The only plus is that the Twins can open the season looking at the future. They don't need five starters every fifth day. And they will be able to get a good hard look at a possible advancement by Dobnak, Graterol, Thorpe or Smeltzer to be a part of the rotation for most of the season and going into 2021 as being viable starters. If you have real pitching arms in the minors, you need to give them a chance. Otherwise, why draft rotation arms. Just buy them each and every season.

if this is our impact pitching then i fear the impact will be worse, not better. Thanks again FO.

Gee, what a surprise.

Diddle around, miss out on the top free agents to address our #1 need, scrape the bottom of the burned-out dumpster for shot-in-the-dark vets, and call it a day.

Well, maybe they're making an actual run at Donaldson, but last I heard, he's not a starting pitcher, so...

We bludgeoned teams with the long ball last year. That may not be the case with next year's baseball. And I don't know if anyone informed the FO, but it's pitching that wins in the playoffs.  If we get there again.

I would have bundled up all that salary we are paying Hill, Bailey, and Pineda and applied it to either Bumgarner, Wheeler, or Ryu. But that’s just me.

This all kind of feels like the 2017-2018 offseason, coming off the optimism from being in the Wild Card game, and then seeing the free agent signings be underwhelming (and I was against the two biggest signings that year, Morrison and Lynn). But give them credit for the Odorizzi trade that year.

Can the FO pull a rabbit out of their hat and save the offseason somehow?

I would have bundled up all that salary we are paying Hill, Bailey, and Pineda and applied it to either Bumgarner, Wheeler, or Ryu. But that’s just me.

This all kind of feels like the 2017-2018 offseason, coming off the optimism from being in the Wild Card game, and then seeing the free agent signings be underwhelming (and I was against the two biggest signings that year, Morrison and Lynn). But give them credit for the Odorizzi trade that year.

Can the FO pull a rabbit out of their hat and save the offseason somehow?

I don't think fans understand that Wheeler and MadBum were never coming here. They had destinations they wanted to go to and actually took less money to get there. 

As for Ryu, while I would have paid him, he's essentially Rich Hill a few years younger with the same injury risk. The only difference is that Ryu is (maybe) starting the season healthy and Rich Hill only cost $3m. I can see why the front office may have been worried about paying a guy $80m and risking getting 100-200 IP in return.

These signings in a vacuum are great. If Indians fans are saying they're happy to see these signings, they don't understand what they're talking about. 

Homer Bailey is better than Gibson and Perez and the front office has said they have been watching him since the end of last year with changes in mind to improve him even further on his 4.57 ERA and 4.11 FIP. This isn't a Martin Perez "let's take a bad pitcher and make him serviceable" move. Bailey is serviceable already and will at least be a good fill in for Pineda with the ability to stick down the stretch.

If you're mad at the Rich Hill move, you're looking too hard for something to be upset about. He's 40 but he's been an enigma since he returned to the MLB. Even if he doesn't pitch until July, he's a wild card that we have in our back pocket down the stretch and has put up ace like numbers in pretty much every healthy stretch he's had for the last 5 years. He's being paid $3m with incentives, and if he never pitches again we pretty much lose nothing.

You can be mad that they didn't sign any of the top free agent starters, I am. Would you rather they just admit defeat and go into the season with only Berrios and Odorizzi in the rotation though just so the fans can say "I told you so"? They got a guy who can eat up innings which we desperately needed and a guy with tremendous upside and playoff experience. They're doing all they can after missing on the top end of free agency and they made probably the best moves they could have with what was left. They're also still talking to Donaldson and I'd expect them to pivot to the trade market for more pitching if they can't get him. They were likely favorites before making these moves and both of them likely increased their odds, granted not as much as signing Gerrit Cole would have. I'm pretty happy with both of these moves.

I don't think fans understand that Wheeler and MadBum were never coming here.

Wheeler simply accepted the more desirable offer of two similar offers (Chicago’s was apparently a few million more for the same years). And even in Bumgarner’s case, if the Twins wanted to get creative, I think they could have attracted him here. Say, a 4/80 contract front loaded with an opt-out after two years. What is your opinion on a possible offer like that?