I don't think the Twins expected Cleveland to be very good. I don't even think the Guardian front office thought they would be good this year. The White Sox were supposed to be the clear front runner with Detroit as a challenger.
I've been beating this drum, but look at the drafting history of Falvine. They've used pretty much all their top 3 picks on position players. Then, their international signings in 2021 had 2 of 9 as pitchers, and in 2022 had 1 of 7 as a pitcher. They've loaded up on position players like we have some epic pitching talent already in the organization. With the way Rocco/Falvine handles this staff, no top pitcher would sign here (unless we grossly overpay). So we're not drafting/signing amateur pitchers, and we haven't been able to sign top pitchers via free agency. The majority of their pitching has come via trade or bargain FA signings. To their credit, they've gotten some decent pitchers via trade (looking at you, Ryan, Gray, and Maeda). Of course, to get Gray, they traded the only top pitching prospect they've ever drafted in the Falvine era.
I think with the staff Cleveland had they knew they would be ok, but made virtual zero improvement over the offseason or even at the trade deadline that would indicate they were serious competitors.
His failings against Cleveland is why they are out of the playoffs. They did ok against every other team they played. Him blowing leads against Cleveland in winnable games is on him.
Again he had help. Cotton & Jax had Blown Saves on June 22 vs Cleveland. Cotton another on June 29, Tyler Thornburg had one on June 30 and Jax another on Sept 16 all against Cleveland.
Left after two with right hamstring tightness, went straight to the clubhouse. With the Twins out of realistic contention, I'd guess his season is over.
I will also add as a postscript, the Twins just finished a stretch where they lost 7 of 8 games to the Guards in 11 days.
Winning in June gives you more room to breathe in a September. He did give up a run in game 2 of the double header meaning if he had not pitched twins would have won in 9 innings.
I hope we don't see Pagan in 2023 (for the Twins). 2 years of dreadful performances is not exactly a small sample size.
He will be back otherwise they would have let him go. It will cost them $4million or so as he is in the final year or arbitration.
They should refuse give him an offer. That price is what a good player actually costs.
I mean they pitched to him with a base open and the winning run on third base in the 15th inning. He was facing a guy they called that day for the game cause someone had Covid. They also pitched to him in the 7th inning of the doh e header with two outs and a guy on second against Pagan. All he did was single to drive in the game tying run.
The Pohlads care about $2B assets. The value of their $2B asset correlates to the front office and the roster, at least somewhat. The front office and the roster have underperformed. The Pohlads have been pretty patient with this asset, mostly because it was purchased for $27M in 1984. However, they don't like being embarassed and they felt like tall dogs with their cronies when they did a big boy thing by signing Correa. I just hope when they clean house they don't go all the way to Pittsburgh.
Pitchers have a much greater chance of being a bust. Position players are safer. They’ve also taken guys early on that they were able to sign below slot so they could sign guys later that they normally wouldn’t. 2017 is a good example. They were able to sign Enlow, a 3rd rounder, because they saved money on their first 3 picks. Enlow was considered a 1st or 2nd round talent.
They're doing what they're told by Falvey and company.
I don't know where this rando is getting his stats, but according to baseball reference, his ERA in Baltimore in '22 was 1.68, not 0.68. The point still stands that he has been worse here, but not nearly as bad as called out by this unverified rando dude. Additionally, he has a career ERA of 5.44. I understand that he was a starter before, and he has been better as a reliever, but still, I don't think he turned into Mariano Rivera overnight. It was likely he was going to revert at least a little to the mean at some point.
Ugg..."taking below slot value". That's something organizations like the Pirates and Royals do. To me, that's such a defeatist attitude. Welp, let's not go get the best talent we can, because we don't want to sign them. Yes, I understand I'm being a bit hyperbolic, and what you lined out is a strategy to get more guys. But they need high-end talent. Just draft the best guy you can and work it out.
