I'm a huge fan of Stro and I've always wanted him on the Twins, so I had to figure a way to get him in there. If not him, then I'd love to have Lucas Giolito.
I traded Jorge Polanco to the A's for Paul Blackburn, who's projected to get around $3.5M in arbitration. I'm not smart enough to know if that would include other players one way or the other, but that wouldn't have any impact on the ML roster. Because of this, I moved Eddie Julien into the starting 2B spot.
I moved Louie Varland into the bullpen because of how good he looked there at the end of last season. I also moved Bailey Ober out of the rotation, but if my pie in the sky signings/trades happen, then it would be a spring training battle between him and Paddack for the 5th spot, but I give the edge to Paddack right now. If we decide to go with 2 lefty reliever instead of 3, maybe you try to convince Paddack to stay in the bullpen and Ober is the 5th starter.
I signed Michael A. Taylor again. I think that's a no-brainer and I'd much rather have him than Kiermaier at this point in their careers. I also let Kyle Farmer go. As much as he was a great addition at times last year, I think he's expendable if Jose Miranda gets his head back on straight. If I sign Giolito instead of Stroman, I keep Farmer.
C:
Ryan Jeffers
($2.30M)
1B:
Alex Kirilloff
($1.70M)
2B:
Edouard Julien
($0.77M)
3B:
Royce Lewis
($0.77M)
SS:
Carlos Correa
($33.33M)
LF:
Matt Wallner
($0.77M)
CF:
Michael A Taylor
($6.00M)
RF:
Max Kepler
($10.00M)
DH:
Byron Buxton
($15.00M)
4th OF:
Willi Castro
($3.20M)
Utility:
Trevor Larnach
($0.77M)
Utility:
Jose Miranda
($0.77M)
Backup C:
Christian Vazquez
($10M)
SP1:
Pablo Lopez
($8.25M)
SP2:
Marcus Stroman
($21.00M)
SP3:
Joe Ryan
($0.77M)
SP4:
Paul Blackburn
($3.50M)
SP5:
Chris Paddack
($2.53M)
RP:
Jhoan Duran
($0.77M)
RP:
Brock Stewart
($0.77M)
RP:
Griffin Jax
($0.77M)
RP:
Jorge Alcala
($1.00M)
RP:
Caleb Thielbar
($3.00M)
RP:
Louie Varland
($0.77M)
RP:
Jovani Moran
($0.77M)
RP:
Kody Funderburk
($0.77M)
Payroll is 3.67% under budget