here to view the article