Eicemann

The early talk of Minnesota Twins spring training is not the return of Kenta Maeda or the leg of Carlos Correa, but rather the blistering start from Edouard Julien. The infield prospect put a bow on the chatter by belting two home runs against Atlanta in Tuesday’s 10-7 pretend game victory.
Jason Kornhaber is already mad about it.
“Edmond [sic] is a monster talent,” said Kornhaber, who found out about Julien’s existence on Friday, February 24th, when two-time Jeopardy! also-ran Do-Hyoung Park interviewed him for MLB.com. “It’s unconscionable that this team would hold him back. Are they playing to win or playing with Edwin [sic] ’s service time?”
Julien, an 18th-round pick out of Auburn in 2019, led the minor leagues with 208 walks over the last two seasons. This is just one of the recently acquired facts that Kornhaber has marshaled in Julien’s defense despite not knowing his entire name yet.
“Juilliard [sic] is a generational talent, and the Twins are throwing it away,” said the Farmington beekeeper. Per sources close to Kornhaber, he has also said this about Kohl Stewart, Alex Burnett, Michael Restovich, Deolis Guerra, Anthony Slama, and Matt Moses. In addition, a former roommate said Kornhaber vowed to get a tattoo of MTV’s Dan Cortese on his thigh if J.D. Durbin didn’t record a 20-win season. Durbin finished his MLB career with six total wins. Kornhaber denied the story.
“He’s going to lead Team Canada to a World Baseball Classic title and come back to Fort Myers with a ticket to (home of Twins Triple-A affiliate) St. Paul,” claimed Kornhaber, who discovered Julien’s nationality on Monday.
The Twins have made no indication on their plans for Julien in 2023, but Kornhaber’s anger is already at a fever pitch not seen since his misguided advocacy for Joe Webb as the Minnesota Vikings quarterback of the future.
“I can’t believe they’re doing this to Erwin [sic],” said Kornhaber.

The Minnesota Twins thought they were signing veteran infielder Donovan Solano to a one-year deal. Instead, they signed a rock-and-roll legend.
“We’re pleased to announce the unexpected signing of Donovan,” said Twins PR flack Dustin Morse. “We look forward to seeing how he can contribute to the team this spring. We’ll be making no further comment.”
Team sources who requested anonymity to speak freely, said a paperwork mishap at the league office sent Solano, 35, to the Rio Grande Rockin’ Ribs-o-Rama in El Paso, Texas. Despite having no identifiable musical talent, he’s opening for Smash Mouth on the Dairy Queen Grill ‘n Chill Stage.
“He played the recorder in grade school,” said Rich Marsden, Solano’s agent. “He will tear through ‘Hot Cross Buns’ and leave the crowd wanting more.”
Meanwhile, the oldest Twin since Jesse Orosco is headed to his first spring training.
“I’m terribly confused,” said Leitch.
The 76-year-old Scottish folk singer, known for songs like “Mellow Yellow” and “Season of the Witch,” is expected to report to Twins camp on Friday.
Some team officials are embracing the opportunity.
“Phish played ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man’ at The Great Went, brother,” said Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “Everyone was just there, being, as one. Can’t wait to see what he brings to the clubhouse.
“Trey was fire that night,” added Baldelli.
Still, with his 77th birthday on the horizon, most are skeptical that Leitch can contribute to the 2023 squad.
“He’s incredibly old,” said a source close to the front office. “He’s 40 years older than everyone else. He can’t hit for power or average. He has no natural position. He’s never played baseball. And those lyrics are straight nonsense. No one is mad about saffron. No one. Trash spice.”

The Minnesota Twins have been rumored to be looking to acquire a right-handed hitting outfielder. The names that have been tossed around have been free agents, over the age of 30, but there might be a young outfielder in need of a change of scenery that the Twins should consider as well, even if only as an opportunistic move. 
Player development is rarely linear. In fact, you could probably argue that it is never linear. It’s much more parabolic with occasional downtrends on the way up the system. For many prospects, the trend line never reaches the goal of the big leagues. Sometimes there are injuries. Sometimes it just takes a little longer to move up to the next level. Sometimes, players develop later. Sometimes they don’t. 
It has been made known that the Twins are looking to add a right-handed hitting outfielder. While they have clearly shown interest in veterans like AJ Pollock and Andrew McCutchen. Just this morning, Adam Duvall signed with the Boston Red Sox. But there just might be a 23-year-old outfielder with a ton of talent and potential that the Twins could acquire for very little. 
Jo Adell was the Los Angeles Angels first-round pick back in 2017. He immediately started flying up the organizational ladder and prospect rankings. Here is a quick look at his statistics by minor-league level: 
Rookie: .325/.376/.532 (.908) Low-A: .326/.398/.611 (1.009) High-A: .289/.344/.548 (.891) Double-A: .288/.372/.518 (.890) Triple-A: .271/.335/.542 (.877)  Before the 2019 season, he was ranked #6 by Baseball America and #2 by Baseball Prospectus. Before the 2020 season, he was ranked #3 by Baseball America, #2 by Baseball Prospectus, and #6 by MLB Pipeline. 
In the Covid-shortened 2020 season, Adell was performing well at the team’s alternate site, and when there was a need, he made his MLB debut. He was pushed into action well before he was ready and in 38 games, he hit just .161. He played in 35 games for the 2021 Angels and was a bit better. He hit .246/.295/.408 (.703) with five doubles and four homers. Hoping to break out in 2022, Adell really struggled with the Angels in 88 big-league games. He hit just .224/.264/.373 (.636) with 12 doubles and eight homers. 
When he was drafted tenth overall in 2017, scouts from several teams insisted that he could really struggle to make contact in the upper levels. Well, that has certainly been the issue for him with the Angels. He struck out 41.7% of his plate appearances in 2020. He improved that number to a respectable 22% in 2021. But in 2022, he had 107 strikeouts to go with just 11 walks and his K-Rate was back up to 37.5% 
Tom Kelly used to always say that a player needed 1,500 MLB at-bats before you really knew what you had in him. Also, I think Adell may have driven TK crazy. I mean, he thought Rich Becker struck out a lot, and he never struck out more than 25.5% of his plate appearances during a season with the Twins. And Becker walked almost 12% of the time. 
So why would I spend time researching and writing an article on a player who has struggled this much? There are several reasons why I think it’s a gamble worth considering. 
First, he will turn 24 years old in April, so he is very young. He has plenty of time to develop and make some improvements. 
Next, Adell’s tools are elite, incredible. He stands 6-4 and over 220 pounds. He’s very strong, and very fast. He’s got a strong arm. He can hit the ball a long ways. One person I talked to referred to him as an “ultimate showcase player.” Watching him take batting prospects and run and throw is a joy. Simply, it has not yet translated to big-league success for Adell. 
The phrase Change of Scenery is often used to say that a guy clearly has talent but his current team just is not finding a way to pull it out of him… but maybe our favorite team can. That doesn’t always happen, but there certainly are examples. Maybe a new manager. Maybe an organizational philosophy. Maybe a coach that says something to make something click. 
Maybe it’s talking to the right veteran, maybe someone like Byron Buxton who obviously was as highly ranked as a prospect as Adell has been. Things didn’t immediately transfer for Buxton in the big leagues, and he’s continued to have injuries that keep him out of the lineup. But to hear the right things, whatever they may be, from a current All Star who has endured similar struggles might be a benefit. 
And yes, I am aware that with the Angels he has had Mike Trout doing outfield work and taking batting practice with him. But again, new situations, new voices. And hope for different results. 
Maybe it’s hearing from a former player. How many times have we talked about the incredible talent of Torii Hunter. But he wasn’t an immediate success in the big leagues. He made the trip from Triple-A to the big-leagues and back several times. But he kept working, endured, and became an All Star and Gold Glove winner. 
Maybe it’s having the right teammate on his side. The year Adell was taken tenth overall, the Twins selected Royce Lewis with the first overall pick. Lewis and Adell have been good friends since their high school days when they competed with and against each other in national tournaments and showcases. Since, they have participated in the Futures Game and Arizona Fall League together. We know that Lewis is a great leader. We see his positivity and how it affects those around him. Maybe having an old friend around might help his transition to a new team, and maybe relaxing can help him find more success. 
Adell has one option year remaining, so he could spend some time in St. Paul if needed. We have not heard the minor-league coaching assignments yet, but if the Saints coaching staff is similar, with Toby Gardenhire managing and Ryan Smith leading the hitters, I like his chances of improving and making adjustments. 
He is right-handed, and he can really complement the other young left-handed hitters in the Twins outfield such as Trevor Larnach, Alex Kirilloff, and Nick Gordon. He can also play center field if needed. Joey Gallo is only here for one year, so a more permanent, full-time role can be available in 2024. In the short-term, he can be a platoon option. 
From what I have been told, the Angels would definitely be willing to trade him, and the cost may not be real high. They have added several players this offseason, including outfielder Hunter Renfroe and Brett Phillips, and they added infielders Gio Urshela and Brandon Drury (who has spent some time in the outfield). Mike Trout and Taylor Ward are the primary starters along with Renfroe. Playing time with the Angels may be very limited. 
So why acquire an outfielder who another organization has given up on? Well, first, teams claim players at the back of their 40-man roster all year long. 99% of those players are significantly less talented than Jo Adell. And while he has struggled mightily in the big leagues, he is a great athlete with an overflowing toolbox. Whether or not he ever becomes a star, or if he becomes a solid regular, or even if he flops, that’s a risk I would take all the time. And it’s very rare to get that kind of player available for very little. 
The Angels really don’t need position players, but like most teams can use pitching. I really think if they offered something like a B- pitching prospect in Low-A and a C prospect at Double-A, the Angels might very well consider it. 
Older, I mean, more veteran Twins fans like myself may remember a similar player that helped the Twins a few decades ago. Shane Mack was the 11th overall pick out of UCLA in 1984. He had been a great college player and went to the 1984 Olympics. He made his MLB debut with the Padres in 1987 and played some more in 1988. In those two season’s, his OPS+ was 77 (23% below league average). He was injured and in Triple-A in 1989, so the Padres left him available for the Rule 5 draft. 
The Twins selected him, and he played five seasons with the Twins. Overall, he hit .309/.375/.479 (.854) with 119 doubles, 24 triples, and 67 home runs. He also stole 73 bases and played terrific defense, mostly in right field. He was very much instrumental in the Twins 1991 World Series championship, and is often referred to as the most underrated player in Twins history. 
No, I’m not going to tell you that the Adell situation and Mack’s situation 30+ years ago are identical. They were different players, and the game was played differently then. Adell is certainly bigger and stronger than Mack was and he is three years younger now than Mack was going into the 1990 season. The similarities are that they were highly-regarded, highly-drafted players with great tools and athleticism that were unable to put it together with their first team. 
Mack found great success with the Twins for five years. Maybe Adell can experience a similar improvement through a well-timed change of scenery and new voices. I wouldn’t expect him to perform like Shane Mack did, but if he can become a solid everyday player or even a significant role player, that trade could be great. 
If not, the Twins won’t be out a lot. You don’t even have to say he’s the answer to the team’s right-handed outfielder question. I’d be good with taking a flyer on a recent Top 5 global prospect and seeing what happens. The goal is to win, but it should always to continue to acquire talent. He’s a league-minimum salary guy for another couple of years, and he’s got an option remaining. This trade would not stop them from still signing a veteran right-handed hitting outfielder such as Tommy Pham or Jurickson Profar. (Update: Less than two hours later, Tommy Pham signed with the Mets.) 
Low risk… incredibly high reward. 
Your turn. What do you think about Adell? Who would you like to see the Twins acquire as a right-handed outfield option? Comment below. 

Fortunately, the sabermetrics on this doesn’t require a spreadsheet. In fact, it requires one hand. Just count the number of games between off days a team has, and when you run out of fingers – that means you need a fifth starter. Then keep counting, until you run into an off day or run out of fingers again.
But since we do love us some spreadsheets, here’s a data table of the strings of games the Twins play, starting with their second game of the season:
Games in a Row 5th Starts Needed Notes 5 1 vs SEA, vs LAD 10 2 at BOS, at KC, vs CWS 13 3 vs DET, at TB, at BAL, vs OAK 9 1 vs HOU, vs CLE, at OAK 18 3 18 games in 17 days In the Twins' first 29 games, they’ll need a 5th starter five times, which is just one time less than they’ll need the other four starters. There’s almost no reason to even juggle anyone around. That’s all before mid-May.
The Twins just aren’t blessed with too many off days early in the season. To be fair, all of MLB is playing a slightly condensed schedule, trying to fit three extra games into their previous schedule. (The other three CBA impacted games are being added to the end of the schedule.) But that isn’t even really the problem for the Twins. They just had a fairly heavy April and May schedule to begin with.
On the other hand – sometimes, it rains. That can be especially true in April for teams in the AL Central, and especially in Minnesota. Having just one game canceled in that first series, and one more during that first road trip, could buy the Twins a little more time. But that can’t be the plan.
This is a bad schedule to engage when facing rotation questions. If you’re looking for a further reason the Twins need to still address their starting rotation, you can add their lack of early off-days toward the bottom of that already formidable list.
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When the offseason resumes, Minnesota's front office will be feeling pressure to address its extensive needs on the pitching staff. But as things stand, they won't be able to dedicate their full attention to this focus.
Because as things stand, the Twins don't have a starting shortstop. Nothing even resembling a feasible option or fallback plan. That is, unless they're willing to change their position on Jorge Polanco's ... position.
A ready-made starter at shortstop
Polanco was the starting shortstop on the American League All-Star team in 2019. Of his 596 games started in the majors, 470 have come at short. He played the position almost exclusively until last year, when he shifted across the diamond to second base.
No one would deny this was a successful pivot for Polanco and the Twins. He was never a defensive asset at short, but showed standout ability at second, where he looked increasingly comfortable and natural over time. Polanco was able to shake off his power-sapping ankle issues and recapture his excellent standard of offensive production. 
As a second baseman, Polanco got his career back on track and then some. He was the team's most valuable player.
In light of this development, you can see why the Twins would be reluctant to turn around and reverse course. As Dan Hayes of The Athletic mentioned when I posed the idea on Twitter, "It was not lost on [the Twins] that Polanco’s health was not an issue after early May and that he responded well physically to second base."
In Dan's well-informed estimation, moving Polanco back to shortstop is "somewhere around Plan M" for the Twins. And I believe it. But my question is ... should that be the case?
Clearly the Twins are not diametrically opposed to playing Polanco at short. He was their primary backup last year and started there 26 times. It's a question of how willing they are to shift him back into regular duties, as a temporary solution to a pressing problem. Maybe the M in "Plan M" stands for...
Making the best
This Twins front office prides itself on being flexible, adaptable, and opportunistic. Through this lens, when you look at all circumstances, sliding Polanco back to shortstop makes a great deal of sense.
Not only does his presence at second base leave a complete void on the shortstop depth chart – it also creates a logjam behind him at second. Luis Arraez is displaced to the point where he looks like a prime trade candidate. Behind him, young talents like Nick Gordon and Jose Miranda have nowhere to play regularly even if they're deserving. Top prospect Austin Martin also might be best suited at second.
Moving Polanco back to short for the time being would free up second base for one or several of these players to step in and receive valuable playing time. Meanwhile, it would prevent the front office from having to make a desperation-fueled move to address the shortstop vacancy.
What else is out there?
The high end of free agency at shortstop has mostly been picked over. The Twins aren't going to sign Carlos Correa and they're probably not going to sign Trevor Story. There are a handful of starting-caliber options remaining, in the Jose Iglesias and Andrelton Simmons mold, but they are not very inspiring. If just a few more names come off the board quickly when free agency fires back up, you're exclusively in backup territory. 
Trades are an option, of course. But that means giving up assets that you could be using to acquire pitching.
Finding a shortstop who's going to pair with Polanco, and give you a better keystone combo than Polanco and Arraez, will be very hard. I say that while being fully aware of the defensive shortcomings yielded by the latter arrangement.
If nothing else, moving Polanco back to short would be a temporary fix designed to buy time. Until Royce Lewis demonstrates that he is (or isn't) the franchise's future at shortstop. Until they've had a chance to sort through second basemen like Arraez, Gordon, Miranda, and Martin. 
Once a better shortstop option comes along, the Twins can move Polanco back to his preferred position across the bag. 
Is this kind of back-and-forth player shuffling ideal or optimal? No, but "optimal" has sorta gone out the window at this point. Polanco's a veteran with plenty of experience at both middle infield positions. He's answered the call whenever needed. If anyone can handle the disruption it's him, and he'd be doing the team a hell of a solid.
Sorting through solutions
Even with the limited remaining options to address shortstop, I'm not saying this is the best one. If the Twins can find a viable taker for Josh Donaldson, or get a really good offer for Arraez, that changes the equation by alleviating the infield logjam. Similarly, if they can swing a no-brainer deal for a shortstop like Paul DeJong, I could get behind that.
But if the "solution" to their problem is signing someone like Iglesias or Simmons as a stopgap, and then struggling to find at-bats for better players buried on the 2B depth chart behind Polanco ... is that really any better than pivoting back to the 2020 setup? 
The simplest solution to the front office's current problem at shortstop is right in front of their face. Are they willing to embrace Plan M?
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Luis Arraez is an extremely popular player. This is known. Merely bringing up the idea of trading him can stir up considerable emotion and anger, as I've learned here and on Twitter.
I get it. It's easy to see why he is so popular. Arraez has earned the affinity of casual fans and hardcores alike. His consistent .300 batting averages, in an era where those are increasingly rare, endear him to the more traditional follower. For those who gravitate more toward sabermetrics and advanced stats, it is the healthy OBPs driven by Arraez's bat and discipline that define his indispensable value.
Everyone can agree that his personality and his amusing mannerisms on the field are treasures. Arraez is a joy to behold.
But the front office can't make decisions based solely on likability or popularity if they want to steer this ship back into contention. They need to make savvy moves and opportunistic improvements. They need to make hard choices.
Trading Arraez would certainly qualify, but the logic is undeniable:
The 24-year-old's considerable strengths are balanced by significant detriments. His knees have already proven to be a chronic issue at his young age. He's not a defensive asset anywhere on the field. He doesn't hit for any power. Despite these drawbacks, he'd clearly be a coveted asset on the trade market. Arraez is still at the front end of his physical prime, with three remaining years of team control. He's a bona fide OBP machine at the top of the lineup, and still has a chance to develop some pop. His defensive versatility could be viewed as highly appealing for many teams. However... Arraez is very redundant within the Twins' roster planning. The two positions he's most capable of playing — second and third — are manned by two of the team's best veteran players, who are both under guaranteed contract for the next two years. Meanwhile, top prospects Austin Martin and Jose Miranda also seem destined to end up at one of the three positions Arraez has played most (2B/3B/LF).  A year ago, ultra-plugged national reporter Ken Rosenthal mentioned the idea of Arraez being floated as a trade piece, suggesting the Twins had at least entertained such discussions. That was before the arrival of Martin and the emergence of Miranda. In the present situation, there's an urgency to clear a logjam and acquire impact pitching in the process.
Arraez doesn't necessarily have to be the guy sent out in such an undertaking, but he sure strikes me as the most likely. 
Are fans ready for that? Is the front office ready for the reaction that would likely follow? How about ownership, which was reportedly applying pressure for a Byron Buxton contract extension in part because of dwindling fan morale? 
The Twins and their decision makers aren't exactly on firm footing in the eyes of a fanbase beaten down by a brutal season and totally inactive offseason thus far. If they make a move like this, the return had better be undeniably strong, as well as the messaging.
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