All Things 2021-2022 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread

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I'm surprised this signing hasn't been posted here

The Minnesota Twins announced Wednesday that they signed right-handed pitcher Dylan Bundy to a one-year contract worth $4 million with a club option for 2023. The option year for $11 million has a $1 million buyout.
 

El Amin Fan said:
I'm surprised this signing hasn't been posted here

The Minnesota Twins announced Wednesday that they signed right-handed pitcher Dylan Bundy to a one-year contract worth $4 million with a club option for 2023. The option year for $11 million has a $1 million buyout.
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actually, it was mentioned by some bozo in post #113. Apparently the Twins' brain trust thinks they can "fix" him. the analytics crowd thinks his split-finger fastball is his best pitch and they want him to emphasize that.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
actually, it was mentioned by some bozo in post #113. Apparently the Twins' brain trust thinks they can "fix" him. the analytics crowd thinks his split-finger fastball is his best pitch and they want him to emphasize that.
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6.06 ERA used to end careers. Now it gets $5MM.

Win Twins!!
 




Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
 


Early off-season grades per The Athletic:

Minnesota Twins​

Grade: D

Free agents: RHP Dylan Bundy, 1 year/$5 million

Waiver claims: RHP Trevor Megill from Cubs; RHP Jharel Cotton from Rangers

Extensions: OF Byron Buxton, 7 years/$100 million

Hires: Hitting coach David Popkins

The Twins decided they feel Byron Buxton will be healthy over the next seven years, something he hasn’t been over the past seven years. In his seven-year career with Minnesota, he’s had more than 300 at-bats in a season just once, played 100 games or more just once, never hit 20 home runs, never stolen 30 bases and yet they were willing to give him a new contract worth at least $100 million with massive award bonuses. If this deal works out, I want to go to Las Vegas with their front office afterward. The Twins added veteran right-hander Dylan Bundy, hoping he can bounce back from a rough season and deliver for them on an undervalued contract. They also picked up right-handers Trevor Megill and Jharel Cotton off waivers. Minnesota claimed Megill from the Cubs, non-tendered him, then signed him to a minor-league contract with an invite to spring training. It’s been a disappointing start to their offseason.

theathletic.com

Early offseason grades for every American League team: Rangers, Tigers, Mariners on their way to A’s

Which AL teams have made the most of the offseason? What are each team's biggest needs when the lockout ends? Handing out early grades.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

Win Twins!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Early off-season grades per The Athletic:

Minnesota Twins​

Grade: D

Free agents: RHP Dylan Bundy, 1 year/$5 million

Waiver claims: RHP Trevor Megill from Cubs; RHP Jharel Cotton from Rangers

Extensions: OF Byron Buxton, 7 years/$100 million

Hires: Hitting coach David Popkins

The Twins decided they feel Byron Buxton will be healthy over the next seven years, something he hasn’t been over the past seven years. In his seven-year career with Minnesota, he’s had more than 300 at-bats in a season just once, played 100 games or more just once, never hit 20 home runs, never stolen 30 bases and yet they were willing to give him a new contract worth at least $100 million with massive award bonuses. If this deal works out, I want to go to Las Vegas with their front office afterward. The Twins added veteran right-hander Dylan Bundy, hoping he can bounce back from a rough season and deliver for them on an undervalued contract. They also picked up right-handers Trevor Megill and Jharel Cotton off waivers. Minnesota claimed Megill from the Cubs, non-tendered him, then signed him to a minor-league contract with an invite to spring training. It’s been a disappointing start to their offseason.

theathletic.com

Early offseason grades for every American League team: Rangers, Tigers, Mariners on their way to A’s

Which AL teams have made the most of the offseason? What are each team's biggest needs when the lockout ends? Handing out early grades.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

Win Twins!!
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Feels like just getting bucks for Buxton would at least be worth a C-.
 



Ope3 said:
Feels like just getting bucks for Buxton would at least be worth a C-.
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When you have 3 giant gaping holes in your starting rotation, $50 million to spend and you sit back and watch every decent FA starter sign elsewhere while you "formulate a plan", you are lucky not to get an F.
 

howeda7 said:
When you have 3 giant gaping holes in your starting rotation, $50 million to spend and you sit back and watch every decent FA starter sign elsewhere while you "formulate a plan", you are lucky not to get an F.
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Since it's clear the Twins are not ready to win now and with the uncertainty of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, I do not take any issue with not spending crazy dough on Free Agent starting pitching.

Perhaps "Incomplete" is the proper grade that the Twins deserve.
 

Ope3 said:
Since it's clear the Twins are not ready to win now and with the uncertainty of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, I do not take any issue with not spending crazy dough on Free Agent starting pitching.

Perhaps "Incomplete" is the proper grade that the Twins deserve.
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Correct.
 

handing out grades when the sport is in a lockout seems like a rather pointless exercise.

what matters is what the roster looks like when the season starts.

now, if the Twins make no further moves, then heck yeah, give them an "F."

but the final grade is what matters. If they ace the final exam, they can wind up with a better grade.

I keep reading and hearing that the front office prefers to make trades instead of signing free agents. we'll see if that proves to be true.
 



Ope3 said:
Since it's clear the Twins are not ready to win now and with the uncertainty of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, I do not take any issue with not spending crazy dough on Free Agent starting pitching.

Perhaps "Incomplete" is the proper grade that the Twins deserve.
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We're likely to end up with 6-8 play-off teams in each league in the new CBA (not that I'm in favor of it.) The idea they can't compete for one of those spots is silly. The offense is good enough to do so for sure.

Obviously they could still make a trade and bring Pineda back, but it's going to be a giant rushed cluster-$%^ whenever the lockout ends and they rush to start Spring Training ASAP. There won't be a lot of time.
 

howeda7 said:
We're likely to end up with 6-8 play-off teams in each league in the new CBA (not that I'm in favor of it.) The idea they can't compete for one of those spots is silly. The offense is good enough to do so for sure.

Obviously they could still make a trade and bring Pineda back, but it's going to be a giant rushed cluster-$%^ whenever the lockout ends and they rush to start Spring Training ASAP. There won't be a lot of time.
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Well, right there "likely 6-8 play-off teams" speaks exactly to the uncertainty I was referring to. Is it 6 or 8? That's a big difference. If it's just 6, I don't think they are anywhere near as good as 4 of the teams in the East. Not even close.

Is there even going to be a meaningful 2022?

Also, I don't really agree their offense necessarily good enough to compete. Too many black holes, and young prospects who may pan out but also could be meh.
 

Ope3 said:
Well, right there "likely 6-8 play-off teams" speaks exactly to the uncertainty I was referring to. Is it 6 or 8? That's a big difference. If it's just 6, I don't think they are anywhere near as good as 4 of the teams in the East. Not even close.

Is there even going to be a meaningful 2022?

Also, I don't really agree their offense necessarily good enough to compete. Too many black holes, and young prospects who may pan out but also could be meh.
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Buxton, Polanco, Donaldson, Arreaz, Garver, Kiriloff is a pretty solid offensive core. Especially if you also get something out of Sano, Kepler etc.

I understand the uncertainty, but they needed to make a move on at least one pitcher for the long-term. If you wanted to leave a couple spots open until you know more, fine. Doing nothing (and Dylan Bundy is nothing) was not acceptable IMO.
 

howeda7 said:
Buxton, Polanco, Donaldson, Arreaz, Garver, Kiriloff is a pretty solid offensive core. Especially if you also get something out of Sano, Kepler etc.

I understand the uncertainty, but they needed to make a move on at least one pitcher for the long-term. If you wanted to leave a couple spots open until you know more, fine. Doing nothing (and Dylan Bundy is nothing) was not acceptable IMO.
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I mean they have Randy Dobnak and Louis Thorpe 🤣🤣
 

howeda7 said:
Buxton, Polanco, Donaldson, Arreaz, Garver, Kiriloff is a pretty solid offensive core. Especially if you also get something out of Sano, Kepler etc.

I understand the uncertainty, but they needed to make a move on at least one pitcher for the long-term. If you wanted to leave a couple spots open until you know more, fine. Doing nothing (and Dylan Bundy is nothing) was not acceptable IMO.
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From the 6 guys you listed lots of questions marks.

Only Polanco & Donaldson stayed pretty healthy.
Buxton had a huge flash early but then regressed after he came back down the stretch
Garver got somewhat back to 2019 form, but not nearly enough for me to think he's reliable.
Kirilloff while showed promise, only has a little more than 200 ABs in the Majors and is potentially injury prone. Best position is probably 1B, currently occupied by Sano.

No Nelson Cruz (presumably).

Nowhere near ready to compete with the White Sox at the plate.
 

Ope3 said:
From the 6 guys you listed lots of questions marks.

Only Polanco & Donaldson stayed pretty healthy.
Buxton had a huge flash early but then regressed after he came back down the stretch
Garver got somewhat back to 2019 form, but not nearly enough for me to think he's reliable.
Kirilloff while showed promise, only has a little more than 200 ABs in the Majors and is potentially injury prone. Best position is probably 1B, currently occupied by Sano.

No Nelson Cruz (presumably).

Nowhere near ready to compete with the White Sox at the plate.
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Excellent assessment. They're one high-end hitter away from being about equal.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Excellent assessment. They're one high-end hitter away from being about equal.
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If everything went the Twins way, sure they could at least "compete". How often does EVERYTHING go right, especially for this ballclub?

Not often. 2019 was an outlier, in the regular season at least, everything did go the Twins way. In hindsight, getting swept that year by the Yankees really hurts.

2020 was a bummer to lose to the Astros as well, but the whole season was wacky. That year I think they just feasted on substandard AL & NL Central teams only in the 60 game sprint.
 

BleedGopher said:
Early off-season grades per The Athletic:

Minnesota Twins​

Grade: D

Free agents: RHP Dylan Bundy, 1 year/$5 million

Waiver claims: RHP Trevor Megill from Cubs; RHP Jharel Cotton from Rangers

Extensions: OF Byron Buxton, 7 years/$100 million

Hires: Hitting coach David Popkins

The Twins decided they feel Byron Buxton will be healthy over the next seven years, something he hasn’t been over the past seven years. In his seven-year career with Minnesota, he’s had more than 300 at-bats in a season just once, played 100 games or more just once, never hit 20 home runs, never stolen 30 bases and yet they were willing to give him a new contract worth at least $100 million with massive award bonuses. If this deal works out, I want to go to Las Vegas with their front office afterward. The Twins added veteran right-hander Dylan Bundy, hoping he can bounce back from a rough season and deliver for them on an undervalued contract. They also picked up right-handers Trevor Megill and Jharel Cotton off waivers. Minnesota claimed Megill from the Cubs, non-tendered him, then signed him to a minor-league contract with an invite to spring training. It’s been a disappointing start to their offseason.

theathletic.com

Early offseason grades for every American League team: Rangers, Tigers, Mariners on their way to A’s

Which AL teams have made the most of the offseason? What are each team's biggest needs when the lockout ends? Handing out early grades.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

Win Twins!!
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Ouch, ouch, OUCH! When you see it laid out like this, these kinds of numbers are just flat out depressing;

" he’s had more than 300 at-bats in a season just once, played 100 games or more just once, never hit 20 home runs, never stolen 30 bases.."

Stop slamming your body into the CF wall, Buck.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
Ouch, ouch, OUCH! When you see it laid out like this, these kinds of numbers are just flat out depressing;

" he’s had more than 300 at-bats in a season just once, played 100 games or more just once, never hit 20 home runs, never stolen 30 bases.."

Stop slamming your body into the CF wall, Buck.
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None of of his 2021 injuries even occurred in the outfield. Hamstring, strained hip and broken finger (HBP).
 

Ope3 said:
From the 6 guys you listed lots of questions marks.

Only Polanco & Donaldson stayed pretty healthy.
Buxton had a huge flash early but then regressed after he came back down the stretch
Garver got somewhat back to 2019 form, but not nearly enough for me to think he's reliable.
Kirilloff while showed promise, only has a little more than 200 ABs in the Majors and is potentially injury prone. Best position is probably 1B, currently occupied by Sano.

No Nelson Cruz (presumably).

Nowhere near ready to compete with the White Sox at the plate.
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Sure there are question marks of health, but there are on most teams. They went 73-89 last year despite the first two months being a disaster. It's not a huge leap to get from their to 88-90 wins, which probably making the play-offs or at least being in the race to the end in a 6-8 team field. I agree that catching the White Sox is probably another matter.
 

Looks as though the designated hitter will be in full swing for both the American League and National League next year. There goes Cruz.

Also, Players want free agency at 5 years as opposed to 6 where it is now. Supposedly about balancing clubs etc., as to payroll. I kind of get that, but then why should a player be penalized due to the fact they are playing for a club not willing to either get better or pay more? Both sides are very vocal about this. Players I guess willing to hold out at this point. Hurts everyone.
 

from what I'm reading on the CBA negotiations, I don't think there is a chance of the season starting on time.

The players are really pushing for some major financial adjustments. in short, they want a higher minimum salary, players becoming free agents and qualifying for arbitration sooner, a higher level for the luxury tax, and changes to revenue sharing. Players are upset with teams that get revenue sharing but don't spend it on salaries. Another big sticking point is teams keeping guys in the minors to manipulate service time.

The owners are talking about some changes in how pre-arbitration players are compensated. there have been proposals for a weighted draft lottery (to try and discourage tanking). the owners also want the DH in both leagues and expanded playoffs. (owners want 14 teams, players 12).

I have not seen any reports of discussion over "pace of play" issues like a pitch clock.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
from what I'm reading on the CBA negotiations, I don't think there is a chance of the season starting on time.

The players are really pushing for some major financial adjustments. in short, they want a higher minimum salary, players becoming free agents and qualifying for arbitration sooner, a higher level for the luxury tax, and changes to revenue sharing. Players are upset with teams that get revenue sharing but don't spend it on salaries. Another big sticking point is teams keeping guys in the minors to manipulate service time.

The owners are talking about some changes in how pre-arbitration players are compensated. there have been proposals for a weighted draft lottery (to try and discourage tanking). the owners also want the DH in both leagues and expanded playoffs. (owners want 14 teams, players 12).

I have not seen any reports of discussion over "pace of play" issues like a pitch clock.
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The players are correct on almost all of their demands.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
from what I'm reading on the CBA negotiations, I don't think there is a chance of the season starting on time.

The players are really pushing for some major financial adjustments. in short, they want a higher minimum salary, players becoming free agents and qualifying for arbitration sooner, a higher level for the luxury tax, and changes to revenue sharing. Players are upset with teams that get revenue sharing but don't spend it on salaries. Another big sticking point is teams keeping guys in the minors to manipulate service time.

The owners are talking about some changes in how pre-arbitration players are compensated. there have been proposals for a weighted draft lottery (to try and discourage tanking). the owners also want the DH in both leagues and expanded playoffs. (owners want 14 teams, players 12).

I have not seen any reports of discussion over "pace of play" issues like a pitch clock.
Click to expand...
Instead of pushing for a higher luxury tax threshold, the players should push for a minimum payroll. Getting Tampa and Oakland etc. to spend say $90 million minimum will only get the Yankees and Angels to spend even more, Luxury Tax be damned.

Leave FA at 6 years but increase arbitration to 4 years seems like a reasonable compromise.

And please, no more than 6 play-off teams. You're going to render the regular season meaningless.
 

I don't agree with this, but the Players have been opposed to a salary "floor" because they say that is the first step to a salary cap system.

but, IMHO, when you don't have a salary "floor," then you wind up with situations where one player is scheduled to make more $ this year than some entire teams.

the bottom line is that there have been no real negotiations so far. One side puts out a proposal, and the other side says they don't like it. that does nothing to move the negotiations forward.

If there is a season this year --- I don't see games starting until Mid-May at the earliest.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
If there is a season this year --- I don't see games starting until Mid-May at the earliest.
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I have said all along, the "if" part is certainly in play here. The posturing feels similar to when the NHL had their entire year (2004-05) wiped out.

If they are playing games by July 4th or what would normally be the All Star break, I will be pleasantly surprised. Anything before that, I will be shocked.
If they are playing games for a mini-season sprint like 2020 by August, I will be relieved.

If 2022 never gets off the ground, and an odd way there is reason for optimism. When the NHL did eventually come back it was with a much improved product. Over time, fan support returned, better than ever in some cases.
 

Ope3 said:
I have said all along, the "if" part is certainly in play here. The posturing feels similar to when the NHL had their entire year (2004-05) wiped out.

If they are playing games by July 4th or what would normally be the All Star break, I will be pleasantly surprised. Anything before that, I will be shocked.
If they are playing games for a mini-season sprint like 2020 by August, I will be relieved.

If 2022 never gets off the ground, and an odd way there is reason for optimism. When the NHL did eventually come back it was with a much improved product. Over time, fan support returned, better than ever in some cases.
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They need to almost miss the season. They're fighting about money, and game improvements aren't even part of the conversation. They need the time to work through everything.

That's ok. I'll watch some AAA ball in St. Paul.
 

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