The Twins embarked on the biggest deadline sell-off. It was obvious that they'd trade rentals Willi Castro, Harrison Bader, Chris Paddack and Danny Coulombe. There was enough smoke to believe they'd move one of their top two controllable relievers, Jhoan Duran or Griffin Jax. Given the injury history with Brock Stewart, he seemed a good bet to go as well.
Their week was nevertheless staggering. Minnesota traded both Duran and Jax. They dumped more than $70MM of Carlos Correa's contract for no return. The player they received, Matt Mikulski, was once a notable draft prospect but is a 26-year-old reliever in High-A who'd signed a minor league deal with Houston two months ago. They even went as far as to trade Louis Varland, a Twin Cities native who would've been their best remaining reliever. Varland is controllable for five additional seasons and won't qualify for arbitration until the 2026-27 offseason. Aside from the few hundred thousand dollars they saved by attaching Ty France in that deal, that didn't even cut costs. Minnesota evidently decided that the volatility associated with any relief pitcher was enough to put Varland on the table as well.
Given how aggressively the Twins ripped down the roster, it was almost surprising they didn't go further in the end. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported shortly before the 5:00 pm Central deadline that the Red Sox were making another run at Joe Ryan. It doesn't seem they came close to getting a deal done when Boston balked at trading an MLB outfielder. Still, one imagines the Sox and many others will be eager to reopen those talks once the offseason begins.
The Twins will play out the string with a bullpen comprising journeymen and waiver pickups. To the extent there's any intrigue left this season, it's in getting looks at young players like Luke Keaschall, Alan Roden (acquired from Toronto in the Varland deal) and Zebby Matthews. They acquired 24-year-old righty Taj Bradley in a one-for-one swap for Jax and added 23-year-old righty Mick Abel as part of their return for Duran. Both are starting their organizational tenure in Triple-A but could get a look later in the season.
While the next couple months won't be particularly interesting, the Twins are facing a massive offseason. What could be in store?
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Somewhere down in the basement
The Twins have a ton of talent. They still have good players on the big league team and they are loaded with good prospects many of which are ready for the bigs.
They will be fine next year especially in that division. They have an ace in Ryan and a star in Burton. I pick them for second place next year.
They trade away the young good players and the ones they bring up have their talent squandered because they sign 3rd tier and washed up veterans to fill spaces. With this ownership group they’ll NEVER win. It’s sad for the fans there. It’s basically a glorified minor league system. Bottom line is…the Twins suck past, present, and future.
Which young players did they trade away?
The pen is important, and I hate to see Louie go, but be realistic. We didn’t unload a bunch of crazy talent.
We signed the position players that we traded so we could trade them.
We moved Correa because… who cares, thank god we moved him.
I love Willi too, but he was a luxury item for a team that needed to get the young players on a major league field in their natural positions.
But go on!
Stay raging even if you don’t understand it.
@roob, I agree.
Don’t know why Franco recommends trading all their good players. They should build around them. They have good prospects coming and can fill in other needs with free agency.
Abel should be great in Twin Cities. Jenkins not far off as is Culpepper and some other fine young players.
The future is bright in Minnesota.
For me, the most fascinating thing is what caused them to build up so much debt? Are we to believe that the Twins were operating in the red for the last several years in spite of their relatively low payrolls?
Bullpens can be rebuilt overnight and Correa wasn’t doing anything that’s going to make him impossible to replace. But if the franchise has serious revenue issues, that could have some major implications.
I agree the debt is particularly interesting, and while this is pure speculation, I would not be surprised to find out the owners borrowed against the Twins knowing that they could sell the team at a considerable profit and pay off their debt, to fund other businesses. Also I think a lot of older owners are getting out because they don’t want to deal with the headache of the transition from the RSN model to streaming or some other model that will be the future of how we watch sports. Its silly and baseball is already making progress on that transition, but to some it definitely seemed easier to just make a multi-million dollar contract with a RSN and roll in the money.
This is the prevailing opinion, borrowing money against the Twins to fund other business ventures. No idea whether it’s correct, but in general the Twins have been profitable.
We have seen a decline in revenue in the past two years, but that is mainly due to media contracts (lack thereof) and the fan base being alienated by ownership cutting payroll after winning a playoff series.
chem – I talk a lot with Twins fans who live in Minnesota and go down to Ft Myers for ST, they all say the same thing … they refuse to attend games before June because of the open air stadium.
That would explain why just two years ago when they won the division, they couldn’t even draw 2M fans.
To add on, whoever the new owners of the Twins will be, they will be welcomed with open arms. They will probably be the most popular people in the region.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around how they built a nice domed stadium for the football team and built a really nice open air stadium for the baseball team! I couldn’t believe they didn’t at least do a Milwaukee thing and put a retractable roof on it.
I don’t remember all the details behind Target field, but the majority of the costs to build Target field was funded publicly by imposing a 0.15% tax in Hennepin county. The lease goes through 2039 and current legislation is proposing to extend the lease by another 20 years with an annual amount allotted for maintenance and renovations. I think most were opposed to a retractable roof due to the extra cost.
The Vikings are the #1 team in town and it’s not even close. The vast majority of US Bank stadium was funded by the MN Vikings owners. Hope that clears some things up.
Not really. Like my old man always said if you’re not going to do it right then don’t do it at all. The cost of the roof could have been offset by the hosting of other events when the baseball team wasn’t there. Like Rodeo’s, maybe wrestling or other stuff I’m not smart enough to figure out that somebody should have. Just my opinion but hey if you’re happy it’s cool by me! LOL Since baseball insists on starting in mid March now and goes to November I hope you have good coats and enjoy watching baseball with players wearing parkas!
Seat listening was how the Vikings paid their portion. So fans payed for 100% of the stadium, either by taxes or huge seat licenses. Wilfs forked over zero dollars.
Weather has not been a factor in attendance. Losing is the issue. When the Twins win, they draw. When the owners don’t care, the fans tend not to care.
@chembry: Sales tax?
Uncle – I just posted about the stadium before reading your posts, you are 100% correct. Not having a roof just so they can save some construction costs is absurd.
A retractable roof stadium could generate revenue year-round with concerts and other indoor events. And most of all, it would bring fans to watch the Twins in March, April and May.
This is why the Brewers draw at least 2.5 million annually. (Plus, they’re better.) AmFam Field is often used for concert tours when the Brewers are on the road and during the offseason before it gets too cold. 100% chance of seeing a game when you buy a ticket, especially for groups traveling from out of town.
Target Field site didn’t have enough land for retractable roof. The engineers practically squeezed the stadium onto the current site.
When the Pohlads bought the team they were welcomed the same way. Even brought 2 world series. That was a long time ago.
The University of Minnesota plays in an open-air stadium in Minneapolis. If a college football team and their students and fans don’t have a problem with that, I don’t think there’s any excuse or reason for “cutbacks”
Yes a 0.15% sales tax in Hennepin county. That is the county encompasses Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs
Bob – I think you missed the part where I specifically pointed out the Twins were good just 2 years ago, winning the division, and yet still couldn’t draw 2M fans. It’s the weather.
If you’re saying winning a division title didn’t make them good, please keep in mind all the long-suffering Sox fans who have gone 7 long years without a division title and 4 years without a winning record.
Not again- If they didn’t have enough room for a retractable roof, Then I stipulate it wasn’t well thought out and they put it in the wrong place. That should have been a consideration. And if we want proof of what the stadium does for attendance somebody look up the attendance for years they played in the ” Big Baggie”. FPG is right when he says people aren’t going to plan an outing or vacation around it when they have no idea if the game will even be played.
Mike – I admit I know diddly about construction, but any idea why a retractable roof would take up much more space? Like for instance Rogers Centre about 80% of the roof swings around under the 20% of the roof that is stationary. It’s the only roof I’ve actually seen open and close in person though.
Yeah weather is a huge factor. When I’m traveling, I don’t want to be forced to choose between missing a game that is delayed/rescheduled or missing a flight.
Parking is non-refundable, I don’t want to pay up to $90 for parking near Fenway and then have the game rained out after a one hour rain delay.
I used to run bus trips to games, if the game gets rescheduled after the bus is already there, the bus company still gets paid.
So it’s not just a matter of comfort, covered stadiums remove the many risks involved with open air stadiums.
FPG- The only one I’ve ever been in is the one in Milwaukee. It kind of rotates around and probably does take up more room than most I’m guessing but it’s built in a huge space so it doesn’t matter. Milwaukee’s is kind of unique in that even with the roof closed it is still kind of ” Open Air” in a sense because the panels round the stadium aren’t closed. It can get a bit chilly depending on the time of year but it’s not unbearable. It takes a while to close too so closing it during the game causes a delay so no advantage is gained but that’s a small price to pay. It’s beautiful place to watch a game and I’ve sat in a ton of places there including the upper levels and I can say there isn’t a bad seat in the house. Lake Michigan can make Chicago weather dicey but there is no need for one over Wrigley. But I would expect Minnesota to take it into consideration at least.
Mike – Yeah from seeing the Brewers stadium on TV it does look beautiful, I’d like to get there someday. I wonder why closing the roof would cause a delay? The roof in Toronto takes only 20 minutes to fully open or close, and it’s completely silent. I’ve been there when it’s been closed, the game continues.
My favorite is still Globe in Arlington, such a great stadium.
No you just have to do it at the start of an inning so neither team supposedly gains an advantage that’s the only delay. It’s some kind of rule I think I don’t fully understand the gist either. It’s pretty simple to just look at the weather report and decide before the game though. Storms that just show up in the middle of the game with no warning are pretty rare.
Mike – Well I can say firsthand the Trop would suddenly have air blowing strongly toward the outfield at times, you could definitely call it “home field advantage”. LOL!
I heard the old Twins dome used to do the same thing.
I wasn’t aware that Minny had that many rainouts. I looed at an old report which showed only 2 rainouts over ten years, but it was dated 2010.
And I am pretty sure other teams have more rainouts.
@Formerly Transitioning from RSN will in no way be a headache for any MLB owner. It might cause a dip in revenue, but as far as the operations involved in new model that will fall on employees. At the end of the day it does not create any more work for the owners, just more work for their employees. It ll have no bearing on their lives.
Based on that mentality, short of them losing their billions and becoming poor nothing would bother them, which I disagree with. Most ppl that wealthy are pretty singularly focused on making the most money possible.
And they ll task someone with doing so on new media deals. If they dont deliver they ll fire them and bring in someone else. Again its not going to cause them any headaches it is not as tho they ll be working non stop themselves to get it done.
If that were the case you would not see owner involvement in their baseball ops, which happens all the time. They are stressing about little details, so they are definitely stressing about their main source of income for their team.
@Formerly Which owners and what little details are they involved in?? Just because you make a claim does not make it true….
Do you not read and listen to sports media? There are regular examples of owners meddling in everything from contract disputes to trade negotiations. Heck Jerry Jones of the cowboys is his own GM. Just because you’re not paying attention doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And if you think they are not doing the same thing on the business side you’re fooling yourself.
So you re going to give one singular NFL owner who is involved in major personnel decisions. Thats not one example if a specific owners and which specific little details they are involved in.
My guy we are in a discussion board, I’m not writing an essay here, I could give a dozen more examples of owners meddling in the small stuff, but I’m not here to teach just to discuss, so I’ll give you 4 that I can think of off the top of my head.
– Cohen hired Sterns and told him they were going after Soto, and basically ran the Soto contract discussion
– D-backs owner came out and said last year, he drove the signing of Montgomery and was upset that it backfired.
– Angles owner is notorious for getting in the way of his baseball ppl’s decisions
– moving to the NFL the Jets owner was using madden rankings to force his coaches to start or sit players.
If you need more examples google is free, but I’m done because I’ve clearly made my point.
Personal decisions on players in $10s of or $100s millions are not minor details. Obviously when a player such as Soto signing a record contract the owner will be involved. They all I assume are involved in enforcing a budget is adhered to overall.
Again you have provided no examples of owners being involved in minor details. And no Im not doing the legwork to back your claim. You made the claim seems pretty clear you can’t back it by fact.
You’re choosing to be deliberately obtuse. I provided several examples backed by facts that you are choosing to ignore. I’m done providing more of my time and effort for someone who does want to admit when they are wrong. Just the fact that you can’t equate owner involvement in multi-million dollar player deals as an example for why they would be involved in multi-million dollar TV/Streaming deals that provide their team with one of its main sources of income, is proof enough that this discussion is pointless.
Im in no way being obtuse. This discussion began with you mentioned the owners involvement in media deals and then u went on to mention them getting involved in minor details. The only thing you have mentioned is owners who have been involved in roster decisions and have had influence over things generally covered by GM the person pretty much 2nd in command. Those are in no way minor details or comparable to an owner being involved in the process of negotiating media deals or the equivalent.
What is making you deliberately obtuse is the focus on the word choice “minor details” instead of understanding the substance of the discussion. Which is that if owners are getting involved with GM decisions whether those discussions are minor, such as the pirates owner stopping the team from trading Bednar in prior seasons when he was at peak value or major such as the Mets owner signing Soto to the largest contract in sports history, then they are definitely getting directly involved in the media deals.
How about this you stated with an owner being involved with business operations not overstepping GM on roster decisions. You have provided zero examples of an owner being involved in business largest pro sports
You are really trying to compare being involved in largest pro sports contract ever to an owner haggling out a media deal. That is laughable to say the least. Again you have done nothing except mention owners being involved with roster decisions, you have provided nothing to substantiate your initial claim.
You continue to miss the forest for the trees. You continue to miss the point while focusing in on one or two words in a paragraph, or one example in a group of five examples. Maybe I was wrong, maybe you’re not being deliberate in your obtuseness. Maybe you are actually unable to make inferences from context clues. I didn’t use a business example because they are far less discussed in media because the average fan doesn’t care about the details of a team’s media rights deal unless it negatively affects them. But the fact that you have proven incapable of understanding that media rights deals that go for any where from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars over a shorter period of time then the Soto deal makes it comparable in importance and therefore likely to warrant the same level of owner involvement is what is making you obtuse. Not to mention most teams can afford Soto, many teams think deals that pay tens of millions of dollars a year are a big deal for them and would therefore warrant direct owner involvement, regardless of if its players contract or a media rights deal. Wealthy people pay people to do innate jobs like walk their dog and take their clothes to the cleaners, not to make multi-million dollar decisions about their business. If owners can’t keep their hands out of the sports side of things that they generally know very little about, why would they not have direct involvement in their area of expertise, the business side.
Again are you going to provide an example?? You are speculating of why owners(who you have not provided an example of) would be involved. You are also making an assumption that because of those owners that are businessmen(not all are or were) have experience in negotiating such things or have the desire.
All your speculation means nothing if you can’t back it by fact. Talk around it all you want, you made an unsubstantiated claim therefore you carry the burden of proof.
I provided several examples, ur choice to ignore them, I personally don’t care if you agree with me or not. But this is a discussion board not a college essay, there is no burden of proof, especially for generally available knowledge. If you care about it do your own research on the topic, but I’m not required to do free work for you.
You provided examples of owners meddling with roster decisions. You provided ZERO examples of owners meddling with BUSINESS decisions.
Over the last several seasons, the Twins have had record-high payrolls for their club.. despite the spending, poor on-field performance.. a nosedive in attendance.. and lost their TV deal.
Borrowed against team to cover commercial real estate positions after it collapsed during COVID
These billionaires all leverage assets for finamcial gain. Its not just pro sports owners, its a cheat code left in our way to complex tax code that allows the ultra rich to compound wealth while minimizing tax burden.
I’m not sure what the point is. Interest is a deductible business expense, just like mortgage interest if you have rental property.
I wonder if much of the debt wasn’t in effect somehow transferred from their other business interests in order to significantly reduce their capital gains tax hit when they sell the club.
As far as how easy it is to rebuild a good bullpen “overnight” (especially with no closer present?) look back to 2011. The Twins were coming off a 94 win season. They thought they would save a few pennies by letting most of their deep bullpen go.
Viola – a thin bullpen plus the aftermath of injuries to Mauer and Morneau and 94 wins morphs into 99 losses.
The paywalls are annoying and has me considering abandoning this site.
Oh God, the horror of having to pay 4 dollars a month for content!
I agree that paywalls are annoying, but as someone who has been reading MLB trade rumors since it started, I have noticed a massive up tick in chats and these kinds of opinion articles ever since they rolled out the front office subscription. So really what you paying for is extra stuff they did not produce before, it’s not like ESPN where 95% of their articles are locked behind paywalls now, or the Athletic where it’s subscription only. You can still use the site for everything you got from it in the past without paying, you just won’t get the extras. Also as far as subscription prices go they are pretty cheap.
Hear, hear! IMHO they are easily worth twice the price.
agree though I won’t stop reading. I am still able to read most of what I want…don’t need to pay for anything else.
Regarding the one poking fun because it is four bucks…sometimes it’s the principle, but honestly I have never paid for an internet site and never will.
The principal Oh, FFS.
Somebody is producing content for your consumption. You need a reality check and probably a paycheck.
The 10 cents a day is nothing. N O T H I N G.
Sideline yourself. It’s a sad act.
sideline hit the nail on the head. This is purely on principle. Some of us aren’t okay with every single thing in our lives involving a fee/subscription. That was what went right over Brett batys head, apparently.
I absolutely agree. It’s the principle. I believe in paying for what I use, therefore I pay for the subscription.
Almost every single thing in your life involves a fee or paying. It’s how the real world works. If you don’t feel that’s the case, give up your internet, housing, food, clothes, and every single article of possession and consume the air, because that’s free at least.
Bustedstuff88
This is purely on principle. Some of us aren’t okay with every single thing in our lives
=====================
To be honest, companies are already far too generous. If a payment is made to create content, then anyone reading the content incurs some type of obligation.
Just because it’s not the penny pamphlet from 250 years ago doesn’t change that.
You’re entitled to your opinion, obviously, but like 95% of the content on this site is still free. All news stories and transactional information articles are still free. For me, the low cost and the reality that MLBTR needs to do this to keep the lights on makes it worth it for me. They’re not forcing anyone to pay to access almost all of the articles here, like some news websites have done.
10 cents a day. Busted. Don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out.
“Gee Bobby. Bye. Are you gonna call me?”
The local 7-11 sells a nice Cinnabon, but they refuse to give them to me free. I’m of a good mind to take my business to Dunkin. Their donuts aren’t quite as good, but they’re still free.
I mostly come here for the interactions
Discussions are a lot more fun than just reading content. I honestly probably spend more time reading thoughtful insights from commenters than the articles themselves
Plus you’ll get more info from fans themselves as to why their teams made moves mlbtr usually doesn’t put into their articles
Let’s keep in mind that thoughtful does not mean the same thing as intelligent or informed
First thing’s first, they need new ownership. The quicker that happens, the better the team can do to do a proper rebuild. Until then, it’s going to be status quo since the current ownership has debt issues.
The Twins match-up against the Yankees next week and should expose exactly how far the Yankees have fallen. Boone will get out managed again and the bullpen will be over exposed and cooked. All this from a team, Mr. Franco clearly points out, has several holes to fill and is now clearly rebuilding.
Astros are coming into Yankee Stadium this weekend and that’s going to be a show in fron of their fans. Jomboy is going to have an aneurysm watching Boone manage that series.
Boone will get out managed by Baldelli? You’re funny.
More like whether Boone can out-Boone Baldelli (with slightly more indifference to managing) or if Baldelli can out-Baldelli Boone (with slightly less indifference)
Baldelli couldn’t “outmanage” a t-ball coach. Boone is no great shakes as a tactician, but Rocco is one of the worst in-game managers I’ve seen in 60 years as a fan.
They looked better than the Detroit Tigers !
They’ll be OK.
Yeah they will be fine. Saving money now, added a bunch of prospects and having money to spend in the offseason.
We’ve heard that one before though, most recently with Baltimore last year, who managed to lose their best pitcher and made Tyler O’Neill their big spending spree.
You may not agree with how the money was spent (I am an Orioles fan and I certainly don’t), but Rubenstein nearly doubled the payroll he inherited from John Angelos in less than a full year as owner.
The Baltimore “spending spree” was less than met the eye, primarily because they were finally in a “had to spend” situation.
Tyler O’Neill (the “big FA pickup”) essentially replaced what they would have paid existing RF Anthony Santander. Gary Sanchez was a costly, ineffective replacement for former backup catcher James McCann. Although neither Santander nor McCann have produced anything this year, O’Neill and Sanchez are producing way below what those two did in 2024.
Elias then giggled at the winter meetings on an interview about how they moved the LF wall back in because they signed O’Neill and Sanchez…while other owners busily signed pitchers. I’ll never forget this BS.
Because they waited out the market and refused to spend top dollars because “too much risk” they seemed satisfied spending smaller amounts of money on marginal players who didn’t pan out.
– Morton, $15M, lost first 7 starts
– Sugano, $13M, good for 2 months, now getting shelled
– Gibson $5M desperation signing, was beyond terrible
For that money they could have had Fried, or Pivetta plus change.
– Kittredge, RP, $9M because they freaked over Hoffman’s medicals. Kittredge got hurt almost immediately and missed the first 2 months. Instead of Coulombe, who has been much more effective this year and would have been cheaper too.
Almost all the other activity was required spending for all the players (trapped) in pre-arb/arb. They paid all but 1 or 2.
Elias’ best signing of the year was on the cheap, Ramon Laureano, who outperformed expectations and was traded despite having a cheap option year remaining and Elias claiming he was focused on those on expiring contracts.
None of the young core have been signed to extensions. I think they are only fully committed to O’Neill for 2026 and 2027 at this point as there is no way he will opt out so he can sit on the DL most of the next 2 yrs They have $0 committed for 2028.
In short, yes the dollars went up, most of it was forced, and their spending was a paper tiger.
Oh, but ever useless pinch runner, error making, non-hitting Jorge Mateo has a $5.5M team option for 2026.
Like I said, you may not agree with *how* the money was spent, but the money was indeed spent, and it was a hell of a lot more spending than John Angelos ever authorized during his tenure as the de facto owner of the Orioles.
That’s progress no matter you slice it.
Right gotigers68
I would certaunly base the Twins entire prospects for future success on one relatively meaningless three game series in early August.
As an impartial observer, Isn’t the answer to the question,” It totally depends on who buys the team”? Just sayin
It always is.
The Twins have always had a history of being run well and building it back up quickly. Hopefully they keep that up for their fans.
Minnesota hasn’t spent limited funds wisely in recent years. The $400 million in debt is going to serve as further disincentive to spend in free agency. A quick reload can be safely ruled out.
If I’m Derek Falvey, the only solution is a ruthless selloff of the remaining veteran core this off-season, save for a few youngsters like Raley, Lewis , Wallner and Keaschall.
The farm system is already packed with talented hitters. They may as well restock to the maximum extent possible and try to build a pitching pipeline. At that point, the next step is a series of low dollar, high impact investments in analytics, scouting, coaches and trainers.
Any sale of the team is clearly a ways off. Fixing the foundations of the team will ultimately produce a better product for fans and owners. If they act quickly and decisively a turnaround could come faster than expected.
Still, what a mess. The front office needs to accept the reality of the limited payroll and wisen up.
Hoyer already gifted you a couple of good Pitchers in Gallagher and Armstrong. But 2 stud arms is way to big a price to pay for a utility rental guy no matter how much they needed him. It’s the same as what Hoyer paid for Tucker and Busch. Busch has turned out to be nice player but he was going to be traded or left as rule 5 fodder so he didn’t really command 2 top 100 prospects. But Hoyer is the worst trader in the history of the sport. He overpays for everything shiny he wants. Like Gollum, ” Must have the precious”!
I’m not a twins fan, my username ends in ‘yank.’. Anyhoo, I don’t think the Castro trade was a particularly egregious overpay relative to other deadline trades, just that a veteran centric strategy of team building is outdated for today’s game.
The basic criticism I would level at Hoyer, Cashman, Dipoto, Preller and Dombrowski (possible exception there), is that they’re seemingly always upgrading the 26 man roster and impoverishing the broader organization of talent. Eventually the bill comes due.
Unfortunately for us Yanks fans, no matter how barren the farm gets, they have ownerships big wallet to rely on. Only reason Cashman still has a job. Which is simultaneously the only reason Boone still has a job. Imagine Cashman trying to run the Marlins. Imagine Boone trying to manage the Pirates. They’d be irrelevant.
Yankees can keep buying enough wins to stay in the expanded playoff race year in and year out. But in the dog days of July,August,September when injuries add up,the pitching staff gets worn out,and we actually have to rely on Boones managing to steal some wins, is where we will continue to watch losses. We will just have to watch him pick his nose and blow bubbles with his gum until we inevitably lose in October. This year will we even make it to October?
The fact that the front office got extended after tearing down the team that they built is absolutely disgusting. The only hoped Twins fans have is that we will have new owners before the offseason really kicks off. Despite dealing almost 40% of the roster, this team showed in this Detroit series that they’re not that far away from being a fringe playoff contender once again. Just need to rebuild the bullpen and find a couple solid hitters
They actually still have a good rotation. Other than that I’m not sure where they go.
As you mention, our rotation wasn’t touched and got even deeper last week with the addition of Abel and Bradley. When healthy, the rotation is Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Matthews, Festa, SWR…Now we also have Abel, Taj Bradley, and about 3 pitchers at AAA that are ready to make that jump.
Two questions about the rotation:
1. Will we retain Lopez/Ryan/Ober during the offseason. My bet is one of the 3 will be traded and my guess is Joe Ryan.
2. Which of all those SP that I mentioned should convert to bullpen arms. The prevailing opinion amongst most fans is that David Festa and Marco Raya (AAA) should make the move and maybe SWR.
Position players: Yes we lost 3 guys on expiring contracts (Bader, Castro, France) and Correa. Correa wasn’t living up to his contract and this was probably the best move we made. Bader and Castro were tougher to lose. However, we still have a good young core in Lewis, Keaschall, Lee, Wallner, and Jeffers; with a lot of talent at AA and AAA that we will see this year and next..
The obvious question is the bullpen. Can 2 or 3 of those starters I mentioned step into high leverage bullpen situations or will we go out and sign some lower tier bullpen arms. If we convert 2 of those fringe starters that are competing for the #5 spot (eg Raya and Festa), we could have a decent bullpen next year. That is all hypothetical though and really don’t know which direction we will go.
That’s what I’m here for. Ryan & Lopez are a pretty good 1/2. Ober & Zebby should be roughly league-average. SWR, Festa & Taj should produce a decent #5.
I’m betting the over next year.
You’re very optimistic. If Pablo were healthy he would be gone too, and if pohlads still own the team come the offseason he’s gone. If none of the guys you mentioned, all have 5 ERA this year, don’t step into Joe/pablo territory it won’t matter if Buck is healthy and Royce is in mvp talks or keshchall is what we all hope. Too many flash in the pans for me to believe in this team
He’s always optimistic and in favor of the owners, if you know JoeBrady’s history lol
To fight the white Sox for last place
Twins received some very good players in return for the veterans @ the Trade Deadline.
They have a lot of young, hungry players fighting to establish themselves as major leaguers as they showed in the recent series with the Tigers.
Very likely that Ownership is trying to “clean up the books” to make the Twins more saleable.
They did the right thing and could surprise people by becoming much more competitive, much sooner than a lot of people think.
Twins fans deserve better ownership than the Pohlads.
They will get new ownership soon. Whether the new ownership group is better is up in the air.
Last place in the Central?
If they spend to the 2025 budget, then they have another $78M to improve their offense and BP next year. Rotation is probably okay.
Lol.
If they were willing to spend to tbe 2025 budget, They wouldn’t have given away the entire bullpen.
I look for a payroll under $100 million next year. With the players already signed, new arbitration cases, arbitration raises and minimal salaries to fill out the roster, they are already around $85 million.
Contracted as was the plan back recently
“Recently”. Like before Paul Skenes was even born
Lmao
“To the moon, Alice!”
No where but home.
Small market teams just don’t have that many revenue sources, even if they have a beautiful new stadium as the Twins do. The Twins are 25th in attendance. The fear is that they become like the Pirates, who are 26th in attendance.
Honestly? They should keep selling what they can, do a true rebuild at this point. Their lineup isn’t a complete wreck but it isn’t great. And I don’t think it’s enough to build off of. And sure their rotation looks ok but is it really? Would you bank on it? They clearly want to clear the books for a new ownership. Clean house, reset, and let that ownership do something that the current ownership just isn’t willing to do, which is build a great team. The people deserve better
Meh. Removing $50M in payroll, in a $2B sale, isn’t really clearing the books A prospective owner is more likely to be concerned with improving revenues than decreasing expenses.
They are still recovering from that terrible Mauer contract.
I’d take on Mauer’s over Darren Drefort’s contract
The Mauer contract was necessary because he was the hometown boy and they were about to move into their new ballpark. They couldn’t take the P R. hit of him leaving at that point in time.
It wasn’t so much the amount of Mauer s contract that hurt, but rather the fact that ownership could use the fact that it was 25% of their total payroll as an excuse to not spend.
I would not be surprised to see the present Twins ownership to trade away starters Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober, the Twins three top starting pitchers, away as soon as the season ends.
Where do they go from here? Down to the bottom of the standings for the next 5 years, That’s what all teams do after being sold.
The two questions are:
1) Will they deal Ryan, Lopez or Ober in the offseason.
2) Will they get an owner that wants to put in an honest effort to win?
If they maintain the rotation and actually sell to a new owner that cares they aren’t in that bad of shape.
I feel like the Twins are taking the road the Orioles did for years after 2000, what was called the “stars and scrubs” model. They’ll pay for a couple better players and fill out the rosters with AAAA guys, never-ripened prospects, etc. They get caught in a cycle of 70-80 win teams, never having the drastic tear-down to the studs and rebuild (2018-21) that the Orioles fans are still waiting to pay off in the post season, but never going all-in and getting the top tier players you need to win games and make the playoffs like the bigger name teams.
Its a shame, too. MN fans enjoy their sports; football unconditionally but the Twins fans would come back to a winner. I’ve been to Target Field and it was a great place to see a game (it wasn’t March or April). It was also incredibly easy to get out of the parking garage and onto the highway after a game. I went in 2019, weeknight game, near-sellout.
Their only free agents are Urena, E.Ramirez, and Vazquez. They’re not going to pickup Topa’s option.
They have many players eligible for the Rule 5 draft. The Twins will nontender a few other players to accommodate the Rule 5 draft, and to allow space for free agent pickups.