Minnesota Twins: A mock simulation gets to the point of unbelievable

Current 40-man Roster

After all the deals, here is how the roster stands:

Catchers: Jason Castro, Mitch Garver, Austin Wynns

Infielders: Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar, Danny Espinosa, Joey Gallo, Joe Mauer, Jorge Polanco, Miguel Sano

Outfielders: Byron Buxton, Zack Granite, Matt Kemp, Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario

Starting Pitchers: Jose Berrios, Dietrich Enns, Stephen Gonsalves, Phil Hughes, Felix Jorge, Zack Littell, Adalberto Mejia, Miles Mikolas, Michael Pineda, Fernando Romero, Ervin Santana, Aaron Slegers

Left-handed relievers: Buddy Boshers, Gabriel Moya, Taylor Rogers, Tony Watson

Right-handed relievers: Shawn Armstrong, Alan Busenitz, J.T. Chargois, John Curtiss, Tyler Duffey, Trevor Hildenberger, Seung-hwan Oh, Wily Peralta, Trevor Rosenthal

And then an attempt at a 25-man roster:

C – Castro, Garver
1B – Mauer
2B – Dozier, Espinosa
3B – Sano, Gallo, Escobar
SS – Polanco
OF – Rosario, Buxton, Kepler, Kemp
SP – Santana, Berrios, Mikolas, Mejia, Slegers
RP – Watson, Rogers, Moya, Armstrong, Peralta, Oh, Hildenberger

Ideally, a move for Escobar would be made to clear him off of the roster, though, knowing how the team likes to shape its team, that would end up being another reliever. Certainly more moves would have been made to finish out this roster once Darvish was in the fold, but as is, we’ll have to live with how things sit.

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Last, a look at the money

Currently on the 40-man roster, there is roughly $69.7 million in guaranteed contracts for 2018, an estimated $15.8 million on arbitration players, and $9.08 million on players to fill out the roster for a total of $94.6 million currently on the 25-man roster.

The team has committed to spending fairly heavy, and I was willing to end up in the $115-120 million range. In the end, I had $98.2 million committed in salaries, $4.9 million in arbitration, and $8.1 million in players to fill out the roster for a grand total of $111.2 million.

Next: How Twins can spend international money

The shame here is that this could have been a very fun simulation. Negotiating trades and taking the time to really research the team’s contract structure and player contract structure was a very interesting exploration to prepare for the offseason. Instead, a few folks set things on their Xbox to “force transaction” mode and decided not to play in reality.

Before the issues that happened, what do you think of the trades and signings made for the Twins?