VIDEO: Twins Have A Decision To Make On José Miranda

[Nash Walker]

After crushing the upper minors in 2021, José Miranda is firmly in the Twins' picture for 2022 and beyond. How should they approach his starting point on Opening Day? Will he make the team out of spring training? Should he? Comment below!

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[Richie the Rally Goat]

I would not bring Miranda up to be a bench player. He’s too good to ride the pine. He needs to play every day. Assuming health of JD I’d start him in STP.

I’d look to trade Donaldson at the deadline, and plug Miranda in as starting 3B there foreword.

Donaldson and his contract have more value to the Twins than other teams. In 2021, JD had his healthiest season in a long time. Assuming he stays healthy doesn’t seem like a good bet for other GMs. In the off-season, no rational GM is taking on that contract. It would cost the Twins half his salary or more to offload him before the season. Thad Levine reportedly bristled at the idea of rebuilding… off-loading JD at a cost to the Twins would be waiving the white flag.

With a couple teams looking to make a playoff push, Donaldson could be one of the best hitters available at the deadline. Necessity might not only unload that contract in full, but throw in a low value prospect too.

[Old fox]

The stats indicate Miranda has earned this opportunity in 2022. I believe prospects are just like baking cimamon rolls. if baked not long enough they are Dougherty and if the baker isn’t paying attention and burns the rolls, then, the rolls aren’t good and lose value quickly. It’s a very delicate situation. 

[RpR]

2 hours ago, Old fox said:

The stats indicate Miranda has earned this opportunity in 2022. I believe prospects are just like baking cimamon rolls. if baked not long enough they are Dougherty and if the baker isn’t paying attention and burns the rolls, then, the rolls aren’t good and lose value quickly. It’s a very delicate situation. 

Rookies are like Sixth graders moving to junior high, Seniors heading for college, they think they are on top of the world, then reality strike; if they accept that they are not the brightest bulb in the string but have the desire to be one, they will succeed.

Most do not but still manage to burn brighter.

[Greglw3]

It seems extremely highly likely that Miranda is ready. ~.345 at AA and ~.345 at AAA with 30 HR in a shortened season may be unprecedented in Twins history.

Barring further trades, I’d see him playing 3B, 2B, 1B and DH and possibly even some LF. The Twins need to give a full chance to this special talent. I believe that even though the Twins need pitching, there seems no way they’ll have a championship caliber staff at this point. As Nick Nelson mentioned, the Twins could sign Pineda and one more and then rely on Ryan, Ober, Sands, Duran, Balazovic, etc.

The one thing I’m convinced of is the Twins likely can’t win with that kind of pitching staff and not significantly improving the offense. The offense has question marks in LF, RF, SS, 1B, C. LF is the highest priority. Castellanos would fit well. If not, bring back Eddie Rosario. He never should have been booted out of town. RF is a problem too with Kepler stuck in a looooong spell of too much pulll, pull, pull and very low batting averages. I’d put Kirilloff in RF and Sano at 1B with Kepler 4th OF. I’m quite sure Kirilloff would have a better season than Kepler’s last 2 seasons.

So Miranda could be very important since you don’t like having 4 or 5 question marks in an offense. One mitigating factor could be if Sano clicks from the start instead of a prolonged deep freeze.

[cheeseheadgophfan]

That swing reminds me a lot of Albert Pujols............

[beetlebum71]

You've got LF, 1B, and DH to rotate Kiriloff, Arraez, Sano, and Miranda through.  Throw Larnach in there potentially, too.  That's roughly 2,000 AB's to split between the four of them.  Throw in some spell days for Donaldson, and you can probably add another hundred or so to that.  There are plenty of opportunities to get them all ABs. Plan on a bench of one of those guys, whichever catcher isn't playing, a true extra OF, and a utility IF who can play some short, and let's go. 

[jjswol]

With Donaldson around there really is no spot for Miranda. The 25 man roster for a team is 99% determined before ST begins and how players perform in ST rarely changes that. There are exceptions of course but usually not in the players favor. It is much easier to lose a spot on the team than it is to make the team.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

On 12/27/2021 at 9:20 AM, beetlebum71 said:

You've got LF, 1B, and DH to rotate Kiriloff, Arraez, Sano, and Miranda through.  Throw Larnach in there potentially, too.  That's roughly 2,000 AB's to split between the four of them.  Throw in some spell days for Donaldson, and you can probably add another hundred or so to that.  There are plenty of opportunities to get them all ABs. Plan on a bench of one of those guys, whichever catcher isn't playing, a true extra OF, and a utility IF who can play some short, and let's go. 

Miranda has played 25 innings at LF and 1B vs 1400 innings at 2B and 1800 at 3B.

I wouldn’t consider Miranda a part of the 1B/LF/DH mix.

[RpR]

2 hours ago, jjswol said:

With Donaldson around there really is no spot for Miranda. The 25 man roster for a team is 99% determined before ST begins and how players perform in ST rarely changes that. There are exceptions of course but usually not in the players favor. It is much easier to lose a spot on the team than it is to make the team.

Rooker showed how trusting Spring Training performance can bite you in the butt because you show you are NOT ready

[Squirrel]

3 hours ago, jjswol said:

With Donaldson around there really is no spot for Miranda. The 25 man roster for a team is 99% determined before ST begins and how players perform in ST rarely changes that. There are exceptions of course but usually not in the players favor. It is much easier to lose a spot on the team than it is to make the team.

Donaldson won’t be the reason Miranda doesn’t come up. Miranda plays the same as Arraez. The fact that we have Arraez is more the reason, imo. Miranda plays 2nd, 3rd and some 1B. He’ll either come up when there are injuries or if Arraez is moved