The Twins and the lockout whirlwind day 5

[mikelink45]

The lockout is over.  Falvey said that did what they wanted before the lockout.  It is now going to get exciting and fast.

March 12 - the poll on TD says who are we going to sign first.  The answer is getting easier.

The cubs signed Andrelton Simmons - next up on the SS list?

The Giants signed Rodon - who is the next Ace on the list?

BIG NEWS - we resigned Juan Minaya!

Stay tuned - more tomorrow. 

Tomorrow has come and we traded our primary catcher - Garver for Isiah Kiner-Falefa who will not we our SS since Texas signed Seager to be theirs.  What I am surprised by is that Garver is at as premier a position as SS our new SS was scheduled to be their 3B this year (maybe a Donaldson trade?) and he has a line of 265/316/354/670.  At his age he is not a stopgap and Garver is worth much more than a stopgap.  So now the 2B depth is Polanco/Arraez/Lewis/Martin/Miranda/Gordon!!!  And catcher is Jeffers and Rortvedt - are you satisfied? Do you expect them to produce more than they showed last year?  We also got a pitcher, "Henriquez, 21, recorded a 4.71 ERA with 105 strikeouts and only 25 walks in 93 2/3 innings across High-A and Double-A. He was the Rangers’ No. 15 prospect at the time of the deal, according to MLB Pipeline."  according to mlb.com

Bassitt is gone from A's and Kikuchi is a Blue Jay.  The rotation options keep slip, slip, slipping away (sorry Paul Simon). 

White Sox add reliever Kelly.  So not only SP, but RP shopping bag is looking more and more empty.

Well tomorrow has come and Petty has gone.  After all the write ups was Petty that expendable?  Sonny Gray is 32 1/2.  He was 7 - 9 with an era of 4.19  and in nine years he is 82 - 72 with an era of 3.61 which sound pretty good except his annual era has bounced all over the place.  Did we expect better from Petty?  I don't know, but it sure sounded like it.  Could we have done better with a FA and kept Petty?  

Ottovino is signed - one more RP gone.  I did not want him, but the list gets shorter and who will we trade as a result?  

Okay - I am confused.  We solved our SS position and allowed TD to post three good stories.  Now he is gone, so long, so good to know you.  And so is Josh Donaldson which would have opened up 3B for Miranda and Arraez, but we just got Urshela who played 3B for the Yankees so that does not clear things up, Urshela is not young any more, I do not see him at SS so that did not clear things up.  Then we got Sanchez and traded Rortvedt so Sanchez who has hit HRs but batted 201 and had 0.7 WAR to replace Garver who went for our very short term SS.  Which means we actually traded Garver and Donaldson for Sanchez and Urshela.  We lost that one and still don't have a SS.  Also Kiner-Falafa had a few years of team control, Sanchez had one.  What the Hell just happened and how are we better off? 

By the way Nelson Cruz is going to the Nationals.

So no Chase Petty, no Kiner-Falefa, no Garver, no Rortvedt, no Donaldson - we asked for action.  I do not know that this is the action we expected or wanted.  By the way Sonny Gray, Ryan, Ober, Dobnak, Bundy is not a championship rotation.  What is next?

Matt Olson gone for four prospects - why does that feel better than the Twins trades?

The Mariners acquire LF Jesse Winker and 3B Eugenio Suarez from the Reds for LHP Brandon Williamson, RHP Justin Dunn and OF Jake Fraley according to ESPN.  Nice hall.  Somehow I see all these other trades and think we did not do that well. 

On the Athletic Aaron Gleeman said, "Big picture, it’s almost as if the Twins traded 1 1/2 seasons of Berríos for two seasons of Gray, and swapped Petty for Martin and Woods Richardson. There’s the potential for both ends of that exchange to go poorly in time, but at the moment it’s easy to see why it would appeal to the Twins purely in terms of on-paper value."  Is this really a wise set of moves?

Here is what the Yankees think - from the NYT ,

Even better than the crack of the bat was the presence of a new slugger swinging it: third baseman Josh Donaldson, a past winner of the Most Valuable Player Award, who arrived through a trade Sunday night. And even better than that, the Yankees finally moved on from Gary Sánchez as part of the five-player move, shipping the powerful-but-flawed catcher to the Minnesota Twins.

The Yankees also dealt infielder Gio Urshela and got Isiah Kiner-Falefa, a versatile defender with speed, and Ben Rortvedt, a muscular young catcher. Kiner-Falefa — whose 172 hits for Texas last season would have led the Yankees — will take over at shortstop, bumping Gleyber Torres back to second.

“By doing this trade, we’ve upgraded defensively and offensively at third, defensively at shortstop,” General Manager Brian Cashman told reporters in Tampa, Fla. “We’ve placed Gleyber in a position that he’s best at, at second base. So I think on the infield side we’ve upgraded three different ways, and improved the defense on the catching side as well.”

 

In the Tuesday Tribune Badelli says the plan now is to give Urshela a chance at SS!  From Simmons to Kiner to Urshela.  Why am I not excited?

Edited March 15, 2022 by mikelink45
New information.

[Linus]

Falvey is great at saying nothing. 

[Squirrel]

4 minutes ago, Linus said:

Falvey is great at saying nothing. 

Most CEOs are. You don't really expect him to say much of anything, do you? I don't. But I'd like to see him actually DO something.

[Doctor Gast]

Simmons and Rodon are both gone, ones that were on my  do list options. But hey, we landed Minaya, all that pre locked-out hard work has paid off.

[Squirrel]

52 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Simmons and Rodon are both gone, ones that were on my  do list options. But hey, we landed Minaya, all that pre locked-out hard work has paid off.

Simmons was a flat out 'never' for me, so I'm fine with him going to the Cubs. Rodon, meh ... wasn't first on my list when there were more options, but not sure I really wanted him even as a last resort. The problem isn't who we sign or don't sign at this point. It's that this is what we are left with, and now not even that.

There's still the possibility of a trade. Not holding my breath. We could still sign a legit SS, which would help the young pitchers, to have good defense behind them. That seems to be the only logical plan left, imo ... 

[Linus]

2 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Most CEOs are. You don't really expect him to say much of anything, do you? I don't. But I'd like to see him actually DO something.

Well I was a ceo of a large financial institution so I get watching your words but he literally says nothing. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Rumor of Twins interest in Johnny Cueto:

 

[mikelink45]

5 hours ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

Rumor of Twins interest in Johnny Cueto:

 

Let's hope we do move on this.  Pitching is still the key.

[h2oface]

Only 10 years late on Cueto......

[twins_89]

Johnny Cueto reminds me a little too much of J.A. Happ. I'm tired of the Twins going after well past their prime pitchers who have a fairly significant chance of their production falling off a cliff (examples being Happ, Shoemaker, and Bailey).

[terrydactyls]

FWIW  My current position is to:

1) sign Pineda, trade for a starter (Montas, Castillo, etc.),

2) offer one-year, inflated, big dollar contracts to relief pitchers Tepera and McHugh (try to sign both) and to outfielders Conforto, Castellanos, Bryant, and Swarber (sign one to play left field for a year or two),

3) At the 2022 trade deadline, try to trade Donaldson and Sano, and any of the inflated contracts mentioned previously for the best you can get,

4) use 2022 to see what all the "prospects" can offer.  The available money to spend next year should fill any perceived remains holes.

[gman]

Not interested in signing Cueto. Or really any pitchers still left. I would rather watch promise fail, then past keep running down hill.

[Mike Sixel]

I can see one more veteran starter coming. They need to sort out the pitchers in the minors. 

They had room to sign one of the two great shortstops left. They didn't. I can't see them ever signing a legit pitcher, they don't need corner players..... So, ya, good luck twins fans. This payroll is going to plummet next year. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

14 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

FWIW  My current position is to:

1) sign Pineda, trade for a starter (Montas, Castillo, etc.),

2) offer one-year, inflated, big dollar contracts to relief pitchers Tepera and McHugh (try to sign both) and to outfielders Conforto, Castellanos, Bryant, and Swarber (sign one to play left field for a year or two),

3) At the 2022 trade deadline, try to trade Donaldson and Sano, and any of the inflated contracts mentioned previously for the best you can get,

4) use 2022 to see what all the "prospects" can offer.  The available money to spend next year should fill any perceived remains holes.

I agree on signing Pineda, Tepera and McHugh, I disagree with signing a left fielder.  We're OK there with Rooker/Larnack/Martin/Lewis (remember we just got a SS for 2 years, and Miranda will hopefully play 3B, so where will our top 2 prospects play, if not LF?) I agree trade Donaldson and Sano, and I will add, asap. I agree to see what the prospects can do at the ML level. 

[terrydactyls]

38 minutes ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I agree on signing Pineda, Tepera and McHugh, I disagree with signing a left fielder.  We're OK there with Rooker/Larnack/Martin/Lewis (remember we just got a SS for 2 years, and Miranda will hopefully play 3B, so where will our top 2 prospects play, if not LF?) I agree trade Donaldson and Sano, and I will add, asap. I agree to see what the prospects can do at the ML level. 

The Twins have $50M available for salaries.  Pineda, Tepera, and McHugh won't take more than $25M at best so why not spend the other $25M on a left fielder for one year or two?  Any of the ones I mentioned are infinitely better than Rooker, much better than Larnach, and Martin and Lewis probably aren't ready until mid-season.  If they are ready for the big leagues this summer, move the new outfielder at the trade deadline.  There is also a possibility of moving Kepler at the deadline which will also open another slot for "prospects".  I would like to see an outfield of Lewis, Buxton, and Martin.  Any pitcher would like to see that outfield along with an infield of Donaldson, IKF, Polanco, and Kirilloff, and a strong defensive catcher.