Torii Hunter is thinking about retiring once his contract is up after the 2012 season. In an interview with Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Angels outfielder says there is about a 40% chance that next season will be his last.
'I am going to retire an Angel," he said. ''Next year is my last year, and I'm going to retire an Angel. I'm going to evaluate it this offseason. That's when I'll know. It's 60-40, to the positive, that I'll keep playing."
Hunter has a .261/.332/.423 line for Los Angeles this year and was hampered in the early part of the season by a quad injury. Since getting back to better health, however, Hunter has been on fire, posting a 1.013 OPS in 118 plate appearances since August 2. Hunter will be 37 at the end of the 2012 campaign and told Souhan that he doesn't want to keep playing just for the sake of playing: "You don't want to see your skills diminish. You don't want to linger."
If Hunter did decide to return for 2013, he would give the Angels "first dibs" on bringing him back but also noted that he would enjoy returning to Minnesota, where he spent the first 11 seasons of his career. This isn't the first time Hunter has talked of rejoining the Twins, but a return could be difficult given Hunter's feelings about Twins GM Bill Smith, who he describes as having "no heart, no compassion, no nothing."
Hunter said he would have re-signed with Minnesota as a free agent after the 2007 season had the club offered him a four or five-year deal, but Smith's largest offer was for three years. Hunter believes Smith's offer was just a token effort and thinks the Twins are making a similarly half-hearted attempt to re-sign Michael Cuddyer, who is a free agent after this season and was reportedly offered a two-year, $16MM contract by the club earlier this month.
"Cuddyer is going to make less, as a free agent?" Hunter said. "I told him before, 'They'll make an offer and people will say, 'You turned down the money, you could have stayed, you're money-hungry.' "
If anything he should sign a one day contract with the Twins and retire where he came from, but I’d rather we sign him like a 2 year deal just to keep him around and also to develop our plethora of outfield prospects to make them class citizens like Torri.
A one year + 1 mutual option in the $8M range might have been an option, but Wells’ $20M annually through 2014, makes me think Torii’s days as an Angel end after next season.
Coaches are for developing players. You don’t pay a player millions of dollars to not perform and take a roster spot.
“Torii Hunter hat einen schweren Fall von Käufer Reue. Er nahm den freien Agenten beschäftigen, und er jetzt bereut es.”
exactly what i said!
yes, I added quotation marks because I can’t take credit for it, but your use of German is hilarious 🙂
How do you figure that? I don’t get anything like that from what he said, actually quite the opposite. If he regretted signing the deal why would he be so adamant about retiring with the team that he signed it with? If anything I’d say he’s glad he did it because he’s obviously enjoyed his time with the Angels.
Hmmmm….this smells a little of Google-Translate. The definite articles and indefinite article endings are correct, but two things stick out to me: A natural speaker would not use “Kaeufer Reue”; they would use the genitive form “die Reue des Kaeufers”, and they would not use “nahm”; they would use the present-perfect form “hat…genommen”
You would be 100% correct, sir. I don’t speak German, just think it’s a hilarious sounding language when talking baseball 🙂
It’s actually a hilarious sounding language to use in any situation. Also, I wasn’t trying to call you out or anything, it’s just that I’m a serious Nazi (pun completely intended) when it comes to German grammar conventions.
The Twins are smart to let someone else overpay Torii and Cuddyer in their dotage. New outfielders with fresh wheels and low paychecks are more valuable assets.
But yet, they ridiculously overpaid for Joe Mauer whom they knowingly knew had back problems. Yeah, it’s going to be great watching that team as he eats up roughly 20-25% of the teams payroll while he either sits on the DL or continues to play with “lingering injuries”. I said it when they signed him . . . That power year was an abbreviation, and now Target field is a pitchers park which makes the signing even more hilarious. Make signings based on business sense not emotion. In this case, the “Home Grown Kid” b.s. got in the way. And do you really think after this season and his his injuries, as a free agent, he’d get anywhere in the neighborhood of what he got? He’d be lucky if he got a 4 yr $50 Mill deal. And that’s being realistic.
I also was against the Mauer contract, but everywhere I post my opinion on it I got ripped.I never saw the logic in giving a hitter who lacks power and doesn’t drive in that many runs 20 million a year.Apparently, just for him being a catcher with a good batting average was enough for sports fan everywhere to scream from the top of Mt. Olympus to paid him like he was a steroid filled Barry Bonds.
The fact that Torii Hunter is 36 years of age makes me feel old.
That makes me feel young considering I’m 13
Torii Hunter is such a baseball player. He obviously has a passion for the game since he smiles a lot and is friendly in the clubhouse. He should be able to pull another 5/90 deal in any market.
*snort*
*snort*
Run, children! Torii Hunter’s talking again!
Tori is delusional if he thinks Cuddyr will get 2 years 16 million.
I bet he gets more than that.
Actually for the record, the Twins offered, 3y 24 mill and he declined… Good riddance. They can get a starting pitcher for that money.
Actually for the record, the Twins offered, 3y 24 mill and he declined… Good riddance. They can get a starting pitcher for that money.
Tori is delusional if he thinks Cuddyr will get 2 years 16 million.
Twins and Angels should know by now that Torii runs his mouth constantly. That is why the local writers love him, because he can fill up their notebook in just a few minutes. It’s just chatter, folks. It means nothing the day after.
Torii is probably just a little down on himself for having a sub-par season so he’s spouting off about retirement now. I bet he plays 4 more years, including a few with the Twinkies.
The fact is Hunter’s average and game appearances might be down, but the guy’s overall offensive numbers have been remarkably consistent and his fielding continues to be top-notch.
I don’t blame Cuddyer- nor would anybody for refusing what is essentially a pay cut when his numbers aren’t bad. Part of the reason his RBI’s are down this year is that the Twins’ offense is anemic. When the M and M bros. aren’t mashing it affects everybody, including Cuddyer.
Cuddyer deserves at least 3 years/$25MM and could be argued up to 3/$35MM with a vesting or mutual option given his veteran status and consistency. I think they’re lowballing him because he flies under the radar and doesn’t have Star Power to use as leverage. Then again if they only offered Hunter 3 years after being a perennial MVP candidate but they gave an injury prone catcher with fluctuating power numbers 8 years and $184MM, who knows what the thinking is in that front office!
Twins have been smart about overpaying free agents until the Joe Mauer contract. They should have done to Mauer what they did to Santana and Hunter. Let them go elsewhere and be deadweight absorbing huge money.
I’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. I like Joe Mauer (until this season). However, his contract is a GIANT ALBATROSS for this club. It will set this club back financially and player retention wise for a decade. We already have most likely lost Kubel, Cuddyer and Nathan. Not that i wanted all of them back, but still we see the pattern.
Santana would have been worth the salary and he was foolish turning down the Twins offer. The Mets have not made the playoffs since 06.