Non-Tender Tracker: Avisail, Schoop Among Those to Become Free Agents

Garcia...hmmmm?

Hamilton reminds me of Buxton.  Lots of speed in CF, but no bat.  At least Hamilton stole bases.  Could this be a wake-up for Byron?  I hope the new coaches get to him before he becomes a future non-tender.

What's your favorite Robby G Moment..per Dan Hayes

Cron comes in under the MLBTR prediction....making the add look better each minute $400k in the bank of Pohlad

Looks like the Twins kept Grossman until they signed Cron to a lesser than projected amount.  I wonder if the Twins told Cron if he didn't sign they would non-tender him and sign Grossman.  and because Cron signed Grossman gets let go.  

 

I will say i was for keeping him one more season.  We don't have a lot of on base threats in our lineup as is.  

 

Looks like the Twins kept Grossman until they signed Cron to a lesser than projected amount.  I wonder if the Twins told Cron if he didn't sign they would non-tender him and sign Grossman.  and because Cron signed Grossman gets let go.  

 

I will say i was for keeping him one more season.  We don't have a lot of on base threats in our lineup as is.  

I was thinking the same thing...punching bag that he's become, I can see us pining nostalgically next year for Grossman's 360-370 OBP. The Twins OBP last year was 318. It seems scary to contemplate it going lower. Then again, the astonishing thing to me is that 318 was actually middle of the 2018 AL pack.  And next year, it will probably be top half. It's the Apocalypse. You don't have to go back many years at all (10-15) to find a 318 team OBP being the worse in the league...by a wide margin.

Got to be honest, I'm intrigued by School a little bit. Not a bad career. If you really felt you'd get close to the 2016-2017 version you'd jump on him.

 

Also really interested in Solarte as a versatility utility guy. Escobar-lite/like with the bat and tons of experience at 2B and 3B with time at SS and the OF. He could make a really nice bench player with starting experience.

I like some of the options that have been non-tendered - I think there are a few bullpen arms that could be scooped up for a decent price - Blake Parker, Hunter Strickland, and Alex Wilson would be nice complementary options.

Jonathan Schoop should be a guy we look at for 2nd base. Plays good defense and has had a good bat with power. I think a guy like Matt Shoemaker remind me of a guy like Joe Nathan. Has had some success but can’t stay healthy as a starter. Move him to the bullpen let him throw hard for 1 inning and not worry about setting up hitters.

I also think Schoop is an intriguing "bounce back" candidate to fill our second base vacancy, and one with some power too. I also think Matt Bush could be a good bullpen addition, and even a healthy Shelby Miller might be someone to look at. But those guys the White Sox are getting rid of ... not that interested.

The market for FA was depressed last season and has seemed slow to get cranked up this year. Also, seems like a few of these non tender moves were very much cost related. This all bodes well for our Twins.

 

We need to make a couple serious moves. But taking on a couple of the guys here would not be "dumpster diving". They would just be wise moves.

There's a lot of interesting stuff going on this year.

 

Fortunately or not, this will help the Twins "let's not go crazy with the spending" plan.

I'm not a fan of Schoop. His 2017 season is starting to look like a fluke year to me; just not seeing him put up another BABIP of .330, which was driving some of that. I think he'll bounce back and be a decent power bat at 2B, but his ceiling looks like a 2-2.5 WAR player. I suspect his true value is the 2015-2016 version, not 2017. The low OBP is not what this team needs right now, that's for sure.

 

 

.330 BABIP isn't too far out of line. I don't see that number as a red flag.

 

But yes, the team needs some OBP guys now... not that Molitor ever used OBP guys properly anyway... maybe the new guy will.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Doomtints

I'm not a fan of Schoop. His 2017 season is starting to look like a fluke year to me; just not seeing him put up another BABIP of .330, which was driving some of that. I think he'll bounce back and be a decent power bat at 2B, but his ceiling looks like a 2-2.5 WAR player. I suspect his true value is the 2015-2016 version, not 2017. The low OBP is not what this team needs right now, that's for sure.

Were I the Twins, I'd be all in on Gonzalez to play 2B full time, knowing I can move him around if needed. My second choice would be Lowrie, banking on a drop in power, but still providing a quality bat, defense, leadership, etc, and the versatility to play 3B if needed. But Schoop is a fallback guy I'd strongly consider. I wouldn't expect his 2017 season, but his combined OPS for 2015-16 was .770 with solid overall numbers. That can't be dismissed easily.

 

.330 BABIP isn't too far out of line. I don't see that number as a red flag.

 

But yes, the team needs some OBP guys now... not that Molitor ever used OBP guys properly anyway... maybe the new guy will.

Schoop's BABIP in full MLB seasons (at least 135 games): .249, .305, .330, .261  The .330 feels like the flukiest of these. (admittedly, he put up a .329 once as well, but it was also the season he only played 86 games...)

 

I just don't think he's a guy who can sustain a high BABIP and it leaves him vulnerable. JMO. Kinda feel like a reunion with Dozier is a better idea than Schoop.

Schoop's BABIP in full MLB seasons (at least 135 games): .249, .305, .330, .261  The .330 feels like the flukiest of these. (admittedly, he put up a .329 once as well, but it was also the season he only played 86 games...)

 

I just don't think he's a guy who can sustain a high BABIP and it leaves him vulnerable. JMO. Kinda feel like a reunion with Dozier is a better idea than Schoop.

 

Schoop's BABIP in full MLB seasons (at least 135 games): .249, .305, .330, .261  The .330 feels like the flukiest of these. (admittedly, he put up a .329 once as well, but it was also the season he only played 86 games...)

 

I just don't think he's a guy who can sustain a high BABIP and it leaves him vulnerable. JMO. Kinda feel like a reunion with Dozier is a better idea than Schoop.

Your assessment of Schoop is probably accurate, And as much as I was happy to see Dozier get traded to another team, having him back for another year wouldn't be the worst scenario. As you noted, he's most likely put up better numbers than Schoop and most of the players are already familiar with his style of play. So many potential second base targets this year, I'm not sure what the best move would be?

Edited December 2, 2018 by Doctor Wu

Sign Hamilton, two man outfield, shift the whole league to death.

Sign Hamilton, two man outfield, shift the whole league to death.

You might be tongue in cheek here, but I’m intrigued. Take someone with a Mauer hitting profile. Stick Rosario behind and deeper than the traditional second baseman position and slide your second baseman over toward the bag for the up the middle shots. First, short, and third don’t move. Then play Buxton in center-right, and Hamilton in left field. How much would Mauer hit then?

 

Edit: I wanted to add that Rosario is your second key (or a Marwin Gonzalez / Zach Cozart type) because he can play the infield, having spent a lot of minors time at second base, plus we know he can slide right back into the outfield too.

Edited December 3, 2018 by 70charger

 

You might be tongue in cheek here, but I’m intrigued. Take someone with a Mauer hitting profile. Stick Rosario behind and deeper than the traditional second baseman position and slide your second baseman over toward the bag for the up the middle shots. First, short, and third don’t move. Then play Buxton in center-right, and Hamilton in left field. How much would Mauer hit then?

Edit: I wanted to add that Rosario is your second key (or a Marwin Gonzalez / Zach Cozart type) because he can play the infield, having spent a lot of minors time at second base, plus we know he can slide right back into the outfield too.

 

I was also thinking of options like this and was coming up with something similar.

 

There's gotta be a software out there that draws a circle around each defender showing the radius they can cover and that can be superimposed upon a hitter's spray chart. It would be fun to play with.

 

Similarly, I wonder if it would make sense to play Hamilton and Buxton in left and right so they could cover foul line to alley and make CF small enough that a slower guy could cover it.

 

Or with Rosario, he could play a very shallow to take away singles and allow the SS and 2B to split wider to shrink the 5.5 and 3.5 holes.

 

(Of course, maybe it would make sense to have Buxton be the shallow guy so that he's farther away from any walls!)

As far as Schoop is concerned, just more evidence that the days of the long term contract should be in the rear view mirror and that includes the Bryce Harpers. Who ever signs him for what he (his agent) thinks he is worth will be more than disappointed.

 

As far as the Twins are concerned, as Tom wrote, "All in all, it was a good day for the Twins. The rest of the division got a little worse on the whole and the free agent pool got a little deeper."

In the Garfield comic strip today, Garfield's owner says, "Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing". To which Garfield replies. "You are preaching to the choir."