If you've hung around TT over the last few off-seasons, you'll be familiar with the SB Nation off-season simulation. In the span of a few days an entire winter is carried out. Teams tender or non-tender their arbitration-eligible players (salaries per MLBTR's predictions), pick up or decline options, negotiate trades with other individuals acting as GMs of other clubs, and negotiate free agents through an independent arbiter.
I've had mixed results over the years. Every year I do more good things than bad (I think), but there's usually one or two things I wish I hadn't done in retrospect. Let's hope I do better this year.
Transactions, Days 1 and 2
Twins non-tender Eduardo Nunez
Twins trade Levi Michael & Zack Jones to Brewers for Francisco Rodriguez
Twins trade J.T. Chargois, Cameron Booser & Trey Cabbage to Cubs for Travis Wood
Twins trade Jorge Polanco and Oswaldo Arcia to Pirates for Francisco Cervelli and Pedro Alvarez
Twins trade Ricky Nolasco, Pedro Alvarez & Adam Brett Walker to Nationals for Ryan Zimmerman
Twins trade Kennys Vargas and Taylor Rogers to Padres for Joaquin Benoit
Twins trade Felix Jorge to Astros for Pat Neshek
It's been a successful and yet frustrating couple of days. I've taken serious runs at Stephen Strasburg and Jose Fernandez, only to have the other club choose the other offer. Keep in mind that I wasn't exactly short-changing any of these proposals, either. A package led by Byron Buxton was overlooked for Fernandez. Another massive haul was rejected for Strasburg, in a deal that I'm still convinced was inferior to my own.
I even went to the Padres to try and get Strasburg from them, but they're all-in. They picked up Prince Fielder, which should tell you all you need to know about what they're aiming for in their sim.
Other players I targeted include Jonathan Lucroy (who remains untraded, so I won't tell you now about those discussions), Carter Capps, Drew Storen, Jake McGee, Shelby Miller, and Yan Gomes.
As far as the moves I did make, you can tell that I was happy to trade minor league talent for Major League help. I didn't want to get into a bidding war on the free agent market, for reasons I hope I can get into later. That got me Travis Wood, Francisco Rodriguez, Joaquin Benoit, and Pat Neshek for my bullpen. It also netted me Francisco Cervelli as my catcher and Ryan Zimmerman as my designated hitter-slash-first baseman-slash-third baseman. I also shed Ricky Nolasco's salary, so that's a plus.
It's early and there are still a lot of things up in the air, but right now my team looks like this.
Rotation: Phil Hughes, Ervin Santana, Kyle Gibson, Trevor May, Tyler Duffey
Bullpen: Glen Perkins, Joaquin Benoit, Travis Wood, Francisco Rodriguez, Pat Neshek, Michael Tonkin, Tommy Milone
Lineup: Byron Buxton (CF), Joe Mauer (1B), Brian Dozier (2B), Miguel Sano (LF), Ryan Zimmerman (DH), Trevor Plouffe (3B), Eddie Rosario (RF), Francisco Cervelli (C), Eduardo Escobar (SS)
Bench: Kurt Suzuki (C), Aaron Hicks (OF), Danny Santana (IF/OF), [insert infielder here]
There's work to be done yet. I'm still trying to swing something else pretty big both on the hitting and pitching side. Looking at John Sickels' list of top 20 Twins prospects for 2016, I've traded numbers 6 (Polanco), 8 (Walker), 15 (Chargois), and 19 (Jones). All things considered, that's not too bad.