Morneau for Gov

I think a 13-year contract for nearly $30 million per season sounds insane. Would you give that out if it was your money? The #1 issue for the Twins the last couple seasons is injuries. They have a fair amount of talent ready for the big leagues but have had almost everyone injured. It won't matter who they sign if everyone they need gets hurt for half the year! Unfortunately, that puts them in rebuilding mode. You can't build for a season if you don't know what you have. Stand pat, hope for health early and if there are more injuries trade away your assets and hit the reset button. 2019 was beautiful, but the young generation coming up and the pitchers have shown to be brittle. Time to look at what you have objectively and move forward accordingly. This team is not one ace away. They need a whole deck they can count on to show up. I have no idea what the front office was doing last season trading away double-digit prospects during an injury plagued season. Befuddling.

This all depends on development. If those 4 peak as you say. You can often dream on what the team may look like based on top prospects, but development into star major leaguers is a big leap. For example, Buxton and Sano. "Buxton, Sano named No. 1 and No. 3 prospects | FOX" (headline clicked from a search for history's sake).

But there is a difference swinging the bat and bunting. Your chances of getting a hit on a fly ball or hitting to the right side of the infield are much higher than laying down a bunt. While all these things move runners over the odds of the bunt resulting in an out are significantly higher than the others.

For a team that has largely been ruined by bullpen blowups for two seasons now the emergence of Duran and Jax are incredibly hopeful developments. It looks as though baseball is trending away from starters meaning bullpens will be increasingly important. Let's hope Duran and Jax have continued success for many seasons ahead in Minnesota.

This article declares "Got it Right" only looking at the additions, no word of the cost. Is trading nine prospects a correct decision to reinforce a .500 team? I like the players acquired. I don't believe the Twins are winning the world series in '22 or '23. I wish they would have made these types of moves in '19 when they were legitimate contenders instead of now.

Wow! That list doesn't show well for 2022 help from the minors. 1 Royce Lewis - out for 2022 2 Brooks Lee - draftee 3 Noah Miller - project, needs to develop offense 4 E Rodriguez - out for 2022 5 Prielipp - draftee 6 A Martin - huge regression 7 SW Richardson - maybe can help this season? 8 Balazovich - huge regression 9 Marco Raya - looks great, in low minors 10 Edouard Julien - hopeful, but not at a position of need (currently) And these are the top ten on the list. Trading away the splendid 2021 draft class looks potentially devastating to this list. I sure hope the 2022 Brooks Lee, Connor Prielipp class is as good as advertised!

My primary beef with these trades is the timing. Why not "expend" this prospect capital during a 100+ win season like 2019 when their only helpful add was Romo to a team that legitimately had WS aspirations? What are the Twins' aspirations this season? Are they beating the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, or Padres and winning a WS this year? Or are they hoping to win a single playoff game and break that disgusting 18 game losing streak? I really like Steer, Encarnacion-Strand, and Povich. I think they're worth giving up...if it's your year to go for it, not just desperate for a pyric victory.

I believe the Twins have a lot of starters. Few of them are front of the rotation types and way too many of the starters including prospects who could have helped this season are hurt. So, I'm concerned about Mahle coming off the IL recently with a shoulder (?) issue. I wish the FO was this active during a 100+ win season like 2019 instead of trading away 8-9 prospects buffing up a .500ish squad this year. Do these trades make the Twins WS contenders this season? Will they beat the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, or Padres this year? Should "we" be trading away prospects with the short-sighted goal of winning a single playoff game finally?

I like three of the trades based on value, but I probably would have said no to giving up Steer, Encarnacion-Strand, and Hajjar for 8 months of Mahle whom it says just came off the IL. The Twins aren’t short of starters. They’re short of elite starters and healthy starters. Not certain Mahle will be either of those.

My take is that the Lockout was a complete unknown and the Twins took the position that they didn't want to sign contracts going into an unknowable situation. They signed Bundy to a modest contract then when the lockout ended, they unleashed a flurry of moves, but it was probably too late to assemble the roster they really wanted. I don't believe they "Planned to Fail". I believe they committed themselves to not get financially burned by a lockout that might potentially ruin the 2022 season.

No offense meant. The Orioles have a fantastic history. But their recent run, losing 100 games the last four seasons only interrupted by the shortened covid 2020 season, is a far different level than their Earl Weaver, Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, Mike Flanagan, Boog Powell years.

If I'm an Orioles fan...I'm disappointed. But then again if I'm an Orioles fan I've been disappointed for many years now.

Do the Twins have a realistic chance of winning the AL Central? Yes, they have a chance. The real question is does it matter? Whomever wins the AL Central this year will have the longest odds in the playoffs. If I'm the Twins GM, my goal is to win a world series, and this isn't the year to trade away resources to take that shot. I'd be a seller at this point. Let's try to win something that really matters. I like a lot of pieces on the current Twins, but they're not one or two arms away from being a contender.

Not real excited about trading Kirilloff and our best pitching prospects, but Ohtani and Syndergaard would be worth a LOT to this team. They'd have to follow up a blockbuster like that with further bullpen help as this is an All-In move.

The Twins aren't trading Correa. They're in first place and they don't have a good option to replace Correa if he's elsewhere. Also, they won't trade him because they don't want to be an organization that players can't trust if they sign here. I am disappointed to not see a real argument as to why the Twins would trade him though. The argument for trading him is that the Twins aren't winning a World Series this year and the real goal of a team should be to assemble a team capable of winning a WS!!! If you trade Correa this season it is called ASSET MANAGEMENT. Do the Twins have a better chance of winning a WS in the next several years with or without a Correa trade? Correa is not going to be here the rest of the 20's, but a trade would acquire players who could be. This is why the subject keeps coming up.

Jax is the name that came to mind for me too. Saw him pitch a couple times in the minors and had a strong impression that he would never be a major league pitcher. Good thing I'm not a scout and great thing for the Twins that they have him in their pen this season!

Exceedingly few players skip the minors. The last one I can recall was Chris Sale (which worked out well, obviously), but that's a long time ago. It's always the best strategy to pick the best player available. Especially in baseball where the players are typically years away from contributing at the major leagues. Yes, the draft is a crapshoot, but an educated guess type of crapshoot. You wouldn't trade your picks in the first three rounds for another teams' rounds 4, 5, and 6 because it's a "crapshoot". Similarly, you should trust your scouts and just select the player regarded highest by your evaluation process. If you pick a pitcher for need you may be skipping over the next Bryce Harper or Carlos Correa.

I haven't looked, but what would the Twins record be with a good bullpen?! I recently saw a stat showing that the Twins have converted 20 of 37 save opportunities, ouch! Is there anything more demoralizing than blowing leads late in games?

LOVE to see the Twins taking a high upside pitcher shot. Are there concerns with injuries and lack of experience in college? Sure. But championships are won with elite players and the Twins have a chance of getting one spending a second-round pick. Looks like the type of pick that successful franchises make.

The 2021 draft looks to have been a home run one year later. These early picks in 2022 have the same feel coming from the early reaction. Could it be that the Twins have formed an elite scouting department under Falvey/Levine?!

This is exactly the type of trade that should happen but has close to zero chance of happening. The Twins will not want to: add his salary, cut someone from the big-league roster or the 40-man roster for him, and bury other players like Sano in order to give the Boomstick ABs. But Cruz's leadership should not be undersold and if he's anything close to his 2019-2020 self he's a better hitter than all the other options.

Would love to have a Cleveland type pitching pipeline, but it's too early to have that kind of faith. Early success in the majors is a good sign, but not a guarantee for any of these good-looking rookies yet. They need to get through the adaptations the league will make to them and show they have more ways to succeed. And they need to stay healthy. I like your list, but I'd suspect there will be a veteran or two in the rotation...that it won't be built entirely on home-built talent. I also suspect guys like Canterino, Varland, Sands, Strotman, and Enlow will factor into their near future. Love dreaming on a bright, young future though! Could an ace emerge? Maybe Duran will move into the rotation next season with his four-pitch mix?

Way too early to be cutting bait on anyone. Baseball is a game of ups and downs. Sano has traditionally had streaks more on the month-long cycle, not series cycle. They're paying him $10 million or so and he's put up better than average WAR by the end of the season. So, unless others burst onto the scene such as Larnach taking over LF, Kirilloff moving to 1B, and Sanchez (or maybe Arraez) taking over DH, all three having career years...I doubt we'll see Sano out of the lineup much. It is easy to see that we were all expecting more from Sano being a top prospect and breaking into the majors with a 149 OPS+ which he hasn't achieved again in his career. From Baseball Reference Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 8 Yrs 678 2804 2455 385 580 123 6 161 415 4 3 327 1023 .236 .328 .488 .816 118 1198 52 12 0 10 10 162 Game Avg. 162 670 587 92 139 29 1 38 99 1 1 78 244 .236 .328 .488 .816 118 286 12 3 0 2 2 2015 22 MIN AL 80 335 279 46 75 17 1 18 52 1 1 53 119 .269 .385 .530 .916 149 148 4 1 0 2 1 D/53H RoY-3 2016 23 MIN AL 116 495 437 57 103 22 1 25 66 1 0 54 178 .236 .319 .462 .781 108 202 8 1 0 3 1 59D/H 2017 24 MIN AL 114 483 424 75 112 15 2 28 77 0 0 54 173 .264 .352 .507 .859 126 215 12 4 0 1 5 5D/3H AS 2018 25 MIN AL 71 299 266 32 53 14 0 13 41 0 0 31 115 .199 .281 .398 .679 83 106 7 0 0 2 0 53/DH 2019 26 MIN AL 105 439 380 76 94 19 2 34 79 0 1 55 159 .247 .346 .576 .923 139 219 5 3 0 1 0 5/3DH 2020 27 MIN AL 53 205 186 31 38 12 0 13 25 0 0 18 90 .204 .278 .478 .757 105 89 3 1 0 0 1 *3/D 2021 28 MIN AL 135 532 470 68 105 24 0 30 75 2 1 59 183 .223 .312 .466 .778 112 219 13 2 0 1 2 *3D/5H 2022 29 MIN AL 4 16 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 6 .000 .188 .000 .188 -39 0 0 0 0 0 0 */3

What SS and 3B? Do we have our starters yet? I'm hoping for Miranda (backed up by Urshela and Arraez) and Story, but they still need a couple more Gray's and half a bullpen for this to make sense.