nicksaviking

Ugh, dislike. I don't care about Miller, he was never going to hit enough, but this just clogs up the 26-man roster. Now the only offensive players with options, are the ones who shouldn't be optioned. Margot and Santana have shut down the Minneapolis-St. Paul taxi service. Roster flexibility is pretty much crippled; they better pray that 2023 wasn't an outlier year for Kepler and Santana and that it was for Vazquez. I'll give them credit for getting a player without strikeout issues though. Better decision than signing Taylor or Duval from my perspective.

*******************Moderator Note******************** These responses are once again getting too personal. This article is comparing the Twins situation to the Diamondback situation, which does cover new territory, yet the comments keep zeroing in on tracks that are well worn through.

I wouldn't be opposed to an extension, but as it stands now he'll be nearly 33-years-old before he reaches free agency. If he accepts a deal to add an extra year of control for the Twins, he'll be about Sonny Gray's age before he gets to test the market, and Sonny Gray had to have a career year just to get a three year deal. If I were Ober, any years the team buys out, would need to be for a significant dollar amount.

No, it's quite possible to agree with something, yet grow tired of it. Feels to me that endless harping is bad for the soul.

If Emmanuel Rodriguez is killing it and showing he's worthy, the Twins would be foolish to chain him up in Wichita for any of these players. Keirsey and Helman aren't even on the 40-man. And after Buxton and Keirsey, Rodriguez is probably the best CF of the group. I'd add Kepler to the list, but he could be hitless through June and I doubt the Twins remove him from the lineup.

He has four suitors? This sounds suspiciously like something the agent leaked. Gio Urshela and Amed Rosario just signed for a measly 1.5M. Any of these four teams could have just offered either of those two 2M. This seems more like a last ditch effort to avoid having to take a MiLB deal. Edit: And now Nick Ahmed signed a MiLB deal with the Giants. Now it really seems like this four team bidding war is most likely for similar MiLB deal. I mean it's not like either of these guys would be signed for any other reason than their gloves. And if it is for a MiLB deal, I doubt the Twins will come out on top. He'll want to go where he has the best chance to get called up, and with Lewis, Correa, Julien, Castro. Farmer and Lee ready to go, that can't be terribly attractive.

Perhaps, but it wasn't a flat out "No" though according this Mariner reporter, and 'high valuation' doesn't necessarily mean it would have been an over pay. Polanco, Kepler and one of the top four prospects is probably an overpay. Polanco and Kepler? Or those two and even adding in another prospect? Plenty would still see that as an overpay, but I'd have been interested. Miller was the pitcher of theirs I wanted the least, but sounds like he was at least higher than Woo from the Twins perspective. And Miller is adding a splitter this winter, which sounds like something the Twins would have had him do too.

I wanted quality over quantity though. This was from the piece that MLBTR linked: Jerry Dipoto, president of baseball operations, said early in the offseason that the Mariners weren’t inclined to trade either Miller or Woo, and industry sources said the Mariners put a high valuation on their two young starters in talks with other teams. No one came particularly close to matching the asking price. Meaning one of them could have been obtained, but the Twins didn't offer enough. So maybe the prior reports of the Mariners asking the Twins for Kepler would have gotten it done. https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/as-trade-rumors-swirled-julio-rodriguez-urged-mariners-to-keep-bryce-miller-and-bryan-woo/

As someone who prefers putting your best 26 players on the active roster and stashing your emergency depth in AAA, I'm a fan of guys like Garlick.

Nothing wrong with see through pants unless you have something to hide. TSA should give them less hassle at least.

These same posters? Not sure about that. I said right away in the offseason I'd like one big free agent (and they weren't big, they were very reasonable), and if they couldn't get one of the three I liked, I'd like them to get none. Ripping the Twins for their disastrous handling of the TV deal and ripping Joe Pohlad for his complete tone-deaf interview and seeing it as a frightening omen for the future aren't the same as demanding more free agents. And aren't other posters allowed to have wanted OTHER free agents and not these particular four? These guys all have enough warts to turn stomachs. I mean, do we normally open birthday presents blindfolded and like what we get unconditionally?

I'm not sure which arm he's had his multiple injury issues with, but if it's his throwing arm, outfield might already be a asking too much.

With a rebuild on my mind, I might let Hunter walk and sign one of the younger pass rushing free agents, but the Vikings could probably do both JJ and Hunter now. Though I think investing in the OL should be the top free agent priority, particularly if they do get a new young QB. Even with some end of the year troubles, the expensive part, LT, should be fine. Interior guys are cheaper; they could go whole hog on those three spots to make in not a concern for a few years.

Kirilloff's injury history is a big concern. But I don't know about him holding down a middle of the order spot better than Julien. Kirilloff hasn't come close to doing what Julien did last year. And unless you have a Paul Goldschmidt type, I don't think a team should shy away from moving a 1B who has equity. This team in particular; there are so many internal options.

So I guess Sports Illustrated isn't completely gone. They picked up on a discussion from MLB.TV that I don't think I've seen mentioned here yet. In it Jon Morosi says: "Basically what Derek Falvey indicated to me is that Lee will get some reps at second base. If you have Brooks Lee at second potentially, then you can move Julien from second to first, Correa at short, Royce Lewis at third. That's a really athletic infield if everybody's healthy and productive." I THINK this second part is Morosi conjecture, and not an actual comment from Falvey, but perhaps it was implied to him. Either way, it makes sense and that possibility has been mentioned on this site too. Morosi's next statement was what SI was really getting at: "I'm a little bit worried about the Twins' rotation, but the fact that Lee is close to being major league ready, as [Falvey] told me, is a very promising development and it could even create some different options for the Twins to move a position player in a trade to bulk up their starting rotation," So I've been advocating for one of Julien or Lee to be traded for top end starting pitching. But SI's take was that it is likely Kirilloff the Twins are aiming to move. Makes sense, and after all, there were early off season reports about the Marlins trying to get first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino from the Royals. Heck, those reports about Pasquantino could have inspired the Twins to pivot to Kirilloff. If moving Kirilloff is indeed the goal, to me that's a best case scenario in terms of which young players I'd prefer to keep. It seems unlikely Kirilloff has a ton of value, but I'd have thought the same of Pasquantino. And I'm not one to be shy about tossing in other appealing prospects in a trade either. In any case, if this fairy tale is a possibility, I imagine it would hinge on how well Kirilloff looks here in spring training; here's to good health! https://www.si.com/mlb/twins/news/report-brooks-lees-ascension-could-lead-to-trade-for-pitching

I think it's the other way around. Bellinger was pretty vocal about those involved with developing the Astros garbage can technology.

The men and women running the on-field operations of baseball are getting younger as that demographic tends to be more interested in mining new data and and developing new methodologies to get an advantage on the diamond. It's frankly surprising that that the owners aren't doing the same with the people running the part of the operation that is concerned with attracting more fans and more important to the owners, generating the money. Modern promotion of the teams and players, figuring out how to stream games to huge audiences, collaboration with other interested entrepreneurs and societal awareness of the brand seems to be a foreign language to most of these guys. As annoying as it sounds, there are probably 30 17-year-old YouTubers sitting in their parents basements who could figure this stuff out better than the current 30 people trying to understand this modern baseball.

Agreed. And not corner OF, his value will really only come into play if he's able to man center.

Nice work snagging that interview!

Yeah, to an extent I feel bad. Though THAT incident didn't cause this auction, it's almost certainly due to the well publicized issues with not paying child support, which I'm also fairly unsympathetic to. I was done with the athlete idol before Peterson came around, but I mean, this stuff is a pretty big reason why I cheer for the team and not the player. I come across pretty cold sometimes always wanting to move on from long time players, but we don't really know these guys. The guys that replace them could be fantastic humans for all I know, or they could be scumbags. So best course is just to cheer to win a trophy is my take.

I think he was broke while STILL in football. The NFL seems to have made it a point to educate the new players about their money, but they didn't while AP was making all of his. I could use a new office chair though....

This is the only one I care about.

I don't trust Bellinger either. His contract demands are really asking for a lot of short term memory.

Ha, this is fantastic: https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-dom-disandro-suspension-impacted-nick-sirianni-during-games So an Eagles reporter is claiming the Eagles fell apart after that sideline security guy got suspended for tussling with Dre Greenlaw. And the reason for that is because that security guy's main job is to keep Nick Sirianni from fighting with his players and coaches. Wow, that's awesome! I mean awesome because I hate the Eagles.