The Twins spoke to agent Matt Sosnick today and expressed interest in Ryan Doumit and Josh Willingham, two of his clients, says Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune. Doumit and Willingham are players the Twins could end up aggressively pursuing, particularly if Michael Cuddyer signs elsewhere.
Doumit is reportedly weighing a few contract offers and may make a decision as soon as this week. Christensen indicates that the Twins haven't extended a formal offer, however, meaning they probably weren't among the clubs Doumit was considering over the weekend.
As for Willingham, we heard earlier in the month that at least ten teams had already expressed interest in the outfielder. Given the lack of power-hitting outfielders on the market, Willingham appears poised to do quite well for himself this winter.
Doumit is my dark horse for FA bargain of the winter. If an AL team gets him and gets him to DH 75% of the time, they are going to be rewarded with a lot of offense, and he’s not looking for a lot of years/money.
I am curious as to if the Orioles are even considering Doumit, however as to the statment he’s not looking for a lot of years/money. He did turn down the Dodgers for what 3 + million. My guess he needs to go to an American League team because of the DH. My opinion is that he has to be a step up to Tatum as a back-up catcher. I just don’t know how good of a 1st baseman or effective of a DH he would be.
It’s only November, Lefty.
I wouldn’t expect any news from the Warehouse until late December at the earliest.
Hahahahaha! It’s good to see you back NB.
Although if the O’s wait that long, I am willing to bet a lot of the quality free agents will be gone. And I mean . . . that’s no good. You gotta tell the Oriole FO . . . to take care of things a little better.
Come to SF, Ryan. You want a one year deal, and you can platoon at C and RF for us. Works out for both parties
Except that he’s fairly atrocious in the field and is “a DH who can spot your C or RF every once in a while” now, he makes no sense for SF, who need to have good OF defense at that park with the gaps.
The Twins would be lucky to have Doumit. Kind of sad that we are even talking about this right now…the fact that we went an entire season with only Drew Butera and Rene Rivera backing up the perpetually injured Mauer is unfathomable. You’d be hard-pressed to find another team in the league with more ridiculous options as every-day injury replacement-type catchers.
Chris Stewart and Eli “I can’t catch the ball” Whiteside for the Giants
I’m hoping the Twins find room for Doumit. The combination of cather, 1B and RF (assuming there’s some room for DH as well) would fit perfectly for the Twins, at least in my opinion.
I dont see what the point of the Twins trying to sign these veterans is.. I mean do they think they will make a playoff push next year? Time to rebuild this team and start from the ground up.
I’m sure many people made similar comments after the 1990 season as well.
Mauer & Morneau have no retired yet. Both at their best, are in the top 10 players in the game. That’s why you don’t rebuild.
All dependent on health. If they believe they can get healthy seasons out of Mauer, Morneau, and Span next year, why not add some cheap veterans (referring to Doumit there, not Willingham)?
The Twins’ top minor league talent is all in the lower minors (Sano, Arcia, Rosario, Wimmers), and Kyle Gibson went down with Tommy John this year, so there’s not a ton in the upper minors.
Signing guys to one year deals provides stopgaps until their best prospects are Major League ready, because there’s just not much at Double-A and Triple-A aside from Joe Benson and Chris Parmelee (if you believe his September breakout wasn’t a fluke… I actually think it was). Besides, if you sign a guy like Doumit on a one-year deal and he’s producing in July, you can always flip him for a prospect if your team is 15 games out.
There’s no reason for the Twins NOT to spend on some one-year deals.
Good points.
They need to add PITCHING.. it wont matter if their offense stays healthy if their pitching is going to be god-awful again.. spend on pitching if you’re trying to compete now.. not Ryan Doumit. I just dont see them beating out the Tigers in that division anytime soon with that group healthy or not.
You want to know why? Because we have all of the talent, (except for our pitching rotation) just way too many injuries.
Not making excuses, but they had about a hundred players injured. Their big guys are locked up for next season, and guys like Kubel and Cuddyer can be replaced. They aren’t that far off in that division, though Detroit looks to really be getting strong.
both make great sense for Twins. Willingham will go for about half as much per year as Cuddyer, and will produce similar numbers. Doumit provides what we need a young enough catcher that can hit and potentially replace Mauer when he finally changes positions. We get both of them for less than Cuddyer’s price tag.
but the A’s would get your draft pick dont know if you want that becuse you have pick #2 in the draft
I think the top 15 picks in the first round are protected. It would be the Twins’ second round pick that they would receive.
Top 15 picks are protected
Jeff & Brock are correct we give up 2nd rd pick
Yes and Yes
The Twins desperately need a back up cather/utility player, Ryan Doumit seems like a great fit for us. With the uncertainty in Morneau it would be extremely nice to have another power threat like Josh Willingham. SIGN BOTH OF THESE PLAYERS!
Twins sign them up! I would love to see both of them in Twins uniforms next year, especially since the chances of acquiring Cuddyer back seem very unlikely. Also there both right-handed bats which we need more of in the middle of the lineup!
Doumit’s actually a switch-hitter.
Even better
One thing that does concern me about Willingham though is that he is a Type-A free-agent. I’m not entirely sure he’s worth giving up a top pick in the draft.
Cuddy is also a type A so it might be a swap type situation, either way if we know we’re losing both Kubel & Cuddyer – I’d rather pay half as much to JW his stats will be similar, and it’d afford us the other half to spend on something else needed