puckstopper1

Hey Emilio - when does the bus to Wichita leave??

Awesome to see that Pagan is already in mid-season form!

IMO Kirby Puckett would fall into that category.

If Gordon or Gallo see much time in CF, then the Twins have issues. Taylor was brought in to back-up Buxton and hopefully his appearances in CF will be somewhat limited as well.

I saw the box score and say that a Twins pitcher named "Stewart" got knocked around and I had a flashback to mega draft bust Kohl Stewart. Ruined months of therapy...

As long as it is not Cave or Garlick DHing, I'm fine with a rotation especially since there is not a prototypical DH on the roster.

Sabato is Sano 2.0 (2020-2022 version) at best. Unfortunately the path he is on will have leave him as a first round bust.

As I mentioned in Cody's injury article earlier this week, Buxton is the most critical member of this team that needs to stay healthy. As shown above, if he is able to accomplish that, he can be a top 5 WAR player given his offensive and defensive abilities. A healthy Buxton gives the Twins a real shop at the Central.

While the others are important to have healthy and contributing, to me is begins and ends with Buxton. What a healthy Buxton brings to this team in terms of offense and defense is enormous. He could be a top 5 WAR player IF he can stay healthy.

JM: Good takes. I appreciate them. My point about the small market is that it is one of the things that is working against Mauer. Should it be? Absolutely not. But given that he did play in a small market, he had less national exposure. When he did have that national exposure (in the playoffs) they Twins had little success. These facts plus that facts that the Twin Cities media was regularly savaging him will not help his cause. Don't get me wrong - Mauer was the total package in his prime (sans a bit of power maybe). But the items above certainly will play against him.

As a catcher he was phenomenal and would / should be strongly considered for the Hall if he had stayed there. But he did not. He also did not play long enough, and he played for a small market team AND did not have any post season success. Sorry - but his is not a Hall of Fame candidate IMO.

Mike - I feel there are certainly players on the Twins roster last season who could be doing more on the base paths including Kepler, Gordon, Correa, Cave etc. It is a combination of both not having the runners AND the coaching philosophy. The Twins rankings in MLB steals per game the past 3 seasons has been: 2020 - Tied for Last; 2021 - 25th; 2022 - Last The point is expecting Martin to be a significant base stealer on the MLB roster is not likely to happen while Rocco is the manager. Having speed can certainly help him defensively.

Which unfortunately is a moot point with the current Twins manager.

It was his right wrist so his catching-hand wrist. This is good from a catching/throwing perspective but worse from a hitting perspective.

Excellent analysis @Harrison Smith. Thanks for pulling this together. What are your expectations for Maeda given his long layoff due to injury?

What?? The massive trade to for A.J. Alexy didn't make the list? Was it because the White Sox claimed him on waivers early this week.... 😆

The Twins are going to need some of the young talent to shine if they are going to take the next steps. This includes Miranda, Kirilloff, Jeffers, Larnach, etc. Having these guys grow into strong contributors will be required to strengthen the core of this team. It starts with health, so here is to a healthy year for all of them!

Really looking forward to what Joe does this season. The Twins need him to be solid and healthy given some of the other question marks in the rotation.

I didn't realize how desperate the Twins are for pitching that they signed Carlos Silva... I hope THIS Carlos is as successful as his elder namesake.

Prediction - Ryan LaMarre stuns the TD world like he did in 2018 and makes the Twins opening day roster as a RH bat... I sure hope I am wrong!

Was hoping - for excitement sake - that Correa/Boras would have said something like "Minnesota was always on the list, but it certainly wasn't at the top." Or - "it sucks that we had to lose out on $100M..." Stuff like that! C4 certainly make the team better, but to win those Championships that he desires is going to take some additional arms...

Thanks for clarifying chpettit. I am confused then as to why the Twins did not just outright him vs designating him for assignment vs. exposing him via waivers. I'm assuming doing it this way saves an option. Also looks like he was DFAed to make room for Axely on the 40 man.

Ortega was claimed on January 6th and DFAed on January 10th. I hope he enjoyed his stay in Minnesota! ? Maybe they will resign him to a minor league deal if he passes thru waivers.

Correa certainly strengthens the positional lineup. It is good to have guys competing for playing time - assuming they are all healthy - which is a BIG if. The pitching staff still has WAAAAAAAAYYYYY too many holes with the injury history to the starters to the inconsistency of the BP (except Duran). Relying on Lopez to be the main set-up guy (keep in mind he was outstanding for exactly 1/2 of a season and not very good for the other 6 /12 seasons of his big league career) is akin to relying on Pagan in the same role.

Helps the Twins in the short run but I still struggle to believe they are going to be a playoff threat without more strong arms. Also this should keep the Correa family out of the soup line for awhile, which was a concern that CC shared when he opted out of the previous contract with the Twins.