StormJH1

I have to agree with you. It's really not my place to judge Trevor Bauer as a human being. I know that sexual assault cases are very complicated, and that the District Attorney's office in this case did not find sufficient evidence to sustain charges against him. But the physical harm he caused isn't even disputed, and it's disgusting. "Lack of criminal liability" is also not the only standard I apply as a fan asking if I want my team to go acquire a specific pitcher for a lucrative sum of money. The alleged behavior was quite different, but I pretty much ceased being a fan of Miguel Sano after the attempted sexual assault he was accused of, and my mind was not changed by the fact that MLB determined it lacked evidence to suspend him over it. The Twins front office does not want this. There are knock-on consequences to a move like this, but you don't know what they are in advance. Fans who would consider signing Bauer are only evaluating his past rap sheet - and there's quite a bit there to worry about. What about the next time an encounter with a female goes wrong? What about the effect on an already half-empty stadium, and a portion of the fanbase who feel so strongly on this one issue that they have a fresh new reason to be done with this team? What about a front office placed under constant pressure to defend this move in perpetuity. The Brandon Taubman/Astros/Roberto Osuna episode is a notable example of how ugly this can get. No thanks. There has be some other route to getting to 81+ wins in a weak division than asking for all of these problems over this one guy.

I don't know if Arraez has the star power to command an "ace" in a trade, but I think dealing him now makes a lot more sense. They might have done it anyway out of desperation, but now you actually have the long-term middle infield depth to support that move, such that it could actually make the team better, as opposed to shuffling pieces around to give off the appearance of doing something. I agree with, like, 98% of your post - particularly the part about waiting for the final product. (Case in point, 2021-22 offseason). However, it's not like this outcome was orchestrated by the front office - Correa opted out of a contract (with the Twins), and then was signed by two other teams that significantly outbid us. Those teams then had to essentially back out of those plans, at significant PR costs with their fanbases. So, either they're right to bail on a long-term deal and we'll find out shortly, or they're wrong and the Twins are insanely lucky. Maybe both? As I said before, I still favor the move given the reduced amount and the shorter terms. The vesting years are nice, but I'm pretty doubtful those are going to ever be desirable with a mid-30's (former?) shortstop who appears likely to have chronic injury issues sometime in the future.

This whole saga also makes me wonder if Correa (and Boras) underestimated the risk of playing out last season. He's "backing into" $200 million with a deal covering only half the duration of his Giants deal. You're telling me there wasn't a $200 million out there for him anywhere in 2021-22!? Was COVID that big of an impact on MLB economics to risk this? Corey Seager got $325 million. Marcus Semien and Javier Baez got well over $100 million and neither is anywhere near as good as Correa.

Something isn't adding up here. One thing missing from the reporting is that Correa should have just went through this process in the 2021-22 offseason. Presumably, he passed a physical with the Twins on the 3-year deal late that offseason, correct? And his 2014 broken ankle was well-known throughout his career, but never caused problems until this 2022-23 offseason. So...why the change? It could be that the sensitivity to long-term injury issues on a 12-year deal for HUGE money is significantly greater than on a 3-year deal, or even this 6-year proposed deal. But another possibility is that there are new findings in the ankle - something that even the Twins were not aware of after that scare in September when he slid into 2nd. Or that a fresh scan has showed issues with the hardware in his ankle (loose screws, etc.), either from that incident, or just due to the progression of time. I just don't feel like his ankle hardware was a big, unknown secret. This feels to me like there is something observably going on with the ankle, even if it has yet to cause a DL stint in his entire career. To have two teams back out of deals like this only after the physical is really quite extreme. I do want to add that I'm generally thrilled about the contract and about retaining the player, and you could argue that the Twins just go with it for 6 years almost no matter what the issue is.

Totally agree with this take. Although I think more people were asking for the Twins to sign an ace than you may think. Despite our colossal depth of problems all over the roster, there are people who legitimately think we should've thrown $20 million at C.J. Wilson or Cliff Lee so we at least had one good ace. First, a free agent pitcher has to WANT to come play for you. Other than a slight pitcher's park, there's really no motivating factor for an ace to want to come here as opposed to LA or Texas (or Boston/NYY, etc.). Second, it would have made virtually no difference to the success of the team - not when you can't support the ace adequately with runs, and the 2-5 options are a mess. Look at the pitchers Seattle has had and been forced to dump because they weren't making a run. But they've been busy actually drafting power arms, so their chances of having a solid rotation 2 or 3 years from now are light years beyond the Twins'.