No Correa? No Story? No problem!

[cmoss84]

1 minute ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

This reply isn't meant for you, but everybody.

What good does signing either one for 1 year do to help the Twins? Even two years seems silly, if you aren't going 3 years at least; signing either doesn't make any sense, other them to spend the owners money.

I think the odds are quite small either one sign a 1 year deal. IF it does happen, and IF they would sign with the Twins, it allows us to compete/contend this year while getting Martin/Lewis/Miranda/etc. ready for 2023. Slim chances though. It would also allow us to trade them at the deadline to a contender if we are out of it. 

[TwinsDr2021]

4 minutes ago, cmoss84 said:

I think the odds are quite small either one sign a 1 year deal. IF it does happen, and IF they would sign with the Twins, it allows us to compete/contend this year while getting Martin/Lewis/Miranda/etc. ready for 2023. Slim chances though. It would also allow us to trade them at the deadline to a contender if we are out of it. 

So the Twins are only a Story or Correa away from competing? I disagree with that, they could have kept Donaldson and spent the other money on somebody else and got the same results. I guess one could argue that if they aren't competing they could trade them at the deadline, but how much are you getting for 3 months of a player? Or what happens if the prospects don't work out? Signing anybody for 1 year besides a relief pitcher seems like a way for the FO and owner to say look we spent money and it didn't work out.

[cmoss84]

1 minute ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

So the Twins are only a Story or Correa away from competing? I disagree with that, they could have kept Donaldson and spent the other money on somebody else and got the same results. I guess one could argue that if they aren't competing they could trade them at the deadline, but how much are you getting for 3 months of a player? Or what happens if the prospects don't work out? Signing anybody for 1 year besides a relief pitcher seems like a way for the FO and owner to say look we spent money and it didn't work out.

No...we are not one player away from competing. IF we got Story or Correa for one year (which again, I see as highly unlikely), I am hoping we would move some pieces around to get some pitching and shore up our infield...

A team looking to go all in at the deadline might give up a top prospect or 2...

[cmoss84]

2 minutes ago, cmoss84 said:

I disagree with that, they could have kept Donaldson and spent the other money on somebody else and got the same results.

Fairly certain I am in the minority here...but I think Donaldson is cashed. Done. Finito. People talk about Buxton playing 110 games...I'd set Donaldson at 75-90 games. Clearing his salary was big...even if it was a strange order of events. 

[TwinsDr2021]

1 minute ago, cmoss84 said:

No...we are not one player away from competing. IF we got Story or Correa for one year (which again, I see as highly unlikely), I am hoping we would move some pieces around to get some pitching and shore up our infield...

A team looking to go all in at the deadline might give up a top prospect or 2...

I think if this happens, you put Miranda at 3B, SS, Polonco, Sano/AK, Gio as SS and 3B back up, Arraez at 2B and Left Field back and DH. That seems pretty shored up, leaves Gordon in AAA. It isn't like they are going to go out and get great pitching because their two best trade assets, can't be traded in this scenario (Martin and Lewis). They could trade from the pitching prospects, but I highly doubt they will since they wouldn't do it while they were competing and winning division titles, on top of that fact the future of this team depends on those prospects working out.

I realize there are many ways to play this out, like trading Arraez, but I just don't see the upside of 1 year unless it is way less then the prices talked about.

[TwinsDr2021]

7 minutes ago, cmoss84 said:

Fairly certain I am in the minority here...but I think Donaldson is cashed. Done. Finito. People talk about Buxton playing 110 games...I'd set Donaldson at 75-90 games. Clearing his salary was big...even if it was a strange order of events. 

You might be correct, but put in that Yankees lineup, I would expect nothing less than the offense numbers he put up last year and maybe close to 2019.

I would bet (and I have with a friend) that his .OBP and SLG will be higher than Story's next year. (I hope I am wrong if the Twins sign Story)

[dex8425]

1 hour ago, cmoss84 said:

Toronto is now rumored to be kicking the tires on Jose Ramirez to play 2B. If that happens, they might turn into the favorite team in the league. 

Well at least the Twins could maybe finish ahead of Cleveland then.

[LA VIkes Fan]

I just saw that the Reds (!) traded Amir Garrett for Mike Minor. The trade makes no sense from the Reds standpoint; they let Wade Miley go on waivers and he's better than Mike Minor with almost exactly the same salary for the same term. Amir Garrett actually has some value so why treating him for a guy is worse than someone you could have simply kept? I have this sneaking suspicion: this is the front and of a trade with the Twins. We are going to get my Minor and somebody else, hopefully a starter but may be a reliever, in return for prospects. The Royals would never trade Minor to us directly since were in the same division. Not sure if I like this song or not, but I think this may be in the cards.

[chpettit19]

1 hour ago, cmoss84 said:

Toronto is now rumored to be kicking the tires on Jose Ramirez to play 2B. If that happens, they might turn into the favorite team in the league. 

Honestly, if I were them I'd be willing to give up a couple top IF guys to get him. Especially if they can extend Chapman and/or JRam and have them for 3 or 4 more years. Biggio plus a couple of their top IF prospects (Martinez and Groshans maybe?) would probably get Cleveland to start talking about things. If you can lock in Chapman, Bo, JRam, and Vlad for 4 years (along with Springer in the OF) you're looking at 4 years of one of the best infields ever and an insane chance to compete for the WS. Rebuild the system over those 4 years and hope to be able to replace JRam and Chapman after their extensions run out while still having Bo and Vlad on new extensions. The Blue Jays are in great shape right now. Time to go all in if I'm them. Go get Ramirez and see what happens.

[Otto von Ballpark]

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

This reply isn't meant for you, but everybody.

What good does signing either one for 1 year do to help the Twins? Even two years seems silly, if you aren't going 3 years at least; signing either doesn't make any sense, other them to spend the owners money.

True, a 1 year contract isn't a permanent solution, but it's also dramatically lower risk. Especially if there isn't a "no trade" clause -- use him if you are competing, trade him if you're not, and in either case buy a little more time to evaluate/develop a cheaper long-term replacement.

[RpR]

17 minutes ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

True, a 1 year contract isn't a permanent solution, but it's also dramatically lower risk. Especially if there isn't a "no trade" clause -- use him if you are competing, trade him if you're not,

Yeh, that is a great  way to attract player treat them like you are their pimp, ?

[Otto von Ballpark]

14 minutes ago, RpR said:

Yeh, that is a great  way to attract player treat them like you are their pimp, ?

Questionable analogy aside --

You think the Twins should decline a hypothetical 1-year deal for Correa or Story (in the unlikely event that one is available to them) because it is too team-friendly?

[dex8425]

2 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

 I have this sneaking suspicion: this is the front and of a trade with the Twins. We are going to get my Minor and somebody else, hopefully a starter but may be a reliever, in return for prospects. The Royals would never trade Minor to us directly since were in the same division. Not sure if I like this song or not, but I think this may be in the cards.

I suppose that's possible, but I wanted Mahle or Castillo.  https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/reds-gm-wont-trade-luis-castillo-tyler-mahle.html

[darin617]

Sign Jonathan Villar as a short term fix. He should be cheap and he is productive and would bring some extra speed to the team.

[Whitey333]

I hope Twins make some more moves.  But doesn't the fact they wanted to dump Donaldson's salary make it seem less likely they would sign a potentially expensive player like Story?  

[Brock Beauchamp]

11 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

I hope Twins make some more moves.  But doesn't the fact they wanted to dump Donaldson's salary make it seem less likely they would sign a potentially expensive player like Story?  

No, it makes them more likely to spend the money. I suspect the team will slightly drop its payroll but it's currently $40-ish million below its peak 2019 payroll numbers.

The Twins spent prospect capital to acquire Sonny Gray at $10m a season. Then they made the team worse by shedding the Donaldson contract. Those two moves make no sense next to each other unless the larger plan is to reinvest that Donaldson money. If the goal was to shed payroll, they don't give up Chase Petty and acquire Sonny Gray.

[Mike Sixel]

16 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

I hope Twins make some more moves.  But doesn't the fact they wanted to dump Donaldson's salary make it seem less likely they would sign a potentially expensive player like Story?  

They have a lot of third baseman. Are we sure it was only about salary? I hope it was about freeing up money to spend elsewhere, where they don't have MLB depth.....

[Otto von Ballpark]

59 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

No, it makes them more likely to spend the money. I suspect the team will slightly drop its payroll but it's currently $40-ish million below its peak 2019 payroll numbers.

The Twins spent prospect capital to acquire Sonny Gray at $10m a season. Then they made the team worse by shedding the Donaldson contract. Those two moves make no sense next to each other unless the larger plan is to reinvest that Donaldson money. If the goal was to shed payroll, they don't give up Chase Petty and acquire Sonny Gray.

I wouldn't be so sure yet. It's quite possible they're not "all in" either way (lowest payroll vs maximum contention) -- it's not an uncommon needle to thread.

In that case, it could be that adding Gray's salary made them a little more interested in unloading Donaldson's -- and perhaps they viewed Urshela as a safer risk than Donaldson too.

Their level of interest in Story might be similar -- not going to pass on him completely, but also perhaps not willing to overpay either? Should be interesting to see how that shakes out.

[ashbury]

On 3/15/2022 at 2:40 PM, Cap'n Piranha said:

I will accept "bust" as long as it's in the form of Carlos Correa.

An unsubstantiated rumor is that Story won't sign unless the Twins demonstrate a better commitment to winning.  Signing Correa would accomplish that....

[ashbury]

22 hours ago, cmoss84 said:

Clearing his salary was big...even if it was a strange order of events. 

Concur, but only if that freed-up money is deployed meaningfully.

[Major League Ready]

3 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

They have a lot of third baseman. Are we sure it was only about salary? I hope it was about freeing up money to spend elsewhere, where they don't have MLB depth.....

Given they have Miranda and Urshela, it could be that they just really did not want the risk associated with Donaldson.  By that I mean injury risk as well as the risk associated with decline.  Looking beyond this year, he still has 21.75M due next year and a $16m option of 2024 with an 8M buy-out.

Personally, I think they are playing out the market with Story right now.  Houston most likely sign Correa and Boston would move him to 2B which we know he does not want to do.  STL could be a player but the twins are well positioned to get Story on a reasonable deal.  I like the idea of Kirilloff / Polanco / Story & Miranda / Urshella going forward.

[Otto von Ballpark]

19 minutes ago, ashbury said:

An unsubstantiated rumor is that Story won't sign unless the Twins demonstrate a better commitment to winning.  Signing Correa would accomplish that....

Would he accept Kevin Correia?

[ashbury]

3 minutes ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

Would he accept Kevin Correia?

Worth a try.  Story didn't go to a big time college like Harvard or Texas A&M so maybe his reading skillz are suspect.

[cmoss84]

Thought it was the full moon. Thought it was the weed.

But no...I've jinxed the universe.

Me panties...I just peed. 

[ashbury]

On 3/17/2022 at 9:41 AM, ashbury said:

An unsubstantiated rumor is that Story won't sign unless the Twins demonstrate a better commitment to winning.  Signing Correa would accomplish that....

"When reached for comment, Trevor Story referred reporters to his agent, who later replied via voicemail with an expletive."

 

/ yeah I just made that up