Minnesota Twins Talk

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/12/twins-sign-alex-avila.html Got that backup catcher

This could actually be the best thing to solve the whole infield and improve the defense a the same time. Arraez has not shown great range playing 2B. So why not have him work with someone this winter into becoming a good 1ST baseman. It would allow Sano to stay at 3RD for the time being until he needs to become our future DH. You could also finally move Polanco to 2B and sign a SS like Jose Iglesias to shore up the defense. Sign Iglesias to a 2 year deal and then if Royce Lewis is ready sooner he can take over at SS.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/11/orioles-reportedly-working-to-trade-dylan-bundy.html Looks like Baltimore is finally going to trade him. Fairly cheap with two years of control left. With all his warts, he was still worth 2.5 WAR last season and will only be 27 next season. Adding him to the rotation would still allow us to dream on Wheeler (which won't happen) but would give us another solid starter with a bit of potential upside left. I'm not sure what it would take but they won't get a top 100 prospect for him but might want a high tools lottery ticket and a fairly safe prospect. Maybe something like Rooker and Celestino? I'm not sure.

Spring Training tickets are on sale now. I'm buying some tickets for either Friday, March 6 vs. STL or Monday, March 9 vs ATL. Would anyone be interested in a meetup? We could do brunch before the game and then head to Hammond Stadium. Feel free to PM me or just feel it out in replies here.

Teams will officially offer arbitration or non-tender their arbitration-eligible players by 7:00 tonight. The other option is to agree to terms before the deadline. Here are the Twins arbitration-eligibles with MLB Trade Rumors' projections: Twins (10) Sam Dyson – $6.4MM Ehire Adrianza – $1.9MM C.J. Cron – $7.7MM Trevor May – $2.1MM Eddie Rosario – $8.9MM Miguel Sano – $5.9MM Byron Buxton – $2.9MM Taylor Rogers – $3.9MM Tyler Duffey – $1.1MM Jose Berrios – $5.4MM Dyson was previously released. The Twins announced that Ehire Adrianza agreed to a guaranteed $1.6 million deal for 2020. (remember, arbitration contracts are not fully guaranteed until late in sprin…

Twins have some flexibility with their 2020 payroll, is now the time to think extending the young guys and front loading their contracts? Could we potentially sign Sano to a 4 year 50M contract and front load the deal to make the numbers work on the back end? $12.5M each year for the 4 years. This would buy 2 years of free agency. Overpay $6.5M now for discounts later. Sano would get the guaranteed money. Or Jose Berrios? 5 years $70M? Make it an even $14M a year. Overpay this year by $9M but get 2 years free agency and line it up with the core of Kepler/polanco/Sano. Would love to add Buxton in here but I have a feeling the team and player would be too far a…

Just thought I'd get others thoughts. I haven't heard much about San Diego but 1) they have a loaded minor league system 2) they have a fairly big payroll after giving Hosmer and Machedo a ton of money. Even though they only won 70 games last season, presumably they have to eventually get into win-now mode. Looking at their roster, they have a lot of young talent to go around Machedo and Tatis and a number of pitchers that look good and have years of control left plus some good talent at AA or higher as well. But they could use a couple impact bats, potentially in the OF and at second base. Seems like the Twins might be good trading partners there.

He already won the Silver Slugger Award, and today, MLB announced that Nelson Cruz has won the 2019 Edgar Martinez Award for Outstanding Designated Hitter. He had previously won the award in 2017. In the past, Chili Davis (1991) and Paul Molitor (1996) were Twins to win the award... though it certainly would have had a different name back then. https://twitter.com/morsecode/status/1201593075287629828

Today is the non-tender deadline, December 8 is the "Modern Baseball HOF Committee" (see attached if you want to know more) https://baseballhall.org/modern-baseball-era-ballot-2020, Monday begins the Winter Meetings and the Rule V draft is on the 12th. What are your predictions for what will happen over these busy two weeks before things slow down for the Christmas Holiday? Here are mine: Today: All arb eligible players in the Twins organization not named CJ Cron will receive their tenders. There will be much debate over the next three days over whether or not Non-Tendering CJ Cron was a good idea and whether or not we should offer him a lower 2-3 year contract. Somet…

I just wanted to reach out into the Twins Daily cyber space to say thank you for a great 2019 season! From the Game Threads to the excellent articles, blogs and forums what a fun year. 2020 is only going to get better! The window is open and I only see success ahead. I also wanted to find out menus for the big feast ahead tomorrow. I'll be preparing 3 turkeys...One will be smoked, fried and roasted in the oven. Garlic mashed potatoes followed with pecan roasted sweet potatoes. Green bean casserole for the traditionalists, oyster stuffing (not cooked in the bird as it drys the carcass out), scalloped corn, roasted Brussel sprouts with bacon and olive oil, stuffed artich…

I'LL GIVE YOU ONE HARMON KILLEBREW FOR... All this potential trade talk that seems to haunt TD this time of year takes me back to a time when kids walked around with a rubber-band wrapped stack of baseball cards in their front shirt pockets in the hopes of “one-upping” one of their chums in a one-sided swap… should the occasion arise. Of course nobody carried their best cards around with them, those were tucked away in an old shoe box stored in their mothers’ attics, safe for all eternities, unless brought out for a hot game of dice baseball with a crosstown rival. The shiftier kids would often place a medium-value card face up on their “trade” stack with…

No real details or specifics yet, but looks like Kyle Gibson has found a new home... Personally, I'm very happy for him. Always enjoyed chatting with him... first did a podcast with him, shortly after the draft... had him on a podcast about 90 minutes before he actually signed with the Twins at the deadline in 2009... always great talking to him in the clubhouse and in Ft. Myers.. Just not many better people than Kyle Gibson... Lots all the weight and strength last year with the e. coli that turned into ulceritive colitis. If healthy, I'm really hoping he can get back to his 2018 level because that's a really good pitcher!

With the recent news of: Derek Shelton being named Pirate Head Coach Jeremy Hefner being named Mets Pitching Coach James Rowson being named Marlin Bench Coach and “Offensive Coordinator” Peter Fatse being named Red Sox Assistant Hitting Coach Tanner Swanson being named Yankees Major League Catching and Quality Control Coach One could: Get depressed and wonder silently, unless you enjoy odd looks from cubicle workers, whether our hometown 9 will ever reach 100 wins again? Frantically lament on Twins Daily your disappointment in the Front Office Predict bottom feeding and/or garbage bin scrounging in Free Agency once again Fear not Twins Daily readers for I have…

There it is...

The articles on here are far too negative and do not accurately reflect the current state of affairs. By this point in the offseason, we have gone over how we could trade every single player or who will regress. However, we are much stronger than that. We have just won enough games to make the playoffs and now own the single season record for Home Runs. Further our players are very young. Who CONTINUES to take a step forward and turns from Rising Star to Bonafide MVP type candidate? I have a few votes but for me it all starts with Max Kepler. He is starting to hit lefties, hits for average, and has a beautiful swing where he could start seeing Yelich type years. …

Per the Twins beat writers, Twins All Star shortstop Jorge Polanco had ankle surgery last week. He'll be away from baseball activities for 6 weeks and should be ready to go for spring training.

Darren Wolfson reported on Saturday that the Twins were nearing a minor league deal with veteran LHP Blaine Hardy. Today, he says that the deal is complete. It has an opt-out, and clauses in case he gets offers from foreign leagues (like Japan or Korea). He struggled in 2019 with the Tigers, but 1.) he was with the Tigers, and 2.) he was having some elbow issues as well. He is healthy now. The Twins need another left-handed reliever or two, and with it being a minor league deal, he can go to Rochester to start the season and be ready when needed. Kind of a no-risk, medium potential reward deal. He's now a Minnesota resident and, well, #PerhamRepresent...

At first glance this off season, every time the bullpen topic has come up the prevailing thought has been “Rogers, May, Duffey, and Littell” and “they out performed expectations”. We comfort ourselves with these thoughts and move on to the truly pressing topic of the Rotation. Well, I took a glance at the 40 man roster today (or should I say 37 man roster) and I came up a little short on numbers. http://m.mlb.com/min/roster/40-man/ Who will fill out the pen? Are we counting on Hildenberger, Harper, Stashak, Wisler, Romero, and Graterol? I was actually hoping Graterol would get another chance to start.... Romero too since were on that topic. And since we’re talking star…

From his twitter feed, Jon Heyman announced that Jeremy Hefner is the new Mets pitching coach. He was the Twins assistant pitching coach in 2019 and worked in the bullpen during games.

https://theathletic.com/1401490/2019/11/22/rosenthal-the-reds-are-interested-in-zack-wheeler-the-braves-big-bullpen-bet-more-notes/ In the notes of this Ken Rosenthal article, he writes about the Twins pursuit of pitching. However, the bigger point is that the state tax is second in baseball to only California. It definitely creates a challenge. Usually we think about how the Twins have to pay more to get free agents to come to Minnesota... This is probably the bigger, more actual reason that is the case.

https://twitter.com/HotStoveCubbies/status/1196880246664048641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3AHotStoveCubbies%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fhotstovecubbies.com%2F Not sure why the Twins would be interested in moving Arraez. He is cheap and can't become a free agent until 2025. You would not trade him unless you were blown away big time.

I didn't know that ESPN named an All MLB team, but they do. I was surprised to see that Taylor Rogers, as well as Nelson Cruz, were named to the first team. Mitch Garver was named to the third team. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28114533/espn-2019-all-mlb-team

https://sports.yahoo.com/the-pen-mlb-owners-vote-could-be-big-news-for-baseball-fans-cutting-the-cord-200214832.html First off, I am no fan of Keyser. Local streaming rights back to the local clubs. If true, how many fans, how much a view?

I will probably get savaged for this. With nothing happening now we could use something to distract ourselves for a moment. .

I'm not looking for a lot of drumbeating here on what it SHOULD be. I'm wondering what we think it will be when the dust settles this offseason. In the Offseason Handbook, we totaled about $68M. Add to that: +18M for Odo + 20M for another top five pitcher (assuming it won't be Strassburg or Cole) +10M for yet another starting pitcher +15M for some other players: Cron, a backup catcher, maybe a reliever That brings us to $131M. To make it more even, I will set the over-under on payroll at $130M this year. What do we think? Will it be over or under that number, and how do you think it will go. (I'll take the under.)

It is the most wonderful time of the year... No not the holidays. Trade and free agent dreams are dancing in everyone's heads and the Boston faithful are among these dreamers. Here are a couple interesting little proposals from them... https://bosoxinjection.com/2019/11/19/rumors-twins-relieve-red-sox-starting-pitcher/

Mookie Betts will be a free agent after this year and will be making $27.7 million. He will probably sign a HUGE contract with someone after this year. That being said, is he a player you would be willing to splurge on for one year, in an attempt to go for it all? What would you be willing to give up? Here is my proposal: Byron Buxton, Luke Raley and Cole Sands. It would be heartbreaking to lose Buxton. Especially to get Mookie for only 1 year. I get it. But I am putting my chips all in. Getting a deal done early would also help to entice a FA pitcher or 2. CF: Kepler SS: Polanco RF: Mookie DH: Cruz 2B: Arraez C: Garver LF: Rosario 3B: Sano 1B: FA (would love to si…

Mitch Garver had a tremendous home run rate in 2019. If he is anything close in 2020 to the hitter he was in 2019, the Twins' have a special power hitter with years of team control. His production last season would look great even if you had him as your DH instead of catcher. The talent at catcher coming up in the farm system looks promising but is probably a year or two from knocking at the door to the majors. If Garver were to be unavailable, a replacement would be needed. They could resign Castro, but they could upgrade with Grandal. In this scenario, I would split time evenly between Garver and Grandal over the first half of the season. That would help preserve t…

Currently the Twins have 8 open spots to use if they so choose to protect that many. I would expect them to add 6 now for sure. The could take Poppen & Hildenberger off there as well. I have seen a list of players that need to be protected or possibly lose them but don't have the knowledge to decide who stays protected.

Silly but nice to think about in winter. Premise is the genie grants your wish but you have to give up something that's pretty rough, too. So, the Twins would have postseason success against the Yankees (Yay!) but they never get Target Field. They play in the Dome for another 20 years. I think it's a no-brainer myself. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28107465/the-mlb-genie-one-wish-fans-all-30-teams-catch Some of these (White Sox) are pretty tough choices but I don't think the Twins was a particularly tough choice.