The Twins are in need of a dynamic cultural shift. While I think the Twins COULD compete this year as currently constituted, I am an eternal optimist. I believe Lewis can return to his brief MVP type form, I believe Wallner can absolutely MASH, I believe Keaschall can be the real deal, I believe Buxton can be healthy again and have another productive year. that is nearly half of a potent lineup right there.
The Twins want to win, but they also need to win back fans. They need to strategically gut this team. and to do so they need to crunch numbers and come up with a new analytic. a “butts in seats” and “eyes on Broadcasts” type numbers.
I do not know answers to any of these hypothetical stats, but I believe the interest is so low in the Twins that trading ANYONE will not have a negative impact on butts in seats or eyes on broadcast numbers. This is actually an incredible position to be in!!! and should give the Twins Front Office confidence to do ANYTHING!!!
The Twins need to do whatever is necessary to not just rebuild, but reshape how this roster is constructed. We need to focus on young exciting players with personalities.
Has Joe Ryan ever pushed the needle on excitement? Sure, he is an All Star top of the rotation arm, btu has he really put butts in seats?
Twins home attendance overall averaged 22,108. Home games Ryan pitched averaged 23,445 (that was buffered by a 40,100 attendance driven more by Skenes pitching for Pittsburgh). taking that game out the average was 22,164. SO, even with an All Star pitcher on the mound he drove 59 more tickets sold than the average. SO the negative financial impact from fans on moving him would be negligible at best. SO you trade a top arm with 2 years of control for a young top exciting prospect, and not only do you save the $6.2M in salary, but lets say we can get a top 10 or top 20 overall prospect for him. and he is someone who can make the team at some point this year… Say an Eldridge with massive power for 1B from SF, or an exciting Sebastian Walcott from Rangers, or an exciting speedster like Crawford from Phillies, Someone that is more “must see”. That trade would put many more butts in seats!!! and an every day player doing every game vs 1 in every 5.
Then, as much as I hate being redundant, to offset the loss in the rotation you go and you sign a Justin Verlander, you spike jersey sales, ticket sales etc. and while Verlander is no longer the perrenial Cy Young, he is still a winning pitcher as evidenced by his 2.69 ERA over his last 12 starts!!
You then trade Trevor Larnach for anything and let one of Walker Jenkins, E Rodriguez or Gabriel Gonzalez, ro whatever young exciting prospect we get for Ryan get those ABs.