Tom Froemming

The Twins played Seattle like a fiddle. There's a reason why their trade with the M's was announced prior to their deal with LAA. And then right after Ohtani makes his announcement, the Twins go out and sign the best player the Mariners could have invested those 2017 dollars in. Ouch. Well played, Falvine.

The Twins can use what's left of their 2017 pool and part of next year's pool to sign Severino. MLB decided it wouldn't be fair to those ATL players with the voided contracts to limit teams to this year's pool only. At 17-years-old, Severino ranked third in the GCL in doubles. Baseball America ranked him as their No. 15 prospect in the GCL, two spots behind Enlow. An exciting addition.

Not saying he should be any higher right now, but I think Ricky De La Torre could be the guy to make the biggest jump over the next year.

Care to share any thoughts on Dietrich Enns?

I'm much more freaked out about his walks than anything else. His 11.3 BB% is the highest among those 67 pitchers to have logged 300 innings in the past two years. Miley is second at 9.9%. Clearly the Cubs think they can fix him, it'll be interesting to see how it works out.

La Velle just confirmed that was exactly the case. Maitan took less to go to the Angels.

They'd better have a plan to fix this: Worst K:BB Ratios 2016-17 (min 300 IP) Martin Perez 1.57 Tyler Chatwood 1.61 Kyle Gibson 1.96 Wade Miley 1.96 Luis Perdomo 2.02

I believe given the unusual circumstances teams were allowed to use their 2018 international pools to sign the Braves guys if they wanted, so the Twins probably could've still afforded him even while doing these moves. But if I was Maitan I don't think I'd want to come here unless the Twins were able to overpay, given the glut of shortstops in the system. Also, I've heard people suggest Maitan will drop quite a bit in the 2018 preseason rankings from where he was on those 2017 midseason lists.

Free baseball players ... what's not to like?

I'm not certain that growth all happened in one year. He was 5-8 when he signed in 2014 and I just think nobody (MiLB/B-Ref/Fangrpahs/etc) updated his profile until right before this season. I could be wrong though. On a related note, I guess Aaron Slegers grew seven inches between his junior and senior years of high school and that absolutely crushed his development. So much stress on his tendons he couldn't pitch. Lots of injury trouble in his early years of college too.

Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors predicted the Twins would sign Darvish in his latest chat. Obviously he was just speculating, but it wasn't baseless. Those guys pay as close attention to things around the league as anybody. Maybe they don't land Yu, but I am to the point where I expect them to sign one of those top 4 starters. But you're absolutely right, there's a lot of competition for those guys so I doubt they get two in that class. As far as the second spot, I could see the team either trading for a Cole/Odorizzi/Straily type or it wouldn't surprise me if there's a second-tier free agent that appeals to this front office for some specific reason. Maybe they think getting Chatwood out of Denver could be a game changer for him or they can fix Chacin or Tillman's wildness. They liked Jaime Garcia enough to trade for him. Would that be overkill? Maybe, but guys are going to get hurt. If you want five decent starters all year you probably realistically need to have like 10 of them in house.

Agreed, but that's just not Lewis Thorpe right now. He's 22 and hasn't pitched 200 total innings as a professional. He hasn't reached 90 IP in a season yet. I get that he's on the 40-man roster now, but I have a hard time imagining him as a guy who has a chance at impacting the MLB team in 2018 seeing that he's behind a bunch of other guys in that regard and will certainly be on an innings limit. He's absolutely a legit prospect to be excited about, but this season will be all about staying healthy.

Yes, and I believe all the rehab coordinators/a lot of the medical staff are based out of Fort Myers, so there could be some advantage to sending a guy down there if you were concerned about his readiness. On the other hand, if you do feel like a guy is ready, sending him to Rochester to test out how he handles the cold could be kind of an effective final checkpoint. Is he really ready to come back, or are there still stiffness/soreness issues popping up?

I think the average player in the FSL is something like 23-years-old, so Thorpe and Wells would still be young for that level. Also, neither of those two have pitched healthy through an entire year of full-season ball yet. I would feel comfortable starting the year with both of them on the Miracle.

Great stuff as always, really shows Falvine are in a good spot. Sounds like they may have the financial flexibility to sign a guy or two and at the same time they have depth to use as either injury insurance or trade bait. My guess right now ... MLB: Erv, Berrios, Gibson, NEW, NEW AAA: Mejia, May (as he builds arm strength), Slegers, Gonsalves, Enns AA: Jorge, Littell, Romero, Stewart, Eades Obviously trades/Rule 5 draft stuff and injuries could open up spots, but I'd suspect the team will also sign at least one minor league free agent to add to this mix too. But the fact they let Dereck Rodriguez and David Hurlbut go says they feel pretty comfortable with their depth in the upper minors. There are arguments for all those guys I listed in the AA rotation to be in Rochester, but the five guys I listed in the Red Wings rotation need to be in AAA (though I am interested in Nick's idea of Enns in the pen). I don't think it would hurt any of those guys listed to go back to Chattanooga. Looking down into Fort Myers, I don't see anybody that really needs to move up to AA start the year. Thorpe only made 15 starts there and is still going to be building innings, nothing wrong with him going back to the FSL as a 22-year-old to open the year. If they only ended up adding one MLB SP, Mejia moves up to the Twins, Jorge moves up to Rochester and somebody like Randy LeBlanc or Sean Poppen enters the Chattanooga rotation. Phil Hughes is going to need to fit in somewhere too (Triple A bullpen until he's 100% healthy?) and I'm sure I'm forgetting somebody else.

Romero is still only entering his age 23 season and has pitched 24 games in Double A, Littell will be in his age 22 season and has only pitched 14 games in Double A. I don't see any reason to feel the need to bump those guys up right away to start the year. Can always move them up during the year if needed.

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’ll be writing a series of features on prospects I am especially high on. Next to receive the spotlight treatment is left-handed starting pitcher Lachlan Wells. Image courtesy of Photo by Seth Stohs, Twins Daily 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’ll be writing a series of features on prospects I am especially high on. Next to receive the spotlight treatment is left-handed starting pitcher Lachlan Wells. 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’re starting at the bottom of my list and working up from there. Here’s a look at what’s on deck: Range 41-50 spotlight: Zander Wiel, No. 48 Range 31-40 spotlight: Tom Hackimer, No. 36 Range 21-30 spotlight: Lachlan Wells, No. 22 Range 11-20 spotlight: Coming Dec. 12 Range 1-10 spotlight: Coming Dec. 19 While the first couple of players I’ve highlighted in this series were drafted out of college and have been a little old for their level, the exact opposite is true of Wells. Signed out of Australia in 2014, Wells has been on an aggressive path. He faced older hitters 91.2 percent of the time last season and was three years younger than the average player in his league. At just 20-years-old, he was the youngest player to pitch for the Miracle and the third youngest in the Florida State League to throw at least 80 innings. Here’s the list of pitchers who logged at least 80 innings for Fort Myers in their age 20 season since 2010: 2017: Lachlan Wells, 81.1 IP 2015 Kohl Stewart, 129.1 IP 2014: Jose Berrios, 96.0 IP After turning heads by posting a 1.77 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 7.9 K/9 with Cedar Rapids in 2016, Wells had a 3.98 ERA for Fort Myers. While he didn’t have as easy a time carving through FSL lineups despite the notoriously pitcher-friendly atmosphere, there are still plenty of reasons to be excited about Wells’ future. He still had a 1.17 WHIP and 3.58 K:BB ratio. Those marks ranked 11th and 16th, respectively, among the 48 pitchers with at least 80 IP in the FSL last season. So what’s with the much uglier ERA? Giving up a .276/.328/.496 line (.824 OPS) with runners on certainly didn’t help. Wells’ 2017 got off to an exciting start, as he was able to represent his home country during the World Baseball Classic. On March 8, he pitched 2.0 innings perfect innings out of the bullpen with two strikeouts for Australia against Japan in front of more than 41,000 fans in the Tokyo Dome. One of the hitters he struck out, Yoshi Tsutsugo, led the NPB with 44 home runs in 2016 and was eventually named the WBC Pool B Most Valuable Player. Wells also got off to an excellent start with Fort Myers. In his first three games, he only gave up one run over 14.0 innings (0.64 ERA) with 17 strikeouts and just one walk. On May 17 he pitched a nine-inning complete game, throwing just 90 pitches, a pretty impressive feat considering only five other pitchers had a nine-inning complete game in the FSL last season. Unfortunately, Wells missed all of July and most of August with an elbow flexor muscle strain, but he still established a new career high of 85.1 innings (he made a 4.0 inning rehab appearance in the GCL). He also managed to end 2017 on a high note, throwing 5.0 shutout innings with seven strikeouts in his final start. Over the past three seasons, Wells has pitched 204.0 innings to the tune of a 2.74 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9. I honestly feel like his prospect stock was suppressed by some outlets last year because his online profiles all listed him as only standing 5-foot-8 for so long. Almost any write-ups I could find that year made reference to how small he was. He’s still not the biggest guy, but those profiles have since all been updated to 6-foot-1. Still, his relatively unimpressive stat line in the FSL combined with an influx of talent into the system from both the draft and trades will keep him from shooting up most rankings. Along with the WBC, Wells has had the honor of representing his country on a few other occasions. He was teammates with Lewis Thorpe at the 2013 18U World Cup in Taiwan. Lachlan has a twin brother, Alex, who was named the Orioles’ Minor League Player of the Year for 2017 after posting a 2.38 ERA and 0.91 WHIP over 140.0 innings, though he was playing a step below Lachlan in the South Atlantic League. It has to be somewhat beneficial to have not only a large group of Australian pitchers as teammates in the Twins system, but also a sibling going through the same process of trying to fight through the minor leagues. Per Baseball America, Wells was already able to occasionally touch 90 mph when he signed back in 2014. In a piece for BA in April 2016, Phil Miller reported Wells sits in the low 90s comfortably, but his best pitches are his curveball and changeup. I typically like to lean on the numbers, but there’s something about Wells’ delivery that I like. He starts out slow and smooth and then everything speeds up, especially with his upper body, and his head even does a subtle jerk, almost like you’d see from max-effort little league pitchers. Maybe that’s not ideal mechanics, but the action seems to create especially good deception for his off-speed offerings. Everything looks like it’s coming in hard. Again, I don’t pretend to have an eye for scouting that kind of stuff, but below is a little bit of video from YouTube of his rehab appearance with the GCL Twins. You can kinda see what I’m talking about in the parts that were shot from the first-base side (starting around the 1:00 mark). The lack of workload is a concern, but it’s worth noting that while Wells’ innings only increased 19.6 percent from 2016 to ’17, his total pitches thrown increased by 26.2 percent. Only time will tell if Wells can make it as a starter, but if he’s forced to the bullpen at some point the fact he’s a lefty helps. With a three-pitch mix and especially strong secondary options, he seems like a safe bet to continue to progress. There’s obviously no guarantee he see advances in his fastball, but if anything it’s only going tick up and he already has very good control. For more on Lachlan Wells and about 170 other Twins minor leaguers, be sure to pick up a copy of the 2018 Twins Prospect Handbook, which will be available later this winter. View full article

Thanks for passing this along. Those quotes from Rasmssen are surprising. Blindsided? I don't wanna pile on a guy who just got fired, but the track record wasn't exactly sterling and he had to have some suspicion the new guys were going to start bringing in fresh faces at some point.

Thanks for the update. I'm not sure how the Twins should be planning May's future, but I will say that ever since Joe Nathan had Tommy John I've looked at this surgery a lot differently. I think we're a little desensitized to it, since it's so common and so many players bounce back, but it's a big recovery and some guys need that 24 month timetable to really get back. Nathan had the surgery in March of 2010 and made the Opening Day roster the next season. It looked like he was toast in his first year back, but nope, he still had two more amazing years in him that the Rangers benefited from. 2004-09: 1.87 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 11.1 K/9 2011: 4.84 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 8.7 K/9 2012-13: 2.09 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 10.5 K/9 It's going to be a really tough message to deliver to a 28-year-old Trevor May who I'm sure is absolutely chomping at the bit to get on the mound and prove himself, but it's going to be important that he and the team remain patient.

I agree, this is getting embarrassing. You did a great job touching on the racial issues, but people also overreact to the Park and Nishioka signings. They weren't even disasters. The investments made were modest and I even think there's still some debate that either guy may have panned out if they hadn't have gotten injured. With posting fees and everything else a grand total of $38.85MM was committed to those two players. Nishi was a $5MM posting and a $9MM contract, Park was $12.85MM posting and a $12MM contract. And some of that was even recuperated when each of those guys returned home. These weren't six-figure signings. Their failures did not cripple the franchise. These are fans who saw their club give Ricky Nolasco $49MM and Phil Hughes a $42MM extension, if anything the argument should be don't give pitchers money. But then again ... Why am I even arguing this!?!?!? Park and Nishioka have nothing to do with Darvish, Ohtani or anyone else!!! It's just the worst take ever on so many levels and I've seen it like a hundred times now. Barf. Those fans don't deserve to get to see Darvish or Ohtani pitch for their team.

*cough* there is some really great stuff regarding Granite's contact skills in the Prospect Handbook *cough*

Oh no, in the grand scheme of things for the Twins creating more competition and making those guys force their way in is certainly not a bad thing. But just from a selfish viewpoint of my own fandom, am I going to be more excited/invested in seeing Gonsalves/Romero or even Aaron Slegers or Trevor May pitch in the rotation, or a free agent? My heart wants to see our young guys get a shot, but my head wants the Twins to sign two starters and two relievers.

I've been thinking a lot about whether they should leave a rotation spot open for one of these guys too, but it's so tough to know how a guy is going to handle his first taste in the bigs. The advantage of being a non-contender is you can give prospects a test run and if they fail it doesn't matter (like Berrios in 2016). I'm excited to hear the front office talk about trying to catch Cleveland, don't get me wrong, but it is kind of a bummer that being a contender probably also means it's probably going to be more difficult for these young guys to break in.

In the FSL. I wasn't all that impressed with him pounding on kids in the Appy League, but what he did with the Miracle was unbelievable. There were only 15 hitters who had more HRs in the FSL, and Rooker was only there for 40 games. I shared this on Twitter yesterday ... PA/HR for Fort Myers 14.7 Brent Rooker, 2017 15.2 Miguel Sano, 2013 20.4 David Ortiz, 1997 The strikeouts are a concern, especially since they didn't come with a gaudy walk rate, but the power is so hot. The guy hit 41 homers in 129 games total last year between college and the minors. I get it if some people don't buy into the hype, especially given the small sample and his apparent lack of positive defensive value at this point, but I'm allowing myself to get excited already.