The Hot Stove is barely tepid right now in Twins Territory
The Past Week on Twinkie Town:
- The Twins took full advantage of the long weekend and did absolutely nothing last week.
- Webster defines “ephemera” as “something with no lasting significance”. Zach Koenig is here to remind you of some Twins-related things that might have faded into obscurity. Round 4 drops tomorrow!
- Matt Monitto continues with his series on his Out of the Park league comprised of Twins draftees and is on a quest to find the four best teams.
- After looking at the top starters in Twins history, Jonathan Gamble is now turning his attention to the top ten relievers in Twins history.
- Zach Koenig provides his wishlist to the Pohlads as their Twins ownership era draws to a close.
- The Twins might have done nothing, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the division wasn’t busy, as Brandon Brooks summarizes in the Rival Roundup!
- Zebby Matthews skyrocketed through the Twins’ system last year and looks to be in the running for a spot in the 2025 Opening Day rotation. John Foley breaks down Matthews’ 2024 season and where he goes from here next season.
Elsewhere in Twins Territory:
- In case you’re making plans for July 4th next year, MLB announced that the Twins series in Tampa Bay between July 4th and the 6th will now be played at Target Field.
- With Winter Meetings coming up next week, Theo Tollefson at Zone Coverage provides three high-risk, high-reward free agent targets that the Twins should consider this offseason.
- Cody Christie at Twins Daily rewinds the tape to see the steps that led from Brent Rooker’s trade from Minnesota to becoming one of the top hitters in baseball.
In the World of Baseball:
- The first big domino to fall in free agency was pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, who signed a three-year, $63 million deal with the Angels. Kikuchi had spent the majority of the last three seasons with the Blue Jays before getting traded during the deadline to Houston, where he posted a 2.70 ERA, a 0.93 WHIP, and a 25.9% K-BB rate over 10 starts.
- The Dodgers also continued to printing money, as they made two big deals, first extending utilityman (and playoff hero) Tommy Edman for five years and $74 million, and then signing free agent pitcher Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal. Edman, the long-time Cardinal, had dealt with injuries for most of 2024 before getting traded to the Dodgers. He went on a tear in the playoffs, slashing .328/.354/.508 over 16 games. Snell followed up his 2023 Cy Young campaign in San Francisco with an injury-ridden season, only managing to get to 104 innings. However, he was dealing when healthy, and finished out the season strong, with a 1.45 ERA, 0.85 WHIP, and a 29.2% K-BB rate in the second half.