The paring down continues ... this was one that maybe could have gone either way, so I'm not exactly surprised or, really anything ...

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/11/twins-decline-mutual-option-on-alex-colome.html

Had the Twins exercised the option, Colomé would have remained with the team in 2022 at a salary of $5.5 million.

Instead, the Twins are paying Colomé a buyout of $1.25 million and he is now a free agent.

I believe this leaves the Twins 40-man roster at 39 players, including all of the players who were on the 60-day IL. Undoubtedly, a few more spots will need to be cleared before the deadline to protect eligible minor leaguers from the Rule 5 draft on Friday Nov. 19.

As I mentioned in another post, to change the direction of the team the FO needs to change the roster. There were too many bad memories associated with Colome to keep him. With the pitching staff so bad last year, would like to see some significant turnover in pitching staff. 

This was pretty much a no-brainer in my opinion. While spending $4m on Colome is actually pretty reasonable, there's no reason to aggravate the fan base by keeping him for 2022, as Colome is eminently replaceable at that price.

This had to be done. Even with Colome's numbers evening out at the end of the year, he'll still go down (rightfully) as one of the worst Twins FA signings in history.

17 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

This was pretty much a no-brainer in my opinion. While spending $4m on Colome is actually pretty reasonable, there's no reason to aggravate the fan base by keeping him for 2022, as Colome is eminently replaceable at that price.

Yes, and likely why a repeat of Simmons is not palatable.

1 minute ago, tony&rodney said:

Yes, and likely why a repeat of Simmons is not palatable.

Yeah, which is a bit of a bummer because Simmons is actually a really good but-low candidate imo.

I also don’t want him within 1.000 feet of the Twins clubhouse for obvious reasons. 

Whew.

I wish Colome well, but he is the most visible, most obvious scapegoat for the Twins' lousy season aside from maybe Shoemaker and Happ. He could not have remained on the roster without a significant portion of the fanbase interpreting it as proof that the Twins don't intend to contend next year.

This didn’t seem like a difficult decision to me either.

Yep a pretty easy call. Colome isn't worth giving the fans PTSD next spring; you need to turn the page on 2021 and sticking with Colome makes that just a bit harder.

21 minutes ago, Unwinder said:

I wish Colome well, but he is the most visible, most obvious scapegoat for the Twins' lousy season aside from maybe Shoemaker and Happ. He could not have remained on the roster without a significant portion of the fanbase interpreting it as proof that the Twins don't intend to contend next year.

Happ was an ok 5th starter until his last 3 starts with the Twins.  I mean he wasn't good but he did keep us in enough games to be a .500 pitcher until the end.  He wasn't worth 8 million but he wasn't a total sunk cost either.  not like Colome was the first month or so of the season when we were drowning as he blew save after save.  

Just now, Brandon said:

Happ was an ok 5th starter until his last 3 starts with the Twins.  I mean he wasn't good but he did keep us in enough games to be a .500 pitcher until the end.  He wasn't worth 8 million but he wasn't a total sunk cost either.  not like Colome was the first month or so of the season when we were drowning as he blew save after save.  

Happ was a lot better than Shoemaker, but still seemed to get a similar amount of fan hate and blame. I put him in the same category as Simmons: Disappointing but doesn't deserve the amount of backlash he got.

20 minutes ago, Unwinder said:

Happ was a lot better than Shoemaker, but still seemed to get a similar amount of fan hate and blame. I put him in the same category as Simmons: Disappointing but doesn't deserve the amount of backlash he got.

Happ was “worth” nearly -2 rWAR with the Twins. I’d say the hate he received was rather spot-on. 

Good luck to him. Bringing him back was never going to work out. The damage was done in April when he contributed the most to the horrific start. 

1 hour ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Yeah, which is a bit of a bummer because Simmons is actually a really good but-low candidate imo.

I think Simmons could be a good buy-low candidate for a roster with a void in the middle infield, but the Twins have Polanco and Arraez projected for a combined 6 WAR. Yes, we may prefer to keep Polanco off shortstop, but even setting aside our history with him, I don't know that Simmons' upside would be worth it for us.

17 minutes ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

I think Simmons could be a good buy-low candidate for a roster with a void in the middle infield, but the Twins have Polanco and Arraez projected for a combined 6 WAR. Yes, we may prefer to keep Polanco off shortstop, but even setting aside our history with him, I don't know that Simmons' upside would be worth it for us.

It really depends on how the front office wants to approach the off-season. If they want to dump nearly all their money into pitching, Simmons would be a decent fit, especially if they pursue a groundball guy like Stroman. 

I think this move is best for both parties.  Colome needs a fresh start and he can't get that with the Twins.  If he stayed any little bumps and the fans would be all over him.  Honestly I think he can rebound from last year but I am happy he is not going to be on next years Twins team.

Twins have one open spot. Have maybe 5 names, 7 at the furtherest most, to add from the minors.

 

Still on the bubble now: Astudillo, Cave, Garlick, Rooker, Coulombe, Dobnak, Gant, Garza, Jax, Smeltzer, Stashak, Thorpe. Be interesting to see who goes!

Good chance he rebounds and has a quality 2022 with someone else. But it was throw right move with how every thing worked out. I've stated before, and will again, that sometimes the pieces of a team puzzle just don't fit together right for whatever reason.  It's best for a fresh start for both parties. There's at least 3 guys out there I'd rather have for about $5-6M to replace him.

Off/on topic, I'm not as sour on Simmons as some. I've got a couple guys I like better right now...again the puzzle pieces analogy...but if he wasn't an issue in the clubhouse and the Twins really believed he would rebound to the hitter he was the previous 4-5yrs prior, I'd be OK with him back.

16 hours ago, Rosterman said:

Twins have one open spot. Have maybe 5 names, 7 at the furtherest most, to add from the minors.

 

Still on the bubble now: Astudillo, Cave, Garlick, Rooker, Coulombe, Dobnak, Gant, Garza, Jax, Smeltzer, Stashak, Thorpe. Be interesting to see who goes!

Give our supposed depth in the outfield I suspect Cave and Garlick will be next. Cave one way or another.

16 hours ago, Rosterman said:

Twins have one open spot. Have maybe 5 names, 7 at the furtherest most, to add from the minors.

 

Still on the bubble now: Astudillo, Cave, Garlick, Rooker, Coulombe, Dobnak, Gant, Garza, Jax, Smeltzer, Stashak, Thorpe. Be interesting to see who goes!

6 pretty easy cuts there: Astudillo, Cave, Garlick, Coulombe, Garza, and Thorpe are likely to get gone. Stashak and Smeltzer are on the bubble and could go if they see someone on the waiver wire they like. Feels like they like Gant & Jax and they're not ready to give up on Dobnak or Rooker yet.

It's fairly easy to identify some of the players that led to our horrendous start last spring, now let's hope that we can identify players that can get us off to a great start next spring.

I have a one word reply to this news. "Good."

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

6 pretty easy cuts there: Astudillo, Cave, Garlick, Coulombe, Garza, and Thorpe are likely to get gone. Stashak and Smeltzer are on the bubble and could go if they see someone on the waiver wire they like. Feels like they like Gant & Jax and they're not ready to give up on Dobnak or Rooker yet.

I agree with this although I might keep Garza over Smeltzer

21 hours ago, Rosterman said:

Twins have one open spot. Have maybe 5 names, 7 at the furtherest most, to add from the minors.

 

Still on the bubble now: Astudillo, Cave, Garlick, Rooker, Coulombe, Dobnak, Gant, Garza, Jax, Smeltzer, Stashak, Thorpe. Be interesting to see who goes!

Cave should've been the 1st to go. Hated to see Colina go and Refsnyder I'd try to hold on longer (hope he can pass waivers).

Good riddance to Colume, who at best should only be doing mop up duty at the ML level. Ron Davis reincarnated. Time to move on and give someone else a chance.

On 11/5/2021 at 2:25 PM, Twinfan603 said:

This had to be done. Even with Colome's numbers evening out at the end of the year, he'll still go down (rightfully) as one of the worst Twins FA signings in history.

He's barely in this year's top five, but okay.