Twins Request Final Offers For Dozier

I can agree that more pieces lessen the chance of an unmitigated disaster of a deal, with this caveat. There will be a sum total of the parts, and that total can be reached via quantity, or quality. In this case specifically I would want quality. We have a whole lot of SP quantity on hand. Assuming DeLeon is the core piece, and assuming his ceiling is as advertised, then he really becomes my benchmark. And to add one last assumption, I cannot believe they would actually consider trading two top end arms for BD. Meaning anything else is lottery ticket fodder. So the answer is, if they diddle around with DeLeon as a trade piece I would walk. As stated, I am not interested in numbers or position players for Dozier. The Twins are in an unfortunately unique position. Lots of SP, with an almost comic level of incompetence. And this is not a one year history of said incompetence. It's become status quo. Without SP, 8 Doziers will still not a contender make!

Oh, I don't think we are really so far off in disagreement here. I have always stated we needed pitching and Dozier is the chip to get it. And I, too, want quality over quantity ... but I think there are differing opinions and approaches to what quality gained = what quality lost and finding that right balance that actually does good for us in the future. Yeah, it's all a crap shoot no matter what direction you go, but we could do worse damage to our future, imo, if it's not the right deal, risk or no risk.

The Twins can't come out of the Dozier trade with 1 pitching prospect. It would be a complete disaster. Adam Eaton is a heck of a defender in RF and a solid lead off hitter with a team friendly contract for 5 years. His contract length and affordability got the White Sox an extra prospect. Eaton is not a good defender in CF, which is where the Nats are apparently planning on playing him. That drastically decreases his value. The Sox got the Nats 3 best pitching prospects (or at least 3 of their top 4). 2 of which will be pitching in the majors this season.

If the Twins were to bring back simply De Leon it would be a complete failure on the part of the front office. Giolito is (or was depending on who you talk to) the top pitching prospect in baseball last year. Lopez and De Leon are ranked very similar to each other. Dunning was a first round pick this year. I don't care how nice Eaton's contract is, he is not worth that much more than Dozier.

The difference is how desperate the Nats were. Their timetable is 2 years and they know it. They have the money to spend on big free agents, but that doesn't mean they just have an eternally open window to win. They had a hole, felt desperate to fill it and gave up what the White Sox wanted. To this point the Dodgers don't feel that desperate. It's a risk to keep Dozier into the season as he could start off horribly or De Leon could take a step forward and start out super well. It's a risk worth taking. Trading Dozier straight up for 1 prospect is not getting value for him. It's getting the most you can right now, but it is an incredibly poor use of your resources.

The Twins have seemed to do everything they can to make it appear that there is some sort of bidding war and more teams interested in Dozier. The Dodgers didn't fall for it. Friedman is too smart to bid against himself. Putting the stories in the media is to get it on the owners radar. The Twins can't trick Friedman into giving up more, but they can convince Dodgers ownership that Utley playing second will ruin their chance to win a title. Convincing ownership that their window is closing and Dozier is the key to taking advantage of their current window is how you get more in this deal. Once ownership feels this is a deal they need to get done they call their employee, Mr. Friedman, and tell him to quit messing around and do what it takes to get this last piece in place. The Twins are playing this as well as they can and hopefully it turns out well for them. But trading him straight up for a prospect (and that's all De Leon is) just because that's all that's available is not a good decision.

You are completely not understanding. The best way to tell the Dodgers that you are going to walk away if they don't adjust the offer soon is to pick up the phone and tell them directly. You don't toss the story to your beat reporter and walk away. This is bad business and a n00b action. The likelihood of this working out in the Twins favor is near zero. If a deal gets done it will be in spite of this behavior, not because of it. And future GMs aren't going to want to do business with the Twins if they are going to cry to the media if a deal isn't going in their favor.

 

Note that baseball has very strong rules about leaking negotiations for players to the press. If the Dodgers are feeling particularly snarky they could file a grievance with the commissioner.

 

Whoever is negotiating this on behalf of the Twins has clearly never negotiated before. This move smacks of desperation and shows that they really want to move Dozier and the Dodgers are holding all the cards, in spite of them saying the opposite to their on staff beat reporter.

 

I don't think that's an inference you can make from the article one way or the other.

You are completely not understanding. The best way to tell the Dodgers that you are going to walk away if they don't adjust the offer soon is to pick up the phone and tell them directly. You don't toss the story to your beat reporter and walk away. This is bad business and a n00b action. The likelihood of this working out in the Twins favor is near zero. If a deal gets done it will be in spite of this behavior, not because of it. And future GMs aren't going to want to do business with the Twins if they are going to cry to the media if a deal isn't going in their favor.

 

Note that baseball has very strong rules about leaking negotiations for players to the press. If the Dodgers are feeling particularly snarky they could file a grievance with the commissioner.

 

Whoever is negotiating this on behalf of the Twins has clearly never negotiated before. This move smacks of desperation and shows that they really want to move Dozier and the Dodgers are holding all the cards, in spite of them saying the opposite to their on staff beat reporter. 

Your point makes sense if you're correct with how it all went down. Who says it was even the Twins that released this? Is it completely impossible that the Dodgers called this reporter? It's more likely that it came from the Twins, but not the only possibility. And my guess would be that the Twins told the Dodgers and every other team they've talked with that this is their deadline. Probably days before this story even came out. To assume you know what's actually happening behind the scenes is pretty presumptive of you. It's a new front office who has no real track record of negotiating with teams. Having it known publicly that they wouldn't be pushed around and forced to take a crap trade is not a bad thing. If they get fleeced on their first big trade the entire league will look at them as a team that can be taken advantage of. This all would have been way better had the Dodgers thrown 2 top 7 prospects at them right away and the deal was done in a flash, but that's not how it went. The teams are playing a game of chicken now and having the rest of the league know that we didn't just cave and give in because the big, bad Dodgers told us to is not bad. In this day and age everything is made public. The "deadline" being made public is not a huge deal.

LEN3 published it He does not work for the Dodgers. 

No, he works for the Minneapolis Start Tribune. Bet it wouldn't be too hard to get in contact with him (in fact his email address is lneal@startribune.com if you wanna give him some info). My point is that 1. you have no idea how it went down behind the scenes 2. in this day and age everything is made public so it's not surprising this was 3. I disagree that it's bad that it's been made public that the Twins won't just take whatever trade you put in front of them.

If it's an "implication" as you say, then no, it's not my "words", but nice try. No where did I state the the Twins did not make this ultimatum to the Dodgers directly. I have been absolutely clear that I am talking about the leak to the press. Regardless of the discussion with the Dodgers, a leak to the press is unjustified.

 

"LOOOOL"

And everyone, please stop the 'LOL-ing' at each other.

You're still missing the point.  How it went down behind the scenes is 100% irrelevant. I am 100% talking about an ultimatum from the Twins going to the press.

Ok then I think you're completely wrong about the entire thing. You really think other teams care that this report came out? They don't. The report is simply stating that the Twins won't leave Brian Dozier and the rest of their roster in limbo forever. They didn't say they'll never reopen negotiations. They have a season to prepare for and having this situation hanging over their head all offseason is bad for their team. I think you're overestimating what media reports mean to teams. Again, in this day and age everything is made public. All this report says is that the Twins need to move on from this situation and need to know what their team will look like moving into the season. If a team wants to get Dozier they can put their best deal on the table. If it isn't what they want they'll tell everyone "Thanks for the offer, but we're moving forward as is. If you want to offer us something better than this at a later date you have our number." This report is not an ultimatum as there will be no repercussions or a change in their relationship. It's way less aggressive than you seem to think it is. This will have absolutely 0 effect on any later negotiations with the Dodgers or any other organization.

I still have a flip phone! What do all those extra O's mean between the L's?

Geez ... showing your age a bit, aren't you?