eric grundmeier

Knuckleball

I'd argue that Mahle has the highest 2023 ceiling of the Twins starting rotation. But he also may have the lowest floor - given the injury risk.

Add Taylor to make a bench trio = the best defense and position flexibility the Twins have had in many years. This bench trio's offense is likely to be average at best, but I'm hoping Larnach/Wallner will step up to add valuable bench offense. The trio's offense may be above average if Baldelli can minimize their at-bats vs same-handed pitching.

I'm in the camp that Gallo is an average corner outfielder at this stage of his career. Thankfully, the Twins have 3 of the top 11 outfielders by OOA over the past four years. 2019-2022 Baseball Savant data shows Buxton, Kepler and Taylor in the top 11. Joey Gallo has +4 OOA over those four years. (-3 in 2022.)

Zips has Lopez projected at 2.6 WAR for 2023. That fits in nicely to create a solid top 4 SP.

I think Lopez slots as our best SP. This is key as I don't think Maeda can pitch more than 120 innings. However, I will greatly miss every Arraez at bat. I fully expected him to "hit it where they ain't" every time and was disappointed when that didn't happen.

Right-handed DH should be left open for Buxton & Miranda. I just don't see a fit on this team.

The Twins need a leader that can bat in the front of the order and play quality defense up the middle. CC checks all of the boxes for me. 7 years/$220 million seems about right, but I think he'll get more than that.

I'd love for the Twins to sign Trevor Story, but that feels like a long shot. It helps a little that the Yankees seems to have taken themselves out of the mix with the trade for IK-F and adding the salaries of Donaldson & Rizzo. I recently talked to a family friend of Trevor. The word is that Trevor is waiting for Correa to sign. If Correa doesn't re-up with Houston, the Astros are his likely destination. If Houston signs Correa, then Story is in play for the remaining teams that have expressed interest in signing him. Similar to reports we've heard about Correa, Trevor appears open to signing a 1 or 2 year deal at a high AAV. And then looking for a long-term deal when he will be a top 2 or 3 SS available on the free agent market.

Thank you for 10 years of great content. This is my first post after nearly 10 years as a lurker. When I "semi-retire" in a few months, I look forward to contributing on a little bit more frequent basis.