August J Gloop

Cutch would have been nice. I think his choice to sign with the Pirates for roughly the same money tells you where his competitive heart is at. He feels the end and wants to have a smooth transition to retirement. I don't fault him for that one bit. He's only played outside Pennsylvania 1 year, and it wasn't that much fun for him. I think it's a great way to celebrate a great career, one more year being loved up by your best fans. I will say that the Gallo thing is getting way too much angst off this crowd. Dude has mostly been a great hitter in his career. He takes an unorthodox approach, but for the most part it's worked. Sure 2 out of the last 3 seasons have been a bit crap, but who hasn't had some of the worst days of their lives the past 3 years? Sandwiched between those two dud years? a pretty great one. He was a 4 win player in 2021! Heck we got folks in here talkin like Cutch would be a better bet. Joey Gallo put up more WAR last year than Cutch. In fewer plate appearances. While posting career lows in almost every offensive category. It's been since 2017 that Cutch has posted 4 wins. To answer the headline's Q: Zero. The Twins needed Cutch exactly zero much. He'd have been a nice luxury.

Arraez is still technically a prospect. Teams trading for him will do so because they believe they can unlock some value via power or slotting him into a position that they have a real opening in. His trade fate was sealed when he couldn't play left field. He's miscast at first, even if the initial results were encouraging. The team has 3-4 guys floating around MLB-AAA who better fit the first base profile, starting with Kiriloff. The Twins have a better defender and likely pretty good hitter at every single position on the diamond, so Luis becomes a bit of a roster problem. Add in that the fans are attached to him, and it puts him in value limbo. It's clear that there are multiple teams who want him, so that's good. Hopefully it's taking a bit because there is a bidding war. When it's all said and done, Arraez should be headlining a nice pitching upgrade situation.

Can't think of trades with Miami and then throw in one of Minnesota's starters. They have, what 8 already? Ober for Cabrera just creates the same problem for them, a talented pitcher with no options left. For those two a top prospect will be required and likely should be paid.

Showing confidence in their ability to help him rebuild, and have the head start on an extension if they like the results. It's an easy choice.

The Twins could get Sale for being willing to pay his contract. The only reason to send anyone back would be since you're gonna clear the roster spot anyway. Put a prospect in the deal and the Twins get one of the Sox best prospects or half off the contract.

The batters he's facing aren't that great, but he's getting strikeouts and keeping the ball in the yard. Good signs. Means he's healthy at least. potential to make a big difference

Trade or extend. Will there be a 1 year arb contract for Arraez? https://www.mlb.com/video/luis-arraez-s-head-shakes

Since JB signed his extension with TOR before the end of the season, it's definitely good the Twins traded him. He was just gone. He seems to be a guy who has difficulty being coached and maintaining focus. Very talented, but just not reliable. SWR and Martin both still look like good pickups even if most of the value seems to be on SWR's side.

I love risk when it's not mine!

I like the idea behind Sale, and the upside is grand. Plus they could do the whole buy a prospect thing by accepting Sale's full contract and taking that little dude Rafela. He seems like an Ozzie Albies kind of guy. That way if Sale just keeps on having a crummy elbow/shoulder relationship they still get something out of the effort.

Kiriloff currently sits very close to done. They could let him play in AAA to get un-done, but until that gap power comes back, it's over for him. He's not good enough defensively to let it ride out at the big league level. Tough break for a good prospect. If only Max is traded, I see a LF/CF/DH chimera with Gordon, Bux, Austin Martin and Celestino. Gallo will likely play nearly every day in right. He doesn't have any real platoon splits. His thing is just making better contact. Larnach can put that to bed by being healthy and effective in Left. He's also shown good D and limited indication of overcoming the platoon split level. Celly is probably out in that case, awaiting an IL stint for any of the Outfield Quadrangle.

Jurickson Profar. He's been good in LF for the Padres and has hit pretty well in a pitcher's park. He also has some positional flexibility.

They want overall positive win value players. Baez has never been worth less than 2 wins in a full season. He had a tough year last year offensively, sure. But I'm buying the bump on him getting into a good lineup and thriving. Last year was his first bad full year in a while. I don't think he's permanently stuck there.

Cabrera and Luzardo would be the dream get for the Twins and definitely worth Lee as the central part of the package. I don't know the full package, but the Twins absolutely could build it. The rotation would be solid (with at least two , could go 6 deep at all times, with the other stating options taking turns at Spå Bullpën to keep them arms light. Rotation - 1 - Grey, 2 - Ryan, 3 - Luz, 4 - Cab, 5 - Maeda, 6 - Mahle I like the idea of moving your most talented starters to the middle of your rotation, because it maximizes their seasonal value. (Against an Ace you generally need the Ace to have a bad day anyway to win so why not burn the bad start against a shut out?) I don't really think the Twins Rotation can be all that optimized, since everyone is all kinda on the same basic above average level. Cab and Luz bring potential for #1, but their floor is still good for the Twins outlook. Bully would look something like this: Ober as SP 7, rotating in and pitching 5 innings frequently. Pagan as the DFA ready long guy. (Emilio has to pitch his way out of the doghouse in these low leverage innings) Thielbar, Moran, Jax, Alcala, Lopez and Splink at the back end. I would Sign Matt Moore and bring back Fulmer to beef the Bully up. That would mean a DFA for Pagan, and likely AAA for Moran (unless Alcala is still slow to recover). If a 5 Man is better, you could still do the rotating starter with Kenta and Mahle and Ober all recovering from tough health years. SWR, Louie, Blaze and Henriquez would all be doing their best to knock on the door.

Trade values don't exist in a vacuum. While BTV sees all teams as able to access the same pools of players, it's obviously not real life. The Marlins would be adding wins with that trade, and not subtracting much from their pitching potential. While the fish would technically be losing potential Win value, as it stands at leas some of their talent will be rotting at AAA, wasting their value entirely. And losing erodes talent, so Lop and Luz might be worth less by the deadline. But if the Marlins insisted, the Twins could toss in a prospect like Lee to get it over the top. Or Two if they don't want Arraez. Or they could take Rogers instead of Luzardo. That being said, I wasn't saying that's the only route. I'm just saying that the Twins extra bits would be sure fire starters for the Marlins, so a deal can be made there without really hampering the Twins pursuit of the ALC crown (and eventual playoff success).

Yes, but yet we could jettison all 4 of those guys and still feature 10 batters who are able to OPS+ well over 100. My point in the suggestion is that Miami is in a really bad place and the twins have enough knocking at the door to help them out with established big league bats. It's a good match for a trade.

Baez would play second. When he was with the Cubs, he played a lot of 2nd early on and was possibly the best in the game at turning double plays and laying down tags. He showed ++ range. Polo could settle in to a super utility role or take over first base (if Arraez is also moved for pitching). Polo and Farmer could both rotate through the infield, keeping all legs fresh and offering minimal daily downgrades to the lineup. Farmer could be left side understudy and Polo on the right, taking more DH days himself as he's also generally a plus offensive bat, who could use less time on his feet.

Well, the only way Max has trade value is if someone believes the shift ban will help him. (Or other batted ball profiles) If he's hitting 220/300/300 in June the trade will be Max Kepler for the Absence of Max Kepler. It may be a mental approach to seeing the whole team standing between first and second, but Max's batter ball profile the past couple years is one who hits balls on the ground and elevates weak contact. The shift ain't really hurting that. The real secret is to get his hard hit percentage up, and decreasing his gB%. If it were just that easy, everyone would hit. At his salary, I'd keep him as a 4th outfielder, if it came to that. Since there are so many teams who need multiple competent outfielders, but have 'extra' pitchers, the Twins should trade him now rather than later.

It can barely be believed that Max would have been the Marlins 3rd best (OPS+) hitter last year. The Twins should be offering a little 'instant offense' package of Garlick, Kep, Gordon and Arraez. They could get Luzardo and one of Cabrera, Rogers or Lopez. That would be a pretty good deal for them, as they clearly don't have the cash to bring in decent hitters, and just sent away another contributor. The Twins would probably have to pick up most of the salary on that, but it could work. Miami might want to get a prospect, then they can't have Gordon.

Don't worry. Lewis is currently very near un-tradable. Until there is a clear indication of how he's gonna come back from his second attempt surgery, his value is closer to zero than Kepler. That's because there aren't that many rebuilding teams with valuable vets right now. A team like that will still bet on potential. But all the dance partners right now seem to be looking for solid big league options. Oakland, maybe? But Definitely not Miami.

The Giants didn't really offer a 'Market Price', though. They did one of those can't refuse kind of deals. They walked in to the dealer, saw the other dude looking at the Ferrari and loudly offered 25% above list to be sure they got it. But then as the paperwork was being drawn up, they wondered if it came in blue. If the Mets offer had been the original high offer, I think the Twins would have kept dancing. They were already willing to go 28/ per for 10. No way they wouldn't have sweetened the pot on a few of the early years and got to and average of 31.5 for 10. But he called saying SF is going 350 and they responded oh man, you gotta take that. Probably with some bit of (ultimately correct) doubt it would actually happen. I don't know this for sure, but it seemed like the Twins had a thing about 10 years. I think there used to be a bit of a norm that was cracked with Lindor and now sits in pieces on the league office floor. But from an accounting perspective, it makes sense to put a cap on how you categorize the outlay. To them they probably saw the Correa value around 285, didn't matter if it were 10 or 13 years. And that wasn't way off from the 'market'. There just wasn't any reason to keep negotiating when the over market deal was already out there. This ignores the fact that the cost of living index difference (which includes all the various tax implications and such) between SF and MPLS is .47. Obviously for The Mega Rich that is nowhere near as stark, and MLB taxes are paid where the game is played, but let's charitably say that it's 20% cheaper to work and live in MPLS. That makes the actual value compared to the Twins offer -5 Million. And by stretching the deal out to 13 years, the Giants offer cash value would depreciate an additional 2-3% every additional year, making that 350 guarantee considerably less valuable than the 285 the Twins offered. So while CC can 'only' get a max of 270 now, the way the Twins have front-loaded the payments, they have actually offered CC a more valuable contract, assuming he can play it out.

Max only needs to go if they're running into payroll issues (which I doubt), otherwise his production is worth the streaky bat. Maybe move him to a team that has a problematic contract from a previous administration. Javy Baez is a good example. He's making 24M this year, but wouldn't be shocked to find the (constantly) rebuilding Tigers would do Kep for Baez straight up (maybe one suspect/prospect to save face). That would put Baez at a 2023 payroll price of essentially 15M which his defense alone is worth. Of course that still leaves the Twins on the hook for 24-27, but the cost of wins will go up and his price is set. Maybe the Tigers are comfortable with a complimentary piece being paid like a team leader <shrug emoji>. He just seems more suited to being a contributor to a contender than a focal point of an emerging franchise. I could see a road to the Twins adding Baez and keeping Kep, but it's tough to see both of their downtrend bats in the lineup. You can totally stash a hitter like Baez at 9, cuz he can be explosive for a week and he's got good wheels. That means Kep would need to rediscover the line drive or there would be two pretty iffy spots in the lineup. Max appears to be of limited utility in acquiring pitching. So it might be most realistic to be considering his D and occasional offense a part of the team?

I hope that in May when SD gives him his release, the Twins send a jet to bring him in as Director of Longevity and Readiness. He could have additional duties as assistant bench coach and jr assistant hitting coach.

Don't trade ML Pitching that has been above average. Getting Bednar is a Yes, doing it with a ML quality starter is a No. I'd try to sell them on Jordy Blaze (after I'd absorbed a couple of those Marlins Starters) and another good prospect.

Plenty of payroll headroom to add 3 relievers at around 7-8 each. Andrew Chafin, Matt Moore, Michael Fulmer.