2019-2020 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread

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Not sure how to feel about it. Graterol has been their #1 pitching prospect for a while, but Reusse pointed out today once they put you in the bullpen you tend to stay there.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Maeda is a solid pitcher with a good contract.
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His ERA (for the NL) is unimpressive and hasn’t gotten to 200 innings pitched in his 4 years. However, his K/9, walk rate, WHIP are all pretty good. Probably most important to the front office is his EXTREMELY favorable contract.

Knowing the Twins luck, Graterol will blow up with the Sox and it’ll be Ortiz, v.2. But it’s worth the risk. Win Twins!
 

forever a gopher said:
His ERA (for the NL) is unimpressive and hasn’t gotten to 200 innings pitched in his 4 years. However, his K/9, walk rate, WHIP are all pretty good. Probably most important to the front office is his EXTREMELY favorable contract.

Knowing the Twins luck, Graterol will blow up with the Sox and it’ll be Ortiz, v.2. But it’s worth the risk. Win Twins!
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Yah, trades are always risky. What if Graterol becomes the next Nolan Ryan? But as Connie Francis sang: "the future's not ours to see", Ka Sera, Sera.
 

Good move by the Twins. Maeda isn't a flashy starter but with a favorable contract it sets us up nice for the next few years as well. Graterol may have been a little steep but he's so unknown.
 


forever a gopher said:
His ERA (for the NL) is unimpressive and hasn’t gotten to 200 innings pitched in his 4 years. However, his K/9, walk rate, WHIP are all pretty good. Probably most important to the front office is his EXTREMELY favorable contract.

Knowing the Twins luck, Graterol will blow up with the Sox and it’ll be Ortiz, v.2. But it’s worth the risk. Win Twins!
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I think part of the reason for the low innings is the Dodgers put him in the bullpen to limit his innings so they don’t have to pay him as much. His contract has a lot of incentives worked into it.
 

Maeda helps the Twins win the division. I don't know what difference he can make beyond that.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Maeda helps the Twins win the division. I don't know what difference he can make beyond that.
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While most of it was out of the bullpen, he has pitched in the post season the last 4 years and not wet himself, so that puts him above most of the Twins staff.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Maeda helps the Twins win the division. I don't know what difference he can make beyond that.
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Yep this is my concern as well but as others have said he has decent playoff numbers and does well vs righties...he's not going to mow teams down, but hopefully with our offense he won't have to.
 



I think Phil has hit on the Twins' thinking with this.


You never know with violent deliveries and elbows. Dave Steib's violent delivery eventually did fry his elbow, but he had a stellar, if relatively short, career in the meantime.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I think part of the reason for the low innings is the Dodgers put him in the bullpen to limit his innings so they don’t have to pay him as much. His contract has a lot of incentives worked into it.
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That and he just wasn't as good as the other starters on the team at the time.
 

tikited said:
That and he just wasn't as good as the other starters on the team at the time.
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They also cruised to easy division wins in a couple of those years. He made 20 + starts each year, so I'm assuming he was pulled out of the rotation in the 2nd half of the season.
 

The other part is that Maeda has a high whiff rate. You have to acknowledge that the Twins leaderhip is making decisions on the basis of measureables.
 



Good trade, filling an obvious need. Graterol has a high upside, but who knows if he’ll reach it.
 

Bad Gopher said:
I think Phil has hit on the Twins' thinking with this.


You never know with violent deliveries and elbows. Dave Steib's violent delivery eventually did fry his elbow, but he had a stellar, if relatively short, career in the meantime.
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I also get the feeling there’s concern his stuff right now will translate to a good starter. We all know his fastball is great but his secondary pitches are average at best.
 

John Bonnes was on the Power Trip this morning and said that we were likely giving up Graterol because his future prospects are looking less than we had once hoped. And we needed another decent/good starting pitcher. Four years remaining on a team friendly contract will hopefully mean that the organization will be willing to spend elsewhere.
 

OldBob53 said:
Yah, trades are always risky. What if Graterol becomes the next Nolan Ryan? But as Connie Francis sang: "the future's not ours to see", Ka Sera, Sera.
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Well, and we saw with Terry Ryan how holding onto all your prospects like untouchable decorative plates in your grandmother's glass cabinet doesn't always pan out, either...often a prospect has much more value prior to being in the bigs than after.
 

The Twins can't win.

Fans say "Twins are Cheap." Twins sign Donaldson to big contract. Fans say "Should have signed a pitcher."

Fans say "Twins never give up prospects to trade for established players." Twins trade a prospect for a Starter. Fans say "you traded the wrong prospect."

Fans say "Twins never go all-in and try to win." Twins trade a top prospect for a starter so they have a better chance of winning this season. Fans still complain.

Face it - most fans are delusional. They over-rate the value of the Twins' players and prospects. then, they propose idiot trades, like "let's trade a couple of players we don't like for a really good player from another team." It doesn't work that way. Idiot trades are trades that would only happen if the other team is being run by idiots.

(see- any trade proposal involving Nick Punto.....)
 

and - If I wanted to, I could run a pages-long list of all the "Top Prospects" the Twins have refused to trade who never panned out.

Older fans may remember Michael Restovich. he was going to be the Twins' next big-time power hitter. He finished his major-league career with 6 HR and 21 RBI.
 

stocker08 said:
John Bonnes was on the Power Trip this morning and said that we were likely giving up Graterol because his future prospects are looking less than we had once hoped. And we needed another decent/good starting pitcher. Four years remaining on a team friendly contract will hopefully mean that the organization will be willing to spend elsewhere.
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This is kind of what I'm hoping, too. With a lot of incentives in his contract, that will reduce the risk of the organization if he gets injured or turns out to be a flop. That should give them flexibility to resign Berrios and figure out what happens in 2021 with Odo or his replacement.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The Twins can't win.

Fans say "Twins are Cheap." Twins sign Donaldson to big contract. Fans say "Should have signed a pitcher."

Fans say "Twins never give up prospects to trade for established players." Twins trade a prospect for a Starter. Fans say "you traded the wrong prospect."

Fans say "Twins never go all-in and try to win." Twins trade a top prospect for a starter so they have a better chance of winning this season. Fans still complain.

Face it - most fans are delusional. They over-rate the value of the Twins' players and prospects. then, they propose idiot trades, like "let's trade a couple of players we don't like for a really good player from another team." It doesn't work that way. Idiot trades are trades that would only happen if the other team is being run by idiots.

(see- any trade proposal involving Nick Punto.....)
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To be fair, I don't think anyone is upset that they traded Graterol, some are just underwhelmed with the return. I don't watch much NL and really couldn't have told you anything about this guy. Doesn't make it a bad trade though.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The Twins can't win.

Fans say "Twins are Cheap." Twins sign Donaldson to big contract. Fans say "Should have signed a pitcher."

Fans say "Twins never give up prospects to trade for established players." Twins trade a prospect for a Starter. Fans say "you traded the wrong prospect."

Fans say "Twins never go all-in and try to win." Twins trade a top prospect for a starter so they have a better chance of winning this season. Fans still complain.

Face it - most fans are delusional. They over-rate the value of the Twins' players and prospects. then, they propose idiot trades, like "let's trade a couple of players we don't like for a really good player from another team." It doesn't work that way. Idiot trades are trades that would only happen if the other team is being run by idiots.

(see- any trade proposal involving Nick Punto.....)
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Is there a large contingent against this trade? Almost everything I'm seeing on the interwebs and talking to others is pretty positive.

I think fans were hoping for an ace (or at least a solid no.2), as Berrios in the post season and his late-season swoons have been troubling. But those don't exactly fall out of trees. Considering they only had to give up one prospect, I'd say this is a win.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
and - If I wanted to, I could run a pages-long list of all the "Top Prospects" the Twins have refused to trade who never panned out.

Older fans may remember Michael Restovich. he was going to be the Twins' next big-time power hitter. He finished his major-league career with 6 HR and 21 RBI.
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I totally agree with you on this. I'm all in favor of trading prospects whenever you can get a good return. Problem with the Twins is you also have to pay the guys you trade for while they still are under contract. Part of the problem was the love affair with the prospects, and the other was money related.
 

Seems like a solid move......at this point. Time will tell.
 

howeda7 said:
They also cruised to easy division wins in a couple of those years. He made 20 + starts each year, so I'm assuming he was pulled out of the rotation in the 2nd half of the season.
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Correct.
 


Spring training games start in a couple weeks from what I could Google. Spring training makes me long for Spring and warmer weather.

Twins vs. Pirates Feb. 22.
 

Sounds like Graterol might not pass the Sox physical....or health check. I didn't realize that he's already had Tommy John surgery. Makes more sense why we are willing to deal him.
 

stocker08 said:
Sounds like Graterol might not pass the Sox physical....or health check. I didn't realize that he's already had Tommy John surgery. Makes more sense why we are willing to deal him.
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If they can find a way to pull him out of the deal and send one of their dozen middle infield prospects instead, I'd be much happier about it.
 

stocker08 said:
Sounds like Graterol might not pass the Sox physical....or health check. I didn't realize that he's already had Tommy John surgery. Makes more sense why we are willing to deal him.
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That's almost a positive. Anyone who throws 100 is probably going to have it eventually. He's had it and still throws 100.
 

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