GophersInIowa
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All Things 2020-2021 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread
- Thread starter BleedGopher
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I think I'd rather have brought Rich Hill back for the same price, but not a bad lotto ticket.
GophersInIowa
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He could be really good if he can stay healthy. That’s a big if though.
tmvander
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Yep, he's had good numbers throughout the years when he's actually pitching. I'm ok giving him a go for that price. We have Dobnak and others who can fill in if he gets hurt. Plus I'd hope we can become buyers at the deadline and maybe add an arm if needed.
I'd just go with a 6 man rotation. They are likely to try and keep everyone under 180 innings. I'd rather reduce the starters from 33 to 28 starts than keep yanking them after the 5th inning no matter what.
tmvander
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My guess is come July they can call up a minor league guy too. That Duran is supposed to be pretty good.
short ornery norwegian
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Dobnak seems like a good guy - but his stuff is not good enough to consistently get major league hitters out. Dobnak is a 3-inning guy at best. I could see keeping him as a 'long man' in the pen, but not part of the starting rotation.
The Twins' brain trust clearly has a very specific type of pitcher in mind. we'll see how it pans out.
I can also see - especially early - a lot of "openers" or two guys sharing one spot in the rotation so that each guy only goes about 3 innings at a time.
Remember, the major league starting pitchers last year only worked about 60 to 70 innings in the regular season at best.
there is going to be a fairly long ramp-up to get guys ready to work 180-200 innings.
The Twins' brain trust clearly has a very specific type of pitcher in mind. we'll see how it pans out.
I can also see - especially early - a lot of "openers" or two guys sharing one spot in the rotation so that each guy only goes about 3 innings at a time.
Remember, the major league starting pitchers last year only worked about 60 to 70 innings in the regular season at best.
there is going to be a fairly long ramp-up to get guys ready to work 180-200 innings.
I disagree on Dobnak. The games he was on, he often went 6-7 shutout innings. The games he was off, he'd get knocked out in the 2nd inning. He's fine as a #5 or #6 starter. You might have a stretch where he can't get anyone out and you need to send him down or put him in the pen for a bit.
tmvander
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Yeah he's fine as a bottom of the rotation guy or a fill in guy. He should NOT be starting a playoff game under any circumstance though. We'll need our other arms healthy and pitching well by that point if we're in contention.
Shoots. Can't find the article to post here. Article about having a Matt on the team. Previous GMs were also hung up on having a Matt or Matts on the team. Current GM also wanted a Matt as you will more than likely win with at least one Matt on the team.
In related news, I hear La Tortuga has changed his name to Matt....
Gopher_In_NYC
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Great article from The Athletic regarding the Twins front office process for how they go ahead with their offseason acquisitions -
After 80 days of free agency, the Twins had spent only $2 million and signed one player. Then came a manic 17-day period that netted five players and added $37.75 million to their 2021 payroll.
The frenzy of four free-agent signings and one trade not only rounded out the team’s 26-man roster, it significantly improved the Twins’ chances of repeating as American League Central champions.
Though the flurry of action may appear as if it were pre-planned, it instead was the byproduct of an offseason-long coordinated effort by the team’s baseball operations department to wait for the appropriate market conditions. By dividing the workload among a handful of their top advisers and constantly evaluating the landscape, the Twins kept track of more than 170 free agents as well as rostered players across the league to provide their decision-makers with the up-to-the-minute information necessary to know when to start making their move.
“You want to get a read on the market at all times so you can strike when the right opportunity presents (itself),” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “The best way to do that is to have as many recent touchpoints (of information) as possible. It’s impossible for one person to navigate calling every agent and every team all offseason, so the more senior people we have getting a sense for where things are, the better.”
Both locally and across the league, the days of the general manager and an assistant GM handling all the duties have begun to fade away. Falvey estimates at least a third of the league has a minimum of four to five members of their front offices who have the ability to negotiate major-league deals.
In the Twins’ case, Falvey and GM Thad Levine handle the bulk of the workload with the remainder divided up among assistant GMs Rob Antony, Jeremy Zoll and Daniel Adler. Levine handles the most players with Falvey close behind, the pair handling roughly 145-150 of this year’s free agents. Antony worked with 10-12 free agents this offseason while Zoll and Adler each handled five apiece.
During their conversations with agents, each tries to get a sense for whether or not the player fits and what they might want. The Twins then take that information to try and create a market. After everything is collected, the Twins expand the circle of contributors with a crowdsourcing exercise to try and determine the appropriate contract for each player available. Falvey then evaluates and decides how much and how long the club is willing to spend on each player.
By collecting information from each and every free agent available, the Twins hope to provide themselves with a clearer picture of what the market looks like and when might be the optimal time to push for an acquisition.
“You’re constantly ranking, re-ranking, evaluating those lists, meticulously managing them and having the people that you trust to do so,” Levine said. “And then concurrently having a cadre of negotiators who are actively discussing, whether it’s with other teams on trades or agents on free agents, constantly mining information, understanding the acquisition costs so that we can then overlay them with the ever-organic lists.”
Twins' major free-agent signings
While this style of management wasn’t employed by the Twins under Terry Ryan, whose front office consisted of a much smaller number of employees, it isn’t unfamiliar to Falvey, who worked in a similar front office setting for 10 seasons in Cleveland.
Falvey believes the best organizations are run by those who empower the people they’ve hired and trust them to handle larger tasks. Even though Zoll had never negotiated a contract prior to being hired as the Twins farm director in October 2017, he immediately teamed with director of pro scouting Brad Steil to divide the workload on minor-league free agent acquisitions. Zoll also appreciated how his voice instantly mattered in personnel discussions and crowdsourcing exercises. He realizes what the potential for opportunity means to lower-level members of the front office.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” Zoll said. “The openness in discussion, freedom, and autonomy create so many great pathways for growth. When other teammates get to see that, hear about it and be part of the process, it inspires more people to bring thoughts and ideas to the table, since they know there’s a real chance that will get to turn into contribution and action.”
All of this is to say the ‘Falvine’ nickname that has followed Falvey and Levine since they arrived in Minneapolis in late 2016 isn’t very accurate. Whereas their friendly moniker suggests it’s a two-man show, the Twins’ brain trust has no problem delegating critical tasks to teammates.
“I guess I would say it’s really better described as the Twins baseball operations crew and not some hybrid of Thad and me,” Falvey said. “We work as one entity for the good of the team, kick egos aside and just come up with good ideas that help us get better. You’d have to merge a lot more names than the two of ours to reflect our overall process and culture. We all contribute individually to the discussion and then come up with a plan and execute on it.”
The Twins executed the bulk of their offseason plans similar to how they suggested they would back in October.
From the outset, Levine and Falvey made it clear they believed the free-agent market would be slow to develop this offseason. Teams across the league didn’t seem sure about future payrolls because of COVID-19 and how it might continue to restrict attendance in 2021. There also was little clarity being provided on the universal designated hitter and negotiations between Major League Baseball and the Players Association weren’t expected to occur until late. Combine those factors along with a league-wide decline in free agency spending over the past few years, and it set the tone for what would be an extremely slow winter.
Aside from a few high-profile targets they knew would be in demand — they made a push for Charlie Morton in November before he signed with Atlanta — the Twins intended to wait for the market to come to them.
It did so on Jan. 20.
First, the Twins netted J.A. Happ, 38, on a one-year deal for $8 million, providing the team’s rotation with a solid No. 4 starter who is 72-39 with a 3.74 ERA since 2015.
Shortly after they lost the bidding for Marcus Semien on Jan. 26, the Twins knew they had to pivot quickly to find another shortstop. Hours later, the team’s infield defense got a massive upgrade when the Twins signed Andrelton Simmons to a one-year deal for $10.5 million.
A week later, the Twins brought back the center of their offense when Nelson Cruz signed a one-year deal. Two days after that, the Twins bullpen got a huge backend piece when Alex Colomé was signed.
But they still weren’t done.
One day after Colomé signed, the Twins’ reconnaissance paid off as they matched up with the San Francisco Giants on a depth-for-depth trade that sent outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. to the Bay Area in exchange for reliever Shaun Anderson.
The Twins have since added several more players via waiver claims.
It’s a flood of moves the Twins suspect they wouldn’t have been able to complete without their collective effort as well as one that improves their chances of success drastically.
“We had never really truly planned to wait until a specific strike date and then put all this together,” Levine said. “It kind of came together. That’s where I think we are fortunate to have that, the intellectual capital we have internally, but then also multiple people who have relationships with agents who can have these conversations. It was never as if we talked through the J.A. Happ deal in its entirety before shifting our attention to Nelson Cruz or Alex Colomé or Andrelton Simmons.
“Hopefully Derek and I have created an environment of trust and delegation and empowerment.”
After 80 days of free agency, the Twins had spent only $2 million and signed one player. Then came a manic 17-day period that netted five players and added $37.75 million to their 2021 payroll.
The frenzy of four free-agent signings and one trade not only rounded out the team’s 26-man roster, it significantly improved the Twins’ chances of repeating as American League Central champions.
Though the flurry of action may appear as if it were pre-planned, it instead was the byproduct of an offseason-long coordinated effort by the team’s baseball operations department to wait for the appropriate market conditions. By dividing the workload among a handful of their top advisers and constantly evaluating the landscape, the Twins kept track of more than 170 free agents as well as rostered players across the league to provide their decision-makers with the up-to-the-minute information necessary to know when to start making their move.
“You want to get a read on the market at all times so you can strike when the right opportunity presents (itself),” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “The best way to do that is to have as many recent touchpoints (of information) as possible. It’s impossible for one person to navigate calling every agent and every team all offseason, so the more senior people we have getting a sense for where things are, the better.”
Both locally and across the league, the days of the general manager and an assistant GM handling all the duties have begun to fade away. Falvey estimates at least a third of the league has a minimum of four to five members of their front offices who have the ability to negotiate major-league deals.
In the Twins’ case, Falvey and GM Thad Levine handle the bulk of the workload with the remainder divided up among assistant GMs Rob Antony, Jeremy Zoll and Daniel Adler. Levine handles the most players with Falvey close behind, the pair handling roughly 145-150 of this year’s free agents. Antony worked with 10-12 free agents this offseason while Zoll and Adler each handled five apiece.
During their conversations with agents, each tries to get a sense for whether or not the player fits and what they might want. The Twins then take that information to try and create a market. After everything is collected, the Twins expand the circle of contributors with a crowdsourcing exercise to try and determine the appropriate contract for each player available. Falvey then evaluates and decides how much and how long the club is willing to spend on each player.
By collecting information from each and every free agent available, the Twins hope to provide themselves with a clearer picture of what the market looks like and when might be the optimal time to push for an acquisition.
“You’re constantly ranking, re-ranking, evaluating those lists, meticulously managing them and having the people that you trust to do so,” Levine said. “And then concurrently having a cadre of negotiators who are actively discussing, whether it’s with other teams on trades or agents on free agents, constantly mining information, understanding the acquisition costs so that we can then overlay them with the ever-organic lists.”
Twins' major free-agent signings
| PLAYER | CONTRACT |
|---|---|
 Nelson Cruz | One year, $13 million |
 Andrelton Simmons | One year, $10.5 million |
 J.A. Happ | One year, $8 million |
 Alex Colomé | One year, $6.25 million (w/2022 option) |
 Hansel Robles | One year, $2 million |
Falvey believes the best organizations are run by those who empower the people they’ve hired and trust them to handle larger tasks. Even though Zoll had never negotiated a contract prior to being hired as the Twins farm director in October 2017, he immediately teamed with director of pro scouting Brad Steil to divide the workload on minor-league free agent acquisitions. Zoll also appreciated how his voice instantly mattered in personnel discussions and crowdsourcing exercises. He realizes what the potential for opportunity means to lower-level members of the front office.
“It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” Zoll said. “The openness in discussion, freedom, and autonomy create so many great pathways for growth. When other teammates get to see that, hear about it and be part of the process, it inspires more people to bring thoughts and ideas to the table, since they know there’s a real chance that will get to turn into contribution and action.”
All of this is to say the ‘Falvine’ nickname that has followed Falvey and Levine since they arrived in Minneapolis in late 2016 isn’t very accurate. Whereas their friendly moniker suggests it’s a two-man show, the Twins’ brain trust has no problem delegating critical tasks to teammates.
“I guess I would say it’s really better described as the Twins baseball operations crew and not some hybrid of Thad and me,” Falvey said. “We work as one entity for the good of the team, kick egos aside and just come up with good ideas that help us get better. You’d have to merge a lot more names than the two of ours to reflect our overall process and culture. We all contribute individually to the discussion and then come up with a plan and execute on it.”
The Twins executed the bulk of their offseason plans similar to how they suggested they would back in October.
From the outset, Levine and Falvey made it clear they believed the free-agent market would be slow to develop this offseason. Teams across the league didn’t seem sure about future payrolls because of COVID-19 and how it might continue to restrict attendance in 2021. There also was little clarity being provided on the universal designated hitter and negotiations between Major League Baseball and the Players Association weren’t expected to occur until late. Combine those factors along with a league-wide decline in free agency spending over the past few years, and it set the tone for what would be an extremely slow winter.
Aside from a few high-profile targets they knew would be in demand — they made a push for Charlie Morton in November before he signed with Atlanta — the Twins intended to wait for the market to come to them.
It did so on Jan. 20.
First, the Twins netted J.A. Happ, 38, on a one-year deal for $8 million, providing the team’s rotation with a solid No. 4 starter who is 72-39 with a 3.74 ERA since 2015.
Shortly after they lost the bidding for Marcus Semien on Jan. 26, the Twins knew they had to pivot quickly to find another shortstop. Hours later, the team’s infield defense got a massive upgrade when the Twins signed Andrelton Simmons to a one-year deal for $10.5 million.
A week later, the Twins brought back the center of their offense when Nelson Cruz signed a one-year deal. Two days after that, the Twins bullpen got a huge backend piece when Alex Colomé was signed.
But they still weren’t done.
One day after Colomé signed, the Twins’ reconnaissance paid off as they matched up with the San Francisco Giants on a depth-for-depth trade that sent outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. to the Bay Area in exchange for reliever Shaun Anderson.
The Twins have since added several more players via waiver claims.
It’s a flood of moves the Twins suspect they wouldn’t have been able to complete without their collective effort as well as one that improves their chances of success drastically.
“We had never really truly planned to wait until a specific strike date and then put all this together,” Levine said. “It kind of came together. That’s where I think we are fortunate to have that, the intellectual capital we have internally, but then also multiple people who have relationships with agents who can have these conversations. It was never as if we talked through the J.A. Happ deal in its entirety before shifting our attention to Nelson Cruz or Alex Colomé or Andrelton Simmons.
“Hopefully Derek and I have created an environment of trust and delegation and empowerment.”
GophersInIowa
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Dozier announced his retirement today.