All Things 2025 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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coolhandgopher said:
It’s a really small sample size, but Griffin Jax’s start with the Rays has been inauspicious. He gave up a 3 run home run to Cal Raleigh the other night, which lost the game for the Rays and in another outing he gave up a run, so his ERA’s over 10 with the Rays and pushing near 5.00 for the season.

We know that Jax has a live arm, strikes out a lot of batters and was lights out in ‘24, but he’s stunk for most of ‘25, going back to April when he was a big part of several demoralizing early season losses. He’s 30 years old. We have no idea what Bradley will contribute to the Twins yet, but it might not have been the worst idea to grant Jax’s trade request.
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After he implodes a few more times, we re-acquire him in the off-season for Michael Tonkin and Mickey Gasper. Brilliant!
 

Who was doing play by play on Twins TV today? While some of the "homer" announcers are a bit much for me, the guy today sounded like he woke up from a nap on Keashall's walk off. Come on! Gotta be excited about that!
 

TNGophfan said:
Who was doing play by play on Twins TV today? While some of the "homer" announcers are a bit much for me, the guy today sounded like he woke up from a nap on Keashall's walk off. Come on! Gotta be excited about that!
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The game was not on Twins TV, but instead was streamed via the Roku Sports Channel Game of the Week, thus the earlier start, (12:10 PM local).

Play-by-Play was former Gopher Ryan Lefebvre, who normally does the Royals games. Justin Morneau was the analyst.

Morneau has sounded like he woke up from a nap on every broadcast I have ever watched.
 
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From the Parkinglot said:
Pay that man.
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Will "playing with no pressure" prevent the Twins from peeing down their leg against the Yankees? My guess is no.
 

howeda7 said:
Will "playing with no pressure" prevent the Twins from peeing down their leg against the Yankees? My guess is no.
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If the Twins lose to the Yankees, will you see it as "peeing down their leg"?

I would see it as the Yankees having a superior roster.
 






Just Gopher It!! said:
That was a Class A worthy effort!!!
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Well, Ryan Lefebvre never advanced beyond Class A Ball as a player so that makes sense. Interesting coincidence is that he played for Watertown in the NY-Penn League as a Cleveland farmhand after his days as a Gopher. My grandfather was a 1 time season ticket holder for Watertown, but when they were a Pirates affiliate.

www.baseball-reference.com

Ryan Lefebvre Minor Leagues Statistics | Baseball-Reference.com

Ryan Lefebvre Minor Leagues Statistics including batting, fielding, prospect rankings and more on Baseball-Reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com

Also Lefebvre was briefly a Twins announcer in the late 90s.

www.si.com

Royals announcer criticized for weak calls of Twins homers on Roku broadcast

Ryan Lefebvre didn't bring the juice as a supposedly-neutral announcer on Sunday.
www.si.com www.si.com
 

MLB updated their top 100 overall and top 30 organization prospects lists. I believe Culpepper is new to the top 100.

Twins in Top 100
14. Jenkins OF
54. Tait C
64. Keaschall 2B
72. Rodriguez OF
77. Culpepper SS

Twins Top 30 Notable additions
2. Tait C - Duran trade
6. Abel P - Duran trade
7. Rojas P - Varland/France trade
8. Houston SS - 2025 1st round pick
12. Quick P - 2025 1st round CB pick
14. Quentin Young SS - 2025 2nd round pick
16. Gallagher P - Castro trade
22. Ellwanger P - 2025 3rd round pick
24. Barr P - 2025 5th round pick
26. Mendez OF - Bader trade
29. Reitz P - 2025 4th round pick
30. Jimenez C - Paddack trade
 

Interesting article regarding the usage of Adams and Ohl, from Twins’ MLB beat writer Matthew Leach -

You may have noticed that the Twins have used unconventional pitching strategies in recent days and, actually, going back even farther than that. The Tigers called their plans “pitching chaos” last fall, and that might not be the exact correct term here, but it’s not too far off, either.

Even before the Trade Deadline, Minnesota tried a few different things to cover innings, as one starter after another made trips to the injured list. One method that has stood out was the club’s use of Travis Adams and, more recently, Pierson Ohl.

Adams, in particular, has often been the bulk pitcher -- three or four innings, give or take -- behind an opener. Ohl has made three appearances, two of them starts, and gone about three innings each time.

That doesn’t just happen. It’s a product of a new plan the organization is using in the Minor Leagues for pitchers whose future role may be undetermined. Some pitchers may not profile as starting pitchers in the Major Leagues in the long run, but their repertoire, stuff, and command indicate that they don’t need to be constrained to pitching a single inning.
Pierson Ohl​
Enter what has become known -- maybe not so much within the Twins' front office, but as a shorthand for observers of the club -- as the Adams plan. Adams and Ohl are two of about 8-10 pitchers in the system who have pitched on a four-day rotation, going about four innings in each appearance. Sometimes they start, sometimes they come out of the bullpen.

Given that this is the first year of the plan, and it’s already produced two members of the Major League staff, it’s hard to call it anything but a success in its early days.

“Overall, the results have been pretty positive,” said Tommy Bergjans, the Twins’ director of Minor League pitching development. “And it does seem like it gives us some flexibility potentially in terms of additional roles our pitchers can be in, instead of just a conventional starter role and then a conventional long relief and back-end bullpen role. It feels like it gives us another option, where a guy can throw for some real length and bounce back relatively quickly.”
Travis Adams​
The system has multiple benefits. If there’s a need for a pitcher from the Minors to provide innings in bulk, you don’t have to wait five or six days after his last start. If the appearance is a one-off, a pitcher who is stretched out to four innings can go five if needed – see Adams’ recent start in Detroit. And there’s no problem throttling an every-four-days pitcher back to a fifth or sixth day rotation if that’s the need.
Plus, they’re used to both starting and coming out of the bullpen. Ohl said that at the beginning, it was a challenge to adjust to the shorter turnaround, but once he did, he was on board.

“At first there's a learning curve,” he said. “Four days is quick. You're worried about your body. I'm like, 'Oh my goodness. I'm the experiment with this new role, how's it going to end up on my body?' After the first month and a half, it's all my body could do. To make that adjustment and now to think back, 'Wow, I thought I needed five, six days of rest' when four is plenty.”

It also helped Ohl and the other pitchers in the system when they saw Adams make the big leagues. It made the idea real, that this could be a ticket to being on the 26-man roster.
Rocco Baldelli​
Of course, the pitchers aren’t the only ones who have to have buy-in. And this has been an organizational effort. Manager Rocco Baldelli has been pleased with the options it’s given him. Team president Derek Falvey and general manager Jeremy Zoll are on board. Josh Kalk, the team’s vice president of baseball operations strategy and innovation, was one of the program’s bigger advocates. So this is not a matter of the player development staff trying to get everyone on board. They’re on board.

Beyond that, even during the Minor League season, the Twins are seeing benefits. Adams and Ohl both saw their strikeout rates spike this year. It’s not exactly the same as turning a starter loose for just one inning out of the bullpen, but there does seem to be some similar effect. Even if these pitchers aren’t going all-out on every pitch, they can afford to hold a little less in reserve than in a regular start.

The plan isn’t for everyone. Pitchers whom the Twins view as legitimate candidates to be big league starters will likely stay on a more conventional five- or six-day cadence. And some pitchers simply end up as short relievers. But the club believed that there had to be other paths, and so far it appears they were correct.

“I think a lot of pitchers like it,” Bergjans said. “They get out and they pitch really consistently. I think for the most part they’re not quite taking down full starter workloads, but for the guys who’ve been on this for the entirety of the year, they’re coming pretty close to it in terms of total innings thrown. And they’re going out there every four days, so they don’t have to sit on any bad outings. They get to get back out there. So, overall it really has not been, thankfully, too hard of a sales pitch. And the guys who have been on this role have seen improvements in their results compared to when they were starting, either earlier this year or last year.”
 
 




I have done and will do no research on this question. Do the twins hold the league lead for homeruns with no one on base?
 

From the Parkinglot said:
Glad the twins could provide the best medicine for the Yankees who were losers of 7 of their last 9.
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the game you are seeing tonight is the same thing you've been seeing against the yankees for decades.

It's just surreal. It's almost creepy!
 
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howeda7 said:
Will "playing with no pressure" prevent the Twins from peeing down their leg against the Yankees? My guess is no.
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Sadly I was right. No matter how bad the Yankees are playing, the Twins will always curl up in the fetal position and wet themselves against you.
 

howeda7 said:
Sadly I was right. No matter how bad the Yankees are playing, the Twins will always curl up in the fetal position and wet themselves against you.
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3 total hits in that band box is rather pathetic.
 


The Twins have turned over, what... 40% of the roster?

The "fire this one, cut that one, trade the other one" folks want to see even more heads rolling in the street.
 

Strib article on declining attendance.


www.startribune.com

Twins are likely to fall well short of 2025 attendance target of 2 million

As attendance numbers have steadily declined since the opening of Target Field in 2010, this season has a chance to be the worst in Target Field history, aided by a fire sale at the MLB trade deadline two weeks ago.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

All things considered, this season's 1.8 million (which they are on pace for) down from 1.95 million in 2024 does not seem all that bad, considering lack of a Pennant or Playoff Race as well as ownership uncertainty.

It will however be a record low in Target Field, not counting Pandemic related 2020 - 2021.
 
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RememberMurray said:
The Twins have turned over, what... 40% of the roster?

The "fire this one, cut that one, trade the other one" folks want to see even more heads rolling in the street.
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Why would roster turnover change the fact that Falvey has flopped as the GM and needs to go? It only reinforces it.
 

The Twins send Pereda down for Wallner and keep Swingin' Mickey Gasper as the back-up catcher. This is like the 3rd or 4th time they've called up a catcher from the minors and never let them start a game. It makes no sense.
 


howeda7 said:
Why would roster turnover change the fact that Falvey has flopped as the GM and needs to go? It only reinforces it.
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Yes. "Fire this one, trade that one, cut the other one" can never be fully satisfied, because the replacement hires will also require firing, trading and cutting — and sooner rather than later.

"Fire this one, trade that one, cut the other one" is perpetual.
 

2023. The Twins win their division, make the playoffs, beat Toronto in the ALWCS, and lose to Houston in the ALDS.

It was the team's first playoff series win in 20+ years. The Pohlads responded by announcing that they were going to cut payroll.

So...

Fire this one, trade that one, cut the other one — until you build something (on the cheap). That will work.
 

RememberMurray said:
2023. The Twins win their division, make the playoffs, beat Toronto in the ALWCS, and lose to Houston in the ALDS.

It was the team's first playoff series win in 20+ years. The Pohlads responded by announcing that they were going to cut payroll.

So...

Fire this one, trade that one, cut the other one — until you build something (on the cheap). That will work.
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I guess it was working before the trading of 40% of them

I never noticed, so that's on me I guess.
 

kg21 said:
I guess it was working before the trading of 40% of them

I never noticed, so that's on me I guess.
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The team went south after the announcement following the '23 season that the Pohlads were going to cut payroll. Yes?

Anything that happened on the field after that is the direct result of ownership making it crystal clear to their players and their fans that winning was not the priority for them, and never would be the priority.

The Pohlads will never starve, despite their crying about loss of TV revenue, etc. To the Pohlads, this team is just another one of their business holdings. Eventually, the fans treat it that way too. It's a shame.

If you think about it, it's rather amazing that the Twins have accomplished as much as they have in their long history. They've done it despite the fact that they had first Griffith and then the Pohlads for owners.
 

RememberMurray said:
Yes. "Fire this one, trade that one, cut the other one" can never be fully satisfied, because the replacement hires will also require firing, trading and cutting — and sooner rather than later.

"Fire this one, trade that one, cut the other one" is perpetual.
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We all want the Pohald's to sell and move on. Their move to cut payroll after 2023 was short-sighted and foolish and the decision to announce it was even dumber. But the Twins still had the highest payroll in their division in 2023 and this year. So it's not like poor Derek Falvey just didn't have the tools to compete. He did. He just failed.

We are (hopefully) getting new owners for the first time in 40 years. There is zero reason they should run it back with the President/GM who has already been given 9 years and been mostly a failure. Bring in your own people.
 

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