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Over the past three months, Derek Falvey’s staff in Twins Baseball Operations has remained busy. They’ve been crunching numbers, reading and inputting scouting reports, signing minor league free agents, and all the while planning for this day, the day baseball would be back, and the offseason could continue.
The only thing is… it is beginning as spring training is about to start. Sunday is the mandatory report date for 40-man roster players. Next Friday is, at least tentatively, the first scheduled spring training game. And, Opening Day (April 7) is less than a month away.
As soon as the owners ratified the new CBA, baseball was back in business. Thankfully, Falvey was willing to take some time to answer questions for Twins media. He notes that they have been following the negotiations closely, especially the past few days.
Falvey said, “Obviously, over the last couple of days, following closely with the information and the news that was coming out and feeling like things were getting closer, it’s just great for our group. We’re all here. We’re in the office. Once we knew everything was good, we ordered in food and said, ‘We might be here awhile.’”
We haven’t seen free agency like this in baseball before, except to some degree right before the lockout. With about 300 free agents still unsigned, this has the potential to look a lot like NFL and NBA free agency over the coming days. It’s not something any of the front offices have navigated before, but Falvey and his team are ready for it.
“A lot of groundwork was laid before the lockout with players, with agents, with front offices around trades, so I would just tell you we’re picking up really where we left off. Now I recognize during that period of time, things may have changed for individual players, for teams, and their plans, so we’ve already done our dividing up of clubs among a bunch of us and making sure that we’re checking back in tonight to know where things stand with those teams. It’s going to be difficult. I’m not going to sugarcoat that.”
Falvey said that his first call after news broke of an agreement went to Twins player representative Taylor Rogers. “He and I talked a ton going up and into the lockout and all the COVID protocols and everything else we had to navigate over the last couple of years. We had an awesome conversation. He’s excited to get here. He said he’s talked to a bunch of guys that feel the same.”
While Rogers appears to be fully recovered from his finger injury that cost him the final two months of the 2021 season, he is just one pitcher. Last year, the Twins used 35 pitchers. So there is work to be done.
Regarding pitching, Falvey said, "I think we made no secret that's a focus and an area we need to spend some time and we're going to. We've talked about trade market and free-agent market. We're excited about some of the young guys that are coming. I think we look at our stable of young pitchers who have been in our camp. I've been watching Simeon Woods Richardson the last week, the way he's throwing the ball. Matt Canterino is healthy and throwing the ball as well as anybody. We're excited about the young guys on our roster that we haven't yet seen, the Josh Winders and Jhoan Durans and Jordan Balazovics, guys we think are going to be another part to join the Joe Ryans and Bailey Obers and that group. But we know we need some veteran presence too so that's going to be a focus of us here. We're going to contact as many teams and agents as possible to work that market."
The other "area of focus" for the front office is shortstop. Falvey said that Jorge Polanco could play there, and that Luis Arraez can play around the infield. He also mentioned some younger players. "Some of our young players who aren't quite at the major league level yet but could be really interesting fits for us along the way. And whether that's the Nick Gordons of the world who haven't had as much experience. [Jermaine] Palacios has been in camp here and watching him go. We're excited to see Royce [Lewis] come in, though we recognize he's had a lot of downtime here with his injury. So I can't answer that today perfectly that we're going to seek to see what the market might bear in that space."
The players will start reporting this morning (Friday, March 10), at least the players who live nearby Ft. Myers. They will have physicals and a short workout in the late morning. The mandatory report date will be Sunday, March 13.
It will not be an easy task in some cases, especially for players from other countries. But, the Twins have been preparing for this day for a while.
Falvey noted, “We did all we could before the lockout, knowing that could become an issue at some point during the winter so that agents, players knew what their status was, what the situation was. Certainly players under control with us. We got ahead of that as much as we could. We’re hoping now that we can accelerate that process. Amanda Daley does a great job for us, making sure that all the details are taken care of in that space. I would anticipate that with 30 clubs trying to navigate some of these travel visas and work visas in the Dominican or Venezuela, places where a lot of our players come from, it can be a challenge.”
Tentatively, the first spring training games will be played next Friday, March 18th. That will be after just four full-team practices. To help with that, the team will soon be announcing a group of non-roster invitations to big-league spring training. And, as they have always done, they can pull guys over from the minor league side to play in games.
Because teams have been able to have zero contact with any of the 40-man roster players, there was some anxiety, hoping players such as Royce Lewis and Blayne Enlow were rehabbing appropriately.
Falvey said, “We want to get those guys going. Obviously, in Royce’s case, losing the minor-league season was difficult because that’s just lost development time. He was at the alternate site (in 2020). He used that time really productively. He’s been in the Fall League (2019). Had some of those experiences. But ultimately losing last season due to his ACL reconstruction, it’s difficult.”
Regarding Lewis and right-handed pitcher Blayne Enlow, working his way back from Tommy John surgery last June. The Twins prepared them before the lockout began for this time away. Falvey said, “our medical people did a really good job, and so did our folks in strength and conditioning and rehab side of things, and position coaches talked to him about how they would want to navigate his offseasons, whether this happened or not.”
He noted that Enlow would be a little bit behind the timeline. That was known. As for Royce, they know he works with his agency (Scott Boras) to “prep and get himself ready. He’s a tremendous worker, and he’s going to put in his time and efforts, so I’m confident in guys like that have put themselves in good positions.”
Opening Day will be at Target Field on April 7th. It will likely be a sprint for these next four weeks.
Twins President Dave St. Peter said that the fans have been great. “They want to see games. The volume of concern went up exponentially when you started to cancel regular-season games. So the last ten days, I will tell you, we heard from a lot of fans. We’ve been trying to actively engage with them and try to assure them that there was still a path to play a full 162 games, and I’m just absolutely thrilled today that that vision ultimately is going to be possible. I wasn’t always sure it would be.”
Ultimately, the Twins will miss a couple of weeks of spring training, and the season will start one week late, but there will be a 162-game season and a lot of the
Ultimate this deal will hopefully help grow the game, and there can be extended peace again between the owners and the players as there had been for nearly 30 years.
St. Peter thinks that it’s time to heal and move forward. “It’s paramount that we as an industry do a better job of building trust with our players. There are so many exciting things happening in baseball. For those things to ultimately transcend the game, for us to ultimately move the game forward to where it’s incrementally more relevant amongst young people, where it’s more relevant around the globe — for us to really achieve those goals, we’re going to need incremental alignment with our players. And I hope this agreement allows us to move forward in a way to where we can be better aligned and in partnership. That’s ultimately in the best interests of the players, and it’s certainly in the best interests of the industry.”
A challenge for Twins fans will be to move forward too. Ultimately, we will get a 162 game schedule, more playoffs, and more. It will be an interesting and exciting time over the next few days, and the Twins should be active, not only through the weekend but right up to the season.
Twins Daily has provided anywhere from three to seven articles every day since the lockout began (and obviously before that). We sure hope that we have kept you entertained, enlightened, and updated. Thank you all so much for sticking by the site, and we sure hope that we will celebrate a winning season in 2022.
Oh, by the way, Friday is the first day that teams can place players on the 60-Day Injured List. It’s also the first day that players can be placed on waivers. We should get a list of non-roster players soon too.
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