Article: Responsibility

[Steven Buhr]

I suppose this is what we asked for, Twins fans. Our team is playing “meaningful games” in August. Technically, they even continue to possess the second American League wild card spot (for a few more hours anyway).

 

Entering the season, if someone had told us that our Twins would be right in the thick of the hunt for even a wild card postseason spot, I think most of us would have smiled and said, “thank you.”Some of us have had some elevated hopes for 2016 and even more would have projected 2017 as a reasonable goal to see the Twins contending for the postseason. But 2015? No, not really. There were just too many question marks and, frankly, calling some areas of the Twins Opening Day roster “question marks” would have been being generous.

 

So, given this unexpected bonus of meaningful play in August, why don’t I feel like celebrating?

 

To begin with, it’s not like the Twins’ hold on that final wild card spot is exactly something you’d call a death grip. OK, bad wording. Maybe that’s exactly what you would call it, as in, “they are about to lose that grip and see their season die.”

 

The Twins enter Monday with a one game lead over Baltimore and Toronto, a three game lead over Tampa and Texas, and a 3.5 game lead over Detroit and Chicago. That’s a lot of competition and it doesn’t even include the Angels, who currently hold the first wild card spot, just one game ahead of Minnesota.

 

Certainly, the front offices of some of those teams have already decided not to even try to compete for a spot in the league’s one-game, win or go home, wild card play-in game. Detroit and Tampa appear to be selling off parts. I’m not sure what the White Sox front office is doing, other than apparently trying to overcome the shock of discovering they’re actually not mathematically eliminated from the postseason yet.

 

Then again, as a Twins fan, I probably shouldn’t be too critical of another organization’s inertia in the face of unexpected contention for the postseason.

 

After all, while Chicago has only recently pulled themselves in to the hunt by winning a whole bunch of games in a row, the folks running the Twins have had an entire season to get acclimated to the fact that their guys actually have a shot at doing more than just playing meaningful games this late. And yet, the Twins front office gave no indication at the trading deadline that they had noticed.

 

That’s not really true, of course. Twins General Manager Terry Ryan did give such indications. He indicated to the media on more than one occasion last week that he intended be active in the trade market in an effort to improve his ball club.

 

Then he did nothing.

 

And no, don’t even try to claim with a straight face that adding Kevin Jepsen, the relief pitcher they acquired from the Rays for two minor league pitchers, constitutes making a serious bid to improve the Twins.

 

Pioneer-Press Twins beat reporter Mike Berardino asked Ryan last week if the GM felt a responsibility to the current players to improve the roster. His reply:

 

“That’s correct,” Ryan said. “That would be very accurate. I know that. There’s nobody that’s more sensitive to that than me. I know they’ve done a hell of a job of getting to this point and we’re in a good position. Now it’s my responsibility to help the cause.”

 

Then Ryan went out and added Kevin Jepsen and – nothing else.

 

As a result, the Twins open a four-game series with one of the teams who is nipping at their heels in the wild card standings, the Blue Jays, without the benefit of any significant help from their front office.

 

Meanwhile, those Blue Jays have added Troy Tulowitzki, David Price and Ben Revere in the past few days. That’s a top of the rotation starting pitcher, a good-hitting veteran shortstop and a center fielder who improves their club’s defense (and, therefore, their pitching as a whole).

 

Maybe this was never going to be the year the Twins made a postseason run. It certainly wouldn’t help their cause that Ervin Santana won’t be available to them in the postseason, even if they found themselves there as a team.

 

But Ryan was right. This collection of ballplayers has worked hard, exceeding everyone’s expectations, and he owed them a better result last week.

 

I’m not suggesting he should have traded away a bunch of top prospects for rental players. You don’t mortgage your entire future on a slim chance at the brass ring in 2015. But you don’t pay lip service and then try to convince the guys in your clubhouse that adding a middle inning reliever is all you could come up with to give them a boost while their nearest competitors are making serious improvements.

 

Making no deal at all – just saying right out loud that you don’t think this year’s club is built to not only get a wild card, but contend in the postseason once they get there – and explaining that you are not willing to give up any of your above average prospects at all in this environment would have been courageous. Likewise, making Toronto-sized mega deals that would have cost you some serious prospects would have been courageous.

 

Taking either road would have required some real stones, because either approach would have been controversial and would have met with loud criticism from the fan base. Yet either approach would have at least been defensible.

 

Dipping your toes in the water and giving up a couple of decent, but very young, pitching prospects for a middle reliever, but doing absolutely nothing else, is neither courageous nor defensible, in my opinion.

 

Of course, we know that the end of the non-waiver trade deadline in July does not necessarily constitute the end of all trade opportunities. Terry Ryan can still improve this year’s Twins roster in August via waiver trades. If he does, I'll be among the first to applaud.

 

But waiting too long to provide that help is a real concern and making deals later this month certainly won't help the Twins this week in Toronto.

 

Ryan is sending Paul Molitor in to Toronto this week to fend off one of his club’s closest challengers and Molitor’s club is seriously outmanned. The reason is as simple as it was preventable. Molitor’s club was not given the kind of boost that the Blue Jays got from their GM last week and that was, by his own admission, Terry Ryan’s responsibility.

 

Click here to view the article

[Winston Smith]

Well done!

[Mike Sixel]

Preach it.

[shimrod]

If they weren't buying they needed to be selling. The trade they did make was a slap in the face to every player on the roster, much less the fans.

[drock2190]

Basically Molitor is bringing a knife to a gun fight

[Thrylos]

I'd love to see accountability go with that responsibility, because if there is no accountability might as well have anyone being responsible...

[Thrylos]

 

 

The Twins have a self imposed salary cap, be it prospects or payroll that is obvious. 

 

Here is the thing:  This season, between Santana's non-paid suspension and Nolasco's insurance payments, they saved about $10-15 million.

 

Ryan chose not to invest that this season...

[USAFChief]

Concur.  Concurconcurconcurconcurconcurconcur.  Agree.  "Like."

 

IMO Ryan not only did virtually nothing, he somehow managed to overpay for it.

 

And for a bonus, he somehow turned unexpected contention into a huge negative vibe to boot.

 

Incredible.

 

 

[theBOMisthebomb]

These guys got them this far so let's see it plays out. If they can squeeze into the playoffs with the 2nd wildcard it's a huge success. Much of the blame for the recent slide is on Mauer and Perkins - guys we thought we could count on.

[Vanimal46]

I don't know about y'all, but I am tired of reading the same quotes each year taking responsibility for the roster, and getting zero repercussion from it. I get it, GMs in every sport are paid to lie and deceive, but when are we all going to hit our breaking point with TR and finally call him out on his responsibility for the outcome of this roster?

[Winston Smith]

Terry has been the GM for 17 years. He has a sub 500 record by over 100 games. His teams have won one playoff series, 13 years ago. His teams have won a total of 6 playoff games, the last 11 years ago.

You'd have a hard time finding another team GM with that kind of record that still has his job. Terry is what he is and always has been. The problem is Jim Pohlad doesn't care, if he did care there would have been a change a long time ago.

Did he fire Bill Smith because of his record, no he got fired because  he spent to much money.

Say what you will about Smith but he went for it and tried to win. The 2010 team was probably the most talented Twins  team ever. A year later he gets fired and the payroll is cut. That says everything.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Well said SD Buhr. 

 

The post season now includes the wild card game, which is great for TV and not going away anytime soon. KC is emerging as the class of the American League and will be hard to defeat the next few seasons. The Twins need to take the wild card berth seriously, and not as a gimmick or a waste of effort to make a deadline deal for one single game. 

 

In fact, this is a season when the AL wild card game will have one or both teams with fewer than 90 wins, so it's maybe even a greater reason to take a shot this year than wait.

[Danchat]

This was a good article, but one thing I'm not worried about is cap room.

 

The Pohlads will extend the cap space if they have to. Basically, if TR told them, "I'm making a run for it" (this only really happened with Smith in 2010, but continuing...), the Pohlads would do it and give him more room to work with. The main problem is that TR doesn't appear to want to "go for it" and may not be capable of pulling it off.

 

The Blue Jays didn't use up very much cap space because they got rid of Reyes' $22M. Yes, they will have to fit Tulo into the salary for the next few years, but it's not as if they're spending loads and loads of money above their normal cap limit.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Danchat

[BoomBoom]

Hey people:

 

PLAYERS NEED TO PLAY

 

Our two face of the franchise players (Mauer and Perkins) are having very poor second halves.  You wanted an all star - well we have the best 1st half all star reliever in the game, in Perkins.  Nothing is guaranteed.  If TR would have brought in an all star and that all star struggled, people would have wanted his head for bringing in the wrong all star.   

 

We are still in it.  Let's hope Mauer and Perkins get back on track and bring what they do best.    I STILL BELIEVE

[twinsnorth49]

Just more talk from TR, I'm pretty disillusioned with him right now, I no longer believe he is the right person to take the Twins to the next level.

 

I honestly believe he treats fans, especially knowledgeable, thoughtful fans with contempt a lot of the time.

 

There is no reason on God's green earth that this bullpen, catcher situation and overall roster construction should still be in the state it's in for a team in contention at the end of July.

 

It's indefensible imo.

[Twins7]

Why would you expect him to tell his team that they don't have a shot at contention right now when their contending? Not doing so isn't cowardly, it's just a counterproductive thing to say, even if he believes it to be true. No need to hurt the teams confidence; stuff happens, and the season isn't close to being over.

 

 

 

I personally think that Ryan believes that our World Series year will require some elite level play from multiple positions. Right now we have some good-very good players in plouffe and dozier, and potentially hicks, Rosario and Santana. Arcia, Kepler, polanco waiting in the wings. Good-very good pitchers in Hughes, Santana, Gibson, and potentially may. In late 2016 when/if we have elite level play from Sano, Buxton, and Berrios we could be really serious World Series contenders, with an even better understanding of which players in the OF/1B/DH logjam will be keepers and which should be traded. Next season should be the year to make a big splash for a catcher/SS/frontline starter, if we don't sign one this offseason.

[70charger]

Hear hear! Well said, Mr. Buhr.

[goulik]

I was also greatly disappointed with the trade deadline coming and going so quietly. I think there were opportunities missed here. Tulo for Gibson? Done! How did we not get more than one reliever? All the catchers available and no one to dance with? Hard to believe. And then there is San Diego... All that smoke and no fire?

[Boom Boom]

+1. Totally agree.

 

One of my biggest criticisms of TR has been his reluctance to commit to a direction for this team. If he thought the team really had a chance this time, then he needed to get more help than Jepsen. If he thought this team was just an early season mirage, then adding a reliever accomplishes nothing.

 

He could have made a blockbuster deal, or sold off some vets to stockpile for next year. I would have been satisfied with either approach. Instead he chose to sort of halfway ride the fence.

[jtkoupal]

I too was disappointed by the move made at the deadline. I was not disappointed in acquiring Kevin Jepsen, I was disappointed that we didn't acquire anyone better in addition. I have no problems with Jepsen is the 7th inning guy, but I don't want him in the 8th. Is he an upgrade over Casey Fien and Blaine Boyer? Most Likely, but someone like Joaquin Benoit or LaTroy Hawkins would have been far preferable for me.

I applaud TR for not going after Tulowitzki, however. I was never interested in giving up top prospects. Colorado would have demanded either Gibson or Berrios in addition to probably Max Kepler and perhaps more. That is mortgaging the future, you don't want to do that. 

I truly believe that the Twins will fade, in fact they already are, but if they somehow stay relevant in the next few weeks, I most definitely would expect TR to be active in the waiver deals.

[Guest]

Just to be clear, I'm not a TR hater. I like him and think he's a decent GM. I certainly give him credit for having the Twins back on the edge of competitiveness. I simply feel he did not get the job done last week and that is disappointing.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Just to be clear, I'm not a TR hater. I like him and think he's a decent GM. I certainly give him credit for having the Twins back on the edge of competitiveness. I simply feel he did not get the job done last week and that is disappointing.

 

Out of curiosity......what has the GM done to get them back in contention?

 

Santana, Hughes, May......other than that, it is draft picks or guys already in the system, right?

[DaveW]

I'm not sure he should be commended for getting them back on the edge of competitiveness after 4 very poor seasons, in fact I would say that getting them back on the edge of competitiveness after 4+ years is the absolute bare minimum of expectations for a GM

[bird]

Over the years, more often than not but with numerous exceptions, I've been one of the minority "agreeing" with Ryan's decisions to stand pat. Standing pat is counterintuitive and therefore can be disagreeable on the surface, but it is often the right choice in the long run, especially when it means avoiding disastrous contracts, etc. Like Mauer's.

 

This deadline is, for me, an indefensible display of inaction on the part of Ryan for precisely the reasons our pal Mr. Buhr has succinctly pointed out.

 

Where are the questions from the beat writers? Why isn't Ryan being pressed by Neal, Miller, Berardo et al?

 

The only possible defense I could see Ryan use, honestly (I detest people's accusations that he's deceitful), is that when all was said and done, they (he) decided their internal options were "better" given the asking prices. Even if that's what Ryan's rationale was, I'd find it to be terribly flawed and an indication of what I personally believe is his biggest weakness, which is his confounding and frustrating aversion to risk. (But let's not question his courage please, as this trait is a cognitive one, not an emotional state).

[Pardon My Dinger]

hmmm...WC game or contention for the next 8-10 years? None of you know who was available and for what. The Jepsen thing is a total bummer. But if you really thought Tulo could be had for Gibson, puuhhhlease. Nolasco for Shields is still my favorite of course.

 

Let's all take a breath, count to ten and think of what we've been fortunate to enjoy this year. Then, take a step further and picture how unstoppable our Big Mig-Buck-Rosario-Berrios core is going to be for years to come. Ryan gets my respect for his patience and committment to our system.

 

(bracing myself for negative vibes and...."add comment")

[Guest]

 

Out of curiosity......what has the GM done to get them back in contention?

 

Santana, Hughes, May......other than that, it is draft picks or guys already in the system, right?

I don't really want to turn this thread into yet another TR debate but IMO he's rebuilt the farm & added some useful parts. No GM hits on every decision.

[David HK]

Well, I would love to continue contending, but I don't think it's in the cards this year.  It's been a great, and totally unexpected gift to have 'meaningful' games into August, but our post-break play has been worse than pitiful.   

 

That said, I DO blame TR and Molly big-time for this slide.  As has been well- (even over-) documented on this here little site, we have had 3 glaring-stare-you-in-the-face black holes in the lineup all season long-  SS, C, and BP, and NOTHING has been done about it this whole long haul.  Jepsen?  Too little, too late, and too expensive.  Not playing Escobar at SS pretty much the whole time?  Inexplicable.  Doing F-all about getting Suzuki some relief/replacement? Unforgiveable.  And...  I've harped on this too many times, but... Boyer?  Thompson?  Duensing? Fien?  W.  T...  Why are these guys still coming out of that hells-gate of a pen?  

 

Contending for the rest of the season or not, we've put ourselves in this unfortunate position by completely ignoring the things we could have, and should have fixed a long time ago.  

 

And while I'm at it--  I live in Hong Kong now, but I'm a North Dakota boy, and I lived in the Cities for umpteen years-  the lean years, especially.  I went to maybe 25-30 games in 1982-  NINETEEN EIGHTY TWO, do you hear me????  I by-God suffered, but I could see, that hulking babe at first base, that mustachioed 3B with the Popeye forearms, I could see it coming.  Molly, what is up with not giving the young guys a chance to see what they're made of?!?  How about Sano playing 3B, and learning,  instead of Nunez?  How could it be worse to have May or Graham get shelled and learn for the future instead of Boyer or Dunse or one of your other stiffs who aren't going to be around past this season, and should not have been around since June 1.  7 crappy choices in the BP, carrying 13 pitchers + a pathetic bench for so long, it's no wonder we're in free fall now.

 

We've given away too many winnable games through this poor decision making.  If we're going down this year without playoffs in Minny land, so be it.  But do we have to go down without a fight?

 

Sorry.  Bit of a rant.  But it's near midnight here, and I'm excusing myself.  Cheerio.

[Mike Sixel]

 

I don't really want to turn this thread into yet another TR debate but IMO he's rebuilt the farm & added some useful parts. No GM hits on every decision.

 

Fair enough........

[halfbakeraymond]

 

If they weren't buying they needed to be selling. The trade they did make was a slap in the face to every player on the roster, much less the fans.

Every player on the roster?
I wish my boss would bring somebody in from outside the organization and demote me.

That would be more like a promotion than a slap in the face.

[Kwak]

 

hmmm...WC game or contention for the next 8-10 years? None of you know who was available and for what. The Jepsen thing is a total bummer. But if you really thought Tulo could be had for Gibson, puuhhhlease. Nolasco for Shields is still my favorite of course.

 

Let's all take a breath, count to ten and think of what we've been fortunate to enjoy this year. Then, take a step further and picture how unstoppable our Big Mig-Buck-Rosario-Berrios core is going to be for years to come. Ryan gets my respect for his patience and committment to our system.

 

(bracing myself for negative vibes and...."add comment")

OK.  That attitude is what permits the team to put a competitive but not great  team on the field--"and call it macaroni".  I recall from the first few seasons of the Twins my dad saying "fifth place (or fourth, or third), that is a good season..." like we should be happy with fifth, fourth or third out of ten.  Only the pennant winner gets to the WS, thought I, yet why should I be pleased with ...less?  The public built the MET for (actually the Giants) for a MLB team, though I didn't know that then.  So I figured "their money, so what?".  But wait, with a virtual gun at our head ["stand and deliver"], "build us (another) stadium or else".  We as the public are more than mere fans (sheep to be sheared) we have cold, hard cash into this enterprise--we earned more than a wave of the hands, and a verbal dismal (basically a "not yet"). So yes, I take strong exception to what is going on at the top.