farmerguychris

Lets be honest - The Twins didn't win with C4 as our Opening Day shortstop either. One stud is not enough to win in baseball.

If history is any indicator, my guess is this trade is so that not only will this open the door to play Miranda full time at 3rd, but also frees up about 9 million. Also - it is my next hunch that the extra $9M will be added to make our 'biggest free agent contract ever offered ' now 9 million more and still end up as only his 4th best offer when Carlos signs elsewhere. Farmer will end up at SS, Miranda at 3rd, and still sitting on that extra $9M with no one to pay it to. I don't like this move. I hope I'm wrong. I think Gio was a good value at that price.

Gotta say.... I'm not really impressed. The one Buxton is wearing is OK, but others are right - the 'M' looks pretty uninspired. I'm not a good dresser because I don't care enough to be. But do these tops and bottoms even match?

Nice article and I like some of the ideas EXCEPT, I'm not interested in trading away Lee. Too much potential.

If we don't sign C4 again, we need to sign some splash players. Pham is not one. Is he any better than our young guys who need reps? If we only sign players like this, the team is obviously falling into the 'not trying' for 2023. I'm sure Pham is fine - BUT, with $50M to spend, and we focus on needing a big bat (which he is not) what is his appeal?

We have money available, lets not shop at the scratch & dent this one off season.... please? None of these options sound like anything that would improve our team.

Yes we should. The 2 reasons we let him go was injury concerns, and that we knew we would not pick up another year of arbitration. We can offer him a lesser contract and if things go south performance wise - cut him like we did Joe Smith.

Is it worthwhile? Only if you want to win ballgames. Impossible to have starters go only 4-5 innings (which i'm fine with) but you can't do this without a great BP. Must invest here if you want to win - its that simple. Doesn't mean need to sign big time FA arms, but convert more starters who can have the potential success of Duran.

It is ridiculous of the F.O. to expect to not have starters see a batter a third time in a game, but then leave the BP completely unprepared for that kind of load. Probably the biggest glaring mistake they've made IMO. If you want the starters to go 4-5 innings fine, but you must then stock you BP with arms who can make up for the short starts period.

If this is it - I think the top dogs in the organization don't really understand what a rebrand is. These just look like they are using older/dirtier hats.

Pass. At this point Jeffers has not shown he can be our #1 man behind the plate. We need someone who has proven over multiple seasons they can wear that hat 4 times a week. If Jeffers pushes them out of a job, so be it, but what has he proven long term for us to give him the full time role? Trade or a FA - sign our primary starter next year and let Jeffers try to beat him out with his results.

Getting this hire right could be the biggest move we could make this off season. I hope we really hired the right guy, not just recycling someone who had qualifications at the right price.

Yes! It absolutely makes sense that you want both a L and R handed hitting catcher on your roster. This position needs regular breaks, so to have the ability to simply play the one with the best matchup natually is nice to have. With that said - can't just throw anybody out there - they need an upgrade (or 2) behind the plate from today. But in a perfect world one catcher from each side of the plate would be ideal. Can't always make that work of course.

I think his luster has worn off too much to get what he's worth in a trade. Better yet- lets not worry about trades at the moment when we can get new players for nothing but money. Sign some pitching and give up nothing in free agency but money.

All this ace talk is kind of unrealistic. Just give me a solid #1, three #2 and one young guy who is ready to be a star. I think that would be better over a whole year compared to 1 true ace plus four #3-4 guys (which we already have minus the ace).

According to Google, the average MLB Athletic trainer makes about $62K per year. In comparision, the average NBA Floor Sweeper makes an average of $80K. I hope the F.O. doesn't try to save money with this hire and they overpay for a position that has been unable to keep us healthy for multiple years recently.

You're missing my point. I don't think Berrios is an ace either. However, for us he was a solid #2 guy. I don't care if we get a true 'ace' but would be pleased with five - #2 guys like Berrios instead of one - #1 guy and four #4 guys like we've had lately.

An ace would be great, but I'd simply be happy with a collection of #2 quality starters instead of collection of #4 starters like we've had recently. Who wouldn't want a rotation of 5 Jose Berrios level pitchers?

I see no reason to trade him. We are nearly at the point of the season where we can acquire good starting pitching for nothing in trade, only money. No reason to weaken our roster on the O side to get a pitcher when we can get them for only cash (which we have plenty of).

To start - I want to say this is what I would predict they will do, not what I would want them to do. At the end, I feel they made these main moves. 1 - Traded Kepler for a prospect who will be in the minors 2 - Signed a relief pitcher who is a vet (CJ Edwards, who I know nothing about other than is a righty at a minimum salary). 3 - By putting Gordon as our every day SS to start the year until Lewis is healthy, needed a new utility player. Went with Odor who is a lefty infielder. 4- Keep Gio for one more year at the hot corner. 5- resigned Leon to be the back-up because he is good with pitchers, and a switch hitter. Not high hopes for Jeffers to be anything more than average, but the Twins appear to feel differently. I think we'll mostly go with in-house options because despite the feelings that many of us have that this is a make or break year for the F.O. - this ownership has proved they have patience. Therefore I think that signing any huge names, or making significant trades will simply not happen because the FO jobs are not in jeopardy. I think they rightly feel they will get at least 2 more years to have their own pitchers develop, thus can wait it out another year without any big signings. Hopefully a new training department will give us better results and a healthy team. C: Ryan Jeffers ($0.70M) 1B: Alex Kiriloff ($0.70M) 2B: Jorge Polanco ($7.50M) 3B: Gio Urshela ($9.00M) SS: Nick Gordon ($0.70M) LF: Trevor Larnach ($0.70M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Adam Duval ($8.00M) DH: Jose Miranda ($0.70M) 4th OF: Gilberto Celestino ($0.70M) Utility: Luis Arraez ($4.75M) Utility: Rougned Odor ($1.00M) Backup C: Sandy Leon ($1.25M) SP1: Sonny Gray ($12.00M) SP2: Tyler Mahle ($8.00M) SP3: Kenta Maeda ($9.00M) SP4: Joe Ryan ($0.70M) SP5: Bailey Ober ($0.70M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Lopez ($3.00M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($2.00M) RP: Josh Winder ($0.70M) RP: Louie Varland ($0.70M) RP: CJ Edwards ($0.80M) Payroll is 35.21% under budget

It makes no sense to trade him or let him get away for nothing. He is a solid defender and hitter. We need more people like that, not less. I don't think he'll get enough of a return (would want at least a #2 pitcher), won't cost enough to prohibit any other moves, and we need the depth of players who can stay healthy. Why wouldn't we keep him another year?

Hold on- Are they now promoting a product that the players would be suspended for if they used it? Not sure on that - but it was my first thought that came to mind.

Find a filler until Lewis is ready. Can be in-house (Gordon, Urshela) or a mid-level low cost FA. Spend our dollars on top tier pitching as we already have the depth so coveted by many teams - just not many sure bets. Spend pitching for both starters and the pen over SS. Correa proved a star SS isn't enough to carry a team to the playoffs - a star pitcher however may have greater impact.

I really don't know anything about Iglesias. But - this is the kind of guy (or let Gordon do it for half a year) I would want to hold down the fort until Lewis is ready to go. That allows us to really spend whatever budget remains on pitching.

Yes - this is how I think a team like the Twins can succeed. We need to get better value for our players than their salaries dictate. Give them life changing money to buy out a few years of FA. Overpay by a few million in years 3-6 so can underpay them years 7-10. This does come with injury risks, but as long as hit more than miss is good plan.