Free Agency

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

- Aaron Sanchez (29)
- Jon Gray (30)
- Alex Wood (31)
- Michael Pineda (33)

- Eduardo Rodriguez (29) ~ five-year, $77-million deal with the Detroit Tigers

- Steven Matz (31) ~ four-year, $44-million deal with the St. Louis Cardinals

[Monster]

Monster, my point was that the team was essentially .500 over their best stretch of baseball and that was with several guys playing above what they're really capable of. Jose Berrios isn't a Twin. Kenta Maeda is rehabbing an injury. Michael Pineda might not be back. Josh Donaldson is a year older. Byron Buxton could be traded or get injured and miss a significant amount of games as he always has. The worst record in baseball last season was 52-110. Will they be that bad? Probably not, but could they be a 60-65 win team? I could see that. That would put them in the conversation.

Other than Polonco who was so much better than what they can be expected to be? How many guys were worse than expected during that stretch or for that matter much worse than replacement level? The Twins did somehow play reasonably well with a roster that had some guys that weren't or shouldn't even supposed to be in the majors. It's likely the Twins will have some additions to what they had during that stretch. It's also fair to say that to some extent when the Twins were losing earlier in the year everything went wrong that could. That sort of reversed during that wonderful stretch after they sold and had injuries. That stretch they did it with hardly any legit vet pitching so who cares if Berrios or Meada isn't pitching right? We didn't need them during that stretch!! Lol Maybe there won't be some really awful teams in 2022 but the Twins weren't even close to being the worst last year and they played better after they had some players that should have contributed. Is it possible that trend continues and maybe the Twins could bounce back next year to some extent? I think so. Playoffs? Possible I guess. Likely? No I'm not even getting my hopes up but again I don't see this team just being terrible.

One of the reasons I think they can stay competitive is that I think they are going to be able to score some runs even if they have some injuries. The organization has some depth in terms of bats...well hopefully they aren't playing castoffs in the outfield as much this season as last year but you get what I mean.

I think where we agree is that the Twins shouldn't have high expectations next year. I think we actually are out ok with that as well. You are more eager to sell off everything. I'm ok with selling I just think at some point there may be a sort of diminishing returns scenario in doing that. It will be interesting to see what the Twins do.

[Jester1534]

Per Dan Hayes at the Athletic it's unlikely of a Nelson Cruz return.

If your wonder if we won this trade there no doubt in my mind we did even if Joe Ryan sucks.

Nelson Cruz hit .226/.283/.442 for the rays and there was even discussion to leave him off the playoff roster.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Per Dan Hayes at the Athletic it's unlikely of a Nelson Cruz return.

If your wonder if we won this trade there no doubt in my mind we did even if Joe Ryan sucks.

Nelson Cruz hit .226/.283/.442 for the rays and there was even discussion to leave him off the playoff roster.

I felt like the Twins won that trade the very day it happened. Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman were much better prospects than I expected to get in return for a couple months of an aging Nelson Cruz. Ryan will end up being a middle of the rotation starter, which has plenty of value in itself. Strotman struggled a bit after the trade, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him pitch at the MLB level in 2022.

I can't complain at all with how Minnesota's front office did at the deadline. My only gripe was that they should have moved Michael Pineda and Andrelton Simmons too.

[Jester1534]

Per Dan Hayes at the Athletic it's unlikely of a Nelson Cruz return.

If your wonder if we won this trade there no doubt in my mind we did even if Joe Ryan sucks.

Nelson Cruz hit .226/.283/.442 for the rays and there was even discussion to leave him off the playoff roster.

I felt like the Twins won that trade the very day it happened. Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman were much better prospects than I expected to get in return for a couple months of an aging Nelson Cruz. Ryan will end up being a middle of the rotation starter, which has plenty of value in itself. Strotman struggled a bit after the trade, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him pitch at the MLB level in 2022.

I can't complain at all with how Minnesota's front office did at the deadline. My only gripe was that they should have moved Michael Pineda and Andrelton Simmons too.

I can tell you from what I've heard they didn't trade Pineda because the prospect they would get back didn't outweigh the chance of committing to him and having him resign here.

[Monster]

Per Dan Hayes at the Athletic it's unlikely of a Nelson Cruz return.

If your wonder if we won this trade there no doubt in my mind we did even if Joe Ryan sucks.

Nelson Cruz hit .226/.283/.442 for the rays and there was even discussion to leave him off the playoff roster.

I felt like the Twins won that trade the very day it happened. Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman were much better prospects than I expected to get in return for a couple months of an aging Nelson Cruz. Ryan will end up being a middle of the rotation starter, which has plenty of value in itself. Strotman struggled a bit after the trade, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him pitch at the MLB level in 2022.

I can't complain at all with how Minnesota's front office did at the deadline. My only gripe was that they should have moved Michael Pineda and Andrelton Simmons too.

I can tell you from what I've heard they didn't trade Pineda because the prospect they would get back didn't outweigh the chance of committing to him and having him resign here.

I remember hearing Pineda's injury history scared off some teams that were considering him.

It was reported by a few people I saw that nobody was giving anything up for Simmons either at best they could have saved some of his salary and they really didn't have anyone to play that position defensively if they moved him. He actually "hit" worse in the 2nd half of the season than he did in the first half. He was bad as a hitter but if you believe at all in the stat he still had a 1.5 WAR for the season. I think keeping him and his above ever age defense was good for al the pitchers (especially the young ones) they had rolling thorough after the traded guys away and Maeda and Pineda were out of the picture.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Jeff Passan:

BREAKING: Center fielder Byron Buxton and the Minnesota Twins are in agreement on a long-term, nine-figure contract extension, sources familiar with the deal tell ESPN.

I hope it's incentive-laden... That guy is made of glass. Maybe it's something like $120-million over seven years with contract triggers. I could live with that, I suppose.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Ken Rosenthal:

Buxton deal with Twins, per source: Seven years, $100M. Full no-trade clause.

That's... actually really good value. I'm not mad at that.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

A fully healthy MVP-winning season while maxing out all incentives would earn Byron Buxton $25.5-million for that year. That's pretty fair while providing the safety net of a $15-million base salary.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I'll reiterate that I probably would have tried to sell high on Byron Buxton this off-season, but the numbers in his extension are pretty team-friendly.