All Things 2024-25 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread

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Heard Rocco said that they just "ran out of gas". Maybe they should have filled up at the trade deadline. But then again, the check engine light was on before the season and they shrugged and said, "It's probably nothing".
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Apparently a Twins fan earned himself a one-year ban from the stadium with a "Defund The Pohlads" sign.
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The Twins say it is because he abused an usher when they tried to take the sign, as is the Twins' right to do according to the ticket disclaimer.

After seeing the news story, I think the Twins might be right in removing him because of the abuse, but wrong on trying to take the sign. His argument is, that the Twins shouldn't have tried to take the sign, therefore, no abuse would have taken place. A circular argument that doesn't hold water.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
So trading him when his value was sky high didn't seem like such a bad idea after all then???
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Since his very first torn ACL when he slipped on ice (FEB 2021), I personally don't think his trade value has ever been "sky high" again.

He's not been able to put consecutive months since then of both health and productivity.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
here's a quote from Royce Lewis:

“It kind of falls on, obviously, the players,” Lewis said. “But I didn’t realize it was just on us. Now I know that we’re going to carry a lot of the load, especially the young guys — the cheap guys is the best way to put it.”

waaah. poor little Royce. it's not fair that people expect you to try and do your job.

the last 30 games of the season, Royce hit a whopping .171 with 19 hits in 111 AB with 6 extra-base hits and 8 RBI while striking out 29 times. but it's not his fault - he was tired after playing a whopping 82 games this season.

I put the odds at 50/50 that he turns into Joe Charboneau.
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Was hoping to see something along the lines of -

“We and I didn’t meet the expectations for the second half of the season, especially down the stretch. I am going to learn from this and work incredibly hard this offseason, to improve my physical conditioning and mental focus, do zu can be consistent for a full season. I’ll be encouraging our core of young players to do so as well. We’ll make the playoffs next year.”

Leaders lead Royce.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
So trading him when his value was sky high didn't seem like such a bad idea after all then???
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I remember your post and thinking "that's hogwash". Not so much now.

I just don't trust the Evil Accountants to get equal or greater trade value back for him. There's only so many injured or washed up pitchers available in MLB.
 

Ope3 said:
Since his very first torn ACL when he slipped on ice (FEB 2021), I personally don't think his trade value has ever been "sky high" again.

He's not been able to put consecutive months since then of both health and productivity.
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So it was ridiculous to think about trading him because of how good he was when healthy, yet his value wasn’t high?

Players come back from ACLs all of the time in much harder sports on the body like football. That alone wouldn’t deter anyone from taking a chance on him.
 

Just like what happened to Miranda in his second season, pitchers adjusted, so he’ll have to learn to lay off the low and away sliders; he also needs to stay back, trust his hands and throw them at the pitch, he was lunging noticeably at pitches from the middle in, during the second half.

Lastly someone needs to give him a “grow the heck up” speech; Correra or Buxton have the creds to do so.
 
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Are we headed back to the days of Chad Allen? Without daycares attending the day games we would have had less than 2k at those games.
 



GophersInIowa said:
I think there's two separate issues with the season: their inability and unwillingness to make any upgrades, and the complete downfall at the end. Even without making improvements, there's no excuse for what we saw since mid August. Just terrible baseball all around.
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The injuries are one thing. Letting a Miami team that lost 100 games end your season at home is another matter altogether.
 





GophersInIowa said:
I think there's two separate issues with the season: their inability and unwillingness to make any upgrades, and the complete downfall at the end. Even without making improvements, there's no excuse for what we saw since mid August. Just terrible baseball all around.
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I'm not entirely sure they're necessarily separate issues. You for sure have a point. However, the comments in the offseason by ownership coupled with the lack of moves at the deadline really had an affect on fan outlook and morale. I can't imagine that players aren't affected by this as well. If your employer cut employees and basically told you to do more with less, would that give you a ton of motivation? I'm not saying they intentionally dogged it the last month+ of the season, but employee morale is a real thing that really does have an affect on performance.
 

forever a gopher said:
I'm not entirely sure they're necessarily separate issues. You for sure have a point. However, the comments in the offseason by ownership coupled with the lack of moves at the deadline really had an affect on fan outlook and morale. I can't imagine that players aren't affected by this as well. If your employer cut employees and basically told you to do more with less, would that give you a ton of motivation? I'm not saying they intentionally dogged it the last month+ of the season, but employee morale is a real thing that really does have an affect on performance.
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They showed the ability to be a pretty good team for 2/3 of the season though. They were only 3 games back of having the best record in the AL just shortly before the downfall. There was enough talent to play .500 ball down the stretch.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
So it was ridiculous to think about trading him because of how good he was when healthy, yet his value wasn’t high?

Players come back from ACLs all of the time in much harder sports on the body like football. That alone wouldn’t deter anyone from taking a chance on him.
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I'm not saying it was ridiculous to think about trading him.

I am stating his trade value was never higher than it was prior to February 2021. Any potential trade after that, would not have brought in as great of a return.

Since he came back in 2022 he tore the ACL yet again. At that point his trade value was substantially lower, as the bulk of his time playing at league minimum was going to be while he was on the Injured List.

Even using your own words: "wouldn’t deter anyone from taking a chance on him." GMs don't trade away huge assets just to take a chance. That's contradicts your "sky high" value assessment.

Opposing GMs know the injury history. They have their own medical evaluators.
 

for all of the anger being expressed at the owners and the front office, the players have to take some responsibility.

they're being paid - they are professional baseball players. their job is to play baseball.

and sometimes, that means being able to shut out all of the noise. If you're standing in the batter's box and you're thinking about the team's payroll, or about how the front office didn't add a better pitcher at the trading deadline, you have no chance of hitting major league pitching.

it's a long season. that tests a player physically, but also mentally. you have to be able to focus on the job. sure, you may be tired or a little sore - but when the ump says "play ball," it's still your job to step in the box and try to hit what the pitcher is throwing.

and way too many players on this roster were unable to do their job - or at least do their job at an acceptable level. that is on them. they need to be physically stronger, but also mentally stronger.
and that has nothing to do with payroll. it has to do with having pride in your own performance - with taking responsibility for your own performance. I think that is also why you saw the fielding and base-running mistakes. too many players just didn't have their heads in the game. you can't blame that on Pohlad or Falvey.
 


Slim Tubby said:
Lindor!!! What an amazing game.
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NY and Atlanta have to just win one to get in. Arizona needs the doubleheader to be a sweep one way or another today. I'm assuming whoever wins the first game will sit many of their key players in the second game which doesn't bode well for Arizona.
 

GophersInIowa said:
NY and Atlanta have to just win one to get in. Arizona needs the doubleheader to be a sweep one way or another today. I'm assuming whoever wins the first game will sit many of their key players in the second game which doesn't bode well for Arizona.
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The winner will definitely scratch their SP for the second game. I'd be very nervous if I was a Diamondback fan.
 






Hibbing-born, Fargo-raised Roger Maris hit his 61st home run on this date in 1961, breaking Babe Ruth's single-season record.

Legendary Fargo coach Sid Cichy was at Yankee Stadium for the milestone.

Fun Fact: Maris made his pro baseball debut with the Twins in 1953.

The Fargo-Moorhead Twins that is.
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David Popkins is out as batting coach (per The Athletic).

the Twins informed hitting coach David Popkins he won’t return in 2025, according to a team source.

Popkins was told he won’t be renewed after his contract expired at the end of a season in which the Twins won only 12 of their final 39 games, missing the playoffs by four games.

It wasn’t immediately clear if assistant hitting coaches Derek Shomon and Rudy Hernandez would return.
Over their final 39 games, the Twins batted .228/.292/.354 and scored 3.6 runs per contest. Despite their slump, the Twins managed to finish 10th in the majors in runs scored (742) and ninth in Weighted Runs Created Plus (107) for the season. The Twins also finished in the top 10 in runs scored and wRC+ in 2023.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
David Popkins is out as batting coach (per The Athletic).

the Twins informed hitting coach David Popkins he won’t return in 2025, according to a team source.

Popkins was told he won’t be renewed after his contract expired at the end of a season in which the Twins won only 12 of their final 39 games, missing the playoffs by four games.

It wasn’t immediately clear if assistant hitting coaches Derek Shomon and Rudy Hernandez would return.
Over their final 39 games, the Twins batted .228/.292/.354 and scored 3.6 runs per contest. Despite their slump, the Twins managed to finish 10th in the majors in runs scored (742) and ninth in Weighted Runs Created Plus (107) for the season. The Twins also finished in the top 10 in runs scored and wRC+ in 2023.
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Sacrificial scape goat.
 

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