Article: Rundown: Twins Cold Stove, New Beat Writers and More

[Tom Froemming]

As we get closer to the Winter Meetings more rumors are starting to swirl, but it’s nearly impossible to find anything specifically related to the Twins. Maybe that’s because this is a tight-lipped front office, maybe it’s just because they haven’t made much progress on anything yet. Then again, dealin’ Jerry Dipoto hasn’t seemed to have any trouble making things happen for the Mariners.In two separate blockbuster trades, Seattle sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets and Jean Segura to the Phillies. It seems like the Twins should have had some interest in all three of those players, but Cano and Segura both have no-trade authority, so it’s possible they were never an option.

 

Still, the few whispers going around indicate that the Twins are more focused on the trade market at this time, but if you can’t work out a deal with Dipoto what chance do you have of bartering with anyone else? OK, there are 28 other fish in the GM sea, but I have to admit I’m getting a little restless. Luckily the Baseball Winter Meetings start this coming Sunday in Las Vegas. We should have a better idea of what’s to come based on next week’s activity.

 

Single-game Twins spring training tickets went on sale this morning. Their first home game is Saturday, Feb. 23 and $12 gets you in the door.

 

MLB Trade Rumors passed along updates around a couple of the top pitchers dominating the rumor mill of late: Noah Snydergaard and Patrick Corbin. Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen said that only under special circumstances would he even consider trading away Thor. It’s possible Corbin, a lifelong Yankees fan, would take a discount to don the pinstripes. Might as well just Photoshop the interlocking NY on his profile pic right now.

 

UPDATE: Of course. Corbin went ahead and signed with the Nationals, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post.

 

Per Jon Morosi, the Brewers have touched base with the Yankees about Sonny Gray. He also reported that the Reds are open to trading for Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer. One last trade note from Morosi: The Cardinals have worked on a potential Paul Goldschmidt deal with Arizona.

 

It’s a little deflating to see similar teams/markets like Milwaukee, Cincinnati and St. Louis in on these players. I can accept the fact that certain teams can outspend the Twins, I can accept the fact that some guys with no-trade authority aren’t going to be interested in coming to Minnesota, but stuff like this is more difficult to swallow. The Reds lost 95 games last season, for Pete’s sake.

 

The Twins haven’t made many changes to the roster so far this offseason, but there have been a ton of moves in terms of who will be covering the team. Rhett Bollinger is returning home to California to cover the Angels for MLB.com, replacing him will be Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark on Twitter). Also, the Pioneer Press finally has its replacement for Mike Berardino. Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand on Twitter) will step in as their beat writer. Both Park and Helfand start their new jobs this coming Sunday.

 

Speaking of Rhett, he took a look at middle infielders on the free agent market who could make sense for the Twins. A lot of the names that have already been bandied about are listed, but he also included Jonathan Schoop and Tim Beckham, who were just non-tendered late last week.

 

Mr. Bollinger also looked back at the 10 biggest trades in Twins history. It’s a fun list to go through, but an interesting takeaway is that there aren’t any deals included from the past decade. It kinda feels like the Twins are due to make a big swap.

 

The MLB.com trio of Mike Rosenbaum, Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo identified one prospect from each team who could be traded this winter. Kind of a weird exercise, but OK. They listed Luis Arraez for the Twins, who they have as the team’s No. 15 prospect. Strictly in terms of value, Arraez is pretty similar to where Jermaine Palacios was a year ago. He’s a prospect, there are certainly things to like about him, but at the same time he’s a guy you can afford to lose from your system if it means upgrading the big club. Palacios was sent to Tampa in the Jake Odorizzi deal last February.

 

Not a big fan of the Pohlads? It could be worse. Over at the STrib, Michael Rand shared that Donald Watkins has been indicted on federal fraud charges. Watkins tried to buy the Twins back in 2001.

 

Cliff Corcoran is ranking every MLB uniform over at The Athletic. He puts the Twins 27th in front of only the Astros, Padres and Diamondbacks. He’s got some very strong takes, saying the Twins sullied a classic design and that the gold drop shadow desecrated arguably the best cap in baseball.

 

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[MABB1959]

This is the 2nd most depressing time of the year to be a Twins fan.  I would at least like them to be in the bidding for some of the top players but from everything I have read it is not going to happen again!  It will be wait until 2020 and so on an so on.  Yes not much has happened but we are not even in the talks!  The most depressing time is July when we are already out of it and sending our "stars" away. 

[rghrbek]

Couldn't agree more on his take of the Twins uniforms.  That gold has to go.  Also I would love for us to bring back a version of our gray pinstripes from our glory years.  The current away unis are roughly the same as the Braves and Indians, with gray, a little red and a little navy.

[h2oface]

Hey.... we got JC Cron... or is it CJ Cron? Whatever. And his 89 career homers come with him! Morrison redux on the even cheaper, and as a cast off and not even a free agent! And then gave him a contract instead of arbitration! That is some clever shopping. Who needs stars when there is the waiver wire? And we have prospects. Always prospects.

Edited December 4, 2018 by h2oface

[operation mindcrime]

CROM!

[Seth Stohs]

Good to see Do-Hyoung Park and Betsy Helfand both come back to the Twin Cities. Both of them interned under Rhett for MLB.com in recent years. 

[snotboogie]

 

CROM!

 

He's a perfectly cromulent player.

[mikelink45]

I do not know if we should have moved on anything yet, but all the coach maneuvers are not about to excite the fan base, if they care about the fan base. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

The coaching moves are interesting, given at least two coaches hired by Falvey & Levine (Alston, Pickler) have already moved on. Not necessarily a bad thing, but would be interesting to know the meaning.

 

I give the front office about a 1:3 chance of doing a big move just to do a move, and getting the typical praise and criticism (me) for it, regardless of its merits Otherwise I will again predict a quiet and frugal offseason.

[071063]

I know everyone wants the Twins to be making moves because that is fun and exciting.  But realistically, as of today, I don;t think this team is ready to compete this year.  So much of this teams success is going to depend on whether Buxton and Sano can take the next step.  If not, then they will probably be looking at a slight rebuild waiting for Kirilloff and Lewis.  As of today, I think patience is the right approach and I applaud them.  Wait for a good deal but don;t do something stupid that negatively effects the club when you are ready to win.

[Tomj14]

 

I know everyone wants the Twins to be making moves because that is fun and exciting.  But realistically, as of today, I don;t think this team is ready to compete this year.  So much of this teams success is going to depend on whether Buxton and Sano can take the next step.  If not, then they will probably be looking at a slight rebuild waiting for Kirilloff and Lewis.  As of today, I think patience is the right approach and I applaud them.  Wait for a good deal but don;t do something stupid that negatively effects the club when you are ready to win.

and if Buxton and Sano live up to or exceed expectations and the Twins didn't do anything because they were being patient, they wasted another year.

The Twins should be planning on Sano and Buxton being good and build around that or if they are worried then clean house and rebuild for 2021/2022.

[bird]

 

I know everyone wants the Twins to be making moves because that is fun and exciting.  But realistically, as of today, I don;t think this team is ready to compete this year.  So much of this teams success is going to depend on whether Buxton and Sano can take the next step.  If not, then they will probably be looking at a slight rebuild waiting for Kirilloff and Lewis.  As of today, I think patience is the right approach and I applaud them.  Wait for a good deal but don;t do something stupid that negatively effects the club when you are ready to win.

 

This is the logic that escapes many of us. Either those guys come through or they don't. If you take the bet that they turn things around, then you surround them with adequate support. If you bet they won't, you find a taker who will and move them. The least efficacious strategy is to watch them finally put it together and THEN invest in supporting players. They have the wherewithal to fill the half dozen gaping holes right now with unexciting but perfectly cromulent players because all the options are there via FA.

[beckmt]

There are players out there who could help this club and Twins have the payroll space to handle them. 

If you do not want to spend money on a middle infielder install Arraez at 2B and spend your money in pitching.

This club's offseason needs some excitement, so create some.  Twins need some to move the needle on ticket sales.

[hybridbear]

Where's Berardino going?

[Tom Froemming]

 

 

 

Where's Berardino going?

He actually left a bit before the season ended. He's now with the Indianapolis Star, primarily covering Notre Dame football.

[howieramone2]

 

This is the 2nd most depressing time of the year to be a Twins fan.  I would at least like them to be in the bidding for some of the top players but from everything I have read it is not going to happen again!  It will be wait until 2020 and so on an so on.  Yes not much has happened but we are not even in the talks!  The most depressing time is July when we are already out of it and sending our "stars" away. 

By stars, you mean the 2 month rentals? I believe they may do that again at this year's deadline. I see us getting another haul.

[MABB1959]

 

I know everyone wants the Twins to be making moves because that is fun and exciting.  But realistically, as of today, I don;t think this team is ready to compete this year.  So much of this teams success is going to depend on whether Buxton and Sano can take the next step.  If not, then they will probably be looking at a slight rebuild waiting for Kirilloff and Lewis.  As of today, I think patience is the right approach and I applaud them.  Wait for a good deal but don;t do something stupid that negatively effects the club when you are ready to win.

Every year they are NOT ready to compete.  That is most of my point.  2020 now and next year it will be 2021 because a couple of people won't work out.  This is like year 10 of NOT getting the great competitive team we were PROMISED with a new stadium!

Edited December 5, 2018 by MABB1959

[MABB1959]

 

By stars, you mean the 2 month rentals? I believe they may do that again at this year's deadline. I see us getting another haul.

 

By stars, you mean the 2 month rentals? I believe they may do that again at this year's deadline. I see us getting another haul.

No, I mean a Bryce Harper or at least be in the race to get that kind of player.  All we get a players like Cron where we can speculate IF he is as good at last year or 10 years ago.....blah blah blah!

Edited December 5, 2018 by MABB1959

[nicksaviking]

 

Every year they are NOT ready to compete.  That is most of my point.  2020 now and next year it will be 2021 because a couple of people won't work out.  This is like year 10 of NOT getting the great competitive team we were PROMISED with a new stadium!

 

Yeah, but this is year three with the new front office. The front office that signed the #9, #15, #16 and #49 free agents last year.

 

 

[caninatl04]

I agree that this is the most frustrating time of year.  Ideally, the front office would leak one potential trade each day which we "experts" could dissect like a fetal pig.  But, alas, with the possible exception of next Friday's Rule 5, I honestly don't think we will much to chew on until late January.

 

Sigh.

 

Maybe someone with too much time could post updates on Twins in the Winter leagues!

[jkcarew]

 

Either those guys come through or they don't. If you take the bet that they turn things around, then you surround them with adequate support. If you bet they won't, you find a taker who will and move them. The least efficacious strategy is to watch them finally put it together and THEN invest in supporting players.

I agree with this.  But, the bet that results in cutting bait and reloading relies on the 'failing' assets having some semblance of reasonable value.  The 2018 fail was so epic in the case of these two (and the roles so key to the future), that the FO is almost forced into a 'wait-a-bit-more' approach.  Truly painful.  Maybe that just argues that the FO should consider themselves forced to go all-in around them for 2019?

 

Not an easy/obvious call for the 2019 off-season, IMO. How the Buxton and Sano sagas have unfolded since they took over, has to be the absolute worse nightmare that either Falvey or Levine could have imagined when they took the jobs.

[lukeduke1980]

 

I do not know if we should have moved on anything yet, but all the coach maneuvers are not about to excite the fan base, if they care about the fan base. 

It's a process and this year the focus will be on evaluating how the new coaches impact the current talent.  

[S.]

 

It's a process and this year the focus will be on evaluating how the new coaches impact the current talent.  

What has the FO accomplished the last 2 years then? Edit: yes, I know the coaching staff hasn't been here two years but if you're a FO and you're on year 3 and you've accomplished nothing and your year 3 plan is to do nothing to improve your crummy roster and just evaluate your new coaches, then I think we've got a problem.

 

A good team doesn't take a full year just to evaluate their coaches impact on their mediocre roster. Have you seen our current roster? If every pitcher on our team had their best season in 2019, we still wouldn't be a world series caliber team.

Edited December 5, 2018 by S.

[Monkeypaws]

 

What has the FO accomplished the last 2 years then?

 

A good team doesn't take a full year just to evaluate their coaches impact on their mediocre roster. Have you seen our current roster? If every pitcher on our team had their best season in 2019, we still wouldn't be a world series caliber team.

When Sano, Buxton, Dozier, and Morrison have historically bad seasons, and your ace and starting catcher lose the season to injuries, and your starting shortstop gets busted for PEDs, I'm not sure the front office is to blame.

 

They made an honest effort to improve a playoff team: as nicksaviking pointed out, they signed the #9, #15, #16 and #49 free agents last year.

 

They were also players on Darvish and Ohtani. 

 

It didn't work out, but I'm not gonna blame the front office for not trying.

[S.]

 

They were also players on Darvish and Ohtani. 

They lowballed Darvish so hard that I have a hard time saying they were even remotely serious about pursuing him. And every single team in the league was interested in Ohtani. We were never actually a contender to get him.

 

I'm not saying they've done nothing or haven't tried at all, but if their year 3 plan is to evaluate their coaches impact on the current roster, than they clearly have no real plan, because praying your prospects all pan out and every player on your roster improves drastically isn't a serious plan

 

Edit: Also, getting crunched in a 1 game wild card doesn't really warrant calling the 2017 Twins a playoff team in my book

 

Edit2: I should also add, that I'm not saying that is necessarily the FO's actual plan, this is all in response to the poster saying that it's a process and they think that is the FO's plan. For all I know, the FO is secretly wheeling and dealing and its just that there haven't been any leaks/rumors out there yet. This is all hypothetical, and predicated on the idea that their plan is to take 2018 to evaluate coaches impact. Which to be fair, I doubt is the plan.

Edited December 5, 2018 by S.

[bird]

 

I agree with this.  But, the bet that results in cutting bait and reloading relies on the 'failing' assets having some semblance of reasonable value.  The 2018 fail was so epic in the case of these two (and the roles so key to the future), that the FO is almost forced into a 'wait-a-bit-more' approach.  Truly painful.  Maybe that just argues that the FO should consider themselves forced to go all-in around them for 2019?

 

Not an easy/obvious call for the 2019 off-season, IMO. How the Buxton and Sano sagas have unfolded since they took over, has to be the absolute worse nightmare that either Falvey or Levine could have imagined when they took the jobs.

 

 

Yes, I agree completely, and I think they're doing the right thing in "forcing" themselves to take the over on those two for 2019.

 

I do hope they're aggressive here in the FA market. I'm concerned however. Wish I could sit the whippersnappers down and talk some sense into them:

 

1. Quit worrying about Sano and Buxton, other than to do what you can to set them right, whatever that may be. The rest is up to them, but just ASSUME they'll be good and act accordingly.

 

2. Don't get cute with your valuation models and your fancy arithmetic when it comes to bidding for talent in FA. Decide who fits, and outbid the competition unless the price is stupid. Lots of fanatical fans will think $130M/6 years for Paxton isn't stupid, but if you do, fine, Just don't pass on some premium relief pitcher because his agent wants an extra $2M and an extra year. Suck it up and overpay. You have the cash.

 

3. Operate with the mantra that you have 25 roster spots and not one spot should be occupied by a player who creates a deficit. If Tyler Duffey is one of your solutions? No, just no! And stay in your hotel room and binge on Netflix during the Rule 5 crap. You're past that stage, and not as smart as you think, Derek.

 

Good boy.

Edited December 5, 2018 by birdwatcher

[Major League Ready]

 

This is the logic that escapes many of us. Either those guys come through or they don't. If you take the bet that they turn things around, then you surround them with adequate support. If you bet they won't, you find a taker who will and move them. The least efficacious strategy is to watch them finally put it together and THEN invest in supporting players. They have the wherewithal to fill the half dozen gaping holes right now with unexciting but perfectly cromulent players because all the options are there via FA.

 

I am going to provide a theory as to why this alludes many. There is no disrespect intended here. It’s purely an observation. Fans could care less about profitability and profitability is right at the top of the list of a GM's responsibilities. Many even think the business that is the Minnesota Twins owes it to the fans to disregard profitability. This is going to create a disconnect. It's also not a unique concept to pro sports. I doubt any of us cares if Cub Foods or the dealership where we buy our car or any other business maintains a healthy profit. As a matter of fact, virtually nobody would feel bad if the car dealer added up their costs incorrectly and sold them a car a cost.

 

The common position here is “what if Sano and Buxton are good” It also possible we could construct a good BP and get a middle infielder and maybe add some SP. Why wouldn’t the Twins max payroll and perhaps trade away some prospects too? Why take a chance we could miss an opportunity?

 

The answer is because if they fail, they will recover only a small portion of the incremental $40-50 or even $60M many here expect them to spend. (See Baltimore / Texas / Detroit) I don’t think anyone here is so naïve as to think the odds of success are high. Therefore, if you say this position eludes you, you are saying you can’t understand why the Twins would not invest 10s or millions with a low probability of success. I would absolutely love it if the Twins did not care about profitability but the reasons they don’t manage the business certainly don’t elude me.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Major League Ready

[S.]

 

I am going to provide a theory as to why this alludes many. There is no disrespect intended here. It’s purely an observation. Fans could care less about profitability and profitability is right at the top of the list of a GM's responsibilities. Many even think the business that is the Minnesota Twins owes it to the fans to disregard profitability. This is going to create a disconnect. 

I think it is more that many fans simply expect the ownership to be able to field a competitive team at some point. I'm sure there are some fans who expect the Twins to spend the same amount as the Dodgers and completely disregard any consideration of profitability, but I think that is probably a small amount of fans. I think a reasonably large amount of fans expect the FO to be able to make a profit while also fielding a competitive team. It isn't like the MLB is some league where only New York, Boston, and LA can compete because they spend the most money. Teams with our type of payroll have managed to win the world series in the last 15 years, yet we've only managed to win a combined 2 playoff games in those previous 15 seasons.

 

I understand that fans span the spectrum in terms of their expectations, and many of those expectations are completely absurd and unrealistic. But i also think it is absolutely 100% reasonable for fans to expect the ownership to produce better results than the Twins have had in the previous decades. 1 playoff series win in 25 years just isn't cutting it for me and I don't think the Twins need to max payroll and entirely disregard profitability to do better. But I do also understand that simply spending money doesn't necessarily translate to better results. Signing some better players than a lot of the garbage we've trotted out there in recent years probably wouldn't hurt though.

[mikelink45]

 

When Sano, Buxton, Dozier, and Morrison have historically bad seasons, and your ace and starting catcher lose the season to injuries, and your starting shortstop gets busted for PEDs, I'm not sure the front office is to blame.

 

They made an honest effort to improve a playoff team: as nicksaviking pointed out, they signed the #9, #15, #16 and #49 free agents last year.

 

They were also players on Darvish and Ohtani. 

 

It didn't work out, but I'm not gonna blame the front office for not trying.

They tried, but they did not react.  Sorry but the FO is still on my questionable list.

 

[ND-Fan]

This front office in my opinion missed good chance to win there first year here but because i believe they came in with the impression that the Twins were so screwed up they were looking to tear down whole team and start over. If they had gone out the first off seasnon and signed couple of relief pitchers and looked for serviceable starter they had chance not only win the wild card but could have won the division. They still had chance even at before trade deadline but again they became sellers of this team and even with this team still made it in as wild card. these oppertunities don't come along often. Then last year yes they added free agents to team that had made wild card but with the back up plan they could sell these Free Agents off for prospects and guess what that is what happened. Second they then decided to trade away some our core players who were becoming free agents because they had not signed any of these players to extension. This would have been logical if we had propects being held up by these players but the fact is we had nothing in pipeline for several years. Also since we waited to last minute to sell these players we got very little in return several A ball players that have potential but we all know that even with high potential very few will make impact at major league level. So now we sit with all our hopes on our top prospects from 3 years ago if they can figure it out and perform at major league level. They are trying to follow the Houston plan to the Tee but what have worked for Houston is no gurantee it works for us. We all know that picking people in draft is not like basketball or football top picks don't necessary mean in three years competing competitively. We  all have seen it where you picked higher in draft doesn't mean your pick is going to be next star. Look we had chance to pick Mike Trout once and we were not only other ones either because he wasn't picked until 22 round. Now he is best ball player in baseball so you see this idea of tanking may turn out great but it just lead us to another several years of loosing. Right now i don't see how they expect us to buy tickets to watch this team its bad enough if i want to watch them on TV. I love baseball but this past year its hard to watch this team. The analyticals have made baseball boring and it takes for ever to get game done. We have pitching changes nearly on average 4 to 5 times a game and then add in defensive shifts that create for slow pitching and lowering hitting of players we get game takes 4 to 5 hours with reduction in offense. 

Yes this has been done to win games but at what cost because with these changes we have ended up in slow moving game and hitters striking out more and trying to hit for home runs. Since baseball has changed because of analytical people making changes to the game we need to have new rules to offset what these people have done to the game. First is we need to limit number of pitching changes in game to say three and if you need a forth pitching change you loose that pitcher for say another 3 games. Also we need to set number of pitchers a team can carry on team. Second would be that position players you need so many on each side of second base and they need to have one foot on dirt cut of the infields this would limit number of shifts in baseball. Changes like this would be no different than what NBA has done with shot clocks, and outlawing zone defenses or Football limiting how players are set on lines or how people are defensed with limiting contact after line of scrimmage. I have been saying this for quite a while we have been in tear down mode slow way with the hope prospects we had would develop to build winning team around if not just continue sell of the pieces look to try to put winner on the field by 2021. I as a fan just hate to be used like this if this your plan tell the truth and then we know what were facing but this like slow torture of hoping they will make a move and in end nothing happens other than taring down and rebuilding.