All Things 2024 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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howeda7 said:
Just brutal. He provides negative value. Can't hit. Can't field.
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Agree. Martin is not great but he is better than Margot in all facets of the game. I'd be fine if they cut their losses and just DFA'd Margot.
 

I can't find any update on Walker Jenkins. Is he still nursing the hamstring he hurt in 1st game of season?
 

TNGophfan said:
Agree. Martin is not great but he is better than Margot in all facets of the game. I'd be fine if they cut their losses and just DFA'd Margot.
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From what I can find, the Twins' are responsible for $4MM of Margot's salary. Michael A Taylor is earning $4MM this year. Taylor currently has a 0.6 WAR in 91 PA's and Margot has a -0.6 WAR in 66 PA's. Nevermind they had to give up something to acquire Margot.

Relatively small potatoes, but I was wondering what they were doing when they went ahead with this. You know Buxton isn't playing the entire year. Taylor plays a plus CF. Unless Taylor didn't want to come back, this one makes it look like the front office was asleep at the wheel or like they were trying to outsmart themselves.
 




forever a gopher said:
From what I can find, the Twins' are responsible for $4MM of Margot's salary. Michael A Taylor is earning $4MM this year. Taylor currently has a 0.6 WAR in 91 PA's and Margot has a -0.6 WAR in 66 PA's. Nevermind they had to give up something to acquire Margot.

Relatively small potatoes, but I was wondering what they were doing when they went ahead with this. You know Buxton isn't playing the entire year. Taylor plays a plus CF. Unless Taylor didn't want to come back, this one makes it look like the front office was asleep at the wheel or like they were trying to outsmart themselves.
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Taylor's not lighting it up and the Pirates aren't going anywhere. Give them a lottery ticket for him and cut the losses with Margot.
 

--on Margot. Gleeman had an item about this in The Athletic. Margot has apparently slowed down - a lot - this season compared to earlier seasons. he used to be considered a good defensive outfielder, but if he is slowing down, that negates his value in CF. unless there is some injury we don't know about, it could be a case where a guy just loses some of his athleticism. So, it appears that Margot got older a lot sooner than expected and Martin is now seen as the better alternative in CF.

--FWIW - Dave St. Peter was on KFAN with PA this morning. talked quite a bit about the TV deal. said discussions are underway. said these types of carriage disputes happen - mentioned that KARE 11 was blacked out on Direct TV for 4 months during a similar dispute. but what caught my ear was that St. Peter said the Twins are looking at options. He did not make it clear whether he meant this year or next year - but he did say the Twins are looking at options so that more people could see the games. He also plugged Fubo and Direct TV Stream as providers that have the Twins right now.
 

forever a gopher said:
From what I can find, the Twins' are responsible for $4MM of Margot's salary. Michael A Taylor is earning $4MM this year. Taylor currently has a 0.6 WAR in 91 PA's and Margot has a -0.6 WAR in 66 PA's. Nevermind they had to give up something to acquire Margot.

Relatively small potatoes, but I was wondering what they were doing when they went ahead with this. You know Buxton isn't playing the entire year. Taylor plays a plus CF. Unless Taylor didn't want to come back, this one makes it look like the front office was asleep at the wheel or like they were trying to outsmart themselves.
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FWIW - it’s been widely reported that MAT signed for less money than the Twins offered; the likeliest scenario is that he overvalued his performance last year and got a little greedy vs. “didn’t want to sign here again,” especially when the Twins are ranked one of the most player friendly organizations.

Isn’t it a but myopic to expect every roster signing is going to work out?

Does every decision one makes in their personal or work life work out? Certainly, not in my case.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
--on Margot. Gleeman had an item about this in The Athletic. Margot has apparently slowed down - a lot - this season compared to earlier seasons. he used to be considered a good defensive outfielder, but if he is slowing down, that negates his value in CF. unless there is some injury we don't know about, it could be a case where a guy just loses some of his athleticism. So, it appears that Margot got older a lot sooner than expected and Martin is now seen as the better alternative in CF.

--FWIW - Dave St. Peter was on KFAN with PA this morning. talked quite a bit about the TV deal. said discussions are underway. said these types of carriage disputes happen - mentioned that KARE 11 was blacked out on Direct TV for 4 months during a similar dispute. but what caught my ear was that St. Peter said the Twins are looking at options. He did not make it clear whether he meant this year or next year - but he did say the Twins are looking at options so that more people could see the games. He also plugged Fubo and Direct TV Stream as providers that have the Twins right now.
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I admit I can't specifically recall paying any attention to Margot with Tampa, but 29 is awfully young to hit the wall and lose your speed.

I expect if Bally doesn't work this out with Comcast soon, they might default on their payments at which point the Twins can probably void the deal. But they had months in the offseason and weren't prepared to do anything. I find it hard to believe they're ready now.
 



here's part of what Gleeman wrote:

Margot is 29 years old, with more than 500 games and 4,000 innings as a big-league center fielder, but within weeks of acquiring him it was clear the Twins considered him no higher than fourth on the depth chart there behind Buxton, Castro and Martin. It’s also possible they might even turn to Triple-A speedster DaShawn Keirsey Jr. over Margot if more help is needed in center field.

Margot has made a career out of good speed and defense, but his fielding stats have crashed even while limited to corner spots and his sprint speed plummeted to the 44th percentile after being in the 75th percentile last season. If the Twins had any inkling Margot would lose a step (or steps) this rapidly and be deployed strictly as a corner outfielder, they likely never would have targeted him.

Without the ability to play a solid center field, Margot loses the majority of his value. He’s a career .258/.308/.382 hitter, which is nowhere near enough thump for a corner outfielder. It also looks like he may have lost a step offensively. After going 0-for-3 and grounding into a double play Sunday, he’s batting .172 with a career-high 23 percent strikeout rate in 28 games.

if he's not injured, how do you explain the drop in foot speed? some guys just hit the wall sooner than others.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
FWIW - it’s been widely reported that MAT signed for less money than the Twins offered; the likeliest scenario is that he overvalued his performance last year and got a little greedy vs. “didn’t want to sign here again,” especially when the Twins are ranked one of the most player friendly organizations.

Isn’t it a but myopic to expect every roster signing is going to work out?

Does every decision one makes in their personal or work life work out? Certainly, not in my case.
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I wonder if he also wanted to go somewhere where he knew he'd get to play CF just about every day. With the plan being that Buxton start playing CF, he probably felt there would be better options out there.
 

Only the White Sox, A's and Astros have played more games against teams currently >.500 than the Twins.

And the Twins have now scored more runs per game than the Royals.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I wonder if he also wanted to go somewhere where he knew he'd get to play CF just about every day. With the plan being that Buxton start playing CF, he probably felt there would be better options out there.
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Possibly, but that was also “the same premise ” last year as well regarding Buck when he signed as a backup, right?

Per some guy on The Athletic, since 4/4, MAT’s line is .127/.200/.127 - worse than Margot’s. He gets overexposed when he plays too much - a man’s gotta know his limitations - either he or his agent should know that at juncture @ age 33.

21 Hrs in 388 ABs last season; 0 HRs in 91 ABs this year. This may well be his last season, so he shouldn’t have left any money on the table, while not overvaluing himself.

Lastly, if he keeps up this present clip, he won’t have to worry about playing much in the future.
 



Gopher_In_NYC said:
Possibly, but that was also “the same premise ” last year as well regarding Buck when he signed as a backup, right?

Per some guy on The Athletic, since 4/4, MAT’s line is .127/.200/.127 - worse than Margot’s. He gets overexposed when he plays too much - a man’s gotta know his limitations - either he or his agent should know that at juncture @ age 33.

21 Hrs in 388 ABs last season; 0 HRs in 91 ABs this year. This may well be his last season, so he shouldn’t have left any money on the table, while not overvaluing himself.

Lastly, if he keeps up this present clip, he won’t have to worry about playing much in the future.
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I believe the Twins planned on Buxton being mainly a DH most of the season so I'm guessing he knew he would get a bunch of playing time in CF.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I believe the Twins planned on Buxton being mainly a DH most of the season so I'm guessing he knew he would get a bunch of playing time in CF.
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Okay, but that doesn’t address my other points, especially the 💰
 

See that Wallner hit his 3rd and 4th HR over the weekend. Still hitting around .220 but maybe, maybe, starting to find it. Be nice to be able to bring him up and send Margot packing and then, when Lewis gets back, see if they can get anything for Farmer.
 

Forgot about Buck. I guess when he gets back, you dump Margot. A bench of Castro, Miranda, Martin and 2nd catcher is not too bad.
Wonder if Santana is toast. Has a few hard hit balls lately.
 

TNGophfan said:
See that Wallner hit his 3rd and 4th HR over the weekend. Still hitting around .220 but maybe, maybe, starting to find it. Be nice to be able to bring him up and send Margot packing and then, when Lewis gets back, see if they can get anything for Farmer.
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yeah, but - Margot hits R and Wallner is L. so a big part of the rationale for Margot is having a right-handed hitting OF for lineup balance and/or to platoon with LH Kepler, Larnach, Wallner, etc.

we've seen how much Rocco likes doing the lefty-righty switches based on who's pitching for the opponents. That, in part, is why Martin is now in the mix in the OF - he hits Righty.

Saints have OF DaShawn Keirsey hitting very well, but he also bats LH.

at least with Correa back, Castro can play more OF and he's a switch-hitter.

BTW - heard a report recently (maybe on a podcast - can't remember) that Brooks Lee is doing well in his rehab. back feels good, he's swinging the bat, running, etc and could be ready for a rehab stint by mid-May. Lee doesn't help with the OF situation, but would be nice to get him back in the mix by mid-season.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
Possibly, but that was also “the same premise ” last year as well regarding Buck when he signed as a backup, right?

Per some guy on The Athletic, since 4/4, MAT’s line is .127/.200/.127 - worse than Margot’s. He gets overexposed when he plays too much - a man’s gotta know his limitations - either he or his agent should know that at juncture @ age 33.

21 Hrs in 388 ABs last season; 0 HRs in 91 ABs this year. This may well be his last season, so he shouldn’t have left any money on the table, while not overvaluing himself.

Lastly, if he keeps up this present clip, he won’t have to worry about playing much in the future.
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GophersInIowa said:
I believe the Twins planned on Buxton being mainly a DH most of the season so I'm guessing he knew he would get a bunch of playing time in CF.
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Taylor didn't sign with the Twins for 2023, he was traded to them.

That said, I doubt it was playing time that was the issue. First he knows Rocco plays everyone. Second everyone knew Buxton would be play half the games in CF at best. Supposedly the holdup is that he wanted a multi-year deal and by the time he came off that demand we'd traded for Margot. But I suspect they were also trying to squeeze him on the salary.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
yeah, but - Margot hits R and Wallner is L. so a big part of the rationale for Margot is having a right-handed hitting OF for lineup balance and/or to platoon with LH Kepler, Larnach, Wallner, etc.

we've seen how much Rocco likes doing the lefty-righty switches based on who's pitching for the opponents. That, in part, is why Martin is now in the mix in the OF - he hits Righty.

Saints have OF DaShawn Keirsey hitting very well, but he also bats LH.

at least with Correa back, Castro can play more OF and he's a switch-hitter.

BTW - heard a report recently (maybe on a podcast - can't remember) that Brooks Lee is doing well in his rehab. back feels good, he's swinging the bat, running, etc and could be ready for a rehab stint by mid-May. Lee doesn't help with the OF situation, but would be nice to get him back in the mix by mid-season.
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Good news on Lee. Thanks.

Back to outfield, I would rather keep Martin than Margot. When Buck gets back, you would have Buck, Castro (switch) and Martin from right side and Castro and Martin can also play some infield. Can Martin play 2nd? Thought he did at one time. Of course, no one asked me.😉
 

howeda7 said:
Taylor didn't sign with the Twins for 2023, he was traded to them.

That said, I doubt it was playing time that was the issue. First he knows Rocco plays everyone. Second everyone knew Buxton would be play half the games in CF at best. Supposedly the holdup is that he wanted a multi-year deal and by the time he came off that demand we'd traded for Margot. But I suspect they were also trying to squeeze him on the salary.
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Ah, forgot about that.
 




Maybe Rocco is giving him last couple chances to prove he belongs. Good luck with that.
 



SWR


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