Twins Sign RHP Dylan Bundy

[Brandon]

On the plus side we will have money for a Story signing at this rate.  We will just have to out-score our opponents 8-7, 9-8, 7-6.... to win games.

Also we will have the ability to release pitchers or swap out with those who develop in the minors.  We have lots of depth and more on the way.  now we just need the #3 and #2.5 starter

[TooSmartForEweNow]

8 hours ago, gunnarthor said:

So, I'm not a fan of this FO but I will say that I love this signing. I've been pushing for this to happen for years. Even if he fails, I won't blame Falvine.

 

You should blame them. Just because you liked a guy a couple years ago doesn’t mean that he’s a good signing now. He’s almost 30 and has 1 decent year on his resume.. and he’s the guy we go after when there were literally a couple dozen quality arms to be had. It’s a preposterous signing when everyone else actuslly competing is signing actual talent. 

[awmonahan]

Would have been nice to at least re-sign Pineda before showing us how low the bar was. This could turn out fine, but we do not have Berrios and Maeda in front of him right now. I fear we could be rolling him out on opening day, like Vance Worley. 

 

[h2oface]

" a 2020 season in which he finished ninth in AL Cy Young voting. He went 6-3 with a 3.29 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP over 11 starts and 65 2/3 innings. He also struck out 72 batters and walked just 17. He was in a lot of rumors at that season's trade deadline. The Twins certainly are hoping that he returns to that form. "

Again, a 60 day, 2 month season. Like Maeda. They have not proven that it will ever happen again. Even Nolasco had a 2 month streak like these guys! 

The Falvine braintrust spent the whole sprint up to the lockout navigating only to Bundy for pitching needs (does one even count Jharel Cotton?) , while the rest of the league did the real work, and now the shelves are pretty bare at the free agent store. These guys are asleep at the wheel.

[old nurse]

10 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Cheap, short term, bad pitcher. That's all this from office signs. Ugh. 

A Jordan Zimmerman type signing would be better?

[old nurse]

9 hours ago, USAFChief said:

We are becoming a joke. 

Some whew have failed to realize what a joke they have been all along

[baul0010]

I think I might need help understanding.  Bundy could be a good flyer if we had signed a free agent starter, traded for another starter, and wanted depth pitching.  As I'm watching all the pitcher's sign, I keep thinking, I would have signed that free agent pitcher and given him 1mil more per year to come to MN.  I get the F.O. doesn't want long term pitching contacts.  No Ray or Gaussman.  So more 3/4 year contacts are signed and I still wonder why not any of those free agent pitchers?  But what really got me was seeing Stoman sign a 3 year deal with the Cubs.  The Cubs are going no where, and we've been linked to Stroman for a couple years now!   What gives?

[umterp23]

Would have, could have, should have signed this guy, that guy, but we get this guy commentary is about what I thought I would read this morning.  It takes two to tangle and maybe, just maybe, we have had conversations with some of the better targets off the board and threw a contract out there.  The player and agent could have easily said no thanks, appreciate the gesture and moved on. We will never know the what ifs side of things.

So it comes down to quality for the price tag and how much price tag wiggle room do we really have.  Probably not as much as we think there should be.  Lockout is on, no news on player moves till 2022.  Once the gates are unlocked, the mad dash is on.  Hopefully Mgmt won't be still in taking their warmup suits off when the other offices are out of the blocks.

I still see a trade going down when the lock out is over to grab a top 3 rotation guy, who not sure.  

 

[Major League Ready]

14 hours ago, Prince William said:

It is not a troll move. A person can think that players having career years will regress and/or have age decline by age 33-34. You would then prefer to have a lottery ticket that performed well once for one year than a large contract that goes belly up. 

If we venture back a few years to the last time we had a bunch of SPs get 5 years deals (2016)  the results suggest we should at least be aware of the highly volatile production of free agent SPs.    

David Price 7/217/AAV of #31M – WAR 4.4 / 1.5 / 2.4 / 2.3 / 0 / .7 an average of 1.88 total and 1.38 after the 1st year.

Zack Greinke – Has been great.

The next 3 SPs in AAV included Johnny Cueto / Jordan Zimmerman, and Jeff Samardzija.  Johnny Cueto had a great first year and produced an average of 1 WAR for the final 5 years.  Zimmerman produced 4.4 WAR over 4 years. Samardzjia was average in 2016, good in 2017 with 3.8 War and had .2 WAR in 2018 and 1.5 WAR in 2019 and below replacement level in his final year. They had two good years total between the three of them.    

As an aside, Chris Davis / Jason Heyward / and Justin Upton were the top AAV position players.  They were not any better.

[theBOMisthebomb]

12 hours ago, mk said:

If this is the only FA the front office can get to come to MN it would be more entertaining to just say screw it and watch Ober, Ryan, Balazovic, Duran, Sands, et al. At least I have hope for them to be good.

I'd rather see a season opening rotation with Ober, Ryan, Dobnak, Balazovic, and Duran over Dylan Bundy. Maybe the FO can catch lightning in a bottle with Bundy, doubtful though. 

[Whitey333]

Imagine that.  Twins sign another pitching reclamation project.  And they expect fans to get behind more dumpster diving?  It's deja Vue all over again.  This FO is a joke and needs to be replaced.  Now we will have 2 Triple AAA teams in Twin Cities if this is all we wind up doing.  What a joke!

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, baul0010 said:

I thick I might need help understanding.  Bundy could be a good flyer if we had signed a free agent starter, traded for another starter, and wanted depth pitching.  As I'm watching all the pitcher's sign, I keep thinking, I would have signed that free agent pitcher and given him 1mil more per year to come to MN.  I get the F.O. doesn't want long term pitching contacts.  No Ray or Gaussman.  So more 3/4 year contacts are signed and I still wonder why not any of those free agent pitchers?  But what really got me was seeing Stoman sign a 3 year deal with the Cubs.  The Cubs are going no where, and we've been linked to Stroman for a couple years now!   What gives?

Just about everyone here has consider only one possible future state strategy .... contend next year.  Do you think it's possible or even probable they looked at what was needed to contend and determined that was not feasible by opening day.  None of this is in the least bit surprising if they determined the best course of action was to invest big league innings in their pitching prospects as well as Miranda, Martin, and possibly Lewis.  

[Major League Ready]

2 hours ago, old nurse said:

A Jordan Zimmerman type signing would be better?

How is it ever good to get 5 WAR for $110M?  We could have got Robbie Ray for an extra $5M.

[GoMNTwins]

9 hours ago, Sconnie said:

If they had a deal, they needed to get the paperwork done today.

This makes sense, but also provides evidence that they were nowhere close with anyone else. This deal looks an awful lot like they knew they needed to add someone before the lockout, and so they signed someone that no one else was going to look at until February. 

[baul0010]

2 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

Just about everyone here has consider only one possible future state strategy .... contend next year.  Do you think they looked at what the team would need to do to contend and determined they needed 3 SPs (2 top of the rotation) plus a couple BPs, plus a SS and determined that was unrealistic.  None of this is in the least bit surprising if they determined the best course of action was to invest big league innings in their pitching prospects as well as Miranda, Martin, and possibly Lewis.  

With the dollar's we should have available, it seemed doable.  1 free agent, 1 through trade, and Pineda kinda sorta solves pitching.  I would bring in Chris Taylor to man short until a prospect is ready, then he moves to our utility role.  Relief options would be solved through the minors with our prospects.  I'm all for developing our talent, but the F.O. made it seem that we were trying to contend this year.

[Karbo]

They could still sign austidillo! He has a better ERA

[big dog]

I think this is pre-lockout "we gotta get a body" panic. I'm pretty disappointed we didn't sign anyone else, but we need to sign more pitchers and they weren't all going to be great. Or maybe very good. If the stoppage goes until Feb 15 this might look like a good play. Worst-case scenario is we cut him and that's the way it goes. At least he's going to pitch this year, unlike the initial Pineda signing (which didn't work out that badly).

We'd like the big splashes to come before the marginal deals, certainly, but as long as this is one of the marginal deals I don't have a problem with it. If this is the best pitcher we sign, or the second-best pitcher we sign, it could be a really long season, kind of like "Spahn and Sain, then pray for rain."

Ober and Ryan, then watch the team dyin'

Ryan and Ober, then quit being sober

See, there's a lot we could do with that.

[puckstopper1]

IMO this is worse than the Shoemaker signing.  Bundy is HORRIBLE.  He is not close to the pitcher he was when he came into the league.

I see zero benefit to having him throw any innings for the Twins this season.

[Connor Gould]

I see some people mentioning that they'd rather see the prospects than veteran mediocre dudes, but I don't really see any of the guys as ready yet. Duran had basically a lost year, SWR is young and went cold to finish, Canterino was injured a bunch and hasn't been to AA yet, Sands and Winder are both probably close but are also coming off injury and should get some time in AAA to get going, so it's pretty much just Balazovic ready to go from the jump. Stopgaps are needed.

[Trov]

It is not a big splash move, and maybe it is a waste of 5 mil.  However, this is the type of signing that if he has a bounce back year he could surprise everyone and be a huge part of our team.  I know many felt similar when we brought in Pineda and he was worth it.  

Both where guys that were big prospects with big expectations.  Pineda had a little more success when younger than Bundy, but both had several injuries that set them back.  Maybe the FO has seen something they can unlock in Bundy.  If this is the only starter signing then I will not be happy, but I think he is worth the flier. 

[Dman]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

Just about everyone here has consider only one possible future state strategy .... contend next year.  Do you think they looked at what the team would need to do to contend and determined they needed 3 SPs (2 top of the rotation) plus a couple BPs, plus a SS and determined that was unrealistic.  None of this is in the least bit surprising if they determined the best course of action was to invest big league innings in their pitching prospects as well as Miranda, Martin, and possibly Lewis.  

Yeah it seems like the way it is stacking up that they expect the young talent to carry this team and or at least gain valuable experience.  As far as Bundy is concerned I think Winder is a better choice with his 94 to 95 MPH fastball and his Plus slider.  I think Strotman likely has more potential than Bundy so I guess they signed him as an experienced depth piece waiting for the younger guys to supplant him?

The Twins have a lot of somewhat wasted 40 man space if they can't get those young pitchers to contribute.  They would have Duran, Balazovich, Winder, Sands, Strotman, Enlow, Vallimont, Cotton, and technically Jax as guys not able to help the big club unless they improve or are given the chance.  Way, way too many young guys they can't rely on to help next year that are protected. 

So to your point yeah it does seem like this is the year they try to Cleveland their way to a young pitching staff.  Given all the young talent weighing down the 40 man they almost have no choice.  Some of those guys need to step up this year and contribute or it is going to be very hard to keep them.  If I am Cotton, Jax or Vallimont and likely Strotman as well I would want to have a good year or likely not going to make the cut next year.  The rest might have a little more leeway.  So yeah I think they will be leaning on their young talent this year as well.

That being said I expect them to grab another starter or two and find a shortstop.  I just don't expect them to grab a high end piece unless they can work out a trade.

 

[Doctor Gast]

Like most 2020 success stories, I don't trust them. Like wise Bundy 2020 is an outlier than a realistic evaluation.

I feel the same way of Bundy that I did for Bailey, Shoemaker and Happ. Very low ceiling pitcher, a waste of roster spot. I'll eat crow if I'm wrong but it doesn't look good to me.  I would've been very happy with an Archer signing, he has great upside is a perfect fit for the Twins if they babied him much like the way they did to Pineda.

I'd be happier if they had done no trades going into CBA than this. Now I'm bummed.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

13 hours ago, ashbury said:

Came here to pump the brakes a little on the ticker tape parade forming over the signing of a sore-shouldered pitcher with a name familiar to certain strata of fans.

Looks instead like the parade is stalled in the fairgrounds parking lot. My services will not be required today, after all.

I have been in a parade like that. 

Fortunately we were just ahead of the stalled vehicle, and traveled the parade route not realizing no one was behind us the entire time.

The route circled back to the parking lot at the start of the parade, and the upside is there was no crazy traffic to deal with as we left!

[Johnny Ringo]

When did it become a given that Ryan and Ober are starting rotation fixtures?  They pitched a few dozen innings of encouraging ball in meaningless games last year. That's all that we know. Recall that Dobnak was a flash in the pan such that it launched him into an ill-fated playoff start in Yankee Stadium. He has basically been a cautionary tale every since. If it were not for his inexplicable contract he would be on to his next career.   

The Twins are once again, in the Bundy signing, as the late, great Jim Steinman said (through Meat Loaf):

" looking for a ruby in a mountain of rocks/but there ain't no Coup de Ville hiding at the bottom of the Cracker Jack box" 

 

[Major League Ready]

15 minutes ago, Dman said:

Yeah it seems like the way it is stacking up that they expect the young talent to carry this team and or at least gain valuable experience.  As far as Bundy is concerned I think Winder is a better choice with his 94 to 95 MPH fastball and his Plus slider.  I think Strotman likely has more potential than Bundy so I guess they signed him as an experienced depth piece waiting for the younger guys to supplant him?

The Twins have a lot of somewhat wasted 40 man space if they can't get those young pitchers to contribute.  They would have Duran, Balazovich, Winder, Sands, Strotman, Enlow, Vallimont, Cotton, and technically Jax as guys not able to help to the big club unless they they improve or are given the chance.  Way, way too many young guys they can't rely on to help next year that are protected. 

So to your point yeah it does seem like this is the year they try to Cleveland their way to a young pitching staff.  Given all the young talent weighing down the 40 man they almost have no choice.  Some of those guys need to step up this year and contribute or it is going to be very hard to keep them.  If I am Cotton, Jax or Vallimont and likely Strotman as well I would want to have a good year or likely not going to make the cut next year.  The rest might have a little more leeway.  So yeah I think they will be leaning on their young talent this year as well.

That being said I expect them to grab another starter or two and find a shortstop.  I just don't expect them to grab a high end piece unless they can work out a trade.

 

They need to come up with a couple BP guys too with Rodgers and Duffey being free agents at the end of the year.  They will have the budget to keep them if that makes sense but it also makes sense they try to determine which prospects start and who should be transitioned to the BP.  Vallimont and Strotman seemed destined for the BP to me and if Jax has any chance, it seems like it would be out of the BP.  Let's hope the pitching prospects stay healthy this year.  They have enough guys near ready that it would make sense to give a couple of them a look out of the BP.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

12 hours ago, USAFChief said:

The trick is to accumulate pitchers who are better than other team's pitchers.

I'd settle for a pitcher better than other team's batters...

[Dman]

5 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

They need to come up with a couple BP guys too with Rodgers and Duffey being free agents at the end of the year.  They will have the budget to keep if that makes sense but it also makes sense they try to determine which prospects start and who should be transitioned to the BP.  Vallimont and Strotman seemed destined for the BP to me and if Jax has any chance, it seems like it would be out of the BP.  Let's hope the pitching prospects stay healthy this year.  They have enough guys near ready that it would make sense to give a couple of them a look out of the BP.

Totally agree on Vallimont and Jax.  Jax did well the first time through lineups has a good pitch mix and decent control.  He has a chance to succeed in the pen.  Vallimont doesn't have enough control to be a starter and at this point appears to be who he is.  Again the pen makes the most sense as he has a great K rate and his stuff should play up in the pen.  If he gains control he could be an elite pen arm.  I just don't see him as a starter.

I like Strotman as a potential starter better than you at least at this time.  He has a solid mix and I don't know if you caught him on MiLB at all but a smooth delivery.  Not sure why he gives up so much contact and doesn't miss enough bats but he feels like a tweek away from being ready to me.  But to your point yes he wouldn't be a bad pen arm either and likely a good one if he can find a way to miss more bats.

 

[DJL44]

14 hours ago, whosafraidofluigirussolo said:

I don't mind this as a back-end rotation addition at all.

The problem is this rotation has no front end.

[strumdatjag]

My take:   Back in the days of the AWA, a wrestler couldn’t have a nickname of a previous or current AWA wrestler.   So, when Bruiser Brody came to the AWA, he  somehow had to have a different nickname because of long departed AWA wrestler Dick the Bruiser.    So, He became known as King Kong Brody.   This became problematic for the AWA when they signed King Kong Bundy.    So, Bundy assumed the moniker Boom Boom Bundy.  I hope my take properly shows my low level of interest in this acquisition.   Give me credit for NOT reminiscing about another more famous Bundy, and not using him as a metaphor.  

[Mike Sixel]

4 hours ago, old nurse said:

A Jordan Zimmerman type signing would be better?

Is that a serious question? Do you really think that was what that post was about?