Article: Report From The Fort: From Puzzle To Picture

[John Bonnes]

The Minnesota Twins got both a lot more boring and a lot more intriguing on Wednesday afternoon. In the span of two hours, a series of events left little room for drama and speculation, instead leaving an offensive lineup that excites no matter which way you look at it.

 

About noon, the Twins had a press conference with their new free agent signee Logan Morrison, who declared himself to be ready to be the Twins primary designated hitter. An hour later, Miguel Sano took the field for his first spring training action at third base. An hour after that, Twins Chief of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said four simple sentences that put a wrap on the Twins offseason. Here they are.“We explained to [Morrison] that Joe Mauer is our first baseman.”

The initial question when Morrison signed was where he would fit into the Twins lineup. Would he be sharing at-bats with another left-handed hitting first baseman? Maybe at times. But Morrison wasn’t going to be cutting into Mauer’s at-bats, because ….

 

“DH is the primary role we sold [Morrison] on.”

Last year the Twins had ten different players start there and combined for a .711 OPS. Morrison’s OPS last year was .868. So that’s better.

 

“Miguel [sano] is our primary third baseman.”

But the titanium rod? The injury? The weight? My gawd, what about ALL THE ENORMOUS OFFSEASON WEIGHT?

 

Fake news, and that’s only slightly tongue-in-cheek. To reference Moneyball, Sano might never model a pair of jeans. To reference Moneyball again, there are likely old-timers in the Twins organization who don't like that and columnists willing to parrot that point of view.

 

But here’s what Sano can do, which he showed last year while everybody worried about his carb intake: play a competent third base while hitting the holy snot out of a baseball. When asked whether Sano was the third baseman, Falvey seemed genuinely surprised anyone would ask that.

 

“Yeah”, replied Falvey bluntly. ”I mean, that’s our view and that was our view last year. Nothing has changed.”

 

“High likelihood this is the group here.”

Falvey sounds like he’s done actively shopping. Yes, there are still three good free agent starting pitchers available, but there is still no sign that the prices on those players have dropped. Falvey even hesitated to characterize the free agent market as “down” saying we’ll see how it ends up. But his view is that the most efficient way to “buy wins” at this point was to buy a bat instead of an arm.

 

No matter whether you look at it analytically or traditionally, Morrison adds a lot to the Twins lineup. He adds power. He adds patience. He provides protection for Sano or Mauer. He improves the top of the lineup. He improves the middle of the lineup. He adds to the depth of the lineup. He adds a big left-handed bat to pair with Sano’s right-handed bat.

 

The Twins lineup finished first in the American League the second half of last year, and they just added a big bat to the middle of it. What we saw Wednesday in Fort Myers were a bunch of pieces fall into place. The resulting picture looks promising.

 

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[h2oface]

And then there was this, reported by Jeff Todd | February 28, 2018 at 1:13pm CDT, I MLB Trade Rumors:

"It seems the Twins also feel their roster-building work is done, with chief baseball officer Derek Falvey telling reporters including Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press (Twitter link) that there’s a “high likelihood” the team has already compiled its Opening Day unit. Minnesota did make quite a few acquisitions over the winter, including recent moves for Jake Odorizzi and Logan Morrison that added fairly significant salary commitments for the 2018 season. Some have wondered whether another rotation piece would make sense, but that doesn’t seem to be in the plans at present. Minnesota is slated to open with a club-record $116MM+ payroll, though the organization had already been in nine figures to open each of the past three years."

 

So much for the hype of an ace being the goal. Ordorizzi, to me, feels an awful lot like the "talk myself into the positive and hope" that I heard when other signings in the past, like Nolasco and Pelfrey, were what we waited all off season for.......

Well, they talked a good rap. But that was all it was.

 

Call me..... crushed.

[yarnivek1972]

Sano only started 87 games at any position last year and only 79 at 3b. If he starts 110 games at 3b this year (or frankly any year) I’ll be stunned. 100 might be pushing it.

[Eephus]

Right or wrong, Sano has to stay healthy to quiet the weight watchers. I don't care what he weighs or how he looks...he needs to play in 130+ games or he's going to be questioned. He might look like a defensive end, but he isn't. He plays a non-contact POS in a non contact sport.

[twinsfanstreif]

So much for the hype of an ace being the goal. Ordorizzi, to me, feels an awful lot like the "talk myself into the positive and hope" that I heard when other signings in the past, like Nolasco and Pelfrey, were what we waited all off season for.......

Well, they talked a good rap. But that was all it was.

 

Call me..... crushed.

 

Crushed? Seriously?! First of all the whole getting an Ace thing has been way over blown, there were basically only 2 options out there (I guess 3 if you count Arrieta, I don't though) in Archer and Darvish and even those two are a bit on the low end of the "Ace" spectrum. it sounds like the price on Archer is way too high and I kind of don't blame them for not selling the future for him, I like him but he's not worth 3-4 major prospects and potentially Kepler, that kind of deal could really come back to haunt us. Also that one could still happen before the trade deadline hoping that the price goes down. As for Darvish we made our run at him and were outbid, you could say we should've offered what the Cubs did but he may have taken the Cubs offer anyways and frankly that contract would have come back to bite us towards the end of it, he'll be 37 at the end of that deal. The Cubs can afford that kind of bad contract, we can not. Aside from those 2 guys who we made a run at there aren't many options out there. So as a smart front office we made a killer trade for Odorizzi, signed 3 very good relievers turning our bullpen from a liability into a strength, and signed a full time DH that upgrades our lineup in a big way for a steal of a contract. That's a pretty darn good off season if you ask me, not sure what more you wanted them to do

[wabene]

I'm happy. This was a good off-season, a fun off-season and not reminiscent of past years. Odorizzi does not in any way remind me of Nolasco. Lance Lynn might though . There is one gripe for me. 116m the record setting payroll, is record setting in number only. In real mlb inflation adjusted dollars it is light. 135m is where this team should be sitting. I'll give them the benefit of doubt because i was not in favor of a 5 year deal for a 31 year old pitcher, and you can't complain when good moves are also good deals but with this ownership I cringe when I hear they are saving money. The last five years alone they under spent by a cumulative what 75m? In a few years from now when the young talent needs to get paid i want to see some heavy payrolls. If we are dumping talent instead I may join the Pohlads are cheap crowd. I already would gladly move to the parallel universe where the twins are owned by a pizza tycoon or anybody but a banker.

[Tommygun921]

Who do the Twins have that can provide a power right handed bat to replace Sano if he's suspended or injured? Vargas? Is Rooker to far away? Have they signed a minor league free agent to hold it down? Or is it just Escobar? With Aybar taking over Escobar's role.

[BJames]

We still need to replace Grossman with a RH bat.  I'd prefer to find a Vet like Hunter, with a one year contract.  As far as signing any of the other 3 pitchers, it would have to be a one or two year contract, any more then that and you'd be clogging the 40 man roster with someone that you might need to cut.  

[twinsfanstreif]

Who do the Twins have that can provide a power right handed bat to replace Sano if he's suspended or injured? Vargas? Is Rooker to far away? Have they signed a minor league free agent to hold it down? Or is it just Escobar? With Aybar taking over Escobar's role.

The latter is more likely, we just roll with Escobar like we did last year and Morrison replaces his pop in the line up, then when he returns his bat just bolsters an already good offense. Even without Sano I think we still have a top 5 offense, it was #1 last year over the second half without him or Morrison

[twinsfanstreif]

We still need to replace Grossman with a RH bat.  I'd prefer to find a Vet like Hunter, with a one year contract.  As far as signing any of the other 3 pitchers, it would have to be a one or two year contract, any more then that and you'd be clogging the 40 man roster with someone that you might need to cut.

 

What's the point though? Grossman is a good switch hitter off the bench with on base skills, that's valuable. You have to find someone better who is willing to sit on the bench, that is not gonna be easy to do

[Vanimal46]

Sano only started 87 games at any position last year and only 79 at 3b. If he starts 110 games at 3b this year (or frankly any year) I’ll be stunned. 100 might be pushing it.

Prepare to be stunned this season!

[Thrylos]

 

 

Fake news, and that’s only slightly tongue-in-cheek. To reference Moneyball, Sano might never model a pair of jeans. To reference Moneyball again, there are likely old-timers in the Twins organization who don't like that and columnists willing to parrot that point of view.

 

Indeed.  As a matter of fact, Sano does not look fat.  I just wish that Falvey got rid of those old-timers, they are the problem here and not Sano.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Sano only started 87 games at any position last year and only 79 at 3b. If he starts 110 games at 3b this year (or frankly any year) I’ll be stunned. 100 might be pushing it.

To be fair, Sano started 79 of 120 games at 3B before fouling a ball of his shin and missing the rest of the year. That would have been a pace of 107 starts at 3B over a full season, or 117 total in the field counting his 1B starts. With a better DH option in Morrison, they might push Sano to play the field a bit more too -- counting his DH starts, he was on a 149 games started pace last year. I could see them aiming for a 130/20 split, depending on the health and performance of all involved.

 

Of course, whether Sano can avoid missing time is a fair question too, even if this injury wasn't directly related to playing the field.

Edited March 3, 2018 by spycake

[laloesch]

I'm happy. This was a good off-season, a fun off-season and not reminiscent of past years. Odorizzi does not in any way remind me of Nolasco. Lance Lynn might though . There is one gripe for me. 116m the record setting payroll, is record setting in number only. In real mlb inflation adjusted dollars it is light. 135m is where this team should be sitting. I'll give them the benefit of doubt because i was not in favor of a 5 year deal for a 31 year old pitcher, and you can't complain when good moves are also good deals but with this ownership I cringe when I hear they are saving money. The last five years alone they under spent by a cumulative what 75m? In a few years from now when the young talent needs to get paid i want to see some heavy payrolls. If we are dumping talent instead I may join the Pohlads are cheap crowd. I already would gladly move to the parallel universe where the twins are owned by a pizza tycoon or anybody but a banker.

Haha Lance Lynn is not Nolasco. Not even close.

[beckmt]

 

Haha Lance Lynn is not Nolasco. Not even close.

Lynn had bad metrics to go with reasonable stats. He could well be better the second year back from TJ surgery.  Knock from me is that he is a basic fastball pitcher.  He can pitch around guys and has the pitcher in the national league, he gets none of those advantages.