Brandon

Let's take a look at who is in the bullpen and depth there now. I feel like we should sign one more reliever but do we? 1. Duran 2. Lopez 3. Theilbar 4. Jax 5. Alcala 6. Winder 7. Moran 8. Megill 9. Coulombe 10. Aaron Sanchez 11. Henriquez 12. Sands 13. Dobnak is there anyone else I am missing? I think we could be fine with this and some of the starter prospects coming up for a few games here and there as needed. but also finding a better option then Megill/ Coulombe/ Henriquez is a good idea too. Also this really needs Winder to transition to the pen well. If he can do that, I doubt we need a reliever. we could just wait to trade for one at the deadline after we use some time to sort through some of these options.

The Twins are probably just over budget for the year right now. That could change if they presold 2 million tickets before spring training. Guys call your friends and sell them on getting season tickets. Then start demanding they sign Matt Moore with the windfall of the extra tickets sold...... Or The Twins could legitimately feel like they have enough bullpen options and depth.

Sounds like he is a Bundy clone with an extra 5 mph on his fastball according to this article.

Nick Gordon literally hit what he was projected to be able to hit when he was drafted out of high school. Many were saying he could be a .270 Ave with 10-15 HR and 10-15 SB. of course, that projection was during a more offensive time. so his hitting that mark now is a higher mark then what he was projected.

I like the lineup option with Gordon batting Leadoff. My only quible would be to switch Killeroff with Kepler at the 7th and 8th slots in the lineup. Killeroff has more offensive potential if he is truly healthy.

Polanco has enough team options that he will be around for a minute. While he could be traded, I think it's also important to have veterans on the roster too and at 12.5 million he is a bargain.

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I don’t think the logjam is as dire as it’s being made out to be here on this forum. OF Gallo, OF Buxton, OF Kepler, backup is Taylor. 1B Killeroff DH Gordon or Larnarch only extra players are Larnarch or Gordon and Wallner. It’s good to have depth for injuries. We have 2 options at each of these 5 positions. We won’t miss a beat if a player misses a month to injury. Kepler has more value to us as a RF, backup CF and 1B then Gio would as a backup 3B, 1B and occasional DH. Because Kepler will play everyday in this scenario. Gio will not. I like Gio as a player but he was too redundant.

I was being sarcastic

If the bullpen is not a priority, why did we just resign Aaron Sanchez to compete for a spot? Seems our bullpen is not fully set yet :)

Seniority should only give the incumbent the tie breaker. but I agree with Nick'saViking the job should be earned and not a given.

Ober stays in the rotation for the next season or two. We have 3 free agent starters next offseason so we need as many starters as we can get for next season and beyond. Winder, Sands, and Henriquez absolutely belong in the pen. I believe Balazovich will bounce back in the rotation as will Enlow. If not, they can be future bullpenners but not before giving them extra opportunities to stay in the rotation.

Some additions for the article include: 7. Another benefit of trading Urshala was the 10 million in savings that could be reallocated. He would have been fine to keep around had he been a better SS. He is only a player we would want at SS in a pinch, not an extended period of time. and at the time of his trade, we were trying to sign Correa and / or find a suitable replacement at SS. 6. While Gallo has lots of holes in his swing. He does have 35-40 HR capabilities which the lineup outside of maybe Buxton is lacking. Only Correa and Buxton had over 20 HRs on the team last year and Correa had 22 and was still a free agent. So having a middle of the order bat with big time power was missing from the lineup equation. Having that bat also be a gold glove outfielder is a bonus and give us a Kepler type floor with power. having a low batting average and coming off a bad year is what made him affordable. 4. Farmer does what Urshala can't and that is play good defense at SS. He can fill in for long periods of time for injury and is 4 million less in salary. He was the defacto replacement at SS until we were able to sign Correa. and like you said is free to play a utility role which is his best role on a contending team. 2. This from Roger: 2A: This is from Seth Stohs in the comments section as well. in that this is where he would put hiring the new trainer from the A's and slide the other transactions back 1 spot. Overall, I flat out agree with your rankings of the transactions you evaluated. You did miss a few. Paddack extension is the biggest one. while that one doesn't mean much for this year it does make next offseason closer to being really boring with another starting pitcher locked in next year. Next year's rotation is shaping up to be: Lopez, Ryan, Paddack, Ober, then rookies so we may or may not need to resign any of our 3 free agent starting pitchers next offseason or we could resign 1 and be set.

is Garlick's contract guarantied since he was an arbitration eligible player? potential moves on the horizon include signing a RH bat for DH or bring back Garlick, trade Kepler so there is roster space and more prospects in the farm. sign a reliever. there are still plenty out there and I suspect there will be a run on them soon. On Evan Sisk, I always thought he would be fun to watch pitching to lefties but he will get murdered pitching to right handed batters. He doesn't throw hard but a left handed side-armer is something different.

I would like to see him rise to be our #3 starter. Not because of injuries either but because he is better then everyone and we have even more starters giving us a starter to trade for more prospects. (Do we trade a successful Dobnak given the other 3 free agents to be in our rotation)?

I don't think Trevor May can be traded since he just signed a free agent contract. I think there is a cooling off period before a player who just signed can be traded. I think its June but I could be wrong. At this point we dont have big needs. so if we were to make a trade it would be either a low level prospect for a reliever or a big three team deal for an ace. I say three team because we would probably trade someone like Mahle or Gray to a 2nd team for prospects that could be included in the trade for an ace along with other prospects that we include from our own stock pile of prospects. ow who has prospects to trade for Gray and who has an ace on a team that wants to rebuild ????

The Dynamic Duo have brought a creativity towards acquiring prospects that even Terry Ryan who was the master of acquiring prospects never thought of. The first example is one of my favorites. With Ohtani on the market and notifying the Twins they would not be one of the finalists for his services Falvine went and traded their extra international spending cap space for 2 prospects. They traded 1 million in cap space to the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles for Pearson a 2nd round draft pick and OF. The Twins also traded 1 million in cap space to the Mariners of Seattle for David Banuelos a 5th round draft pick and C. Banuelos is still with the Twins and in AAA. I hope to see him get in some games with the Twins just to make these trades a success, But we got essentially 2 high draft picks for nothing. Another example was in the draft when the Twins followed suit from the Astros example and saved money on Royce Lewis to be able to sign another draft pick in the third round who had first round talent. Today Enlow is one of our top 30 prospects in the system and being creative is how we landed him. Granted he lost some luster as a prospect because of the lost 2020 season then Tommy John surgery in 2021, but 2023 should be the year he bounces back from that completely so hopefully we have another mid rotation starter being developed here. The trade deadline sell off. Lets face it we were all mad when the Twins threw In the towel and traded several fan favorite players at the time for prospects. The 2 big names were RP Presley and IF Escobar. We netted Alcala, Duran, and Celestino from those trades, however. The trade of Berrios was unpopular as well and we received Martin and SWR. 2 of our top 15 prospects. For Cruz we got Ryan and Strotman who was a top 30 prospect before regressing. As much as I didn’t like the sell offs I did like this next technique. Making a trade and a little bit more…. When the Twins traded Lewin Diaz to Florida, they got Romo and a little bit more in prospect Valimont (who was a top 30 prospect before regressing). He is no longer with the Twins but this is not the only example. When the Twins traded Garver to the Rangers for their SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa the Twins got a little bit more with Henriquez who is a top 30 prospect. With the trade for Lopez the Twins got a lot (little bit more) with Jose Salas a top 15 prospect and Byron Chorio which is essentially an extra international signing. I actually forgot this and am now adding but they also got Severino when the Braves were penalized for their international signing practices and the Twins were able to swoop in and sign Severino away from the Braves for 2.5 million. This added another in and out top 30 Twins prospect. As Seth Stohs points out he should be in AA next season and 1 year younger then the average player at that level. He also had a high OPS last year. The one creative way that is missing is the Rule 5 draft. A favorite of the last regime, but not used by this one. I am also leaving out the waver wire because most of our acquisitions have not been prospects per se. Also I don't remember the full details on acquiring Cave from the Yankees I think we gave up Gil who is a great prospect for the Yankees and I don't remember what we gave up for Littell either. If i remember correctly he was also a pickup from a playoff sell off with the pitcher we had for a week going to New York. we trade Hnoa to the Braves for that pitcher so essentially a three team trade of Hnoa for Littell and a start by the other pitcher. Overall from their creativity we have a #3 starter in Ryan, 2 RPs in Duran and Alcala, a back up OF in Celestino, and 5 of our current top 30 prospects ( Enlow, Salas, SWR, Martin, and Henriquez) and 1 just outside the top 30 in Severino.

I have one other method that was missed. I am going to write a blog post on it.

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With less movement on his Slider more of them may end up as strikes. This lower walk rates. But if contact is made on those pitches, will it be hard contact or soft? I think he will be fine as a 6th or 7th man out of an 8 man bullpen. He may be declining but he should have a season or two left in his arm.

I think it was leaked the Mets counter offer was 6 years guaranteed at the same rate. I think the Twins saw an opportunity to restructure their offer to 1. show Carlos appreciation and respect. 2 it blew the Mets offer out of the water in that there was no way the Mets would up their annual guarantee during the 6 years guarantee section to match. There was probably a concern from the Twins that Boras would go back to the Mets if the Twins had the same 28.5 million per year value. but 33.33 million average plus the Mets would be in the 92% bracket for payroll tax making Correa a 60 million per season player. The Mets were not going to do that. Thus, securing Carlos services for the future. Plus, Carlos will likely get a post career contract to do stuff with the Twins as an all-time Twins great.

He’s basically Terry Ryan with flair.

Wonder: has there ever been a game where a team had 3 blown saves?

The unbalanced schedule won’t affect who wins the division because it’s the same for all division teams. The division winner may only have 84 wins as a result…. However, I agree with all other statements in this post.

And you could have 2 blown saves in the same game.