Tom Froemming

You and I have very different definitions of what shouting into the void means. It looks like right now the Twins Daily blog section articles get hundreds of views. Some of the more provocative ones have thousands of views. Put those exact same articles on some random blogspot site and they get maybe 10 if they're lucky. If you put a bunch of thought and hard work into something, you absolutely want some kind of reward. Of course. If that's not going to be money, you at least want an audience, that's totally understandable. I just think you're underselling the platform a bit.

He would boot either Robbie Grossman or Kennys Vargas off the roster. Are we sure those guys aren't good in the clubhouse? I'm pretty sure I've seen Mike Berardino write positive things about Grossman being a good clubhouse guy. Vargas is the team barber and I would have to imagine he has strong bonds with fellow Puerto Rico products Berrios and Rosario. He also spent a lot of time in the minors with Sano, Buxton, Polanco and Kepler, so I would assume all those guys are bonded to some degree. If you're signing Napoli to get a jerk off your roster, I'd be fine with that. And just to be clear, I am in no way qualified to speculate on who is/is not good in the clubhouse.

When viewed individually, it's easy to see the logic behind all the moves the Twins have made this offseason. These are smart, low-risk investments in guys who should help the team improve next season. If you zoom out and judge the offseason as a whole, however, I can’t help but be unimpressed. Yes, it's important to keep in mind that we’re looking at an incomplete picture, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take stock of what’s happened so far and try to speculate about which direction the team might be headed.Every team in baseball has to do a little re-tooling each offseason, but as it stands right now, the Twins will have a number of big decisions to make at the end of 2018. Joe Mauer, Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar are all due to become free agents while Ervin Santana has a $14 million option. It seems like an easy decision for the team to pick up that option today, but a lot can change in a year. The front office has taken some small measures to shore things up beyond this year, signing Michael Pineda to a two-year deal and securing a modest 2019 team option in Fernando Rodney’s contract, but the fact remains that not much is certain beyond 2018. Who knows if Pineda can regain his old form, and even though Rodney’s in tremendous shape, it seems like you’re asking a lot to expect a guy to be a big contributor in what would be his age 42 season in 2019. What I see right now is a team that is trying to give itself a chance in 2018, but one that is also falling behind other contenders in the American League. At the same time, they've done virtually nothing to increase their odds of improving beyond next season. I think everybody (myself included) is hoping the team can land Yu Darvish, but would that move even make sense? It’s hard to answer that question. He certainly makes the team better, but how much would he really improve their chances of going deep into the playoffs? Is that worth giving him a potentially disastrous deal? Even if it doesn’t make the most sense from a purely baseball operations standpoint, I believe that it would be in the team’s best interest to make a big splash. I've been thinking this for a long time now. But what happens if the Twins fail to land that big fish they're after? If there’s one thing the Twins have, it’s flexibility. There is very little money tied up beyond next season, and the farm system is as healthy as it’s been in years. If the front office fails to sign Darvish or trade for a top-end pitcher who’s controllable for the future, then what? I figure they’ve got three options … 1. Lower their aim. Darvish is an awfully high target. If the Twins can’t keep up with the competition, they could always turn to the other top-tier free agents that are still available: Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn. The same thing could be said about the trade market. If the Twins can’t land a big fish (Gerrit Cole and Chris Archer seem to be the two guys most talked about), they could pivot to pitchers in the next tier down like Jake Odorizzi and Dan Straily. Both of those guys have some future control (Odorizzi through 2020 and Straily 2021) and would help improve the depth of the rotation. 2. Go into sell mode. They could always revisit the idea of trading Dozier, Ervin or whoever else has value for pieces who are more likely to help in 2019/20. This would obviously make the Twins worse in 2018, but is it inconceivable that they could still be competitive? There are plenty of infield variations the Twins could assemble between Jorge Polanco, Escobar, Ehire Adrianza and even Nick Gordon. They could add a veteran free agent on a one-year or minor league deal into that mix for added security. In the rotation, maybe Trevor May could pick up the slack or they could catch lighting in a bottle with one of the rookies like Stephen Gonsalves or Fernando Romero. My point is I don’t think the Twins would be completely hopeless in 2018 without Dozier and/or Ervin. It would be a huge blow, and turn this upcoming season into more of a building year, but it’s likely the return in those trades could improve the outlook for the near future. 3. Keep building for 2018, but maintain future flexibility. I hate the idea of staying in the middle ground, but this is actually starting to make a lot of sense to me. There are a lot of players rumored to be floating around on the trade market who will be free agents at this time next season. On the downside, those guys are only going to help you out in 2018. On the plus side, they’re not going to be nearly as costly to trade for as a guy like Cole or Archer. Which players am I talking about? Pie In The Sky: Josh Donaldson, Manny Machado and Cole Hamels (who has an option for 2019). More Realistic Targets: Andrew McCutchen, Nelson Cruz, Patrick Corbin, Brad Brach and Kelvin Herrera. I’d have a really difficult time seeing the Twins pursuing any of those pie in the sky guys, but it’s always important to keep in mind that we still really don’t know this front office. What if asking prices drop and/or this group doesn’t value one of its prospects like the rest of the market does? It could happen, but let's move on to more realistic options. Cutch and Cruz are both lefty killers and patient hitters who could really push this offense to the next level. You’d be potentially creating some playing time issues by adding one of these guys. Getting Cruz would certainly mean Robbie Grossman and/or Kennys Vargas would be gone and you’d be counting on Miguel Sano being able to play third base every day. McCutchen would allow for some more flexibility, making it possible to form some kind of a corner outfield/DH platoon. The only left-handed starter penciled in to the Twins rotation at this point is Adalberto Mejia, so Corbin could help even things out in that regard. He’s also pretty good. Corbin posted a 4.08 FIP and 2.54 K:BB for Arizona last season. Those marks were better than Ervin, Cobb and Lynn all posted last season. Brach has a 2.74 ERA, 1.13 WHIP and 9.5 K/9 as a right-handed setup man for the Orioles over the past four years. They lost closer Zach Britton to an injury. On one hand, they may opt to keep Brach to fill that opening, but on the other hand, Baltimore’s chances at being competitive seem pretty bleak. Herrera is coming off his worst year with the Royals, but he would represent a high-octane option for the Twins bullpen. Could moving him back into a setup role result in a return to form? Adding these one-year commitment guys would cost you some mid-level prospects that would hurt the system. They would also create further havoc for next offseason, but if this front office is as good as a lot of us here think, they should be able to play jazz. Why can't they just make it up as they go every offseason? Committing big money to aging players rarely works out. Plus, this plan builds in further flexibility. If the Twins got off to a bad start and were out of contention by the deadline, they’d have a bunch of the most attractive rental pieces to market. At the same time, if the young players like Gonsalves, Romero or any number of the relievers that are still in the system emerge, you've got some built-in turnover to create openings in 2019. Assuming the Twins lose out on Yu Darvish, what should they do? Feel free to offer up any other options I haven't detailed here. I'm sure there are a lot more than three directions they could go. Click here to view the article

These were some really well-thought out responses. I would've guessed the same thing as you on this item, but I'm constantly surprised by my numbers (so I tend not to look at them). My article on the Duke signing, which was basically the same thing anybody can find at any Twins site right now (except the sweet release point info), looks like it has almost as many views as all five of my Prospect Spotlight Series articles ... combined. Those were pretty in-depth pieces on guys who don't get a ton of ink outside of Twins Daily. I thought people might like those, considering it was some different content in the dead of winter, but I guess I was wrong. Altogether, it looks like I got about 3,000 views off those six articles (Duke + the five prospect spotlights) combined. In other words, I'll get $1 per article. I'm not complaining, just wanted to be real transparent for anybody out there who heard you can get paid for writing here and got dollar signs in their eyes. And the whole part about beating the beat writers on the gamers ... I'm gonna die trying! That's my white whale.

Also, no more making reference to things like the "eventual end of Twins Daily." You're going to give me a panic attack.

I was just saying that in general it's much easier to get attention and, more importantly, start a conversation in the forums than the blog area. I don't believe you're ever notified when someone comments on a blog post/responds to your comments. Also, unlike the regular articles on the site, I don't believe blog posts get their own thread in the forums. So that combination of things makes it very difficult to gain much traction in that area.

1) Correct, I'm just talking about bringing in new baseball fans. The Twins being successful again is going to bring a lot of casual fans back who maybe haven't even been paying much attention to the team the past five years that TD has been around. How are those new fans going to find their way here? 2) Yes, it seems Google adds some extra weight to those sites affiliated with bigger networks. And that school example you gave is perfect; these are things a lot of companies obsess over and spend lots of money on. I've seen some of that in my professional life as well.

One last thing, from a writer's perspective, I see the value in wanting to beef up the blog activity, but there is great content and conversations being created in the forums. I think getting more people to write blogs would be great, but just getting more people active on the site -- resisted and commenting -- would be equally as valuable.

Yes, once the Duke signing becomes official. The Twins can always DFA a player in order to open up another spot if it comes down to it. Just last week, both the Braves (Luke Jackson) and Brewers (Dylan Baker) designated a player. So the 40-man roster being full is kind of an interesting thing to take note of, but shouldn't prevent the team from making any moves.

Twins fans are still anxiously awaiting a big splash, but the team has taken another step toward beefing up its bullpen. Late Christmas afternoon, Paul Lambert (aka Meat Sauce) of KFAN reported that the Twins had an agreement to sign veteran left-handed reliever Zach Duke. It was a busy day for Twins rumors, as there were also reports regarding the Twins interest in veteran slugger Mike Napoli.It wasn't too long ago Duke was a hot commodity on the free agent market. In November of 2014, Duke landed a three-year, $15 million deal to pitch for the White Sox. He was eventually traded to the Cardinals in mid-2016. From 2014-16 he was among the more consistently effective relievers in baseball, posting a 2.74 ERA, 1.23 WHIP and 10.4 K/9 over 180.1 innings. But after the end of the 2016 season, Duke was forced to undergo not only Tommy John surgery, but also had a flexor muscle repaired at the same time. He was expected to miss all of 2017. Remarkably, Duke made his season debut on July 21. Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote up a great review of the recovery process. He noted that Duke's comeback from Tommy John, just a 287-day process, was the fastest anyone has done it over the past decade. Duke pitched in 27 ballgames for the Cardinals, but the results weren't nearly as good as the previous few years. He had a 3.93 ERA and just 5.9 K/9 over 18.1 innings, but that came with a much more encouraging 1.04 WHIP. The Twins are surely hoping he can regain some of that excellence now that he's more than a full year removed from going under the knife. Along with the impressive recovery, it's interesting to note that Duke was been known to be a guy to throw from multiple release points. Twins fans got accustomed to seeing that from Trevor Hildenberger from time to time, but it's a pretty uncommon practice for the most part. Here's a look at Duke's 2017 release point chart from Baseball Savant. Download attachment: Duke17Release.png Details on Duke's contract are not known at this time, but assuming he'll be getting a major league deal, his addition will fill the Twins 40-man roster. The only other southpaw relievers the Twins currently have on the roster are Taylor Rogers, Buddy Boshers and Gabriel Moya. Party at Napoli's? That wasn't the only noteworthy item on the rumor mill Christmas morning. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reported that the Twins were in "serious talks" with Mike Napoli. Later in the evening, however, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com pumped the brakes on the Napoli to the Twins steam by reporting "talks aren't intense as being reported. Nothing even close to imminent." On Friday, the Star Tribune duo of La Velle E. Neal III and Phil Miller were first to report the Twins' interest in Napoli. Of course, we also heard his name connected to the Twins throughout most of last offseason as well. It's expected Napoli would take the role of part-time first baseman/designated hitter. Considering how his numbers stack up against the likes of Robbie Grossman and Kennys Vargas, however, it's easy to wonder if that's really a hole that needs to be filled. 2016-17 Mike Napoli .219/.314/.449 (.763 OPS), 31.6 K%, 11.2 BB% Robbie Grossman .262/.372/.409 (.781 OPS), 20.7 K%, 14.4 BB% Kennys Vargas .244/.322/.466 (.788 OPS), 30.4 K%, 10.0 BB% But we know from the additions last offseason that clubhouse character is an important factor this front office takes into account when considering new additions, and Napoli has long been regarded as a guy who helps keep things loose over the long season. Click here to view the article

Good piece. Whoever gets Duda is probably going to get a solid value, but I'm not sure he's the best fit for the Twins due to his trouble with lefties. He's a career .218/.289/.370 hitter against LHP. The Twins ranked fifth in wOBA vs. RHP (.332), but were 14th vs. LHP (.320). Maybe that doesn't matter. It looks like right now the rest of the AL Central pitching staffs are very right-handed heavy. Cleveland doesn't have a single southpaw projected to be in their rotation. Danny Duffy and Matt Boyd may be the two best LHPs in the division, unless there's somebody I'm forgetting. Each team is going to be able to matchup with their bullpens, of course, but you can always pinch hit for Duda if say he's due to face Andrew Miller or something. With all that in mind, I'd definitely much rather prefer Duda to Mike Napoli, who the Twins have been linked to this offseason.

Yeah, he's got that whole Bryce Harper haircut thing going on with the top all long and the sides shaved. I could see where at a glance someone might make assumptions about his personality. But he plays hard and is a competitor, and from the sound of your story (thanks for sharing, by the way), it sounds like he's a good dude too. (For the record, I like Bryce Harper too, but I know that's not a very popular opinion.) Yep, seems like a big reason why a lot of people dropped him to the 20-25 range was due to defensive concerns. I think he could hit enough to be a corner OF if it comes to it, so I'm less worried about where he ends up defensively. The Twins have a ton of MI guys, which may make him less valuable to the org/more likely to be a trade piece, but doesn't really change his prospect stock at all. Blankenhorn and Kepler were the same age and at the same level, so I wouldn't agree that nothing about their experience is comparable at all. Like I said, I just thought it was really interesting to see their numbers side-by-side. Just a fun thing that I came across, draw your own conclusions.

I get what you're saying. It hasn't happened, and furthermore it'd be a bad look for a front office to axe a recent Rule 5 pick. All I'm saying is exactly what you said above, so I think you get what I'm saying too.

You really believe this?

Happy to see that Mike Quade is staying in the org. I'd imagine Luis Rodriguez is going to be an excellent influence on the kids in the GCL. Pretty impressive that he was still playing indy ball as recently as 2016. He really squeezed every bit out of his playing career he could have. Gotta respect a former major leaguer being willing to go play in the Mexican League or the indy leagues even into his mid-30s. You've gotta really love the game to want to do that.

That's all I'm trying to say. If they sign a guy today, thus filling the 40-man roster, there's nothing I'm aware of that would prevent them from dumping Kinley if they wanted to open up a spot for somebody else. Everything's scribbled in pencil at this point.

Knowing what I know, I'd have taken Bard over Kinley. Actually, I'd have taken White Sox LH Double-A starter Jordan Guerrero over both of them. He went undrafted, so what do I know? It's possible the Twins offer Kinley back to Miami before March ... pretty sure they could do it today if they wanted to. Who knows, maybe the Marlins would decline to pay the $25,000 required to get Kinley back (that org is in a weird place right now) and the Twins could even DFA him and sneak him through waivers. I have no idea, but I have a really hard time believing the Twins will go out of their way to hang on to Kinley when it comes time to make the next round of difficult roster decisions unless he shows them something special. Why take him in the first place then? I dunno, maybe they just felt like playing the lottery.

I'm guessing the Twins think they've identified something specific about Kinley's mechanics they feel like can be addressed in order to help him get the ball over the plate more frequently. They'll take the spring to figure out if they can fix him. I doubt they will -- I'd only put about a five percent chance on him cracking the Opening Day roster -- but maybe they'll be able to swing a trade in order to keep him in the system and send him down to Rochester (like they did with Scott Diamond). The Twins clearly didn't think Burdi and Bard were that great. It's that simple. And we also know the Braves passed on Burdi when the Jaime Garcia trade was being negotiated and the Phillies traded him away for a modest amount of international spending slot. Pretend money, basically. Burdi has pitched 20 innings over the past two seasons, maybe the Twins simply think he'll never be healthy. It happens (see: Zumaya, Joel). Bard had a great year ... but it was as a 26-year-old mostly in Double-A. If Bard was really MLB ready, why did he spend the majority of the year in Chattanooga? Even if he would've been added to the 40 man, it's likely he would have also immediately became the most likely guy to be DFA'd. I would have liked to see both Burdi and Bard stick around, and hope they'll be returned eventually, but I can see how/why things got to this point. This can be applied to Kinley as well, but how many young/unestablished right-handed relief pitchers do you need on the 40 man? The Twins already have Busenitz, Chargois, Curtiss, Duffey, Hildenberger and Pressly. They added Rodney, and it's possible both Hughes and May might end up out in the pen, too. Plus, one of Jorge/Littell/Romero/Slegers could end up transitioning to the pen. They also still have Reed and Stewart in the mix, but not on the roster. At a certain point you just run out of space.

The handbook is getting very close to being done. We're excited to get it into your hands, but there are still some finishing touches left. I'm sure Seth be able will share details sometime soon, so be on the lookout for that. I had a theory that if I mentioned "dingers" and "fly-ball rate" in the same article you might magically appear, lol. Thanks for adding that analysis. It's so hard to try and evaluate production in the FSL that I think those two stats you mentioned -- Ks and vs. LHP splits -- may be the most important things to pay attention to in concerns to Blankenhorn next season. With both Blankenhorn and Ben Rortvedt I can see myself writing these same kind of articles next year, basically saying "the numbers don't look amazing on the surface, but here's some underlying stuff that we can be excited about." I'd imagine both of them will also be putting in quite a bit of work on defense, so it won't surprise me if their huge breakouts with the bats don't come until Double-A. Thank you for adding this and the analysis that follows. Some multi-sport guys never catch up, but I agree that it's an important thing to keep in mind in the early goings. Cabbage didn't quite crack my top 50, but I wouldn't be shocked at all if he ends up putting it together and is one of the guys who makes the biggest jumps over the next year. I think once Blankenhorn finds a home in the field he's going to be able to work his way to becoming very reliable on defense. I've seen some people relate his defensive outlook/projected journey to Trevor Plouffe's. He bounced around a bit in the infield, and was a little sketchy when he first started playing 3B. But once it became apparent that was going to be his position, Plouffe worked himself into a solid defender.

As a way to look back at a great minor league season and look ahead toward the release of the 2018 Twins Prospect Handbook, I’ve been writing a series of features on prospects I seem to be especially high on. The final player to receive the spotlight treatment is infielder Travis Blankenhorn.Ranking prospects is a difficult task and everyone has a bit of a different methodology. This series isn’t meant to be critical of any of the other lists out there, it’s all about presenting a positive case for the featured player. We started at the bottom of my list and worked up from there. Here’s a look back at previous installments: Range 41-50 spotlight: Zander Wiel Range 31-40 spotlight: Tom Hackimer Range 21-30 spotlight: Lachlan Wells Range 11-20 spotlight: Ben Rortvedt Range 1-10 spotlight: Travis Blankenhorn, No. 9 Blankenhorn had a streaky season, but when he was rolling it was quite a sight to see. He posted an OPS north of 1.000 in both June and August, but in between had a dismal July. Still, from June forward he hit .265/.358/.492 (.851) in 69 games. Over that stretch, his walk rate was 10.4 percent and he struck out in 22.2 percent of his plate appearances. I don’t feel like that’s an alarmingly high strikeout rate for a guy slugging near .500 and taking some walks. What might explain some of that ugly July when he hit .144/.238/.211? It’s possible he was tinkering with his approach or that he was a little worn down physically. Could've been a combination of the two. Blankenhorn entered 2017 with 467 plate appearances as a pro spread across over two seasons. He logged 508 PAs over 118 games in 2017 alone. Even with some ups and downs, Blankenhorn was the youngest player in the org to hit at least 13 home runs. There are signs more dingers could be on the way. He ranked ninth in the Midwest League with a 45.1 percent fly-ball rate and was 11th in pull percentage at 48.6. He's also been doing a great job of decreasing his ground balls each season. Blankenhorn GB:FB ratio 2015: 2.05 2016: 1.37 2017: 0.99 Along with some encouraging signs that a power surge could be in the future, Blankenhorn is also a good athlete. He led the system with 11 triples and is 21-for-24 in stolen base attempts over his career (87.5 percent success rate). One of those steals was among the most memorable moments of the 2017 minor league season. The Kernels were vying for a first-half playoff berth. Tie game. Bottom of the eighth inning. Bases loaded. Two down and a 1-2 count on the batter ... BLANKENHORN’S STEALING HOME!!!! How cool was that? Blankenhorn also led the entire org in hit-by-pitches with 17, so this is also a guy who has a bit of grit to him. He still has some work to do in terms of smoothing out his baseball skills, but that shouldn’t be too surprising given his background. Blankenhorn was a three-sport athlete in a cold-weather state (Pennsylvania), so he may not have gotten as much time on the diamond as some other guys who focused solely on baseball. Looking back, his numbers with the Kernels remind me a bit of another young guy who spent relatively limited time playing baseball as an amateur ... 2017 Blankenhorn, age 20 season with Cedar Rapids .251/.343/.441 (.784 OPS), 9.3 BB%, 23.4 K% 2013 Max Kepler, age 20 season with Cedar Rapids .237/.312/.424 (.736 OPS), 9.1 BB%, 16.3 K% Kepler had one of the more unique backgrounds of any prospect, so it’s tough to compare his early years with a player who came from a more traditional path, but I just thought it was really interesting to see their numbers side-by-side. Platoon splits are a concern for Blankenhorn, who hit .228/.320/.346 vs. lefties, and he didn’t have a good year defensively at third base. He looked a bit more comfortable at second base, but it’s also possible that at some point he ends up as a corner outfielder. There's still time to smooth things out as an infielder, and I'd expect him to get more opportunities to develop at the hot corner. Only time will tell where Blankenhorn ends up defensively, but you can count me as a believer in the bat. For more on Travis Blankenhorn and about 170 other Twins minor leaguers, be sure to pick up a copy of the 2018 Twins Prospect Handbook, which will be available ... VERY SOON!!! Click here to view the article

One way or another, this band is going to breakup Seems like it'd really only make sense to extend Escobar if either you're going to let Dozier walk or you don't think Sano is a 3B anymore. But if that's the case, Sano probably swings over to 1B and then you're in the position of letting Mauer walk after 2018. Of course, there are also guys like Nick Gordon and Brent Rooker who we all hope will be emerging into the picture maybe even as soon as late 2018, not to mention Polanco and Adrianza. I just don't see the Twins bringing back Dozier, Mauer and Escobar beyond 2018. Maybe two out of the three, but not all of them.

Mike Berardino has updated his article on the signing with all sorts of good quotes and such. The full piece is worth your time, but I found this quote from Rodney's 2017 manager Torey Lovullo of particular interest: “He works extremely hard during his pregame, as hard as any pitcher we had in our system." I'm guessing the Twins hope he can bring in some of that "veteran magic" that they saw so valuable last offseason and hope maybe his positive work habits can rub off on some of the younger guys. There's still work to do in terms of upgrading the pitching staff, but I like this addition.