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Is The Twins FO Actually Mad They Are Good?


Dave Overlund

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Just throwing this out there: Is the Twins' front office actually maybe kinda sorta mad that the team is playing so well?

 

Obviously, this seems preposterous on its surface, but bear with me for a moment.

 

Falvine nailed it with almost every FA acquisition made this offseason, with most of the signings being short-term guys at spots the Twins have heralded prospects coming up behind them. Schoop= Lewis/Arraez/Gordon etc, Cron/Cruz=Rooker/Kirilloff, Perez=Graterol/Gonsalves, and so on.

 

If these guys were performing as well as they have been this season, they would all be valuable trade chips at the deadline to help strengthen an already-strong minor league system. However, their play has contributed to 50 wins well before the All Star break, putting the Twins in an interesting position.

 

Should the team continue racking up wins, there is a good chance most of these guys will be allowed to walk after the season is up, and the Twins will get nothing in return. Can you really see them giving Schoop or Cron a long-term contract when they could call someone up from the minors at a much cheaper price?

 

I wonder if the front office isn't actually a little unnerved that the team is playing so well, much like 2017 when they probably wanted to get rid of Molitor but they improbably earned a Wild Card spot.

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Mad is certainly not the correct term... If they were mad about having success they shouldn't be running a baseball team.

 

This is what "financial flexibility" looks like in real life. 5-6 players on the 25 man with expiring contracts and the freedom to move on as needed.

 

I don't think the plan was to trade Schoop by the trade deadline. He is simply a one year stop gap while they wait for Gordon/Arraez/any other MI prospect to show they're ready for MLB action.

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Mad is certainly not the correct term... If they were mad about having success they shouldn't be running a baseball team.

This is what "financial flexibility" looks like in real life. 5-6 players on the 25 man with expiring contracts and the freedom to move on as needed.

I don't think the plan was to trade Schoop by the trade deadline. He is simply a one year stop gap while they wait for Gordon/Arraez/any other MI prospect to show they're ready for MLB action.

I agree "Mad" was not a great word choice! Maybe frustrated/surprised.

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No need to give Schoop or Cron a long term deal. They are both replaceable by guys in the Twins system already; Gordon or Arraez, Kiriloff or Rooker. 

Right, but how can you explain just letting a (potentially) 40 home run guy like Cron just walk after the season? I think the fans would again just assume it's the Pohlads being "cheap" as opposed to seeing the forest for the trees. 

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Yeah, they're not non-tendering Cron at this rate like the Rays did.

 

While I think it’s obvious that Cron isn’t getting non-tendered again next offseason, I definitely could see him being dealt to make way for Kirilloff/Rooker.

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Cron is playing better than anticipated and if you add that to last years production he's playing at a level you hope your prospects achieve. There's no reason to dump him after this year and if nothing else it makes Rooker expendable as a trade chip if we're going to go all in for a front line starting pitcher or closer.

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No need to give Schoop or Cron a long term deal. They are both replaceable by guys in the Twins system already; Gordon or Arraez, Kiriloff or Rooker

Seems you can always find cheap replacements at both positions. Cron scares me on defense. Seems he messes up so many easy catches.

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The Front Office is very happy with the current team. The idea of this offseason was to compete this season without committing to the next 3 seasons. We could compete now for cheap and allow some development time to prospects. Should things have gone the other way, we could have easily reversed coarse but I don't think that was assumed to be selling these one year deals. As you can see with the dirt cheap Polanco/Kepler contracts, this FO has an eye for value.

 

Not only have the deals worked out but the development side has worked out well too. Buxton confirmed that he was worth waiting for. Arraez seems able to take over 2nd now, etc. A big question mark for us was what we already had not just what we were getting from these filler signings.

 

And honestly we wouldn't get a bounty for any of them either.  What would a team give up for half a season of Schoop? Even selling Cruz would be trying to convince 1 or 2 AL teams to fit a 38 year old, DH only into their roster. He's clearly still a good hitter but there wouldn't be enough competition for him to really get a great return.

 

I find it really unlikely that we signed them hoping they would put up decent numbers and trade them for middling prospects instead of winning with them.

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The goal is to collect as many quality prospects as possible.

Winning a Championship is secondary and should not really matter. 

Of course the FO is mad.

 

Another problem is the additional employees the Twins have to hire to handle the sell out crowds. 

 

 

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Let Schoop walk as internal options seem ready to contribute. See what it would take to keep Cron for 3 years or so. He plays really good defense and his career numbers on baseball reference look fairly consistent.  Listen to offers on Sano and Rosario (I love Rosario and want him to stay for ever and ever) or Kepler. Not sure what Sano would get, but Rosie and Kepler would get a haul and sounds like Kirilleroff's going to be close enough to ready.

 

I'm a firm believer that in competitive window you need this kind of turn over not only to maintain a strong system but keep competitive drive at the big league level.

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