Orlando Hudson is having another solid season, though he has missed time with foot, oblique and wrist injuries. His .284/.358/.402 batting line is more than acceptable for a second baseman and his defense, which has earned him four Gold Gloves, has been excellent, according to UZR/150. (Hudson has a 14.9 UZR/150 in 2010 after posting negative UZR numbers from 2006-09).
The 32-year-old now projects as a Type A free agent and while that status has been an obstacle for Hudson before, the Twins can't offer him arbitration if he still qualifies as a Type A free agent after the season. Minnesota could look to bring him back, but they won't be the only interested team. The Indians and Nationals offered him contracts last year and could have renewed interest this offseason, depending on how they evaluate their internal options. The A's (depending on Mark Ellis' option), Cardinals and Padres could inquire about Hudson's asking price as well.
We don't have to look far to start determining what kind of contract Hudson can expect. He signed a one year deal worth $3.38MM plus incentives two winters ago before signing a one-year $5MM deal last offseason. Hudson's having another good year and if history is any indication, he'll sign another one-year deal worth $5MM or so.
I wonder if the Twins like what they have seen out of Casilla this year (.275/.333/.397) enough to let Hudson go. They may like to resging Hudson so they can keep Casilla in a backup 2B/SS role considering all the time missed by both Hudson and Hardy.
Hate Casilla but the Twins for some reason keep him around despite not really doing anything well. Gardenhire and Smith love their no-power, switch-hitting, scrappy slap hitting middle infielders (Casilla, Punto, Tolbert).
Aside from run, there’s not really a single thing Alexi does particularly well. He’ll turn in some defensive gems, but then have nights like last night where he booted three different double play balls, all of which led to runs scoring (double-clutched a throw, dropped the ball at second, and couldn’t handle a sharp grounder).
For some reason though, they’re terrified of letting him go, as is evidenced by him staying on the roster all season because *GASP* he’s out of options and we’d never be able to find another light-hitting middle infielder with plus speed and an average glove at best (Unless you actually think his 180 inning sample size at SS is representative of his defensive ability… which would be rather silly).
Lock Hudson up for two years with an option or something… if you want to keep Alexi as a cheap backup, that’s fine, but don’t miscast him as a starter again. We all saw how well it worked last time (.538 OPS and -1.2 WAR).
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. im sorry. i thought you were serious about making casilla our starting 2nd baseman.
whats so bad about it??
Haha, so I guess the answer to my wondering is ‘no not a chance’. Maybe I thought he was more well thought of defensively than people who watch the Twins consistantly do.
no, hes definitely an adequate bench player because of his defense though.
Plus, the speed difference in going from Thome (the slowest) to Casilla (the fastest) in a PR situation.
He definitely plays better in the utility role. I wish he could keep the spark and talent he has to be more than a bench player, but he hasn’t shown he can. I was completely fine with keeping him, especially over Harris. Harris is way worse in my eyes.
But Harris is signed to a two-year deal!! He must be good!!
Right Bill Smith? 🙁
Good at getting an agent to get a GM to believe he’s worth it. I guess he really did deserve it then!
That was definitely one of the dumbest things.
He did have 59 RBI’s in ’07!
His one and only “good” (haha) season.
That’s more than Justin Morneau has in all of 2010! Why is Harris in the minors?! He’s a run-producer dammit!
I have no idea as a community how we can still quote UZR as the gospel for judging defensive metrics when it is so inconsistent. I Have a hard time believing that Hudson is better defensively then the last 4 years when he was younger and faster. It’s a joke.
You shouldn’t use a single year of UZR to evaluate a player’s defense anyway. For UZR (and other advanced defensive metrics) you need about 3 years of data, assuming regular playing time. This arises from the fact that on defense, typically a player will get fewer opportunities per game than he will with the bat. It’s foolish to dismiss UZR outright and equally foolish to be convinced by a single year of data.
Exactly.
If a guy hits .260, .255, .260 then .320- it doesn’t mean that AVG is wrong, it just means you’re looking at a one year sample size.
I would think a great defender with a decent bat would get more than a 1-year deal
Not with all his nagging injuries. Teams don’t want to take a risk on signing him and then he’s out for the year. Also his slugging pct. keeps dipping down every year. O-Dog just caught a bad time to be a free agent, but it’s not like he’s a lock for a multi-year deal.
As a Twins Fan, I’d much rather see Hardy go. His bat will never come back to what it once was and his fielding is also lacking (At least his throws). He’ll get about $5-7 M in Arbitration next year and that about what Hudson will make. Trade Hardy to someone like the Orioles for a bullpen arm like Matt Albers.
Keep Hudson and put Casilla at short.
Makes zero sense for the Tribe to show interest this winter (though it did this past winter too I guess). Donald is holding his own at 2B….then we have Cord Phelps at AAA and Jason Kipnis at AA….both will make their ML debuts at some point next season if they continue to play like they have.
And with Chisenhall likely to make his debut at 3B sometime in 2011 (so no moving Donald to 3B to accomodate Hudson)……
There’s really no room for Hudson at 2B in Cleveland.
I’d like him back. He’s definitely solidified the #2 hole. It’s nice to have guys that aren’t automatic outs in from of Mauer & Morneau. The Twins have scored the most runs in the first inning in MLB for a reason. He’s a big part of it, especially since Span is struggling. If we could get them both going, who knows.
We have no idea what Jim Pohlad is going to do though. The Twins might only be able to fill one hole next year, 2B or SP (if Pavano goes). The payroll will start at 100 million (including arbitration guys) before the Twins even add players or re-sign their other FA’s if they want to. Target Field seems to be doing better than they expected, or so I hear, but who knows how much higher he is willing to go.
I meant to say “in front of Mauer and Morneau.”
I really would like to see both Hudson and Pavano back, but I would go with Hudson over Pavano if only one can fit under the payroll. The reason is depth: Kyle Gibson is ready to join the ML Club, while I don’t think Casilla is ready to be a starter (or Plouffe). The downfall here is no innings-eating Vet in the rotation.
I’d just like to say that UZR is an incredibly erratic stat. Hudson has an excellent UZR of 14.9 this year, but the prior 3 years he posted negative UZRs? How is that possible? It’s not like his defense magically got better in Minnesota. To me, the only way to rank a player’s defense is by simply looking at how he plays, and seeing if he does good offensively. You cannot rate defense with a statistic, IMO.
“Hudson has an excellent UZR of 14.9 this year, but the prior 3 years he posted negative UZRs? How is that possible? ”
How does a guy hit .260 for his career, then hits .300 one season?
I like to use UZR for outfielders more than infielders, because an outfielder with a high fielding percentage yet low UZR means he is slow but catches what he can. A guy with a lot of errors but a high UZR (Justin Upton) means that he makes errors but gets to more balls than say a Michael Cuddyer. For infield UZR is tricky, as is fielding percentage in general. Some flagrant errors become infield hits due to the batter’s speed, etc.
Perhaps now that the Cubs have rid themselves of Theriot and Fontenot (The Louisiana Connection) they’ll take a serious look at Hudson. It’s kind of too bad that Hendry traded for DeWitt though, he’ll be less interested in Hudson because of it. I suppose for the price DeWitt isn’t a bad option but he’d be a descent super-utility guy to have on the bench with Hudson starting. All things considered 2b isn’t going to be a priority this offseason for the Cubs, especially since Hendry isn’t likely to bring someone in to replace the guy he just traded for since his own job security isn’t fully assured. Spinning wheels, staying in place.
Way off topic but I was looking at the Yankees farm system(Im a Yankee fan)at Baseball America and MLB Fanhouse, but I accidentally clicked on the Twins system and I took a liking to Aaron Hicks. What do you guys think is his ceiling? He’s rated as the best defensive outfielder and has the best arm and is the best athlete on the Twins system.
P.S. Even if you guys have Mauer, Wilson Ramos was way too much for Matt Capps.
I think Aaron’s ceiling is very high. He has been compared to Torii Hunter, which would be great! He has a cannon in the OF (former pitcher) and reads the strike zone really well. Don’t worry, when he is old and declining the Yankees can sign him to a ridiculous contract. I can see it… December, 2019: “The New York Yankees sign Aaron Hicks to a 7 year, 150 million dollar contract.”