FEBRUARY 28: Morrison’s signing is now official.
Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports tweets some further detail on the operation of the contract. Morrison can earn $500K apiece in bonus pay this year upon reaching 450, 500, and then 550 plate appearances. The number of times he strides to the plate could also impact the vesting/club option: if he tops 500 plate appearances it will move to $8.5MM; at 550 plate appearances it becomes $9MM; and at 600 plate appearances the option vests at a $9.5MM price tag.
FEBRUARY 25, 3:45pm: Morrison’s option will automatically vest if he amasses 600 PAs this year, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reports (Twitter link). The deal also includes $1MM in reachable incentives each season, and Morrison’s 2019 salary could increase to $9MM, per Phil Miller of the Star Tribune.
1:33pm: Morrison will earn $5.5MM in 2018, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. The vesting option is worth $8MM and comes with a $1MM buyout.
12:54pm: The Twins and free agent first baseman Logan Morrison have agreed to a deal, pending a physical, Jon Morosi of MLB.com reports on Twitter. It’s a one-year, $6.5MM guarantee with escalators and a vesting option that could make it a two-year, $16.5MM pact, Morosi adds. Morrison is a client of ISE Baseball.
Morrison will go down among the most notable victims of this year’s slow-moving free agent market, one he surely entered with hopes of securing a richer pact after a career campaign with the Rays in 2017. Instead, between hitting free agency in November and finally agreeing to join the Twins, Morrison didn’t draw much reported interest on the market. As a result, he’ll fall well shy of the three-year, $36MM guarantee MLBTR predicted he’d receive at the outset of the winter.
While this has been a disappointing past few months for Morrison, adding him for a relatively affordable cost could be a significant coup for a Twins team that’s coming off its first playoff season since 2010. The Twins’ offense was a key reason for its success in 2017, as the unit finished tied for fifth in the majors in wRC+ (102) and seventh in runs (815). That was without high-end DH production from the duo of Robbie Grossman and Kennys Vargas. Now, Morrison seems likely to see the bulk of the action at DH for Minnesota, which already has Joe Mauer at first base.
[RELATED: Updated Twins Depth Chart]
The 30-year-old, left-handed-hitting Morrison was one of the majors’ most formidable offensive players last season, when he slashed .246/.353/.516 (130 wRC+) across 601 plate appearances. Morrison also notched 38 home runs and a .270 ISO, placing him among the league’s best power hitters. It was an unexpected outburst from Morrison, who was essentially a league-average hitter during stints with the Marlins and Mariners from 2010-16. He found another gear thanks to a newfound emphasis on putting the ball in the air, evidenced by a 46.2 percent fly rate (up from a lifetime 37.5), and increased patience. Morrison walked in 13.5 percent of PAs, a good bit higher than his career figure (10.5).
Morrison was also somewhat of a Statcast darling in 2017, as he upped his launch angle from 12.1 degrees in 2016 to 17.4 (h/t: Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com) and ranked among the majors’ top 32 hitters in both barrels per PA and balls hit at least 95 mph. Consequently, he finished with one of the league’s top expected weighted-on base averages (.365), just beating out his real wOBA (.363).
The addition of Morrison is the latest big move by the Twins in their efforts to overtake the Indians in the AL Central. Minnesota hasn’t lost any key contributors from the 85-win team it fielded a year ago, though third baseman Miguel Sano (potential suspension) and starter Ervin Santana (finger surgery) could each miss the start of the season. Regardless, along with Morrison, the Twins have picked up pitchers Jake Odorizzi, Fernando Rodney, Addison Reed and Zach Duke since last season ended. Odorizzi knows Morrison from Tampa Bay, and he helped recruit him to Minnesota, per Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press.
“I’ve had conversations with (Morrison) about here,” Odorizzi said prior to the agreement. “We’ll see what comes out of it.”
Odorizzi has also talked with free agent Alex Cobb, another ex-Ray, about joining the Twins. The club continues to seek a front-line starter, according to Berardino, so it seems possible Cobb will join Odorizzi and Morrison in Minnesota. That would further drive up a payroll which, in the estimation of Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource, is currently slated to check in at a franchise-record $124.8MM.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Smart!
Omfg great fit. Good replacement to vargas or he can play 1b
Nice movement.
Well, hopefully that’s the start of first basemen coming off the market
Actually hosmer was the big guy
Once he was pulled everything else should fall
I doubt moose gets anything or arrieta
I can see Arrieta in a Cardinals uniform before it’s all said and done. Wainwright is on the down side of his career, whether he wants to admit it or not and I don’t trust Miles Mikolas
Nice! The new regime is serious unlike Terry Ryan’s BS
Stealarino!
Garbage
How? He has 40 homer potential, and gets on base, plus he has a solid glove. How is this a ‘garbage’ signing?
Don’t feed the trolls.
You should contact the Twins and see if they will sign you instead.
Compare his stats this year to JDM, I’m guessing he will be better
Better? His totals may be higher if JD misses 30 plus games… but still was a great sign for the Twins.
Really wish the Giants didn’t extend Belt.
Yeah, like 81 games AT&T wouldn’t change his numbers. I saw a chart on Belt, I think it showed like 15 to 20 extra home runs at another stadium. Belt haters ignore all his positives. The stat people love him. If not for the concussion issues, he might have been a great trading chip.
Please show us this imaginary chart.
Please attach a source!
32koufax
1 min ago
link to beyondtheboxscore.com
So my premise was that Brandon would hit more home runs in another park. Got the number wrong but not the premise.. It was Yankee Stadium. Love to see the same chart with other parks. Plus if you watched Giants Baseball you’d know about the marine layer that hits the park almost every night . Or the day time cross winds that knocks rocket shots down like a missile. He hits in one of the worst ballparks for Home runs, Put him in a another park with with summer time humidity and smaller dimensions and his Home run numbers will jump significantly… Hence Adam Duvall
Click to Edit – 3 minutes and 13 seconds
So Belt would be good for 33-38 home runs in which other parks?
Good trading chip? Who is trading for 1st basemen?
At Coors playing all 162 games.
Yes. Did you read the the article?
Another 29 homers … bla hahahha hahaha
Did Brandon Belt key your car. Don’t understand the haters on Belt. Blame Larry Baer who won’t change the dimensions of the park despite the three outcomes becoming the new thing. Don’t like it, but if you spend half your games in AT&T you are not rewarded for changing your swing degree. And it’s not easy to have one swing for home and another the road.
Belt’s a fine player hitting just 20 homers with his on-base ability. His homer pace was even more than that last year. He just needs to stay off the DL and he’ll be worth his contract.
Duda yo Tampa now I guess is all that’s left & watch he will have the best season
Hard not to like this move. Goodbye Vargas.
Victim? A 6.5 million victim. If he had several years of last year’s production than maybe much better than 3 yrs and 36 million might be expected but with just one year of it why would you gamble on that being reproduced when there are other options available.
Let some other team take the gamble at 36 million but this was a good signing by the Twins.
Agreed. Victim?lol Dude is borderline avg his entire career up until 2017 season, and this dude rights “victim”, when talking about Morrison’s 1 yr deal? Come on man.lol I wouldn’t pay someone for multiple yrs of good money for 1 yr of gd production either. I mean, for real, victim?lol
Exactly … more of this MLBTR “victim” bullshit!
Nice get for the twins. Nice price tag, too
If he produces anything like last year and the young players continue to take steps forward this lineup could be scary good.
Except chances are he’s what he was 2010-2016, more so , then what he was 2017. Convenient his one big yr comes in a FA season, no?lol
people put too much into the FA timing. For all the guys that do well you forget all the guys that didn’t.
It is not about remembering only the guys that do well. It is about paying the guys that do well based off that one outlier year. Yes it could be future production but to expect it is sorta ridiculous.
Glad to see that Morrison was signed.
Love this. Once Austin Jackson was off the board, LoMo was who I wanted. Cheap price.
Hopefully LF at Target Field doesn’t suppress his power as it usually does to most guys not named Thome. The launch angle/swing change will hopefully help that.
After seeing real power hitters regularly putting them in the upper deck of LF at target field I’m not worried. I think that got blown out of proportion with this stadium. Center you have to crush one but other than that just as easy as anywhere to get a pull HR either way. (Not RF at yankee stadium) Right slightly tougher because of the limestone wall. Good stuff Twins this is a great offseason of working within your means.
I meant RF, not LF. Not sure why I typed LF. Brain freeze, I guess.
It’s hard to hit them out to RF in Target Field. Morneau and Kubel both would hit bombs that would all of a sudden die mid-air. Even saw it happen to Span a few times. It is better than it used be when it first opened, but I always expect more HR out of our righty hitters since it seems easier to yank it that way.
Granted the sample size of left power hitters that I’m basing this on is small: Thome, Morneau, Kubel, Arcia…that’s probably it. Morneau technically shouldn’t count because of the concussion hurt him so badly so the sample size of health is extremely small. No one but Thome put up an ISO as high as LoMo’s was last year. So if he can repeat it, he’s guaranteed another 30 HR season.
I do love the signing.
Figured LF was a mistake!! You had me scratching my head…. thinking, dude, have you seen what happens when the Blue Jays come to town…
Haha, yeah. Jays definitely crush it or Stanton who went sixth row from the top in the third deck in the HR derby.
Good get plus dude hit like 27 HRs on road last year
Picture pretty much sums up any free agent after they sign a contract this offseason.
There is no collusion, there is no collusion, there is no collusion….. just keep saying it boys. Lol
It has become apparent a ton of people don’t know what the word “collusion” means
The word “collusion” provides a nice escape from reality. Come on, 22222Pete! This FA class is mediocre. Doubt you’ll be singing “collusion” next FA class.
Yep. Reality is, with how many teams are rebuilding/reshuffling or just going with internal options, there just aren’t that many jobs available. Supply dramatically outweighs Demand right now
And as you said, that is coupled with the low quality most of the available Supply represents.
Low quality Supply vastly outweighs Demand and of course what we see is the result
LoMo is also a rather perfect example of lower Quality (.239/.314/.398/.712 in 5 seasons prior to last year) player who plays a position that is easy to fill and isn’t needed by hardly any teams anyway. Of all the people you would expect to be hit by the current Supply>>>Demand environment, Morrison would be at or near the top
But apparently Pete there isn’t able to grasp things like Supply and Demand, and instead truly believes the 30 owners all came together to conspire against Morrison and in favor of the Twins for god only knows what reason
Quit colluding on and on about how I don’t know what that word means
Thought he was the ideal candidate to force Dom Smith to win the Mets 1B job rather than an over the hill A-Gon but, hey…it’s the Mets.
So did I!
LoMo doesn’t have the “prestige” factor the Mets are looking for
What a great sign. Sorry Napoli. This is all on the twins side. If he has a good year twins win and get another year. Down year, and the twins have low risk.
Would love a surprise starting pitching move (that’s not arrieta). If they come out with good pitching they could definitely challenge the Indians. Their bats are better, pitching is way behind as far as SPs go. The pen is looking better.
There is no collusion. The MLB owners can’t order a cup of coffee together, let alone engage in one a conspiracy against one of the most powerful unions in the world without flubbing up or someone leaking it to Olney or Heyman.
Yet they’ve been found guilty of collusion in the past, so it’s possible.
Not bad money, but I wouldn’t expect him to put up an OPS that’s 100 points higher than his career number like he did last year.
He had a career year last season. Now it’s back to the LoMo we all know.
I don’t think you read the article. He obviously changed his approach and had great underlying numbers which indicate his success was due to an approach change-which doesn’t seem very flucky. Even if he takes a step back and say hits 20-25 homers with decent OPB, that’s still better than Grossman or Vargas and they can let him walk after one cheap year.
Wow. Props to the commenter that called that the other day. Did not think they’d get a guy like this. Nice addition.
Nice signing. There were a lot of defensively limited guys who hit a lot of home runs last year. No scarcity = depressed market. No collusion, just good old supply and demand Econ 101
Yo someone text Odorizzi and LoMo and tell them to talk to Alex Cobb so he can join the twins
Good on the Twins, again.
Mike Moustatkas is similar in age and has an inconsistent history as well. They were both banking on their 2017 to earn them contracts this offseason. Morrison was better in terms of getting on base and in the WAR stat, both had 38 home runs. I don’t see how Moustatkas could get much more than this. He has a position as a 3rd baseman though but I think he compares to Morrison very well.
Moose does have a more solid track record too. There’s not a lot of demand for 3B’s right now though. Royals, orioles, Yankees? Maybe the mariners look at him at 1B since Healy is out. None of them seem like great fits for Moose either. Maybe the Braves decide they want a veteran to play 3rd this year. He may not get a whole lot more
Thinking this late in FA why bite on moose and give up the draft choice when you have Donaldson and machado next year in 3b market? When big $ teams aren’t in the FA market it makes Borass and others look bad . Next year add Harper and kersaw to FA and watch out
Steal. I’d rather LoMo than Alonso (who got a similar contract)
Great fit. Is there any chance he can still pass off as an outfielder if needed?
Nice value, nice fit. Well done Twins!
He had a career year last season. Now it’s back to the LoMo we all know.
Players peak between 26-29. LoMo is going into his age 30 season.
Standard deviation is a thing…
Did he forget to hit his prime when he was 27 and 28? Fluke year would’ve been a better argument… Even if it was the Twins got a cheap gamble.
Figure he took a discount to compete. Cant blame him. Could be a huge factor in the central. Twins need another starter and they will look awful threateming.
Figure he took a discount because the market wasn’t as expected, and he wanted a job.
Just happy he found a spot. Always rooted for him on the marlins/rays. He’s a good guy. Not conceited at all, ran into him at a grocery store in miami, and he took 5 min to talk about baseball with me. Wish him future success.
Nice to hear. We love good character players up here in MN. Midwest kid who wants to kick some ass without an ego.. what’s not to like?
Lomo was mugged.
Yeah, I bet Falvey distracted him while Levine hit him in the back of the head with a 2×4.
Good signing at a great price for the Twins. But the sad truth is prices at the ballparks aren’t going to decrease, salaries for the players are decreasing and that equals more money in the owners pockets! We can all relate to this, you work hard for your company get no raise and your workload is doubled which is equal to a pay cut. Meanwhile the owner raises the price on customers and reap the rewards.
Just the other day an article was given showing the players, when all things are considered, are making in the range of 56% of revenue – a number that is right around the highest it’s been.
So first off, that part of your vast conspiracy you claim to see is bunk.
Secondly, .239/.314/.398/.712
…so, do you seriously think a First Baseman who hits THAT (and consistency; never more than .025 ops points off it) over the 5 year stretch that represents his peak physical seasons deserves a multi-year, multi-million contract?
Because, again, a very consistent .239/.314/.398/.712 is what LoMo hit in the 5 seasons prior to last year – and that just isn’t all that desirable
You fight the power brother
Hey. if we sign Cobb AND trade for Archer can we call ourselves the X-Rays???
If I’m not mistaken wasn’t Morrison offered a 2 year $20M deal from the Indians a while back that he turned down? Settling for a 1 year $6.5M deal now is his own fault for overvaluing himself
When Kendrys Morales and MArk Trumbo got 33 and 39 million one season before its not real hard to see Morrison initially valuing himself in that range.
Now Sano can have an actual left handed threat for SOME protection. Considering the market seems like ideal fit to DH/1B.
Hey Connor! LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune’s Twitter link you provided, said it’s a club/vesting option, not just vesting option.
So.. which is it? LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune is the only one to report club option, if Vesting option doesn’t vest
Vesting options, l think, are always club options. Meaning if it doesn’t vest, they club still could bring the player back by selecting it.
Ervin Santana has one this year. It vests based on IP, if he doesn’t reach that IP the Twins can still pick up the option if they want.
Why do the Twins hate Vargas so much? I wish he’d get some sort of chance…
He must be in the same doghouse in which Bernardo Brito resided.
Perhaps because he’s a GDP machine who strikes out a good deal.
The amount of people who think he won’t at least partially repeat last season is pretty amazing. There are lots of stats supporting a repeat, attributed to a change in swing.
You can’t blame people for thinking that though. His history shows he probably won’t repeat 2017 and he tapered off in the second half too
You are correct
.258/.367/.564/.931 in 17 first half
.231/.333/.452/.786 in 17 second half
.239/.314/.398/.712 from 2012-16
(Broken down as .707 ops in 12, .709 in 13, .735 in 14, .685 in 15, .733 in 16 – so very consistently in that .712 range)
The 2017 1st half is a clear outlier. And while his 2017 2nd half was better than normal, it was already looking much closer to his track record going into last year than the 1st half outlier line
Yes people who don’t understand advanced stats
I personally saw him put one in the upper deck last year here in Minnesota. He might have more pop than Sano with playing time.
I wonder if they’ll actually cut bait on Sano…
Cut bait as in release? I don’t think so.
Not necessarily release, more like ship-off…
Lay off the bath salts
I feel like the Twins have found the best value out of all teams this offseason. Morrison, Odorizzi, and Reed were all steals.
Great signing. This gives them a regular DH that they haven’t had since Thome. I can’t believe I’m saying this as a lifelong Twins fan but they actually have some battles in camp now.. there aren’t enough spots for everyone in camp right now.. bullpen is the biggest one. Outside of closer I see 7 RP that I would expect get a spot and now with these offensive signings as big or small as they are, they create an environment in Twins camp that hasn’t been there for a while. Vargas needs to rake or he’s gone.. Adrianza needs to do enough to not lose his job.. zack granite is probably in triple A now. It’s so much better than hey here’s a guy in camp and it’s his spot to lose.. when he didn’t earn it in the first place. Competition will always be good. Let’s go Twinkies!
He has the potential to not only be the best bargain this off season but to also make Hosmer’s contract seem like a legit ripoff
Good signing. Now Robbie Grossman can take his little Deadball Era Revival back to the bench where it belongs!
The guy is a joke and very overrated. Any money spent on him is too much money
Who hurt you?
AngerBot Angry at your lack of effort. AngerBot know the price for power dropping right before AngerBot’s eye, but position flexibility and elite power potential make deal positive for Twins. Better OPS than any Twin last year.
AngerBot’s got quite the schtick
I’m not convinced that this is a good fit. Maybe an okay hitter… but not necessarily a good fit in Minny.
Yah the last thing the Twins need is a left handed power bat…
it will make a lot more since when sano gets suspended for 50 games. and the twins would have been stuck with escobar and either grossaman or vargas at 3B and DH
Makes sense now. Modest guarantee for a guy who should be a fairly significant upgrade. VArgas has been given enough chances and Grossman’s only asset at the plate is his eye.
.239/.314/.398, .311 wOBA, 98 wRC+, 0.5 WAR
.252/.311/.437, .322 wOBA, 100 wRC+, 0.7 WAR
The first is Morrison from 2012-16, the second is the career of Vargas
So as you can see, if Morrison doesn’t repeat last season and instead plays like the normal LoMo… well, then he kind of IS Vargas
Even if he splits the difference on last year and the 5-prior (which is a safe assumption), he’s a significant upgrade. And a bargain at $6m.
Not sure it will stick, but LoMo made launch angle swing changes. So at this moment, it’s hard to say last year was a fluke because his swing was completely different in those other five years.
Other players who changed their swing for the better: Dozier and Donaldson (there are probably others). I don’t know about Donaldson, but people kept saying that every Dozier season with around 30 HRs is/was a fluke. They were still saying it before last year. He’s now put up three seasons in a row of 28 or more HRs. Check his HR totals in the minors…it’s a drastic change. And it was done by changing the swing.
Too early to call on LoMo one way or another, but another 30 or more HR season would not shock me at all if he keeps the change.
(Replying to both of you with this)
The problem with that thinking is it ignores the fact pitchers will adjust to his “new approach” once they realize he is employing a “new approach”
Already some started doing so mid way thru the season, and the results show in his second half line
.231/.333/.452, .337 WOBA
The difference came in the fact pitchers stopped giving him as much stuff to make hard contact off of, and his weak contact (10%) and K rate (5%) both skyrocketed up in the second half bc of it
So, yeah, maybe 2018 could land somewhere between the career .311 wOBA and the 2017 2nd half’s .337 …but between those two at .322 lay Vargas
And all of it is merely to say, careful with those expectations because the stats (including those post-adjustment) indicate he isnt guaranteed to be really any better than the guy he’s putting on the bench (esp since he’s a worse fielder than Vargas at 1B too)
If you look at it on a month to month basis, I don’t think it ends up looking that bad.
His worst walk rate came in August. In every month but August it was 12.5 percent or higher. In August it was 8.3, which is probably somewhere around average. I’ll take that all day as a bad month. I’ll even take it for the whole year.
I don’t expect him to play a ton of 1B. Probably the same amount that Vargas would. I’ve never watched LoMo play first and I’m sure the numbers are bad but I don’t expect it to be that big of a problem when he’s mostly DHing.
His ISO was over 300 in April/May/June combined and it was 226 from July on combined. I’ll take that 226 all day long (two out of those three months he was above that average).
His BABIP was mostly around the 250-255 range except for two months. His wOBA was above .340 every single month. His worst wRC+ was 116 in August. I will gladly take all of these.
Seems to me his second half numbers are being brought down by his August numbers which were 8 percent walks , 23 percent k’s, .250 average, .312 OBP, .500 SLG, 250 ISO, .342 wOBA and 116 wRC+. If he put up that exact line for an entire year I’d be delighted.
He’d probably be top five on the Twins in multiple categories (would have been last year with that line). If he continues that power surge, it’ll be fun to debate who has more power between he and Sano.
I can’t say for sure whether or not pitchers will figure him out or not, but I know people were saying that for years about Brian Dozier and it hasn’t happened yet.
I like Vargas and he hasn’t been given a chance to get 400 or more PA which sucks, but in the time he has played he hasn’t been impressive and he K’s way too much. It took Adam Dunn something like 10 years to hit a 30 percent K rate. That’s a completely normal amount for Vargas.
Vargas hasn’t had a full season of ABs to be exposed either. His BABIP has been well above 300 to maintain that average. He strikes out a lot and has reverse platoon splits. Which is unfortunate because there is no platoon opportunity. I don’t think there’s much of a difference in their defense either. Dont think the 6’5 290 lb kennys Vargas is a slick fielder. Morrison at the least gives them another option on a small guarantee and at best is a fairly significant upgrade.
BABIP isn’t always at .300 for hitters. It can vary dramatically based upon the way they make contact, launch angles, power and speed. Fly ball hitters will often be well below .300, like Morrison’s .273 career BABIP. Line drive rate generally impacts the BABIP the most, evidenced by Mauer’s .341 career BABIP despite really getting killed by the shift lately.
Anyway, Vargas has as much power potential as Morrison, costs way less, and has as much defensive value considering they’re both DH’s.
I just don’t see the interest in Morrison. He doesn’t mash lefties, doesn’t fill a defensive need and has been middling to poor in 6 of 7 years he’s played in MLB. Yes, Morrison can hit the ball a long ways, but if the Twins were really interested in that, they would have been batting Vargas at DH rather than Grossman last year.
It wasn’t just Morrison’s power which appeared out of no where last year. His walk rate also spiked despite O-Swing rates within career norms and reduced contact rates.
It’s not a lot of money… but keep adding up these Terry Ryan style contracts and you reach Darvish money awfully quick.
Not even close. A 6 million dollar guarantee to Morrison and what 8 million to Addison Reed? Plus 5 to Odorizzi. And those are all for less than 3 years.
Since 2014, the Twins have been spending roughly $35M per year on rotation arms signed from free agency or acquired in trades. Every year.
It doesn’t matter if the Twins are signing lower tier gap filler players for short term contracts. When the short term contract is up, the Twins just fill the hole all over again with more short term gap fillers. It adds up the same amount of money spent over the same period of time.
The only thing that changes is the pure risk involved in a single player vs. a group of players who aren’t very good. Signing an ace pitcher, which the Twins have desperately needed for almost a decade, comes with a higher risk of a single year injury, but a much lower risk you wind up with a player you’re paying but you don’t even want on the roster when some decline shows up. An ace who declines turns into a #3 you still want pitching for you. A #4 who declines turns into a guy you can’t get rid of and wish you didn’t have to play to try to wring some value out of them.
LoMo/Odo/Cobb = baseball’s banana boat.
Awesome move! Solidifies the lineup. Now go get that starter! Finish what you started!
Great move by the Twins. How long until Mark Reynolds’ phone rings?
Hopefully he shaves that neckbeard he had going on.