Latest / Foul Territory / Twins checkup with Dan Hayes

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Twins checkup with Dan Hayes · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: It's hard to bring back the same band when they
0:02
Speaker 1: are twelve and twenty seven, but I think you know,
0:04
Speaker 1: they have that stretch fresh in their minds and fans
0:08
Speaker 1: because it's the same team, just assume that this is
0:10
Speaker 1: a carryover from last year.
0:15
Speaker 2: Well, we've got Dan Hayes joining us right now covering
0:18
Speaker 2: the Twins for the Athletic Dan. Great to have you on.
0:21
Speaker 2: How would you describe the Minnesota Twins through their first
0:25
Speaker 2: couple weeks of the season and reaction from the fan base.
0:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a rough eleven games in the last
0:33
Speaker 1: three days, four days, whatever it's been. Have had some
0:35
Speaker 1: of those games that have had just very difficult losses.
0:40
Speaker 1: Blowing the six run lead on Sunday at home against
0:43
Speaker 1: the Astros, you have a series win lined up in
0:46
Speaker 1: your home, first home series of the season, to blow
0:49
Speaker 1: that was really rough, and then last night. You know,
0:52
Speaker 1: one of the things that's really bugged them early on
0:54
Speaker 1: this season is they just haven't had stability from their rotation.
0:57
Speaker 3: And this is a very good rotation.
0:59
Speaker 1: On pay paper, Fangrafts had it projected as the fifth
1:02
Speaker 1: best rotation in baseball going in, and until last night
1:06
Speaker 1: they had a six ninety Era for their first ten games,
1:08
Speaker 1: and they haven't. I think they've had two guys go
1:11
Speaker 1: into the sixth inning this season so far. And last
1:14
Speaker 1: night Pablo Lopez was just he was matching Cole Reagan's
1:18
Speaker 1: you know, right and left.
1:20
Speaker 3: He looked amazing, had a lot of swing and miss.
1:22
Speaker 1: And then he gets the hamstring string, the mild hamstring
1:26
Speaker 1: strand and the fifth in and it was just another
1:29
Speaker 1: big blow that this team is facing no royce Lewis
1:32
Speaker 1: early on and to lose the game they played, they
1:36
Speaker 1: were in it the entire way. The eighth inning, you
1:39
Speaker 1: get to the point where Carlos Korea is coming up
1:42
Speaker 1: with first and third, one out, you look like you
1:44
Speaker 1: have a shot at winning.
1:45
Speaker 3: It's one to one, and he had.
1:47
Speaker 1: Hit two doubles, which you know he had one double
1:49
Speaker 1: coming in all season going into last yesterday, and hits
1:54
Speaker 1: into a double play. Griffin Jackson comes in, gets a
1:57
Speaker 1: pop out, gets Bobby White to hit a four hopper
1:59
Speaker 1: to the mount and airmails at the first and wits
2:02
Speaker 1: on third and Pascenttino just hits a little little number
2:05
Speaker 1: up the first baseline and boom, you lose two to one.
2:08
Speaker 1: So they have been hit in the face by the
2:12
Speaker 1: shovel a few times. So far the snowshovel has been out,
2:15
Speaker 1: and really it's been a tough eleven days. And you know,
2:18
Speaker 1: fans came in angry anyways, that fans have not forgotten
2:22
Speaker 1: last season's collapse. Fans want the team sail to be complete.
2:26
Speaker 1: Attendance was down over that first three games, severely so
2:31
Speaker 1: that fan anger was already or fan morale was already
2:34
Speaker 1: pretty low.
2:34
Speaker 3: And obviously it's not the kind of start they were
2:37
Speaker 3: looking for.
2:39
Speaker 4: Dan, we can't get you upgraded to a king bed
2:42
Speaker 4: and wherever you are, because I mean, I mean.
2:47
Speaker 1: I took I probably took a good deal, like but yes,
2:52
Speaker 1: I was walked in the other day and was a
2:53
Speaker 1: little surprised myself.
2:54
Speaker 4: So I mean, you don't go to the front desk
2:56
Speaker 4: and say, I'm Dan Hayes, I'm part of the athletic.
2:58
Speaker 4: I can't get a king bed. I mean maybe being upgrade.
3:00
Speaker 3: I'm going to write about it.
3:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, nobody wants to hear about beat writers travel issues,
3:07
Speaker 1: so they I get that stuff.
3:10
Speaker 3: They wait real quick, there you go.
3:15
Speaker 1: Hey, you guys were talking about NBAHM there for a minute.
3:18
Speaker 1: I just wanted because Sahative is part of the network,
3:21
Speaker 1: and I just wanted to ring bring something back. About
3:24
Speaker 1: seven years ago, you guys were talking about the I
3:26
Speaker 1: have this. I don't know if it'll show up.
3:28
Speaker 2: But yeah we can see higher there we go, Wait, Hi,
3:34
Speaker 2: no high higher there there you go.
3:36
Speaker 1: There that was Sahat was the Magic and I was
3:41
Speaker 1: the Warriors. And that was at an arcade in Phoenix.
3:45
Speaker 1: It was an adult arcade in Phoenix.
3:47
Speaker 3: And uh.
3:49
Speaker 1: To sixteen, I've never seen someone, a grown man cry
3:53
Speaker 1: in public, but I I made cry and I want
3:56
Speaker 1: that to be out on the internet.
3:58
Speaker 3: Uh, like that was your's. I still so it's a
4:02
Speaker 3: it's a highlight for me. But how bad?
4:07
Speaker 4: First of all, before we're gonna get back to the twins,
4:09
Speaker 4: but how bad were the magic they had Nick Anderson
4:11
Speaker 4: to Scott Skyles. Not that Scott Skyles wasn't a great player.
4:14
Speaker 4: He did set the assist record on my birthday one
4:15
Speaker 4: year against the Nuggas. You had like forty.
4:18
Speaker 3: Thirty.
4:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, crazy, But he was the fact that it
4:22
Speaker 4: was Nick Anderson and Scott Skyles on NBA jam versus
4:25
Speaker 4: anybody feels like that could be the score almost every time.
4:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know what they were thinking when they
4:30
Speaker 3: picked that team.
4:30
Speaker 1: To be honest and being Chris Burton being physical was
4:35
Speaker 1: was very fun. I think, I said, I think I
4:38
Speaker 1: had a triple double as weber alone and blocks, assists, rebounds,
4:43
Speaker 1: and I think I barely got the points. So I
4:45
Speaker 1: just I can't remember who my partner was, but we
4:47
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Speaker 5: Wow.
5:54
Speaker 4: Okay, all right, now back to the Twins. Speaking of
5:56
Speaker 4: getting dominated, I know it's calling up there in old Minnesota.
5:59
Speaker 4: You talk about Carlos Carea, but nobody's hitting on this
6:02
Speaker 4: team well where, I mean, Korea is going to be better,
6:05
Speaker 4: Buckston has got to be better. But you just look
6:07
Speaker 4: at it as like Wallner is doing okay, but the
6:09
Speaker 4: rest of the team, I mean Castro struggling, Larnick struggling,
6:12
Speaker 4: all of them are struggling. Is it the weather or
6:14
Speaker 4: is it something else that we're not looking at here?
6:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's hard to say.
6:19
Speaker 1: I was looking at it yesterday and the ops pluses
6:21
Speaker 1: were like, I think Castro is above one hundred, I
6:24
Speaker 1: think Warner was above one hundred. Everybody else, like Carlos
6:28
Speaker 1: care was minus seven going into yesterday in a three
6:31
Speaker 1: eighteen ops. He's had a little weird season because there's
6:35
Speaker 1: been a lot of hard contact that found gloves early
6:37
Speaker 1: on his exit velocity that first six games was up.
6:42
Speaker 1: He started to dial in far more and you could
6:45
Speaker 1: see it. Sunday, I think he had two walks in
6:47
Speaker 1: the single and then his bad against Ersig late in
6:50
Speaker 1: the game on Monday was fantastic. He struck out, but
6:54
Speaker 1: it was a twelve pitch at bat and he was
6:55
Speaker 1: just missing. And so last night, you know, he faces
6:58
Speaker 1: Reagans and doubles to center and the first at batan
7:01
Speaker 1: that's the only guy on the team.
7:03
Speaker 3: They even came close to touching Reagan's.
7:05
Speaker 1: And he had another double later, but then of course
7:07
Speaker 1: the double playball in the key situation happened. And it
7:11
Speaker 1: just feels like that's what's happened on the Twins so
7:12
Speaker 1: far as you'll get individual moments, but nobody is stringing
7:16
Speaker 1: hits together, and the offense is just They've had two
7:20
Speaker 1: really beginnings, but overall the group hasn't been very good.
7:25
Speaker 1: Missing Lewis hurts. You know, brooks Lee is on the
7:28
Speaker 1: mend and they hope he can come up and hit,
7:30
Speaker 1: and last year he didn't except for his first two weeks.
7:34
Speaker 1: They really need things to go well, Harrison Vaders leads
7:37
Speaker 1: the team in home runs and RBIs and he's been
7:39
Speaker 1: batting ninth most of the time or eighth in the lineup.
7:41
Speaker 1: So it just hasn't gone the way they want to.
7:44
Speaker 1: They really worked on this to avoid it in spring training.
7:47
Speaker 1: They put in a lot of different new tactics. Matt
7:51
Speaker 1: Borkshualte's their new hitting coach. They the first two rounds
7:54
Speaker 1: of batting practice this year were focused or all season
7:57
Speaker 1: ends mandatory batting practice on the field for everybody, But
8:00
Speaker 1: the first two rounds are focused on opposite way. Then
8:03
Speaker 1: it's line drives for the third round, and then it's
8:05
Speaker 1: kind of choose your own adventure in rounds four and five.
8:08
Speaker 1: And so they really have tried to do something to
8:12
Speaker 1: limit the fact where when they don't homer, they can
8:14
Speaker 1: find ways to score, and so far that hasn't really matriculated.
8:18
Speaker 1: But you know, for you guys that did floor to
8:23
Speaker 1: spring training, you know that it's really hard to get
8:25
Speaker 1: a ton of bats there. Like when you're in Fort Myers,
8:28
Speaker 1: the nearest team is the Red Sox ten minutes away,
8:30
Speaker 1: but then the next one is fifty minutes away, and
8:33
Speaker 1: you know, Arizona have like five teams within fifty minutes.
8:37
Speaker 1: So to get fifty plate appearances out of veterans is
8:39
Speaker 1: a really hard thing to do. The Twins had nine
8:42
Speaker 1: guys out of there thirteen with fifty plate appearances. Everybody
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Speaker 1: played Carlos Carea is on the road, you know, an
8:49
Speaker 1: hour north. Veterans don't typically do that, but Roco really
8:52
Speaker 1: wanted them to be ready for the season and turn
8:56
Speaker 1: it around. And you know last year there were seven
8:58
Speaker 1: and thirteen over their first twenty. They wanted to avoid
9:01
Speaker 1: that and they were hoping the offense could do that.
9:03
Speaker 1: They got all their working. It just hasn't happened so far.
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Speaker 5: You said mandatory, BP, Is this like a revelation? Is
9:12
Speaker 5: this like a rule on a team that didn't have rules?
9:16
Speaker 5: Or I mean you brought it up, so I have
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Speaker 5: to ask, like, was it not mandatory before?
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Speaker 3: It wasn't.
9:21
Speaker 1: So, Look, they talked a lot about how when COVID hit,
9:26
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of it was individual instruction.
9:28
Speaker 3: Guys were basically it was you were.
9:30
Speaker 1: Limited in twenty one to working with a coach at
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Speaker 1: the time, and so a lot of guys got used
9:35
Speaker 1: to hitting indoors and they wouldn't necessarily Corella loves hitting indoors,
9:40
Speaker 1: like most of his work would be in the cage,
9:42
Speaker 1: and I think what they wanted to do was get
9:44
Speaker 1: the team together more and you know, observing and talking,
9:49
Speaker 1: hitting and more like a structured thing. So yeah, I think,
9:53
Speaker 1: you know, in the past, you look at the Twins,
9:55
Speaker 1: they've had a lot of veteran laden teams. Nelson Cruz
9:57
Speaker 1: was was the guy from nineteen to twenty one, and
10:02
Speaker 1: it was a veteran established team around them. Last year
10:06
Speaker 1: they brought up a lot of younger guys, and I
10:08
Speaker 1: think they wanted the older guys working more focused with
10:11
Speaker 1: the younger guys just.
10:12
Speaker 3: To keep things together.
10:15
Speaker 1: And that part's been interesting because you know it's early
10:19
Speaker 1: in the year, and yeah, no team is going to
10:21
Speaker 1: get two demoralized over a rough start. But there's been
10:23
Speaker 1: a ton of conversation in games where hitting has not
10:26
Speaker 1: been there, and you see guys, you know, taking notes
10:30
Speaker 1: and talking to each other and it's spirited conversation. They're
10:33
Speaker 1: really into it. So I think in that regard, they
10:36
Speaker 1: were looking to kind of keep the group together a
10:38
Speaker 1: little more, and I think that's actually worked pretty well.
10:40
Speaker 1: It's just the results haven't been there. But Yeah, absolutely,
10:43
Speaker 1: they changed everything to mandatory. The pitchers talked about how
10:48
Speaker 1: they didn't see the position players this year because usually
10:51
Speaker 1: they were spread out over so many fields, working with
10:53
Speaker 1: different coaches or in the cages and doing a lot
10:56
Speaker 1: of individualized drills. And I think you know that that
11:00
Speaker 1: just was sort of something that started with COVID and
11:03
Speaker 1: the industry, Like Derek Falvey said, it's something that's happened
11:05
Speaker 1: a lot in the industry.
11:07
Speaker 3: They decided to take it the other way.
11:09
Speaker 1: Matt borg SCHAALTI brought in some different ideas for what
11:11
Speaker 1: had worked in Baltimore and wanted to kind of prove
11:14
Speaker 1: it and see how it worked. And they're very satisfied
11:16
Speaker 1: with that aspect it. Again, they just didn't expect to
11:20
Speaker 1: be three and eight at this.
11:20
Speaker 5: Point because of the lack of moves. This is essentially
11:24
Speaker 5: the same roster from August tenth. Last year. August tenth,
11:29
Speaker 5: this team was on its way to the playoffs. They
11:31
Speaker 5: were going to battle with the Royals to figure out
11:33
Speaker 5: who's going to win the Central what's changed, What's changed?
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Speaker 5: And I know sometimes different like players don't just fade
11:42
Speaker 5: out or age out in you know, the last month
11:45
Speaker 5: of a season. And then the beginning of another season.
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Speaker 5: But something has changed or did you see it coming
11:52
Speaker 5: before August tenth.
11:54
Speaker 1: No, you know, Joe Ryan got hurt on August eighth
11:57
Speaker 1: last year, and on August seventeenth there were seventy and
11:59
Speaker 1: fifty three. So Correa is down at that point already
12:03
Speaker 1: with the planner fasciatus. He's actually looked great physically. You
12:07
Speaker 1: can tell that that's not bothering him right now. Buxton
12:11
Speaker 1: went down with a hip injury and missed twenty eight games.
12:14
Speaker 1: So they were already up against it with pitching when
12:17
Speaker 1: Joe Ryan went down, Like this was a team that
12:19
Speaker 1: went in extremely thin and they're starting pitching. Last year,
12:22
Speaker 1: Anthony di Scliffani was part of the plan. He got
12:25
Speaker 1: hurt in spring training, never threw a pitch for them.
12:27
Speaker 1: They were counting on Chris Paddock to throw like one
12:29
Speaker 1: hundred innings last year, coming off of eighteen in his
12:33
Speaker 1: first year back from Temmy his second Tommy John. He
12:36
Speaker 1: was done by end of June, and then when Joe
12:38
Speaker 1: Ryan goes down, basically it's Pablo Lopez, Bailey Ober and
12:41
Speaker 1: three rookies who all hit their innings limits. You know,
12:46
Speaker 1: early September and they were basically hoping to get five
12:49
Speaker 1: innings out of David Festus, sim And Wood Richardson and
12:53
Speaker 1: Zebbie Matthews, who had started last year in a ball
12:56
Speaker 1: so they knew what they were up against. An injuries
12:59
Speaker 1: just they sacked that team. I mean it was it
13:02
Speaker 1: was obvious Bucks and Korea got back for the last
13:04
Speaker 1: two weeks. It was just too late. A lot of
13:07
Speaker 1: their young guys were in slumped and couldn't get out
13:10
Speaker 1: of at Royce Lewis, you know, the last two hundred
13:12
Speaker 1: played appearances, I think had it under five hundred ops.
13:15
Speaker 1: He still ended up with like a seven to fifty
13:17
Speaker 1: ops for the season. But you know, he had been
13:19
Speaker 1: so incredible in June and July that I don't know,
13:24
Speaker 1: it's it's strange. You can see the makings of a
13:27
Speaker 1: decent team there. You know, ty France had a great
13:31
Speaker 1: spring and has hit the ball hard early. He's provided
13:36
Speaker 1: some steadiness, but it's it has not quite worked. And
13:41
Speaker 1: I don't expect Korea to be a three eighteen ops player.
13:44
Speaker 1: You know, his worst April was like six thirty six.
13:48
Speaker 1: There's a lot of area for him to go upward.
13:50
Speaker 1: There's a lot for Buckston to go back up. I
13:53
Speaker 1: don't you know this team is accustomed to rough starts,
13:56
Speaker 1: being seven to thirteen last year. In their eleventh game
14:00
Speaker 1: last year, they fell to four and seven. In that game,
14:03
Speaker 1: Korea has got an oblique injury and went on the il.
14:05
Speaker 1: They were already down Royce Lewis, and then they rallied
14:08
Speaker 1: and they had the twelve game winning streak and figured
14:11
Speaker 1: it out and were seventy and fifty three. So I
14:14
Speaker 1: think they can bounce back. The starting pitching just hasn't
14:17
Speaker 1: been what they'd hoped so far. Joe Ryan, you can
14:19
Speaker 1: tell that they are trying to ease him in after
14:22
Speaker 1: last year's injury. Bailey Over got sick before his first start,
14:25
Speaker 1: had something like flew like symptoms and lost eight pounds
14:29
Speaker 1: and got rocked.
14:30
Speaker 3: In Saint Louis.
14:30
Speaker 1: And he's gained six of those eight pounds back, but
14:33
Speaker 1: he only went four his last time out. And the
14:36
Speaker 1: rotation and the bullpen are supposed to be a huge
14:39
Speaker 1: part of this so far has not been. I don't
14:42
Speaker 1: expect that to hold, even if you know Chris Paddock
14:44
Speaker 1: has struggled. Even if they have to go to one
14:47
Speaker 1: of Festa or Zebie Matthews if that's the case, eventually,
14:51
Speaker 1: I think they have a lot more pitching depth that
14:52
Speaker 1: they should be able to rely on and get them
14:55
Speaker 1: back on track. The fact that they are sitting here
14:58
Speaker 1: with four and two thre average Indians from their starting
15:01
Speaker 1: rotation right now is kind of stunning because it was
15:03
Speaker 1: clearly part of the plan to keep them afloat early
15:06
Speaker 1: when the offense, you know, take its time to get
15:08
Speaker 1: it get on track.
15:11
Speaker 2: Dan, quick one for you here, because then I have
15:13
Speaker 2: another one on a topic that I think is juicier.
15:15
Speaker 2: But Susie has a question in the chat, said, can
15:18
Speaker 2: you ask why Rocco brought in Duran to face the
15:20
Speaker 2: bottom of the order and then Jacks to face the
15:22
Speaker 2: heart of the order in the ninth I mean, it
15:24
Speaker 2: looks like this year and going into you know, looking
15:27
Speaker 2: at last year as well, that they look at Jacks
15:31
Speaker 2: just as highly regarded as Duran and they pick a
15:33
Speaker 2: lane in the lineup.
15:34
Speaker 3: So that's the answer, right.
15:36
Speaker 1: It is, And it's not anything that they've ever They've
15:39
Speaker 1: always done this. They always have been matchup based. And
15:42
Speaker 1: I'm sure the relievers love that he because there's no
15:45
Speaker 1: guy that gets thirty saves right and saves gets you paid.
15:49
Speaker 1: But Griffin Jackson, they think very highly of him. I
15:52
Speaker 1: think that last year Duran struggled, and Duran has been
15:55
Speaker 1: throwing the ball well this year. But I think last
15:57
Speaker 1: year Duran Jackson times surpassing me. He was two oh
16:01
Speaker 1: three e ra A, seventy one innings, ninety five strikeouts.
16:04
Speaker 1: He was the guy. His slider gets in on lefties.
16:06
Speaker 1: He's dangerous. The damage that's been done on him so
16:10
Speaker 1: far this years had been on fastballs. So and it was,
16:13
Speaker 1: you know, Sunday was two pitches. He gave up the
16:16
Speaker 1: single and then the two run homer to Alvarez, who
16:19
Speaker 1: did dominated with fastballs up in the zone all series.
16:21
Speaker 3: And then Alvarez turned that one.
16:24
Speaker 1: But that's typical and Duran, if he throws the way
16:27
Speaker 1: he did Sunday, we'll see a lot more ninth innings.
16:30
Speaker 3: In fact, last night they reversed the rules.
16:32
Speaker 1: But it was Jack's getting the middle of the lineup
16:35
Speaker 1: and the hardest part of the lineup. They just they
16:37
Speaker 1: have a lot of trust in him, and they'll continue
16:39
Speaker 1: to have trust in him.
16:40
Speaker 3: So that's not atypical. They did it with Taylor Rodgers.
16:43
Speaker 1: They've done it, you know with everybody over the last
16:46
Speaker 1: couple of years, and it's all matchup based.
16:49
Speaker 2: So let's finish with this, Dan. We can and I'm
16:52
Speaker 2: talking we as in twins. Fans really can complain about
16:56
Speaker 2: what happened last year, the twelve and twenty seven collapse,
16:59
Speaker 2: I mean, right, and then years of staleness of nothingness
17:05
Speaker 2: from the front office blaming ownership and they can't get
17:07
Speaker 2: the team sold yet. Okay, we got all that. Let's
17:10
Speaker 2: go one layer down, front office. If you're giving a
17:13
Speaker 2: mandate on budget, why do you think they haven't gotten
17:17
Speaker 2: a little more creative with at least trying to mix
17:20
Speaker 2: and match. Like if it's me and I'm running a
17:22
Speaker 2: team and I know I'm not. I'm looking at the
17:25
Speaker 2: collapse last year and saying, got it, this is our
17:27
Speaker 2: hard budget. We can't go off of this.
17:29
Speaker 3: It is what it is.
17:30
Speaker 2: Right now, I'm going to try and do some things
17:32
Speaker 2: to switch it up. I'm going to do a trade
17:34
Speaker 2: that either really will work or not. Do you think
17:36
Speaker 2: that front offices in a state like this are scared
17:39
Speaker 2: of losing on a trade because putting the same exact
17:42
Speaker 2: team out there after that collapse, to me, was just
17:45
Speaker 2: not a good message. And I feel like this happens
17:47
Speaker 2: sometimes in baseball and it almost never produces a better result,
17:50
Speaker 2: Like one of the worst collapses in the twenty first century,
17:53
Speaker 2: What are they going to do about it? Roll out
17:55
Speaker 2: the same roster. So did you ever get any answers
17:57
Speaker 2: as to why they didn't do anything even to keep
18:00
Speaker 2: the payroll in the same range.
18:02
Speaker 1: I think they probably didn't get the value that they
18:04
Speaker 1: were looking for. They're known as a tough team to
18:06
Speaker 1: trade with, and I've heard that plenty, so I don't
18:11
Speaker 1: know that they got the value. I'm sure they would
18:13
Speaker 1: have entertained trading Joan Durant to somebody if they were
18:17
Speaker 1: in the market for a good reliever.
18:19
Speaker 3: They have a bunch of year three.
18:21
Speaker 1: To six guys that are affordable and talented, so they
18:27
Speaker 1: stuck with that group. And they tried to switch it
18:30
Speaker 1: up by doing the mandatory stuff, and they really focus
18:32
Speaker 1: on the picture or the position player side with that.
18:34
Speaker 1: And you know, they brought in Harrison Bader, they brought
18:36
Speaker 1: in Ty France, they made some moves on the edge.
18:39
Speaker 1: They brought in Danny Kolom to fill the left handed
18:41
Speaker 1: reliever role, and they added about fourteen million in payroll.
18:45
Speaker 1: But they knew they were largely bringing back the same team,
18:47
Speaker 1: and I agree it's hard to bring back the same
18:50
Speaker 1: band when they are twelve and twenty seven. But I
18:52
Speaker 1: think you know, they have that stretch fresh in their
18:55
Speaker 1: minds and fans because it's the same team just assume
18:58
Speaker 1: that this is a carryover for last year and it's
19:01
Speaker 1: not a new team.
19:02
Speaker 3: But what they looked at were the injuries.
19:05
Speaker 1: And I don't know that you're gonna get value for
19:07
Speaker 1: Royce Lewis, and you probably might have been trading him
19:09
Speaker 1: at a low point last year because of the way
19:11
Speaker 1: he struggled at the end and the fact that he's
19:13
Speaker 1: missed games. So in some ways, you know, you look
19:17
Speaker 1: at how the money is there. Carlos Korea takes up
19:20
Speaker 1: a big chunky and Byron Buxton are accounting for fifty
19:23
Speaker 1: million of a payroll that's like one forty one, and
19:26
Speaker 1: so there's a little bit of a limited wiggle room.
19:30
Speaker 1: But like if you trade Korea, right, and I know
19:32
Speaker 1: that New York Post wrote about this a few times,
19:35
Speaker 1: like that the Yankee should trade for Korea.
19:38
Speaker 3: That that's interesting.
19:40
Speaker 1: And yet if the Twins, they would have to have
19:43
Speaker 1: absorbed Yankee contracts to make that work right, you would
19:46
Speaker 1: have to take some bad Yankee contracts on why are
19:48
Speaker 1: you get the value of Carlos Korea, who could be
19:52
Speaker 1: a six war player if he's healthy, Like look at
19:54
Speaker 1: last year, he's All Star three fifteen at the break,
19:58
Speaker 1: fourteen homers, fifty RBIs. He was on pace for a
20:01
Speaker 1: six war season. If you trade his thirty six million
20:03
Speaker 1: and get it off the books, you're not getting the
20:05
Speaker 1: sixth war back. You're getting, you know, a bad contract
20:08
Speaker 1: and an older player, and then you have twenty million
20:11
Speaker 1: to make up the rest of that. That's I don't
20:14
Speaker 1: they're in a weird spot because of those big contracts
20:17
Speaker 1: and they're never quite gonna get the value. I think,
20:19
Speaker 1: so they were probably a little bit hamstrung. And again
20:22
Speaker 1: they're they're notoriously difficult to trade with. So I'm not
20:26
Speaker 1: shocked that they said we were injured and this is
20:29
Speaker 1: what we're going to run back. We're going to change
20:31
Speaker 1: things up and try to get better and keep the
20:33
Speaker 1: group together a little bit more, because I think they
20:36
Speaker 1: there were some fractures. You know, when we were here
20:38
Speaker 1: last time in Kansas City and September, Rocco called out
20:41
Speaker 1: the clubhouse for being unprofessional, and I think they really
20:45
Speaker 1: tried to light a fire under their young guys in
20:47
Speaker 1: the offseason. It's unfortunate Royce Lewis's out with another leg
20:51
Speaker 1: injury to start the season. He's probably not back for
20:53
Speaker 1: another three to four weeks. Brooks Lee's injury, they expected
20:57
Speaker 1: him to be, you know, backup second base, back, shortstop,
21:00
Speaker 1: even a lot of time at second base, and he's
21:03
Speaker 1: getting closer, but he's two games in on his rehabs.
21:05
Speaker 1: So it's always gonna be injuries with this team and
21:09
Speaker 1: can they get through them? And so far those have
21:12
Speaker 1: been you know, those have heard them a little bit
21:14
Speaker 1: because the infield looks a little bit thin. Aside from
21:17
Speaker 1: Carlos Correa and ty France right now, you've seen younger
21:20
Speaker 1: guys struggle, and you know, they expected Lewis and Lee
21:24
Speaker 1: to be part of that group so far, and it hasn't.
21:27
Speaker 3: You know, they haven't been here. Well, I just want
21:30
Speaker 3: to know this.
21:30
Speaker 4: When they signed Carlos Carrea, what was the big thing?
21:32
Speaker 4: They said, We're going to go around you, right and
21:36
Speaker 4: but they haven't done that. So is is there anything
21:39
Speaker 4: to like Carlos being like, maybe I am not that
21:44
Speaker 4: excited about being here anymore, because wasn't that a thing, Like,
21:46
Speaker 4: wasn't that a big thing when they signed Carlos, Hey,
21:49
Speaker 4: We're going to surround you with players. In the last
21:50
Speaker 4: couple of years, they haven't around.
21:52
Speaker 1: They their their payroll in twenty twenty three was their
21:55
Speaker 1: highest ever one hundred and fifty seven million, and they
21:59
Speaker 1: were looking to keep go, keep going that direction. Fans
22:03
Speaker 1: didn't respond to that team. They didn't draw two million fans.
22:07
Speaker 1: They won the division, and teams typically get bumps after
22:10
Speaker 1: they win the division by three hundred thousand fans. They
22:13
Speaker 1: drew fewer fans last year. Now that was fans were
22:15
Speaker 1: pretty angry about the thirty million dollar payroll cut. And
22:18
Speaker 1: I think that you turned your fans off, honestly, you
22:22
Speaker 1: know right now, the first three games they drew nine
22:25
Speaker 1: thousand fewer fans than they did in the first three
22:27
Speaker 1: last year. Well, last year, their Sunday game got rained
22:30
Speaker 1: out and they had a Monday against the Dodgers with
22:32
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand on Sunday. This year they drew fourteen thousand fans.
22:37
Speaker 1: That's just not great. Fans are kind of turning his
22:40
Speaker 1: team out and waiting for a sale. And I think
22:43
Speaker 1: that that's what's going to be the key. I think
22:45
Speaker 1: Korea probably.
22:46
Speaker 4: Wait on has that gone away?
22:47
Speaker 5: But has that gone away?
22:48
Speaker 1: Dan?
22:48
Speaker 4: The sale because about.
22:50
Speaker 3: Its slow, it's a slow cooking it.
22:53
Speaker 1: I think there is still interest, but this process, they
22:57
Speaker 1: haven't taken them off the market, and you know, it's
22:59
Speaker 1: definitely going slower than fans wanted. Fans wanted a new
23:04
Speaker 1: owner in by opening day, it looked like that was
23:06
Speaker 1: gonna be the case with Justin Nishbia. Then he decided
23:09
Speaker 1: to increase his minority stake in the White Sox and
23:11
Speaker 1: you know they are They didn't start from zero, but
23:15
Speaker 1: they had to basically get everything aligned again and that
23:19
Speaker 1: was you know, early February that we're talking about. So
23:23
Speaker 1: there's a lot of fan resentment it's not going well
23:25
Speaker 1: at the gate and the fact that they didn't when
23:28
Speaker 1: they finally spent two years ago, they didn't get fans
23:31
Speaker 1: out there.
23:31
Speaker 3: I mean that was not a good sign.
23:34
Speaker 1: When you know, increase your payroll that significantly and you
23:37
Speaker 1: bring Korea back on the biggest contract in club history.
23:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, they blew it. They got a free vacation and
23:43
Speaker 2: spent it on nothing. Dan, thank you for joining us.
23:46
Speaker 2: Appreciate the time, always great insight, and we'll catch you
23:49
Speaker 2: again too, Okay, all right, guys, thanks