Respy

I tried hard to find points of disagreement, but I don't have any strong arguments against this list, other than I'd expect about 2 of the lineup regulars in 2021, which is quite far from now, to be players who are not in our organization currently. My best guess is that those outsider players will occupy catcher, third base, or corner outfield. I personally don't think Dozier will be with the Twins, or at 3rd base, in 2021. I'd peg that spot as Bechtold, Chris Paul, or an outside RH bat.

I'd like to know what TC does in the winter. Hibernate? Snowmobile? Practice hitting softballs over the center field fence?

The Twins did good to keep Dozier originally and not trade him. I predict a regression for him this year (just a gut feeling, nothing else), so I think this issue will take care of itself.

Thank you for this article. I guess you would consider me to be an 'organically-grown' member, currently in the commentating stage, unsure if I'll move past this point, partly due to a lack of time (baby #3 due April!) and partly due to a lack of writing ability. I have good spelling and grammar, I can tell a good joke here and there, I can do diligent research, but I will have a hard time writing a cohesive story. Before I get to your questions, my first suggestion is to pair people up to write articles. My thought is, I could do (and enjoy) researching a topic, making up my talking points, jokes, and such. But the final stage of making it pretty and readable with good flow is daunting and will take me too much time, to the point where the interest in that particular story might already be past (last week's story is thus, last week's story). Now the hard part of this pairing process, is that I'm guessing there's a low number of people on this site who are quality writers and weak towards baseball/technical stuff. If you’ve written for Twins Daily, what was the experience like? N/A How do we better manage and administer the recruitment and development of independent voices? Might need to look outside of the hardcore Twins fan community. What is a fair price to compensate our writers? Or the person who curates/tends/ manages our writers? Unfortunately I'm assuming you'd be unable to provide what is 'fair,' at least according to what freelance writers make. I do think you should pay per page view, at least for most writers. You might consider paying the senior writers per word or per article, that way they can get paid up front. You know what to expect from your senior writers so you probably won't lose any money on this (as long as you have the money up front). How can we give feedback to our writers as a community? Or let them know just how popular their stories are? I'll have to think on this. I haven't written, so I'm not sure. How can we get the word out that developing writers is a focus of Twins Daily? How would we restructure the site to emphasize that? (And do you agree it should be?) See next response. Would you like to hear more voices? How can we best do that? I'd be interested in hearing more voices, and perhaps having those voices be more focused. I see a bit of this already, but I'd be interested in seeing there be a lead writer on certain subjects (e.g. Red Wings lead writer, Lookouts lead writer, high A lead writer, low A lead writer, and various Twins writers like for starting pitchers, bullpen, lineup, advanced analytics, game recaps, etc. I'd like to be able to go to the front page of the website and find the page of articles in the subject I'm interested in. Right now everything is combined in the scrolling front page, or hidden somewhere that I can't find it. With the setup right now, I feel like the current content will dictate how my visit to the site goes. By all means, keep the feature articles highlighted on the front page. BUT, I'd rather have my mind made up ahead of time (e.g. I'd like to read about AAA prospects and advanced analytics about the Twins fielding today) and already know where I'd need to go on the site to view that material. I can see that there is an attempt to do this with the 5 tabs currently at the top-right of the site, but the selections are limited and a bit hodgepodge. You guys have TONS of articles. If you could find a way to sort them better and streamline the site, you'd get WAY more views, I'd enjoy each visit better, and I'd be more likely to read older articles as they won't be so buried. PS an aside: I'd personally prefer to see replies and comments arranged more like a tree/web, say how Facebook does it (where a reply to one comment gets stacked under that comment), as opposed to the current setup which just chronologically stacks everything. It is so tedious to flip through the comments quickly.

Sorry I would not give up Royce Lewis for Gerrit Cole. I think if the Twins are still talking with the Pirates (and I'd presume and hope they are), that the discussion would involve Nick Gordon plus a top pitching prospect or two.

In my opinion, a super bullpen also has a requirement that the pitchers be different. Just like players get used to a starting pitchers 2nd and 3rd time through the order, batters will start to get their timing on pitchers who are all similar. So, a bullpen of three hard-throwing right-handers with normal armslots and only sliders as an offspeed pitch, will find it hard to be dominating on a consistent basis. The Yankees had such a good combo because all the pitcher were so different. Betances is a big guy with a power fastball and slider. Robertson is a righty who throws cutters and 12-6 curveballs. Chapman is a lefty with a mega fastball. I think there's many factors against the Twins making a super bullpen, but they need more variety. Hildenberger has a different armslot, which helps, but has a similar repertoire to Rodney. The Twins don't have any good bullpen arms that can throw in the upper 90's. Ditto for lefty relievers.

If Esco wants to stay in Minnesota, I think they'll make this happen. Possibly not this offseason though.

Well since I will be civil and try not to say anything negative about Rodney, ... ...

Well, one interesting aspect of this, is that Pineda can start the season on the 60-day DL. This will allow the Twins to either make a late signing or place a player on the 40-man roster who excelled during spring training. Does anyone know how early players are eligible to go on the 60-day DL? Perhaps this is a moot point if teams can just give a player a spring training invite with an agreement to sign them officially after the 40-man spot is open.

Unfortunately, being realistic, if the Twins sign 1 ok-good bullpen arm ($5M), 1 questionable veteran bullpen arm ($1M-$2M), 1 somewhat reliable #3 starter ($12M), that already puts them at a record $115M payroll. And, they should still be adding a RH bat, ideally.

According to the TD Offseason handbook, the Twins have about $96M committed already, and their record payroll was $113M. If the Twins sign two good bullpen arms at the rates they are currently going at (let's say $8M and $5M), then add Darvish ($25M), that puts the Twins at *ahem* $134M.

But, is it worth spending about 1/10 of your team's payroll on an 8th-inning bullpen arm?

Thank you for covering the financial aspect of this. I completely agree that these guys are going for high rates right now. Naturally, the most bloated contracts will be handed out first, but it's likely that the days of getting a reliable reliever for 2 years at $2M-$3M are over. A reliable, non-exceptional reliever will give you about, say 1 WAR? 1 WAR is worth about $5M/year. So these initial bullpen signings, teams are expecting above-average or exceptional performances, so they are going for $8M-$10M/year. In my opinion, that's just a lot to expect from, as you stated, "volatile" players. I'd expect at this point that the Twins sign two relievers, one like a Kintzler for about $5M, and one like a Belisle or Breslow for $1M-$2M. No big splashes. They need to focus their $$ on a starting pitcher first.

Hear, hear.

We have Escobar and just resigned Reginatto to a minors deal. Adrianza is on the bench. Then there's TJ White and Chris Paul in the wings. They also just signed Gregorio Petit to a minors deal and he could help if needed. No superstars here, but I think we're fine. Let's fix the pitching first.

Honestly no idea why Otani requested pitches from all MLB teams if he was that dead-set on the west coast. I'd have to assume some teams are a bit frustrated over the wasted effort.

I appreciate the thread and discussion and generally agree with most. I also think they should leave 1 spot open for the Rule 5 draft. If they sign a big free agent between now and the Rule 5 draft, they could still drop someone, right? I don't expect the Twins to sign anyone via Rule 5, but I think given some of our fringe players, they should keep the spot open, because with how many international talents are signed at young ages nowadays, the number of high-upside young-20's international players who have only reached A or AA should be continue to increase in the Rule 5 draft going forward. Lastly, I would protect Pressly and not Melotakis. Lastly lastly, despite our agreement, I would bet strongly that we are in for some surprises and big changes to the 40-man roster that gets submitted for the Twins today. Now is the most appropriate time for Falvey and Levine to part ways with players they don't value as highly, to make room for players they do.

One could argue that landing Darvish OR Otani would be the greatest Twins off-season ever?

Welp, another quick exit from this list as the Twins voided the contract of #30 prospect SS Jelfry Marte.

Love following this series, thanks.

Sorry, corny joke.

Let's annex South Dakota and put Otani's face on Mount Rushmore. Or at the least, make him a huge corn mural at the Corn Palace. Maybe he has a deep-down desire to be a corn star...

I agree with the overall assessment by the article. I also agree with some commenters that Austin Jackson is one to consider as well. That will depend on how often he expects to play. He had an OPS of 1.014 against lefties last year.

Agree. Or anything similar.

I wasn't aware that there was a surgery for shin stress reaction. After some research, sounds like recovery is about 3-4 months. So yes, it's good to do it now, and hope he's back for Spring Training. I'd expect that this should solidify Escobar being tendered an arbitration contract, and I'd be surprised if the Twins sign a DH-type this offseason if they think Sano might need to spend extra time there next year.