The Twins will likely pursue starting pitching, relief pitching, a backup catcher and middle infield help this offseason after finishing with the worst record in the American League. Here are some notes on the club's offseason plans…
- La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune hears from people in the Twins’ front office that the club recently examined the free agent market for starting pitchers and shortstops. They’re determined to find a reliable shortstop this offseason and Neal suggests free agents Ramon Santiago and Alex Gonzalez could be targets.
- The Twins will “push hard” to re-sign Michael Cuddyer, according to Neal.
- Earlier today, MLB.com's Jordan Bastian suggested the Indians will likely "kick the tires" on Cuddyer once he reaches the open market.
- Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com explained why the Twins traded Delmon Young to the Tigers in August. He was struggling in Minnesota and the Twins weren't likely to tender him a contract through arbitration.
- I looked ahead to the Twins’ offseason earlier in the month.
Dear Twins:
Please sign Gonzalez so that the Braves can’t bring him back.
Thanks,
A Braves Fan
Dear Braves fan, blow me.
thanks again for escobar. you guys are sweethearts
As a Braves fan, I’m hoping someone gives us competition for A-Gonz so we can appreciate him and give him a fair contract, determining if we really want him or let him walk for a better opp. The guy is looking for a multi-year deal, possibly to end his career, and I’m not sure we (ATL) have that particular need with some of the guys we have coming up, but we’ll see.
braves should sign rollins or reyes. . I don’t see how it doesn’t make sense to do so
you guys have 25% of the best pitching prospects in the game… move a couple to plug a few other holes. That team is a bat or 2 away from being a force.
I like the idea of signing Rollins, as long as its not a 5 year deal, then trading for a big bat to play left. Move Prado back to super utility where he is best. My personal dislike for Reyes clouds my judgment but i don’t want that guy at all
While I would love to see one of those guys in ATL, we don’t have enough salary room for either. Best thing about A-Gonz is his production for his price ($2.5M). We have a handful of middle-IF prospects that should be ready in the next 2-3 years tops, so giving Rollins his 5-year contract knowing he’ll be as gimpy and unreliable as his 3B teammate (Jones) would be a mistake. If Prado and Heyward had even decent seasons and gave us hope that we wouldn’t need to possibly think about the OF, then maybe management could scrape together enough to give Rollins, but we’re not there.
As for Reyes. No. We need him. Imagine a line-up with Reyes and Michael Bourn. Arguably the 2 best base-stealers of the last 5 years or so. Wow. But we’re stingy and Reyes should get $90M+, give or take — I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone throw him $110M for the showmanship. But, that won’t and can’t be us. Over the next 2 years we have some big contracts coming off the books (Jones (though he has an option for 2013), Hudson, Lowe) with McLouth/Kawakami coming off the books now. Some of that money needs to go Bourn’s way. While I would love for us to go after one of those SS, I would be absolutely blown away if we even make them an offer, knowing management.
I was getting ready to say the same thing. I sincerely hope the Twins sign Alex Gonzalez so that we don’t have to look at his ugly mug swinging for the fences in every at-bat. Tyler Pastornicky should hopefully be ready by next season. I would even rather have Jack Wilson back than Gonzalez.
Remember in 2010 when we had a legit SS? Those were the days.
No, that “legit” SS was always on the DL.
And for the other 100 games he was an above average defender at the position. I will take that any damn day. He also hit for an above average line for a SS after he was taken off the DL.
Plus there’s the fact that he’s a billion times better than Nishioka for about the same price. And Hardy played in 60 more games than Nishioka in 2011.
The middle infield D of Hardy and Hudson was sorely missed in 2011, which a lot of people knew before they were even officially gone. Losing Hardy was a gigantic mistake, which I was saying all along…
He wouldn’t have hit as well in Target Field but his D would have been greatly appreciated. First legit shortstop on the Twins since Gagne and now they’re out looking for another because they were stupid. They don’t grow on trees…
The corpse of Zoilo Versalles would be an upgrade at shortstop.
So would Jeff Blauser.
What happened with Nishioka? I know he missed most of the season due to the broken leg. The Twins had so much hope in the guy, did he never recover or does he just suck?
The corpse of Zoilo Versalles would be an upgrade at shortstop.
Sorry Twins, Ramon’s one of my all time favorite players. You cannot have him.
Sorry Twins, Ramon’s one of my all time favorite players. You cannot have him.
Maybe the Twins should grab J.J. Hardy…. oh….
Jacobson and Hoey should be enough…
Jacobson and Hoey should be enough…
In reply to Slopeboy regarding Nishioka:
He played in about 70 games (had the broken leg, back issues and muscle issues). The time he was on the field, it looked like he had never played baseball in his entire life…especially defensively.
He will be fighting for a spot next year. I don’t see him winning one…
The last time the Twins played Detroit. He looked afraid of the ball and afraid of turning double plays. It’s like the Swisher play scarred him.
Yeah, he was definitely gun shy. They don’t play hard like that in Japan so he’s not used to people coming to take him out. Still even ignoring that, he wasn’t good.
In reply to Slopeboy regarding Nishioka:
He played in about 70 games (had the broken leg, back issues and muscle issues). The time he was on the field, it looked like he had never played baseball in his entire life…especially defensively.
He will be fighting for a spot next year. I don’t see him winning one…
Okay…I guess the website has decided to do the whole “put at the bottom of the page instead of who I’m replying to” thing again.
Okay…I guess the website has decided to do the whole “put at the bottom of the page instead of who I’m replying to” thing again.
please sign mark ellis twins..
Twins going to have 1 player makin 30 million a year and the rest makin under 1 million. That team has almost no talent and a catcher about to start making more trips to the DL than behind homeplate.
um, he still sucks, and his career year 2010 was still meh
I’ll believe it when I see it. He still didn’t play that great in Detroit. He did have some very huge hits, I will give him that, but as a whole…he wasn’t very good.
Delmon’s always, always been about potential. It’s why the Twins traded for him. Then he proceeded to do nothing almost the entire time he was with us.
Delmon can still turn in to a good player, he could. He’s still not in the “prime hitter years”, but I’ll believe it when I see it. And you could point to 2010, but that has been the only year where he has been great so far…and even that wasn’t for a full season.
I’ll believe it when I see it. He still didn’t play that great in Detroit. He did have some very huge hits, I will give him that, but as a whole…he wasn’t very good.
Delmon’s always, always been about potential. It’s why the Twins traded for him. Then he proceeded to do nothing almost the entire time he was with us.
Delmon can still turn in to a good player, he could. He’s still not in the “prime hitter years”, but I’ll believe it when I see it. And you could point to 2010, but that has been the only year where he has been great so far…and even that wasn’t for a full season.
Calling the trade a success is only looking at the short term. He hit ok with the Tigers but he is still a horrible LF that swings at everything.
Ummm… How about the playoffs? Dosent that count? Highest pressure situation possible for his profession and he came up big. Playing injured to.
I’m sick of people going on about Delmons “potential”. Just because the Rays screwed up when they scouted him, doesn’t mean he is going to magically learn how to take a walk or play defense. He can hit home runs and he can hit for average, two skills that consistently fool casual fans into thinking he is a good player. He has a career walk rate of like 4% so he is never going to have even a league average OBP. You don’t see people taking chances on Matt Bush every year…
I was including the playoffs in the part where I said, “he did have some very huge hits.” I wasn’t ignoring it. In 2011 he had about a month of good play. That’s not good. He needs to play well for most of the year for me to believe that he’s actually a good player. In five full seasons of MLB, he’s been a below average player.
I need to see more than just a few months of great hitting or a game here and there. That does not make a great player. As I said, the potential has always been there, but who know if he will ever live up to it. That’s still to be determined, but the past five years lean towards no.
where has that got cody ross this year?
It wasn’t just the Rays everyone was high on him.
I agree with you. I don’t believe he will ever learn how to take a walk or play defense. I completely agree with that, but there are people out there that still believe he has that potential in him. Lots of people thought the Twins were stupid for trading him. I’m not one of them. He was useless for almost the entire time.
I see him as a DH who won’t hit well enough as a DH, but I don’t think you can completely write him off as a hitter since he hasn’t hit his prime hitting years though he’s been in the league for so long already. Sometimes it takes guys a long time. I don’t believe the OBP or defense will ever improve though. Still, he could improve in some way…I’d say it’s less than a 50% chance though.