But then Gerrit Cole wanted to go to LA, too. This cuts both ways.

Yes and the Yankees gave him an insane contract. They have the stupid money we don’t have.

I was not the one who brought up the Brewers, White Sox, or any other teams in this thread. I simply responded to others who said that they were making moves the Twins refuse to and I disputed that claim. And I have continued to speak to the lack of notable differences in process outside of 2 moves. I can bring up the Brewers continuing to bring in AAAA players and veterans on 1 or 2 year deals in the last week if anyone would like more evidence that outside of a very limited number of outlier moves the teams operate almost identically. Every team wishes their team traded for a high BA, low power guy who then turned into a high BA, high power MVP candidate. That is not a difference in operating procedure, but instead a trade that turned out way better than anyone could or would have predicted. So the only real difference is the Cain deal and fans here in Milwaukee complain about it almost as much as Twins fans complain about them not signing similar deals.

 

I will, however, tone down the comments about spending "stupid" money as that is not necessary and I apologize. In my opinion signing 30+ year old pitchers to 5 year deals is not a way for the Twins to build and maintain a consistently good to great team and I do stand by that. The idea that we should "do whatever it takes" has been brought up on this thread, though, and that would include things like trading whatever prospects the Blue Jays and Mets were asking for at the deadline and paying any FA price to sign big name pitchers.

I don’t think “stupid money” is derogatory toward anyone. If it is then I wouldn’t say that’s your problem.

 

You are correct in saying we cannot do the 5+ year deals with guys over 30. Not unless we got deep in the playoffs and needed one more piece. We aren’t that close, in my opinion. Even if we had Cole last year we wouldn’t have made it out of the first round. Anyone who believes otherwise is forsaking reality to put a “positive” spin on things