On this day in 2005, the Twins signed Johan Santana to a four-year, $39.75MM extension in the wake of the southpaw’s Cy Young Award season. The deal not only gave the small-market Twins some cost certainty through Santana’s arbitration seasons and his first free agent year, it also proved to be a nice bargain as Santana put up sterling numbers from 2005-07 (including another Cy Young in 2006). He didn’t finish out that deal in a Twins uniform, however, as Santana was traded to the Mets in February 2008. Here’s the latest from around the AL Central…
- The Twins‘ signing of Miguel Sano is chronicled by Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a transaction that the team hopes will not only help the Major League roster if and when Sano becomes a star slugger, but one that also cemented the Twins as players on the international market. Minnesota encountered several obstacles in its pursuit of Sano, including a lengthy investigation into his age and the team’s willingness to go beyond its international spending comfort zone to land a prospect that seemingly everyone in the Twins organization believed was an elite talent.
- The Indians have scouted Yulieski and Lourdes Gurriel and will check in on the two Cuban stars, though Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer doesn’t think the Tribe has the money it will take to land either player. Hoynes also addressed several other Tribe-related topics as part of this mailbag piece.
- The Tigers like drafting hard-throwing college pitchers, yet as ESPN’s Keith Law tells George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press, nobody who fits that description is likely to be available when the club makes the ninth overall pick in June. Law suggests that the Tigers could opt for a high school pitcher instead (such as Forrest Whitley or Greg Veliz) or they could possibly go for position player talent instead with Puerto Rican shortstop Delvin Perez.
The piece by Mr. Scoggins on Miguel Sano was fabulous.
Considering the Tigers lack of success in the draft maybe they should try something else anyway.
What are you talking about? They did very well with the first pick during Dombrowski’s tenure.
Are you kidding me? The tigers are always drafting great prospects…. They just send them away for MLB Now players.
It’s always silly to draw comparisons between young prospects and elite players, but when you watch Sano, you get the Miguel Cabrera comparisons. We’ll see how he adjusts and grows this year but Sano’s talent level is incomprehensible. It’s been a long time since I’ve been as excited about a hitter as I am about him.
Cue ‘trademeister’ with yet another asinine “Twins should deal Sano for Incarte” pitch.
You know it’s a ridiculous proposition when he has to provide “all the reasons why its a good deal for the Twins”. And falls conveniently silent to the fact the Twins have a glut of CI being the only reason they’re pushing Sano to the OF (though he’s said 3-4 times elsewhere when Sano’s name comes up that the Twins apparently are converting Sano because they need an OF, as unfounded in any logic as that claim may be)…
Cue ‘trademeister’ with the absurd “Twins should trade Sano for Incarte” pitch….