Twins Have to Do Something About the Bullpen

Right.

I know the Twins were interested in Madson, but he wants to be paid nire ir he is willing to retire. Adam Warren or Nick Vincent are probably our next targets.

Falvine obviously thinks Duda and Cron will allow us to survive with mediocrity in the pen?

They moved Romero to the pen and picked up Blake Parker.   They have a number of extra arms ready to come to MLB if needed and worthy (Gonsalves, Stewart for example).    This is NOT the year to go get a Fernando Rodney or Matt Belisle - type..  Let's see what this staff can do.  We can bolster the pen and other parts of the team if the team proves itself worthy during the season.    Add at the deadline if appropriate; otherwise run with what we have!

Meh. Signing the "veteran presence" does nothing for me. If the Twins are going to add to the bullpen, it needs to be at the top end.

There's 5 guys on this squad that have at least 2 years experience in the bullpen, Parker has been a closer, Reed has loads of experience...I think I'd prefer to go with this approach where we can actually move guys up and down from the minors as needed as opposed to adding a veteran who we might be stuck with regardless of performance. We're already looking at a tiny bench for position players and I don't want to waste one on a garbage bullpen guy.

Now, if we can get a deal with someone like Kimbrel? I'm interested, because that's an elite track record. But I can understand going, "oh hell, he's going to break down faster than addison reed did to us last year".

(I do think Reed is likely to bounce back very nicely for us, though.)

"There was a time when giving some fresh faces looks in relief would have made sense, but that seems like a poor plan to open a season in which you hope to compete."

I might entertain some glimmer of hope that they add another arm if this team had acted in way that signaled their intention was to compete this season. Honestly, there was ample time, money, and opportunity to improve the roster, and they passed.

We're a couple days away from the start of ST games, at this point I think we have to accept that this is very likely the roster moving forward. Hopefully I'm wrong, but if there's serious interest in Madsen, Warren, or Vincent I'm not sure how a deal isn't done at this point. Not that I'm particularly high on any of that trio, but what's the hold up? They found 4M for a bad back end starter in Perez.... 

It makes way, way too much sense to sign Kimbrel. The money and need line up perfectly and I find it frustrating that there hasn't even been a connection between the team and him. Hopefully they're meeting in a parking ramp late at night and no one knows.

In answer to your question, why?

We have no idea how the coaching staff intends to use this bullpen.  Will they be using Romero and Mejia in extended outings every 3-4 days, pitching 2, 3 or even 4 innings?  If they do, that changes the work load on the other 5-6 guys in the pen.  It also means that the other top relievers will not be overworked like the past few years, thus, more effective throughout the season.

Lets get into spring training and see how these guys are used and how they are doing before raising the surrender flag.  Maybe Reed and Parker will be exactly what they expect them to be and the bullpen will be a strength. 

It seems like it would be more productive to add talent in the offseason and subtract it at the deadline in exchange for future assets if it doesn't work out, rather than sit idle in the offseason and try to add at the deadline when teams have you over a barrel and you've put yourself a few games behind where you could otherwise be.

We added Romero and Parker. May and Mejia only gave us 25 innings each last season. Looks to me like we have added a lot already.

Too many members confuse free agency with Christmas. Also, Reed being comeback player of the year is a lock.

Wow - the Ten Forgotten Free Agents says Carlos Gomez is available.   Bring back Go go, but don't put him in the pen.

Kimbrel would be amazing. offer whatever it takes.

Worst case: we sell him off at the deadline because we are out of it. Multiple teams would give up excellent prospects for Kimbrel to enhance their post season push. Like, multiple top-100 guys. 

Best case...we finally have an elite closer and make our own post season push. 

Don't see it happening. But would be amazing. 

The ONLY one to get is Kimbrel. Sure, he could fall off the earth and become horrible. But at least we would have tried instead of just hoped and prayed. Plus, we really don't have a mountain man beard on the team yet - or did he shave to start the new year?

I am so tired of the crap that other teams don't even want anymore, but this FO sees as ready to fix. Until they get a couple of successful reclaimation projects under their belt, why does one think this staff can be the saviors? Last year, they did just the opposite. Took a consistent Reed, and he totally tanked. Same with Lynn. 

Kimbrel. Kimbrel. KIMBREL. KIMBREL!

And then get Marwin Gonzalez. I can't believe he is still available.

I agree that adding quality would be nice. I don't care how many career innings that quality has thrown, though.

This isn't a bullpen that will scare opposing teams, that's for sure.

c'est la vie.  All of us would have done this differently during the offseason.

I wonder if a 4 year $64 million contract with an opt out after year 2 would be enough to get Kimbrel.

I hate to say it, but this BP is may be a dumpster fire waiting for lighter fluid and a match. Rocco may find himself on the horns of the same dilemma Molitor had - not enough Starting pitching to go more than 5-6 innings a game and not enough Relief pitching to cover 3-4 innings game after game. Molitor handled it by overusing RPs. That didn't work because the overused guys got tired or hurt and the others didn't develop. To paraphrase Einstein - Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. Can't do it the Molitor way again.

 

So, we gotta try something different. It sure would've been nice to get some better RPs in or starters who can go longer, but we have what we have. So, I expect to see May, Rogers, Romero, Reed, Parker and Hildenberger to get a lot of high leverage innings. Also maybe Magill or Vasquez, Duffy (kill me) and even Mejia, Moya or Reed. The last few innings of a close Twins game are going to be entertaining for all of the wrong reasons. Let the roller coaster ride begin!

If Baldelli goes into the season with relatively equal confidence in May, Romero, Reed, Rogers, Parker and Hildenberger there is little chance they get overworked unless the starters consistently fail to get out of the 5th inning.

The ONLY one to get is Kimbrel. Sure, he could fall off the earth and become horrible. But at least we would have tried instead of just hoped and prayed. Plus, we really don't have a mountain man beard on the team yet - or did he shave to start the new year?

 

I am so tired of the crap that other teams don't even want anymore, but this FO sees as ready to fix. Until they get a couple of successful reclaimation projects under their belt, why does one think this staff can be the saviors? Last year, they did just the opposite. Took a consistent Reed, and he totally tanked. Same with Lynn. 

 

Kimbrel. Kimbrel. KIMBREL. KIMBREL!

 

And then get Marwin Gonzalez. I can't believe he is still available.

No. He should be banned from baseball just for that ridiculous Karate Kid thing he does.