Tom Froemming

As things stand, most fans across Twins Territory have few (if any) options in terms of where they can watch FOX Sports North. How do you plan on following the team in 2021?These things can change quickly, but right now the only streaming option for FSN is AT&T TV. I took a quick look into their packages and explained why my first baseball-related purchase of 2021 was a piece of outdated technology in the video below. If you're interested in your options, go to getmyhometeams.com and enter your ZIP code. As a cord cutter, I've jumped from Fubo TV to Sling TV to YouTube TV to Hulu + Live TV over the past few years. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the FOX Sports Regional Networks, can't seem to maintain a relationship with a streaming service for long. That gives me even more pause when considering singing up for AT&T TV. We'll see if anything changes between now and Opening Day, but my plan right now is to turn to the radio. This is reminding me a bit of the Victory Sports One debacle of 2004. I'd prefer to watch the games, but Cory, Danny and Kris do a great job on 830 WCCO. What's your plan? SEE ALSO How Many Roster Spots are Locked in for 2021?Top 20 Minnesota Twins Assets of 2021: Part 4 (1-5)What Does the Francisco Lindor Trade Mean for the Twins?AL Central Offseason Update: Twins Wait While Others ActiveThe 5 Biggest Trades Minnesota Could Make This OffseasonWolfson: Despite Lack of Action, Nelson Cruz Wants to Remain a Twin Click here to view the article

This should be the official tagline for Minnesota sports.

You may have seen bold predictions, even some bolder ones, but here are the boldest Twins predictions for 2021.Make sure to bookmark this article for future reference. Before we start, allow me to apologize, the site could not support the level of bold I wanted this headline to be in. The best I could do was to illustrate just how bold these are in the text of the article image. Nelson Cruz will not return to the Twins Instead, the Twins decide to go with a youth movement and sign José Bautista, who is about 100 days younger than Cruz. MLB finally announces there will be the universal DH on April 5, Cruz signs with an NL team and goes on to hit 40 home runs. Bautista, meanwhile, hits exactly one home run prior to being released by the Twins, but along with it comes the most epic bat flip in franchise history. Fernando Romero becomes a superstar in Japan Romero becomes the ace of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and wins the Sawamura Award, the NPB equivalent to the Cy Young Award. He fails to clear customs returning to the Dominican Republic after the season ends when it’s discovered he attempted to smuggle a rare Ussuri brown bear from Japan into his home country. Alex Kirilloff will not make his official MLB debut in 2021 Kirilloff was good enough to start a playoff elimination game, but the Twins front office decides more “seasoning” is needed for him in 2021. Kirilloff is once again added to the active roster at the onset of the postseason and is immediately inserted into the No. 3 spot in the lineup. Josh Donaldson sets Statcast record The Bringer of Rain fails to make amends with umpires. As a result, he has the highest percentage of pitches out of the zone called strikes in the Statcast era by a landslide. I have a confession to make. These are not predictions, this is the actual future. I’m not at liberty to say where I’ve obtained this information, but here is Donaldson’s pitch breakdown chart for 2021: Download attachment: JD.jpg The Twins will win a playoff game (technically) MLB expands the postseason to 32 teams. The field will be comprised of all 30 MLB teams and the top two Triple-A clubs. The Twins beat the St. Paul Saints via forfeit in the Wacky Wild Wowza Card Round, then lose to the Detroit Tigers in the Crazy Eights Card Round, which is determined by a single eight-inning contest. Kirilloff hits three home runs in the loss. Happy New Year! SEE ALSO A Twins-Based Manifesto for Self-Improvement in 2021 | RandBalls Stu 21 New Year's Resolutions for the 2021 Twins | renabanena Twins Offseason Status Update: Slow Going | Nick Nelson Click here to view the article

I can really get behind that White Sox part. I've found them more and more difficult to root against over the past few years, but I'm ready to hate again, lol

It was a fun day to be a San Diego Padres fan, but what about the rest of us!? The Padres’ front office took a big bite out of the starting pitching trade market the past 24 hours.Sunday evening, the Padres agreed to a trade to acquire Blake Snell from Tampa Bay. Tonight, they are finalizing another deal to add Yu Darvish from the Cubs. Quite the 24 hours for A.J. Preller & Co. So what rotation pieces are left on the free agent and trade markets? I took a look in the video below. This free agent class was pretty soft in terms of starting pitching, but it was further weakened when Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman accepted their qualifying offers. Now that Lance Lynn, Snell and Darvish have all been dealt, the trade market has also been thinned out. Here's another look at the list included in the video: Download attachment: Screenshot 2020-12-28 at 9.13.13 PM.png Kenta Maeda ended up being a starter primed for a breakout, can the Twins’ front office identify and acquire a similar pitcher this offseason? SEE ALSO Wolfson: Twins Have Real Interest In Marcus SemienPatience: The Rotation EditionShould Jorge Polanco be the Twins Utility Man?Utility Debate: Jurickson Profar Vs. Kiké HernándezPotential Twins Free Agent Targets: 8 Flying Under the Radar5 Trade Targets: Who Can the Twins Raid from the Reds?Using History to Decipher Who the Twins Will Sign This OffseasonReacting to Twins Blockbuster Trade Speculation Click here to view the article

Some more Semien analysis for anybody interested:

I can't imagine he'll be able to beat Michael Wacha's one-year, $3 million deal by much.

Yep, Galvis is another name in that MIF mix that could certainly help this team. Somebody mentioned Kevin Pillar in the comments on YouTube, and he's most definitely a guy who makes sense, being a right-handed hitter capable of playing center field. Both of those guys have sub-.300 OBPs for their careers, but that's exactly why they're in this under-the-radar conversation. I could still see them being useful to the Twins in 2021.

You won’t find these guys listed on any of the top free-agent rankings, but here are eight under-the-radar players from this year’s class I think would make sense for the Minnesota Twins.I fully expect the Twins to provide a couple big gifts for fans to unwrap this offseason, but here are some other free agents who could be nice stocking stuffers: Pedro Baez, Tyler Chatwood, Mike Foltynewicz, Mitch Moreland, Yusmeiro Petit, Daniel Robertson, Jonathan Villar and Alex Wood. I explain why those players stick out to me as fits on the Twins in the video below. Let me know who your favorite under-the-radar free-agent targets are. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY Brad Hand Would Love to Play for the Twins5 Trade Targets: Who Can the Twins Raid from the Reds?Using History to Decipher Who the Twins Will Sign This OffseasonReacting to Twins Blockbuster Trade SpeculationOffseason WorriesChoose Your Own Path: 5 Ways for the 2021 Minnesota Twins to Spend their Remaining $40M Click here to view the article

The Twins have scored nine runs in five playoff games the past two seasons. Pitching is certainly important, but you're not getting anywhere averaging less than two runs a game.

Players lost about 63% of their pay in 2020. Owners lost an estimate of 30% of their expected revenue. We don't know their exact numbers because they won't open their books. The argument is the owners are not giving the players their fair shake, regardless of what that equates to in relation to the average person.

Yup. And that's more than likely what any delays to this coming season are going to be all about: the owners not wanting to pay the players. We know the owners were comfortable with around an 80-game schedule for 2020. It didn't get shortened to 60 due to health and safety concerns, it was because the players wouldn't give up additional pay. Players just wanted their prorated salaries, owners wanted to implement some kind of a revenue sharing system, as detailed in the last bullet point of this article from Ken Rosenthal. Most players already think spring training is too long, and it's not like there was a traditional spring training immediately preceding the 2020 season. It's possible to get the season rolling in April even without a traditional spring training. So that's not going to be the reason behind the delay, either.

Owners are not taking a loss. Baseball America did some great reporting in April on revenues. The estimate is attendance accounts for 30% of teams revenues. Forbes reported that MLB saw $10.7 billion in revenues in 2019, and players were set to have been pad a little more than $4 billion entering 2019. Of course, those salaries were prorated to about 37% (60/162). Seems to me the math is still working out very much in favor of the owners. I think they're gonna be fine. If they don't agree, any MLB owner can cash out for a cool billion dollars any time they'd like. The player's salaries are not guaranteed, and their careers have limited earning life. Owners, on the other hand, can gain wealth from their franchise for generations. Keeping things local, Carl Pohlad bought the Twins for $44 million and they're now estimated to be worth $1.3 billion, per Forbes. (and per this inflation estimator $44 million in 1984 comes out to about $110.2 million in 2020)

The TV situation is mentioned in the final paragraph. Embarrassing that in a time most other things are getting easier to watch, it's getting more difficult to see baseball in some areas.

What are the roster rules for 2021? We don’t know. What is the playoff format for 2021? We don’t know. How long will the 2021 season be? We don’t know.Jeff Passan of ESPN reported last month that the league is trying to get expanded playoffs approved in exchange for the league approving the designated hitter being universal going forward. MLB appears to already be negotiating broadcasting rights for the expanded playoff rounds with ESPN and sent a memo to teams advising them to plan on not having a universal DH in 2021. Well, per Buster Olney teams are actually operating under the assumption that the National League will, in fact, have the DH in 2021.

Brian Howard, RHP currently with the A's.

They most certainly do, that's just what's been reported thus far.

Let’s take a look at who the Minnesota Twins are rumored to be interested in and what transactions have already taken place this offseason as we prepare for the MLB Winter Meetings.The MLB Winter Meetings are typically an ice breaker to the offseason, but this year’s event will be held remotely. As if the current economic situation wasn’t clouding the situation enough, it’ll be interesting to see how the event going virtual may slow things down compared to prior years. Speaking of which, last year’s meetings saw some of the biggest contracts in baseball signed. Stephen Strasberg signed a record-breaking deal for a starting pitcher, seven years and $245 million, only to be bested by Gerrit Cole’s nine-year, $324 million contract the next day. Anthony Redon also inked his seven-year, $245 million deal with the Angels. The Twins, however, had a quiet 2019 Winter Meetings. The Michael Pineda and Alex Avila signings were made official, but they were originally reported a week prior to the event. Let’s run through who they’ve been liked to thus far this offseason. Twins Rumors Darren Wolfson of KSTP has reported that the Twins are interested in Kiké Hernández, Joakim Soria and Corey Kluber (link to Kiké Tweet, Soria Tweet and Scoop podcast). Hernández’s overall numbers don’t stand out, but he brings one particular skill that could be of great value to the Twins. That ability to crush left-handers combined with positional flexibility — he provides depth at virtually every position in the field — means Hernández could solve a lot of the Twins’ problems all on his own. Soria, a right-handed relief pitcher, has been worth 5.2 WAR the past four seasons, per FanGraphs. That ranks 11th among all relievers, two spots above Taylor Rogers. He’s entering his age-37 season, but this Twins front office has been very open to adding veteran relievers in the past. Kluber was a leading Cy Young candidate as recently as 2018, but that feels like forever ago now. He’s pitched just 36 2/3 innings over the two seasons since. He’s entering his age-35 season. Jayson Stark of The Athletic recently noted that every executive he’s spoke with “expects the Twins to spend money.” That leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but it’s a much more positive outlook than some other fanbases are faced with heading into the Winter Meetings. Catching Up The MLB offseason is always a bit slow to pick up steam, but this year feels especially sluggish. Just four players have signed contracts with new clubs in excess of $2 million. Here’s that list: Mike Minor to the Royals for two years and $18 million. Trevor May to the Mets for two years and $15.5 million. Charlie Morton to Atlanta for one year, $15 million. Drew Smyly to Atlanta for one year, $11 million. The other significant deals all involved players returning to the teams they finished the 2020 season with. Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman both accepted qualifying offers and Robbie Ray got a one-year, $8 million deal to return to Toronto. There have also been a couple of trades, as the Angels acquired shortstop José Iglesias for pitchers Garrett Stallings and Jean Pinto while the Reds sent Robert Stephenson and a prospect to Colorado for Jeff Hoffman and a prospect. But that’s it. There are a lot of moves yet to be made, but whether or not things pick up this week is anybody’s guess. What About the DH? It’s possible the fate of the Designated Hitter in the National League is determined this week, though there’s no hard deadline on when the decision needs to be made. This arguably impacts the Twins as much as any team in baseball, as Nelson Cruz waits to find out whether or not an additional 15 teams may be interested in his services. If so, the likelihood of a team meeting his desire for a two-year contract raise significantly. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email Click here to view the article