Monday Morning Minnesota: The Lower Payroll Edition

The Past Week on Twinkie Town:

• Bring tissues for this one, Hayden gives A Left-Hand Toast to Dick Bremer and a look back at several iconic calls from the legend.
• Offseason Questions: Should the Twins Re-Sign Sonny Gray? Maybe? Ben Jones explores what’s the current going rate for a 34-year-old Cy Young nominee.
• John Foley plays GM and trades all your favorite players in the 2023-24 SBNation Offseason Sim: Minnesota Twins.
• Zach is attempting to compile the Greatest Minnesota Twins and only you can help him.
• In case you’re starving for free agency content, Kirby’s Ferret tackles the important question of who should be filling out the bench in 2024.
• In another ode to the Duke, Zach provides us with a great Easter Egg: a full replay of the Opening Day, 1996.
• Brandon’s got the scoop on the AL Central: We’ve got a new manager in the division, a big intra-division move on the TV side, and also some actual baseball transactions.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• Dan Hayes at The Athletic is reporting that the Twins will likely be reducing their payroll to $125 million to $140 million, down from their 2023 payroll of $154 million. (Paywall)
• Cody Christie at Twins Daily looks at the defensive stars from the 2023 Twins.
• Nick Perpich at Zone Coverage digs deep into the question we all have been wondering about for the last decade of Twins baseball: what the heck happened to Byung-Ho Park in 2016?
• Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com looks at some of the rumblings from the Twins camp at the GM Meetings this past week.
• Twins prospect Kala’i Rosario took home the 2023 Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby championship, including a 465 foot bomb. He already led the AFL in home runs (tied with potential Rule 5 draftee and Twins prospect Aaron Sabato), and adds to his accolades this season, which include the Midwest League MVP and a High-A championship with the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

In the World of Baseball:

• Here are your 2023 Gold Glove Award winners - unfortunately no Twins this year, but there was one ex-Twin!
• There’s been plenty of hiring and firing in the baseball manager world this week: Joe Epsada is the new Astros’ manager, Craig Counsell is in with the Cubs and David Ross is out, if you read the Rival Roundup, you’ll know that Stephen Vogt is now the new Guardians manager, Ron Washington gets another chance to manage in the AL West with the Angels, and Carlos Mendoza is moving from the Bronx to Queens to manage the Mets.