2023 Twins Payroll Blueprint

[WhenWillWeBeatNY]

First off I want to say hello to everyone as I am new to Twins Daily. Otherwise my payroll blueprint is below. I believe there is 3 main directions the Twins FO can take this off-season.

One of them is signing a big SS free agent. obviously this would have to be one of the four (Correa, Turner, Swanson, Bogaerts)

Another way is signing a stopgap SS while we wait for Lewis/Martin/Lee and go bigger on pitching.

The last way is classic Twins, not signing a big SS and not signing much pitching. Trade away Polanco, Kepler, Urshela and go more into a rebuild mode

I based my payroll blue print on the stopgap SS and sign pitching option. I’m going to explain some of the big signings below

SS: Starting with the moves I went with Jose Iglesias at SS. I think this would be the perfect stopgap as he is older and won’t be looking for a huge contract but also has pretty good offensive and defensive numbers. 
 

LF: In left I decided to go with Corey Dickerson. I also moved Kirilloff to RF and Kepler to utility. I have him here just to act as a safety net for injuries. Especially with Kirilloff’s wrist this move would create enough depth to where Kepler could be traded also. 
 

Backup C: For the backup or even starter I chose Christian Vasquez. Vasquez has a cryptic tweet that sounds like he won’t resign with the Astros and even though he loves Boston I think we can pay enough to get him here. He has solid defensive and offensive number especially for a catcher and also has two World Series so comes with a lot of playoff experience which is something our team lacks. 

SP3: In my payroll this would be the biggest signing of the season and that would be Chris Bassitt. Let’s be honest with ourselves we won’t be able to get a big name like Rodon or DeGrom. A guy like Bassitt however is still a very high SP arm. He also has been pretty healthy over his career and considering almost everyone of our SP’s last year was hurt at sometime this would be great plus for us. 

RP: For the main bullpen acquisition I chose another Met in Seth Lugo. I think we need one more strong arm for our bullpen and that person can be Lugo. Another move with the bullpen is with Bassitt taking up an SP I moved Maeda to the bullpen. I think it will still take Maeda some time to recover and a bullpen role can help lessen the toll as well. Maeda also showed he can be effective out of the bullpen when he was with LA. To finish off the payroll I resigned Michael Fulmer, he isn’t anything special but will get the job done. Otherwise a substitute for this signing could be Andrew Chafin. This signing would make the payroll go a little over the 140 million mark but I think it would be worth it. Chafin has better numbers than Fulmer and is also a lefty which would be nice for our bullpen. Chafin has also had many successful years in the league and can be a leader for our rookies.  

Trades: Kepler and Polanco are obvious candidates on the trade block. I think we should hold off till the trade deadline to trade them. Starting with Polanco he has had some very good seasons but then fell off. This has been due to mostly injuries. If he can stay healthy he can produce. Kepler also had a down year last year. Like Polanco we have seen the potential of Kepler. The biggest for Kepler and also Polanco is that the shift will be banned this year. Both hitters who are very pull happy will definitely benefit. On the other hand dumping Kepler and Polanco’s contracts free up more money for us and let me prospects play. We will just have to see what happens. 
 

Finally I’ve seen people posting about trading Bailey Ober. This is an absolute no go for me, I know he has limited stats but him and Joe Ryan I think are the 1-2 SP punch of the future for the Twins. 
 

I’d like to hear your thoughts on the payroll in the comments. This gets me excited to see what we do because we have so many options. 

 

Payroll Blueprint

Position Player $ (in Millions)

• C: Ryan Jeffers ($0.70M)
• 1B: Luis Arraez ($4.50M)
• 2B: Jorge Polanco ($7.50M)
• 3B: Gio Urshela ($9.00M)
• SS: Jose Iglesias ($5.00M)
• LF: Corey Dickerson ($6.00M)
• CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M)
• RF: Alex Kirilloff ($0.70M)
• DH: Jose Miranda ($0.70M)
• 4th OF: Matt Wallner ($0.70M)
• Utility: Nick Gordon ($0.70M)
• Utility: Max Kepler ($8.50M)
• Backup C: Christian Vasquez ($8.00M)

 

• SP1: Sonny Gray ($12.00M)
• SP2: Joe Ryan ($0.70M)
• SP3: Chris Bassitt ($20.00M)
• SP4: Tyler Mahle ($8.00M)
• SP5: Bailey Ober ($0.70M)
• RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.70M)
• RP: Jorge Lopez ($3.00M)
• RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M)
• RP: Seth Lugo ($8.00M)
• RP: Griffin Jax ($0.70M)
• RP: Kenta Maeda ($9.00M)
• RP: Michael Fulmer ($3.00M)
• RP: Caleb Thielbar ($2.00M

 

Dead Money

SP Chris Paddack (injury) 3.00

SP Randy Dobnak 1.50

Total: $140.30M

Budget: $140M

Your payroll is 0.21% over budget

[whosafraidofluigirussolo]

Interesting ideas here.

Obviously we're all just guessing, not only at what the Twins actually will do but at their internal evaluations of most of these players. With that said, I've seen several of these blueprints (not just this one) where Nick Gordon seems to be the main or only infield option on the bench. The Twins were willing to use him sparingly as an emergency SS, but I'm not sure they see him as primarily an infielder any more.

Do you think Corey Dickerson is a significant upgrade over Larnach or Kepler to start in an outfield corner? Especially when he bats from the same side and also doesn't really play CF?
(Side note: I had to look him up on Baseball Reference, and noticed that before 2008 there hadn't been a Dickerson in pro ball since 1917, but since 2008 there have been three.)

[Game7-91]

Welcome to the TD ship WhenWillWeBeatNY. Hope you enjoy the trip, though you may need a dramamine from time to time keeping up with the corny jokes and bad metaphors. All in a days work at TD....

Liking your positivity about Twins' flexibility right now....if nothing else, it will be an exciting winter for a change, and hopefully, an active one for the Twins.

Interesting take on the roster choices.  Love the Bassitt addition. He's Berrios before Toronto: Reliable, Durable, solid numbers, not always great, but always there, takes the ball every turn and can shut down anybody on any day. I think the competition will be high for him. If Twins could snag him that would be a great get.

 

 

[WhenWillWeBeatNY]

1 hour ago, whosafraidofluigirussolo said:

Interesting ideas here.

Obviously we're all just guessing, not only at what the Twins actually will do but at their internal evaluations of most of these players. With that said, I've seen several of these blueprints (not just this one) where Nick Gordon seems to be the main or only infield option on the bench. The Twins were willing to use him sparingly as an emergency SS, but I'm not sure they see him as primarily an infielder any more.

Do you think Corey Dickerson is a significant upgrade over Larnach or Kepler to start in an outfield corner? Especially when he bats from the same side and also doesn't really play CF?
(Side note: I had to look him up on Baseball Reference, and noticed that before 2008 there hadn't been a Dickerson in pro ball since 1917, but since 2008 there have been three.)

I agree with you that Gordon will mainly be a OF utility. I don’t think we need to acquire any IF utility however because Arraez/Miranda can play anywhere in the IF except for SS. In the case that our SS goes down then we can just have Polanco as a temporary SS. 
 

As for the Dickerson signing I do believe he is an upgrade over Kepler and Larnach but only slightly. Dickerson is more proven and has had many solid years. While he can’t play CF Kepler or Gordon can take the roles in case/when Buxton gets hurt. The main thing for me that this signing does is just provide options in case of injuries, options for when players underperform, and makes other players available to trade. The biggest downside to this signing is like you said Dickerson may not be much of an improvement especially if Larnach lives up to potential or Kepler returns to 2019 form. The other downside is blocking play for prospects. Gordon played very well last year and I know he is utility but I almost want to give him a starting role. And Larnach and Kepler are right there too.