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  • Will Minnesota Get Raided This Off-Season?


    Cody Christie

    It can’t be argued that Minnesota is having one of their best seasons in the Target Field era. Rocco Baldelli and his coaching staff have helped to get the most out of their core group of players and have this team on pace for close to 100 wins. For the front office, there could be some blame thrown around for not doing enough at the deadline, but they certainly added enough pieces last off-season to put this club on the winning track.

    Minnesota looks like a team on the rise and this could mean other teams come looking for coaches and front office personnel.

    Image courtesy of © Ben Ludeman-USA TODAY Sports

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    Boston shocked a lot of the baseball world on Sunday as they fired General Manager Dave Dombrowski less than a calendar year after he delivered the team a title. The Red Sox are entering a tumultuous time in their organization and the ownership didn’t feel Dombrowski was the right man for the job. He was hired to do what he did, win the World Series, but it could be time for the franchise to rebuild and he might not fit that mold.

    Besides the Red Sox, there will be plenty of other organizations searching for upgrades in the front office and to their coaching staffs. Every team is looking to gain a step up on other organizations. Here are three names that could be with different organizations this offseason.

    Daniel Adler

    Current Role: Director, Baseball Operations

    Adler took a unique route to his current position with the Twins organization. His professional experience started as an intern in the MLB’s Labor Relations Department where he worked on the CBA including baseball’s compensation system. He spent a couple of years in the private sector before joining the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. With Jacksonville, he headed up a brand-new Football Research and Development Department.

    Baseball organizations are finding some of the best minds in unique ways. Plenty of the game’s operating leadership have degrees from Ivy League universities. Adler holds a Harvard law and business degree. He has spent time in multiple fields and has a way of changing an organization’s system.

    “Finding things yet to be identified is important,” said Adler, “but being able to utilize the things you already know is more important.”

    Jeremy Zoll

    Current Role: Director, Minor League Operations

    Zoll has been on the fast track throughout his professional career as he is the youngest person in his role among all 30 MLB teams. He is in his second year in the Twins organization after he came to the club from the Dodgers organization. With Los Angeles, he served as their Assistant Director of Player Development for multiple seasons. He worked to develop player plans and assisted the Research and Development department.

    "His reputation, even at a less experienced, younger age, of galvanizing staffs and creatively (instituting) development programs for players, really got our attention," said Thad Levine. "He's got the ability to communicate very clearly to the 16-year-old Venezuelan kid or the college senior.”

    "There's a presence about him that probably belies age. But I think the backbone of it really was he had such rave reviews from the senior staffers that he worked with in the past."

    James Rowson

    Current Role: Hitting Coach

    It’s hard to argue with what Rowson has done during his tenure in Minnesota. During his first year on the job, the Twins scored 815 runs and cracked 206 home runs. Both totals were in the franchise’s top four best season before the 2019 campaign and the introduction of the Bomba Squad. It would be hard to list out everything this offense has done this year and Rowson is a key cog in the Twins hitting machine.

    “I think the environment that we’ve created here as an organization allows everybody to feel comfortable in their own skin,” Rowson said. “Each guy is just worried about having the best at-bat they can and there’s nothing holding them down mentally. They’re clear-minded, and that creates good at-bats, and that gets contagious.

    Will all three of these names be back with the Twins next year? Who else do you think could be raided from the Twins this winter? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

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    Yes....I would absolutely like to know what that offer was. Anybody that knows about baseball would say that was a bonehead trade. I live in Arizona and i have seen Escobar become the heart and soul of the Diamondbacks. Just like he was as a Twin. They traded him for NOTHING. I can only see that they did that to dismantle the team chemistry. Well congrats...it worked. Now by doing nothing they are destroying this team as well. Being successful in 2017, and 2019 must have been too soon fir their "long term goals". I can only shake my head. I played the game and you will never convince me that Heart, Chemistry, Teamwork, and Leadership aren't Championship qualities.

    The spin at the time was that he liked it here so much they would trade him, get prospects and then re-sign him. They obviously didn't try very hard considering he took $7 million/year.

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    i absolutely do not expect everyone to agree with me 100% however, i can cite at least 3 specific moves that infuriated me last year. Escobar, Pressly, and Rodney. And in 2017 what was that Jaime Garcia fiasco? Does anyone even remember what we got for our closer at the time Brandon Kintzler? I am more than an average fan and frankly I am not impressed with either of them. I do not begrudge anyone to think they are the reason for any of our successes. I just know better. I realize this is a "pro" ownership site and most of you weren't old enough to enjoy the Championship Seasons or even realize what was really happening. Believe me, if we win another one, it will be because of the players and the manager on the field. Not the owner, the gm, the CEO, or the yes men.If they love it here so much let em stay...maybe some day they could carry Andy McPhails briefcase for him.

    Last championship team McPhail presided over was a long time ago. Something must have fallen out of his briefcase  after 1991. I think it was his blueprint.

    Zach Littell has done more than Ynoa has to this point. So far they came out ahead. That was hardly a fiasco.

    Pressly took the coaching in Houston that he did not here. You can't assume he would have had the same success here if he had not been traded.

    They got a starting pitching prospect for Kintzler that is still in the system and still only 22 plus international bonus money that you will not know if it was well spent for a decade. That was for a rental player as Kintzler was going to be a free agent. Kintzler was a closer by default. He has had 2 saves since being traded from the Twins. What the Twins got in return make this not a bad return for what he is

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    The spin at the time was that he liked it here so much they would trade him, get prospects and then re-sign him. They obviously didn't try very hard considering he took $7 million/year.

    exactly. I would not say they have been failures. I just do not understand how much time is spent here lauding their great accomplishments and jumping through the keyboard at anyone who criticizes one of their head scratching decisions. I am not scared to put them on blast. Let us not forget, neither of them has Ever won a Championship yet either. Maybe this team surprised all of us with their success. A F.O. with the juevos to seize the Window of Opportunity will take it home. The ones that are scared will be watching it on tv. 4 years into the 5 year plan they should be in tune to the here and now, not 2022. I cant wait to hear the excuses for this years outcome. Thank God Derek can blame it on the injuries instead if his damn self.
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    Last championship team McPhail presided over was a long time ago. Something must have fallen out of his briefcase  after 1991. I think it was his blueprint.

    Zach Littell has done more than Ynoa has to this point. So far they came out ahead. That was hardly a fiasco.

    Pressly took the coaching in Houston that he did not here. You can't assume he would have had the same success here if he had not been traded.

    They got a starting pitching prospect for Kintzler that is still in the system and still only 22 plus international bonus money that you will not know if it was well spent for a decade. That was for a rental player as Kintzler was going to be a free agent. Kintzler was a closer by default. He has had 2 saves since being traded from the Twins. What the Twins got in return make this not a bad return for what he is

    why is everyone a rental player because they are a free agent? Last I heard we had something like a 35 million dollar budget surplus. How does that equate to we dump all our decent guys for A and AA players. The word was so we could have prospects to trade when we contend. We are contending. Is every team afraid to deal with us because our FO is so smart. please...with all this accumulated ammunition from the 2018 fire sale where are the returns? I know you cant tell me because they dont exist. Unless you count a 36 year old middle reliever and a broken down pitcher that has been a sorry A$$ Giants fourth option all year. Shame on those Giants for not telling us Dyson's arm was about to fall off. It would have been too much trouble to have him checked out or even look at his analytic trends for the last month. Those sneaky Giants. How dare they trick our boy geniuses like that.
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    why is everyone a rental player because they are a free agent? Last I heard we had something like a 35 million dollar budget surplus. How does that equate to we dump all our decent guys for A and AA players. The word was so we could have prospects to trade when we contend. We are contending. Is every team afraid to deal with us because our FO is so smart. please...with all this accumulated ammunition from the 2018 fire sale where are the returns? I know you cant tell me because they dont exist. Unless you count a 36 year old middle reliever and a broken down pitcher that has been a sorry A$$ Giants fourth option all year. Shame on those Giants for not telling us Dyson's arm was about to fall off. It would have been too much trouble to have him checked out or even look at his analytic trends for the last month. Those sneaky Giants. How dare they trick our boy geniuses like that.

    On rental players. I guess people use the term rental because that seems nicer than calling them one night stands. No long tern commitment . Most rental rental seem to follow the pattern of one night stands.

    r a reference.

    Return on trades. Where did anyone from the front office  say there would be an immediate return on prospects? Your expectation is that.  Many others do, too. Deadline trades for pitchers  to me seem to require a condition. One is a team definitely out of it. The second is a team with a pitcher to trade valuing prospects more than the team wanting starting pitching does.  The Mets do not trade the prospects they do for a couple years of Siemens if they think they will be middle of the rotation starters or better. The other side why would the Jays make the trade if they didn't think one of the players could be that. For the Twins hard to trade for a front of rotation pitcher when so very few teams with one to trade and the front office probably liking the ceiling of their pitchers.

    Dyson and a prospect for a prospect. I don't think anyone care about Dyson. If he worked, great. If it did not work out the cost was minimal

     

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    As to the relative genius status of the front office. Is the team better than it was 4 years ago? Are there more good  prospects in the pipeline added over the last 3 years?  Ok, debatable.  Really won't know for sure for 5-10 years if it is a trend or not. 

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    every front office will make mistakes. The question at hand is whether or not they learn from them and how many they are making relative to other front offices... and I suppose some front office mistakes can be worse than others... The Pressley trade certainly stands out at this point... especially given that the return has been very uninspiring thus far. I'd argue not doing enough to fix pitching has clearly hurt us too. Perhaps they know what Cleveland has done for sucess and want to do this internally and it takes time (the pen has gone from a weakness to a strength)... who knows perhaps starters will too.. but it certainly has hamped a team this year that has legit post season homes.

     

    I don't think Falvey or Levine are going anywhere. I suppose Levine could move into a POBO role or something like that. Some of the coaches (Wes Johnson in particular) could... though I hope we get another year or two out of him before that happens... 

     

    Over all, I think the FO has been much better than it is worse... so as Chief says, this is a good problem to have. I'm not going to complain too much.

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    Rodney opened the 2018 season with Minnesota before being dealt to Oakland in August. Overall, the veteran reliever posted a combined 3.36 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and 9.8 K/9 across 64.1 innings of relief. He also registered 25 saves and seven holds. I usually would not bother with this...The Twins in 2018 were not out of it. The Fernando Rodney Experience netted us 25 saves before the trading deadline. I would have been mad as H E double hockey sticks if i had 2018 season tickets and had to watch 1/3 of the season like a spring training try out session. Contrary to popular belief Willians Astudillo is no Mitch Garver...or Jason Castro. I got all day. Until the game starts. For those of us with 35 plus years of Minnesota Twins fans experience, sorry man. Jack Morris left us too. We arent gonna miss two Cleveland and Texas interns when they leave either. With any luck.

    They were 10 games behind Cleveland and nine games under .500 on August 1st.

     

    That's not out of it?

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    Falvey and Levine are the best thing to happen to this team since it moved here from Washington. Not only are they forming a winning organization, they're developing players within the system that will keep the team strong for years.

     

    Even if the Twins do get raided for some coaches, so be it. F&L will find other good coaches. They have an eye for talent, and a talent for building a good organization. All we need do is sit back and enjoy. Or sit back and complain. That can be fun, too.

    I like what Levine and Falvey have done with some of their off - season signings not getting too overly committed to one guy etc.... However, I'd say its rather rash to say they are the best things to happen to the twins ever. I mean I think they still have a little ways to go to surpass Andy Macphail. Obviously everyone is irritated that they didn't add a better piece or two to the pitching staff at the deadline, however, neither did the Yankees? So maybe with the new deadline this year maybe some teams just weren't that willing to move people. So all of the balme can't be pinned on them either. It's a work in progress, no one will ever be able to be fully evaluated until their tenure is actually over. We can react to this and that in the short term, but long term they could end up being the best ever or the worst ever. We have to wait and see and cheer along the way.

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    The spin at the time was that he liked it here so much they would trade him, get prospects and then re-sign him. They obviously didn't try very hard considering he took $7 million/year.

    I believe I read they did make an offer, which was rejected. The thought was to still comeback. But, hey, if you could play in Arizona or Minnesota...where might you rather play (live). And if a price is met, rather than back-and-forth....you might jsut sign faster. It's a game. Money can be a BIG aprt of it. Negotiating can be a pain (even with agents doing the foot work).

     

    And reagrding free agents as rentals. They are players you spent x-amount to play for the season. If you can get performance from them, and turn around and get something else of value before they "walk": - you might jsut do it.

     

    And also remember that prospects come with a cost. There is a signing bonus, player development time, which is looked at in terms of a transaction. I still am trying to be comfortable with the aspect that people "trade" players like they are dollars and cents, still.

     

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    Falvey and Levine are basically in their first year as far as I am concerned.  They finally were able to choose "their guy" to manage.  The fact that Pohlad HAD TO have Molitor handcuffed them.

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    Falvey and Levine are basically in their first year as far as I am concerned. They finally were able to choose "their guy" to manage. The fact that Pohlad HAD TO have Molitor handcuffed them.

    I think this is a good point.

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    I cannot rip Rocco or Falvey and Levine.  I have some friends who are doing just that and I don't get it

     

    Although I have to say this.....

    Did Rocco pull this lineup out of a hat or something??

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    Falvey and Levine are basically in their first year as far as I am concerned. They finally were able to choose "their guy" to manage. The fact that Pohlad HAD TO have Molitor handcuffed them.

    Their actual first year with Molitor when they went to the playoffs really set back their rebuilding plans. But they did a great job last year to get back on the rebuilding track.

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    Their rebuilding plan didn't include making the playoffs. Then it only included taking a risk when you have a chance to win a Championship. Are the Astros , Yankees, and Red Sox going to have to fall off the face of the earth next year for us to go for it? How much closer can we get? You cant blame someone for any moves if they all of a sudden stop making any. Are there three superstars in our minor league system? I'm waiting. I prolly got 30 years to live. At one point i hope we see some results. We haven't even won the division title yet.

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    They were 10 games behind Cleveland and nine games under .500 on August 1st.

     

    That's not out of it?

    Have you ever played the game? Maybe you've been spending too much time on fangraphs. Should a team with a 50% playoff chance just give up with 60 games to go. If you think thats out of it then go ahead and think that. One of the greatest things I ever heard anyone say about us Minnesotans is we just wont Quit. You should have to excuse me if it infuriated me when our own FO quit on us in 2018. I guess we should have just quit in May 2006.
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    Have you ever played the game? Maybe you've been spending too much time on fangraphs. Should a team with a 50% playoff chance just give up with 60 games to go. If you think thats out of it then go ahead and think that. One of the greatest things I ever heard anyone say about us Minnesotans is we just wont Quit. You should have to excuse me if it infuriated me when our own FO quit on us in 2018. I guess we should have just quit in May 2006.

    They were nine games under .500 and ten games out of the division. They did not have a 50% chance of making the postseason. They probably didn't even have a 5% chance of making the postseason.

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    They were nine games under .500 and ten games out of the division. They did not have a 50% chance of making the postseason. They probably didn't even have a 5% chance of making the postseason.

    The two possible outcomes were making the postseason, and not making the postseason. Sounds like a 50% proposition to me :)

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    Have you ever played the game? Maybe you've been spending too much time on fangraphs. Should a team with a 50% playoff chance just give up with 60 games to go. If you think thats out of it then go ahead and think that. One of the greatest things I ever heard anyone say about us Minnesotans is we just wont Quit. You should have to excuse me if it infuriated me when our own FO quit on us in 2018. I guess we should have just quit in May 2006.

    We waited until Oakland came to town in October for that

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