Ranking the Top 3 Twins Offseason Mistakes

Sano has got to go figure it out somewhere else. Except for a homer every 25 at bats he strikes out like a pitcher. Wasted spot in the lineup.

Shoemaker – I did not think much of the Shoemaker signing either but IMO a $2M SP that was signed as back of the rotation or depth is not exactly a big miss. Signing Jake Arrieta for 3/75 to be a difference maker and getting 3.6 WAR total over 3 years is a big problem.  Signing Jordan Zimmerman for 5/110 and getting 5.2 WAR over 5 years is a costly mistake.  Kenley Jansen and Wade Davis were costly mistakes.  A 1 year deal for $2M SP is not a big deal unless you have plenty of payroll capacity and fail to use it.

Colome was a quality addition.  Like the majority of established / expensive RPs, he has not performed as hoped.  Given the option, I would definitely go back in time and sign May instead of Colome if May was willing.  He seems to like the big city. Robles has also been effective in the past too.  Let’s not forget the guy many wanted us to keep (Clippard) has been bad.  Rosenthal is out.  Several posters wanted Brad Hand.  He has negative Fwar.  Treinen has been OK.  His Fwar is .3.  The point is that RPs are a roll of the dice.

I think some grace is warranted regarding the bullpen. As this article points out, none of the guys who left the Twins have subsequently made them look foolish. Finding consistent relief pitching is just about the hardest task in baseball, and the Twins signed a guy who was one of the few with such a track record, only for him to completely implode.

I agree with the Top 3, but if I were to add a 4th it might be the hiring of Edgar Varela as hitting coach.  Maybe Rowson benefited from a livelier ball and all, but this team's approach and results at the plate has been attrocious for most of the season.

For a FO that is supposedly pitcher savy they sure seemed to make a lot of mistakes with their off-season pitching moves Their approach seems to be to sign a slew of has-been's and hope that one or two turn out to be keepers. It is not easy making silk out of a sow's ears and you will fail more times than you succeed. Maybe a better approach is to spend some money and sign some proven talent and hope that works out better. But what do I know? I don't have a degree from one of those fancy eastern schools.

I think it goes back to committing so much of the budget to the lineup with the signing of Donaldson. It put them in the position to roll the dice with Hill, Bailey, Happ and Shoemaker in the rotation as well as the bullpen pieces you cited.

They could have kept Sano at 3B and went with an inexpensive 1B in order to put more of the budget into a pitcher or two with a greater likelihood of success. Did they have too much confidence in their ability to identify pitching?

regarding the bullpen it seems like they felt they had an ample supply of arms that they could turn into something.  They had already done it with Harper and Wisler and they doubled\tripled down on it this year and the results have been horrible.  While they managed to get some of those guys to throw harder they also couldn't find the plate and walked way too many batters.  Even the guys they squeezed stuff out of in Harper and Wisler aren't doing well anymore so some of that was luck IMO.  I do think they were over confident that they could identify things that could make pitchers better and it didn't work out this year.  Still bullpens are fickle and they needed more than they have gotten out of the one they built this year.

Like many have said I didn't mind the Shoemaker signing.  I didn't expect him to be great but also didn't expect him to be one of the worst pitcher's in baseball either.

I sure hope some of the guys we have coming up are going to be good or we are going to be a bad team for a long time.

I think a mistake was made in not redirecting some batting approaches  and I don't know if that means to jettison some players or a different hitting coach.  Also to not have a non-Jake Cave CF option for the impending Buxton injury has been an annual oversight.  

I thought the mistake was anointing Colome closer early on.  Having an option to spell Rogers was a solid plan but wasn't utilized as Rogers was throwing 7th innings and Colome started blowing games without any options left and Rogers potentially spent for the next day.

I think the biggest mistakes the Twins made in the off-season was 1- Letting Rosario walk- The Twins have little offense and Eddie provided a spark. 2- Not keeping Rich Hill- Replacing Hill with Happ could be a wash except that Hill has always been a good pitcher while Happ has been up and down. 3- Not signing a solid middle reliever to take May's place. Ok, they signed Colombe and he has bombed to this time but will be better from here on out (though not as a closer). They also got Robles as a "project" and he has been ok. But they didn't sign an Archie Bradley or similar who has done the job successfully. and their relievers don't strike people out which is what you need in this day and age. Signing Shoemaker was a gamble that hasn't worked though I still insist that he can be a 2-3 inning long reliever when the starter just doesn't have it that day.

But injuries have hurt as well and replacements haven't been as good as advertised. So we look ahead to ????

Trevor May was settling in. He should have been kept. Steady relievers are as rare as a rainy day in Southern California. ? Pressly should have been kept for the same reasoning. Keep them and pay them. Clippard would have been worth the wait as well [first time he has been on the DL...in a very consistent career].

Rogers is a keeper, Duffy is a keeper. They have more and longer good stretches than bad. Robles is a wait-n-see.

Keep these and bring in young fireballers around them to test their metal. They pitch half your innings!!!! All Pohlad does is pick BP pitchers out of the scrap heap. That will not work.....unless you hit 300+ HRs and have large leads.

44 minutes ago, twinfan said:

I think the biggest mistakes the Twins made in the off-season was 1- Letting Rosario walk- The Twins have little offense and Eddie provided a spark. 2- Not keeping Rich Hill- Replacing Hill with Happ could be a wash except that Hill has always been a good pitcher while Happ has been up and down. 3- Not signing a solid middle reliever to take May's place. Ok, they signed Colombe and he has bombed to this time but will be better from here on out (though not as a closer). They also got Robles as a "project" and he has been ok. But they didn't sign an Archie Bradley or similar who has done the job successfully. and their relievers don't strike people out which is what you need in this day and age. Signing Shoemaker was a gamble that hasn't worked though I still insist that he can be a 2-3 inning long reliever when the starter just doesn't have it that day.

But injuries have hurt as well and replacements haven't been as good as advertised. So we look ahead to ????

Yeah, we're not missing Rosario's .635 OPS / 75 OPS+ / subpar OF defense, he's basically Astudillo at the plate (they both have 4 HRs!) but he gets plenty more RBI chances since he hits in the #4 spot. I am happy with Kirilloff and Larnach getting full reps in LF/RF.

Hill is old and always hurt, so I really can't blame them for letting him go. Of course, then they went out and signed Shoemaker, who is also old and always hurt...

14 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

I think it goes back to committing so much of the budget to the lineup with the signing of Donaldson. It put them in the position to roll the dice with Hill, Bailey, Happ and Shoemaker in the rotation as well as the bullpen pieces you cited.

They could have kept Sano at 3B and went with an inexpensive 1B in order to put more of the budget into a pitcher or two with a greater likelihood of success. Did they have too much confidence in their ability to identify pitching?

I have to agree about Donaldson. I wanted the Donaldson signing but I feel underwhelmed so far. He'll give you a good ab each pa & seems to square the ball up but the results just aren't there.

The pitching would look a lot better if the lads were scoring five runs a game. When you leave 10 LOB every night, there is naturally more pressure on the relievers.

This FO appears to have 2 thought processes when it comes to putting a roster together.  Sign free agents as stop gaps, and trade for and draft prospects, hoping to develop a major league roster in the future.   I have never understood why trading major league talent for major league talent is SO 20th century.  If the Graterol trade did nothing else, it reminds us of the days when a team would look to improve through trades (and I don't mean trading away salaries for prospects, improving the team someday).  Counting the players on the IL, we have 7 outfielders, 4 catchers (if you count the turtle). and at least 4 or 5 guys who have played first base at one time or another and DH'd at one time or another.  We can't find a single team in major league baseball that would be open to a multiplayer trade, filling potential needs on both sides?  Why is it always being buyers or sellers?  How about mutual winners in a trade?  Or is that showing my age?