Tom Froemming

“with no immediate heir apparent at 2nd base, first base, catcher, and the need to bolster the 8th inning setup man and if things went well, I’d imagine front of rotation, how do you think the FO will fill those roles? There’s maybe 50/60 mil in payroll to play with, and all those prospects to dangle. It’s a huge roster turn over, can they get it all done in one offseason/up to all star break?” -Sconnie An Eduardo Escobar reunion makes so much sense. He can fill your opening at second base as well as provide insurance at third. I’m of the mind you can stick pretty much anybody over a first base. There will be plenty of options out there in free agency, but I’m also interested in what Tyler Austin can do. Max Kepler has experience there, though he’s also a borderline Gold Glove right fielder, so it may be a waste to put him at first. I believe LaMonte Wade played there some in college. Either way, I don’t think the Twins should be falling over themselves to bring Joe Mauer back. Still, a reunion would make a lot of sense, so I would project Mauer to be the Opening Day first baseman in 2019. I personally don’t see a huge need at catcher. I think a lot of teams would love to have a duo of Jason Castro and Mitch Garver, assuming Castro comes back healthy. Yasmani Grandal and Wilson Ramos would be significant upgrades, but I feel like other teams are going to be more desperate to get them. I believe the front office made a strong effort to land Yu Darvish last year, but your big free agents just aren’t going to be jumping at the chance to come play in Minnesota. No matter how much money there is sitting around, guys aren’t coming here until this club has shown it’s a legit World Series contender. I think the front office can reload and put together a competitive roster over the offseason, but taking it to the next level would probably be delayed until the trade deadline. “Why Belisle? Rosario for real?” -USAFChief I’ve been blowing off so much steam about Matt Belisle on Twitter that Seth threatened to unfollow me over it I don’t have an answer to that question. My best guess is that the front office is trying to secure a better draft pick next year and they know Paul Molitor can’t resist using him. Now that Fernando Rodney has been traded, it wouldn’t shock me at all if Belisle becomes the closer once he’s activated off the DL. Yuck. The only thing I'm certain about when it comes to Belisile is he truly must be a really awesome guy. Eddie Rosario’s free-swinging tendencies are cause for concern, but I still have to say he’s absolutely for real. Since the start of last season, Rosie has hit .294/.333/.503 (.837 OPS) in 1,079 plate appearances. To put that into context, Justin Morneau had an .832 OPS in his time with the Twins. Eddie drives me nuts sometimes, but he’s also probably my favorite Twin now that Escobar is gone. “Do you really believe that Molitor is the manager who can take us to the WS? How big of a diffence do you think it will be between what the Twins could/should do and what they will actually do this off-season? What do you really think went on behind-the-scenes and in the clubhouse regarding the rumors about a toxic clubhouse?” -Carole Keller I think a manager’s impact on wins and losses is generally overstated, but no, I don’t have a lot of confidence that Molitor is a manager who could lead a team to a World Series title. That being said, Ned Yost did it … so anything’s possible. I'll circle back to Molly in just a sec. Taking a look at the free agents that are expected to be available, I’m not really sure what I think the Twins should do. I’m sure the expectation from the majority of the fan base will be that they go out and fill in the payroll to a level that’s similar to this year, but I don’t think they’re going to be able to attract any of the big names like Bryce Harper or Manny Machado and I don’t expect them to spend just for spending’s sake. I’d bet they have a savvy offseason, but get ripped to shreds for not bumping the payroll up higher. It’s tough to speculate on anything regarding the clubhouse from the outside in, but I think it has more to do with losing than anything. Losing sucks. The roster turnover couldn’t have helped either, and I’m not just talking about the new guys. Ervin Santana, Jason Castro, Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano and Jorge Polanco were all expected to be regulars. With those guys being out in combination with adding a crop of free agents who were mostly bitter about their lack of a market, it would be no surprise if there was some turbulence. Now that, however, is something I think a manager should be able to have an impact on. It wouldn't be surprising to hear that some of the players are frustrated by the front office turning the page, but that should be an issue that's addressed internally. I still don't think Molitor is going anywhere. It's clear ownership loves him, hard for me to see them moving on until maybe this time next season. “Will Odorizzi be back next year? Will Fernando Romero make the starting rotation out of spring training next year?” -FormerMinnasotan Yes, I would expect Jake Odorizzi to be in the 2019 rotation. He should be expected to perform at about a league-average level. You don’t just let a starting pitcher like that walk unless you’re trying to slash payroll. A lot of what happens with Romero will depend on how the next couple months play out, but I would predict that he’ll start next year in Triple A. At this point a year ago, it would have been really hard to envision a scenario in which Adalberto Mejia wasn’t going to be in the rotation for this year, but he’s only made four starts with the Twins. I could see something similar happening to Romero. I also wouldn’t be shocked if Romero was pushed into a multi-inning relief role, similar to how Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano got their feet wet in the bigs. But again, that’ll also depend on who they go out and add. “What should TD be paying you per game recap?” -TheLeviathan Well, how much would you pay me per game recap as a reader? Probably nothing. It’s really hard to make money on the Internet. I’ve contributed to a lot of other places online and this is by far the best situation I’ve been in. TD could probably make some more money if the site was bombarded with ads, like some other places, but I like things the way they are. “What's your favorite Target Field food?” -scottz I will often bring my own food into Target Field, but my go-to concession stand item is the Turkey to Go sandwich. I like how they have the seasonings and sauce at the stand so you can flavor it to your liking. A pretty simple item, but an old standby. “How many five year olds could you take in a fight before they overpower you? Be honest.” -Mr. Brooks Oh boy, probably not very many. I don’t think I’ve been in a fight since middle school and all five-year-olds do is fight. So even though I’m older, they’ve definitely got the upper hand in terms of experience. I’ve got the size and the strength, but the five-year-olds would have a considerable advantage in the stamina department. This was a real brainteaser, so I did what any responsible human would do in 2018 and looked it up on the Internet. It says I could take on 21 five-year-olds, but that sounds like a really high number to me. Since you specifically asked me to be honest, I’d say 11. That’s assuming we’re talking about 11 five-year olds who are really gung-ho about scrappin’. Alright, that's it from me. Thanks for reading, please add your two cents in the comments and let me know if you'd be interersted in similar Q&As becoming a regular feature here on the site.

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Ervin Santana: 44 Game Score, 6.0 IP, 3 H, 5 ER, 5 K, 2 BB, 58.5% strikes (55 of 94 pitches) Multi-Hit Games: Ehire Adrianza (3-for-4, 2B) Jorge Polanco (2-for-4, 2B), Logan Forsythe (2-for-4), Jake Cave (2-for-4, 2B) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Forsythe .153 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Kepler -.101, Morrison -.129, Mauer -.165 Santana -.223 Santana topped out a 90.6 mph and averaged 88.8 mph with his fastball tonight. To his credit, he was able to stay one step ahead of most batters. Ervin only allowed three hits over his six innings of work, but two of them came in the form of two-run homers. It’s actually been impressive to see Ervin execute with diminished stuff, in sort of a depressing way. He should be getting clobbered. Like bounced outta the game in the second inning clobbered. The lineup certainly could have executed better. The Twins outhit the Tigers 10-3, but were only 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position. Detroit even committed two errors, but the Twins couldn’t capitalize. It’s pretty fun to see what Niko Goodrum is doing with Detroit. He hit his 11th home run of the season tonight and has a .720 OPS. After the game, Santana did what you'd expect a professional veteran ballplayer to do. He took responsibility for his shortcomings and ... oh wait, no, he didn't. Jump head to about the 1:20 mark on this postgame interview: https://twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/1028102252223967232 My take: It's not like Ervin is going on a rampage here, but that's not his style. Still, I say just let him go. Honestly. I'm already wondering if this finger injury has derailed his career, he's certainly not getting his $14 million option picked up and now he's taking shots at the front office. Even worse, by saying "it’s difficult to play without our good pieces" Santana is being disrespectful to his new teammates who've joined the club in the wake of those players leaving. Just end it now, there are plenty of other starting pitchers dying to get an opportunity. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 64-50 MIN 53-62 (-11.5) DET 48-68 (-17) CHW 41-73 (-23) KC 35-79 (-29) Next Three Game Sat at DET, 5:10 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Francisco Liriano Sun at DET, 12:10 pm CT: Kohl Stewart vs. Matt Boyd Mon: Off Tue vs. PIT, 7:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Jameson Taillon Last Three Games LE 5, MIN 4: Walks and a Walk-Off CLE 5, MIN 2: Cleveland Prevails on Lindor Walk-Off Homer MIN 3, CLE 2: Mitch Garver Makes it Rain

Stewart, the No. 4 overall pick of the 2013 MLB Draft, has posted a 4.47 ERA, 1.49 WHIP and 3.06 K:BB ratio between 68 innings for Chattanooga and another 40 2/3 for Rochester. He is not currently on the 40-man roster, but the Fernando Rodney trade opened up a spot. Stewart had really hit his stride in his last five appearances for the Red Wings. In 30 1/3 innings, Stewart had only allowed eight earned runs (2.37 ERA), though that's come with a less impressive 19 strikeouts. The Texas native came in at No. 23 on the Twins Daily Midseason Top Prospect List. It's been a weird year for Stewart. He went unprotected and then unselected in the Rule 5 Draft this winter. Then there were rumors that he was mulling a return to the gridiron. Those rumors turned out to be false. Now here he is, on the cusp of becoming a major leaguer. Stewart's promotion comes as a surprise because the Twins had quite a few other options that were worthy of consideration. Fernando Romero, Zack Littell, Stephen Gonsalves and Lewis Thorpe were all already on the 40 man. Here is Berardino's full article on the move, which also includes some notes on Adalberto Mejia and Fernando Rodney

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Jose Berrios: 31 Game Score, 4.0 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 5 K, 6 BB, 55.7% strikes (54 of 97 pitches) Home Runs: Jorge Polanco (1) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Moya .172, Polanco .180, Rogers .106 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Adrianza -.130 Berios -.190, Reed -.325 Jorge Polanco sure picked a good time to hit his first home run of the season. With the Twins trailing 4-1 in the sixth inning, Polanco pulled a 1-0 cutter out of the park for a game-tying tater. So we all know Kluber is already unreal on his own, right? Well it really makes things difficult when he’s fooling even the umpire. I try really hard to avoid mentioning balls and strikes in these recaps because I feel like things typically even out over the course of a game, but there’s no avoiding the impact home plate umpire Adrian Johnson had on today’s contest. Immediately after Polanco’s game-tying homer, it was as if a switch went off in Johnson’s head that he was going to start giving an extra couple inches to Cleveland’s ace. Right after Ehire Adrianza was called out on strikes to open the seventh inning, Twins hitting coach James Rowson had enough and was ejected from the game. You don’t see coaches getting tossed like that often, but it’s nice to see Rowson standing up for his guys. Here's Kluber's called strikes via Baseball Savant: That one way above the top of the zone was the call on Adrianza. One guy who didn't have to worry about getting bad calls was Eddie Rosario. That's because he's swinging at everything right now. Check out the location of some of these pitches Rosie swung at today: This game remained tied thanks to some strong performances from the Twins bullpen. Gabriel Moya threw 2 2/3 no-hit innings and was followed by a perfect inning of work from Taylor Rogers. Addison Reed came in and got the final out of the eighth inning and stayed in for the ninth. It didn’t go so well. Greg Allen hit a leadoff single, stole second base, advanced to third on a ground out and scored the winning run on a Michael Brantley single. Postgame With Molitor Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 64-50 MIN 53-61 (-11) DET 47-68 (-17.5) CHW 41-73 (-23) KC 35-79 (-29) Next Three Game Fri at DET, 6:10 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. Jordan Zimmermann Sat at DET, 5:10 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Francisco Liriano Sun at DET, 12:10 pm CT: TBD vs. Matt Boyd Last Three Games CLE 5, MIN 2: Cleveland Prevails on Lindor Walk-Off Homer MIN 3, CLE 2: Mitch Garver Makes it Rain CLE 10, MIN 0: Who Needs Chris Gimenez?

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Jake Odorizzi: 50 Game Score, 4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 K, 2 BB, 58.4% strikes Home Runs: Miguel Sano (8) Multi-Hit Games: Miguel Sano (2-for-4, 2B, HR), Logan Forsythe (2-for-4, 2B) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Sano .342, Forsythe .173 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Adrianza -.119, Kepler -.158, Polanco -.167, Morrison -.176 Hildenberger -.353 Jake Cave committed a fielding error that led to the game’s first run and both Mitch Garver and Trevor May committed throwing errors. Garver was also picked off at second base, likely costing the Twins a run, and the team combined to go 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Given those circumstances, it’s actually pretty incredible this game was tied heading into the bottom of the ninth. Miguel Sano had an outstanding game. He made a couple of nice plays in the field, hit a double and that huge homer off Cody Allen to tie it up. It was the first time Sano has hit a home run since his return from the minors. https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1027378777649639424 Something must be up with Trevor Hildenberger. He gave up the three-run homer to Lindor, meaning Hildy has surrendered multiple runs in six of his last 18 appearances. Over that span, he’s given up 19 earned runs in 16 2/3 innings. Yikes. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1027381666476580864 Postgame With Molitor https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1027391018189053952 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 63-50 MIN 53-60 (-10) DET 47-68 (-17) CHW 41-72 (-22) KC 35-79 (-28.5) Next Three Game Thu at CLE, 12:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Corey Kluber Fri at DET, 6:10 pm CT: Ervin Santana vs. Jordan Zimmermann Sat at DET, 5:10 pm CT: Kyle Gibson vs. Francisco Liriano Last Three Games MIN 3, CLE 2: Mitch Garver Makes it Rain CLE 10, MIN 0: Who Needs Chris Gimenez? MIN 6, KC 5: Cave Slugs Grand Slam as Twins Sweep Royals

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Adalberto Mejia: 69 Game Score, 5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 K, 1 BB, 61.8% strikes (68 pitches, 42 strikes) Home Runs: Mitch Garver (6) Multi-Hit Games: Eddie Rosario (4-for-5, 2 2B), Jorge Polanco (2-for-5), Logan Forsythe (2-for-2, BB) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Mejia .263, Garver .137 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Morrison -.109 This game was delayed more than two hours due to rain. It started coming down again in the second inning, but Garver didn’t seem to mind. https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/1027009737995386880 Adalberto Mejia gave up just one hit over five shutout innings, but was removed from this game due to a left wrist strain after just 68 pitches. Though Garver’s blast provided all the runs, the Twins’ best bat tonight was Eddie Rosario. He was 4-for-5 with two doubles and was thrown out at second trying to stretch another single into a two-bagger. This was Rosie’s third four-hit game of the season. Gabriel Moya and Taylor Rogers turned in scoreless innings before Trevor Hildenberger gave up a pair of runs in the eighth. Fernando Rodney earned his 25th save of the season, giving the Twins a rare victory in a one-run game. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Next Three Games Wed at CLE, 6:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Mike Clevinger Thu at CLE, 12:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Corey Kluber Fri at DET, 6:10 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games CLE 10, MIN 0: Who Needs Chris Gimenez? MIN 6, KC 5: Cave Slugs Grand Slam as Twins Sweep Royals MIN 8, KC 2: New Twins Ace Wins in Front of Old Twins Ace

Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Kyle Gibson: 23 Game Score, 5.0 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 3 K, 3 BB, 52.6% strikes WPA of 0.1 or higher: None WPA of -0.1 or lower: Gibson -.238 There were other, non-Mitch Garver pitching things that happened in tonight’s game, but I fear that if I go into much detail it may be deemed cruel and unusual. Here are the Twins’ hits: Jake Cave single, Logan Forsythe single, Jorge Polanco double and … nope, that’s it. Kyle Gibson had a rare rough night and Matt Belisle had his usual rough night. Gibson surrendered seven hits and Cleveland scored six runs, four earned over his five innings. Belisle gave up four more runs over his two innings. That puts Belisle up to 20 earned runs in 19 ⅔ innings with the Twins this season. Just for reference, that’s the same number of earned runs Taylor Rogers has allowed in 44 ⅔ innings this season. Belisle also needed a season-high 48 pitches to get through those two innings. The Twins will need to make a move tomorrow when they activate Matt Magill from paternity leave ... Postgame With Garver https://twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/1026658308776701952 Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: AL Central Standings CLE 62-49 MIN 52-59 (-10) DET 47-65 (-15.5) CHW 41-70 (-21) KC 34-77 (-28) Next Three Game Tue at CLE, 6:10 pm CT: Adalberto Mejia vs. Carlos Carrasco Wed at CLE, 6:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Mike Clevinger Thu at CLE, 12:10 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Corey Kluber Last Three Games MIN 6, KC 5: Cave Slugs Grand Slam as Twins Sweep Royals MIN 8, KC 2: New Twins Ace Wins in Front of Old Twins Ace MIN 6, KC 4: Long Day at the Office