killertwinfan

This may be one of the smarter statements I have heard about the free agent market. The factor used for risk in their equation could trump the possibility for the 10 year high dollar deals. The players have to chose for high salary or high security. They can't have both until the risk factor is adjusted.

Don't we have two of him already at first base? FO is feeling the heat and trying to make it like they are doing something when they are doing more of nothing. Still BOO!

Duda? Now? Does this even make sense? So what if one, two or three of these guys knocks the cover off the ball and fields like a demon in spring training? It's not indicative of what we'll get come regular season, especially for the entire year! All you are doing is providing fodder fanbase and media of shoulda, coulda, woulda... BOOO!

I am glad you wrote this, but, to call a punt right now is premature. Clearly the FO did not make a strong effort to field a competitive team for 2019. What will be annoying is that that we have so many "maybes" on this roster that it is likely that 3 of these guys will pan out, not make a difference yet Falvine can declare victory and blame the lost season on an under performing core. I was patient with the start of this regime, but it is running out and I am not happy with roster as it stands.

If the Twins trade Kirilloff for a catcher, that is likely to be concussed and will have to be paid in 1 year, I will cancel my MLB season ticket. Our catching isn't great, but it is OK. Falvine should be focusing on positions of weakness, Pitching, 1B, 2B and decent depth that can play 3rd. Cruz is fine, but other than that we signed a bunch of maybes. No where near the caliber of Realmuto.

Totally agree. You won't know what this guy is going to do until he pitches in the regular season. And, btw, we just dfa'd a similar pitcher that would get base pay. So why did we let Zach Duke go?

Presently the only one in this lot that makes obvious sense is Gibson. I would love to get Berrios, but if he takes another step forward this year his value would sky rocket, so I see his agent advising him to wait. But injury risk can be a little scary. As far as our fielders, probably only Rosario is trustable at this point.

I wouldn't invest a lot into the catcher position. It creates too much risk with the new sensitivities to brain injuries. It just creates too much risk for middle market teams.

Technically I agree with you. He did answer, but he didn't really say much more than we might get lucky. For a front office to start the season with such low aspirations is tantamount to saying nothing.

Kudos to Chad for asking the right questions. But I totally disagree with the writer on his take that Falvey didn't side step his questions. I think it is the FO's job to make this team better than last year. We lost pieces and we added pieces but it is highly debatable that this team is better than the one that started the season last year which ended in a player dump. Our bullpen was poor on paper last year and is even poorer on paper this year. No closer? While I won't miss Rodney, I guess I would prefer to make an attempt to sign someone reasonable. I understand that the FO is waiting for our core to reach the next level before we go all in but, what that means to the fan base is a middling team at best unless Sano, Buxton and Kepler take the next step forward without regression from Rosario and Polanco. What scares me is that these guys good make good progress and we lose a bunch of games because of our pitching staff.

It seems to me that Machado is going to wait for Harper to sign and set the market. I am sure his agent has a wonderful case as to why he is worth more than Harper. The only rumors I can locate are that the Nat's offered 10/300 to Harper and WS offered 7/175 to Machado. I think it is hilarious how the agents rely on media rumors and become venomous when the rumors don't fall their way. Maybe the Chicago leaked a low number to keep Machado in the WS pay range... However, I don't see the Twins doing any of this because it will affect their ability to sign their own guys. We clearly have a build from within plan and whatever signing they make has to give them flexibility. I would love Machado but just don't see it happening even at 7/175, a rumor which has really pissed off Lozano (his agent).

They must have seen my post where I asked for a couple of arms. This guy clearly has two arms, so I guess I am supposed to be happy.

Free Agency has changed a lot so I don't want to be too early with criticism but what is the harm of adding some BP arms on short term deals . The Twins have the money and should spend it. I like the idea of May as a closer. And even if he works out we still need more arms.

I agree that the priority should be to extend our core, if they ever show up. However, we have control on these guys for multiple years. We could easily pick up a couple of players on 2 year deals and not affect that plan.

Correct, but they are screwing the whole state not just the fans. The stadium was built on the promise of higher team salaries and that has rarely happened.

Curiously absent from this discussion is the word "closer". Maybe that is too old school, but, this team will regret not having one. The guys on our roster are fill-in level not stopper level. This team had and AL leading 30 blown saves last year with the best team being 14 and the league average being 21. There is a potential for 9 wins if we just become average. Get a stopper if possible.

I agree with your sentiment. However, Pretty small sample size to declare Rodney a failure. Look at his numbers during his time with the twins and the full season and its tough to argue you didn't get what you were expecting.

Yes totally agree unless you can get them super cheap. However the keyword "closer" for me. I have not hear anyone writers or other talk about a closer. What do people think will happen? Committee?

With our luck dipping into "bargain pool" or any pool when it comes to pitching, money is better spent elsewhere. Good luck to our young arms!

If Austudillo isn't around there better be a very good reason. Maybe I missed it, but we still haven't heard where Garver is with concussions. I think we need the depth and he provides a ton of flexibility.

I agree that things went really bad last year and we still got 78 wins. Following the trend of this team and the conscious aide of no expectations for this team 84 seems very reasonable. Where I disagree is that Schoop is an upgrade over Dozier and I doubt that Cruz will do much to change the win column at DH. We have lost some key guys to this team in Mauer, Grossman and Escobar. Our additions may outperform the previous incumbents, but success lies in our key guys to start playing and our pitching to step it up just a bit to cover the gap.

I hope that is Sano, other than his face it doesn't even look like him.

Disappointing to say the least. There is not a lot to criticize the front office other than the fact that they haven't done much. Maybe they liked what they saw deep in the farm system and felt they had something to build on for the future. So they get 5 years to show something while the fans get 5 years of middling baseball at best. People need to vote harder with their dollars to change things.

I suppose when you have a top prospect that is on the verge of success or failure, all you can do is grasp at straws and wait.

I would vote for neither given our success with signing pitchers in this price range. Santana, Nolasco, Hughes and Pavano. It just seems like getting value with this talent level has been a crap shoot. Work on developing your own pitching. Focus on guys you can control and when you get a guy like Berrios try to extend him, or trade him for more talent. The Twins have been playing without pitching for a long time . They should be good at it by now.