Nelson Cruz hit .311/.392/.639 with 41 homers in his first season in Minnesota, making it an easy call for the Twins to exercise their $12MM club option on the veteran slugger for 2020. Cruz can be a free agent next winter, though GM Thad Levine told fans and reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) at this weekend’s TwinsFest fan event that “we are having ongoing conversations with [Cruz’s] agent to discuss mutual interest in the future.”
Though Cruz has continued to swing a mighty bat into his late 30’s, he signed with the Twins for just one guaranteed year (worth $14.3MM in guaranteed money) with the 2020 club option last winter, as his age and DH-only lineup deployment limited his market. It’s fair to assume that those same factors could impact Cruz again this coming offseason, even if he has another big season in 2020. Cruz turns 40 in July, so perhaps a modest one-year extension covering the 2021 season would be acceptable to both sides. The Twins would be making a minimal risk in an aging player who has shown no signs of falling off at the plate, while Cruz would get some extra reward and security, while sidestepping the free agent market to stay in a familiar environment with a contending team.
Here’s more from the Twin Cities….
- The Twins’ signing of Josh Donaldson is chronicled by The Athletic’s Dan Hayes (subscription required) in a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the courtship between the two sides. Most of the deal’s financial elements (four years and $92MM, plus a club option for 2024) were already put forward by the Twins as early as mid-December, though that left several weeks of uncertainty on both sides as Donaldson pondered his options and began to learn more about the Minnesota organization. “There were times we thought we had a zero percent chance of signing (Donaldson). There were times we thought we had something a lot better,” Levine said. The process was also somewhat complicated by Levine going on vacation in late December, as chief baseball officer Derek Falvey then stepped in to continue negotiations with Donaldson’s representatives.
- Rich Hill is still targeting early June for his return date to the majors, and the date of his debut in a Twins uniform. Hill told MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park and other reporters that he will begin baseball activities next week, as the veteran left-hander continues to recover from primary revision surgery in November. Though Hill pitched with a detached UCL for much of the 2019 season, the injury wasn’t serious enough to require Tommy John surgery, which is why he opted for the lesser-known primary revision procedure that offered a shorter recovery timeframe. “It’s only a six-year-old surgery, and it’s had a huge amount of success of people who have had it and come back. I think it’s above a 95 percent success rate, so it’s something that I’m extremely excited about,” Hill said. The Twins signed Hill to a one-year deal in December worth $3MM in guaranteed money, though Hill only needs to pitch as many as 25 innings to start unlocking the $9.5MM in extra incentive bonuses in the contract.
Boomstick is tryna hit that 2000 hit 450 HR mark for a HoF Bid
PEDs are a helluva drug
He’s played during the era where players are randomly tested for PEDs, so it’s not fair to assume he’s juicing.
…
Nobody tell him.
Correct, plus Cruz has always been a masher ever since he was first called up. Not to mention, he’s always been a bigger guy, and we’ve never seen any huge differences in his size or muscle mass.
It is okay to be skeptical of a player’s success, especially when it is into their late 30’s, and since we have all been fooled before. However, with that being said, we cannot just openly accuse a guy either.
There have been more measures and obstacles put in place to avoid such unfair advantages. Although, in this case, as consistent as Cruz has been, when he is healthy, you would really have to argue that he’s just been juicing his entire career..
I just don’t see it, as he surely would have tested positive at some point by now. With that said, you have to give credit where it is due. Cruz has managed to have a long and successful career, and that takes alot of hard work and dedication.
He was for antler spray google it
You know he’s been suspended 50 games in the past, right?
Testing doesn’t detect steroids from what I remember just the testosterone level.
Barry Bonds laughs at your logic
Twins still need pitching. I don’t think Donaldson or Cruz can pitch.
They are going to win a lot of 18-14 games that last 5 hours
Their pitching is as good as it was last year. Shouldn’t expect much change there. Winning in the playoffs is another story.
I submit that he is using based on the logic that nobody maintains that kind of bat speed, eye coordination and power for that many years, unless that individual is Mays or Aaron, without some type of performance enhancer. These guys can get around the tests. Again, look at Bonds, as someone wrote… he grew like a 13-year-old at age 35. Then again, I’m not there to actually see the gummies and needless so who knows.
Just supposition but his previous suspension tells a different story, if I recall correctly.
The guy was caught in that biogenesis scandal with a-rod. So say not going into the hall of fame because he caught cheating. Either you play with natural talent or you fall apart while your body age.
Kepler
Polanco
Cruz
Eddie
Donaldson
Sano
Garv
Arraez
Buck
Arraez
Donaldson
Cruz
Kepler
Sano
Rosie
Garver
Polanco
Buxton
I like it…maybe flip Arraez and Polanco, but it looks like a strong lineup either way.
Cruz is one of the better things to happen to the M’s. Another shame they couldn’t put something together around him among other HOF’s. I hope he continues to RAKE until 50! Good luck Twinkies
Peds user. Caught and suspended. Not hall of famer with that on his name.
so much love for a well juiced player
Writers need to stop equating age to skill decline. There are obvious exceptions to this non-existent rule and athletes these days have much better training programs to excel as older players. My eyes say Cruz is not even close to being done and if he’s putting up those numbers at his age, more power to him – keep giving him a contract and a bat and say, “here, go prove them wrong!”
Age-related decline does not necessarily come gradually. Cruz went on the IL several times in 2019 because of a wrist injury. (I can’t find the exact number of games he missed because of it; any help out there would be appreciated). I suspect the wrist or some other acute then nagging injury will put him on the eternal shelf while his body, otherwise, is still going strong.
Baseball Reference shows he played in 120 games last year.
If I recall correctly – he was hit by pitch on the wrist which caused the injury, it wasn’t age related. Same injury could occur to a 24 year old player
Does anyone believe Cruz isn’t on the Vince McMahon vitamin program?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of his. I also want Bonds and Clemons in the Hall. I also wish they would legalize roids and HGH and take them out of sports only if they are proven to be bad for health.
But still, does anyone believe Cruz isn’t getting away with breaking a stupid rule like the PED rule?
You make no sense. No in the history of sport has broken out as a perennial MVP at the age of 45 and continued to perform at that level for any significant amount of time. Age kills performance at some point. No one debates that and writers, teams and even players accept it as a given. Mark doesn’t even conjecture about Cruz’s performance here, even says he shows no sign of slowing down
You make no sense. No in the history of sport has broken out as a perennial MVP at the age of 45 and continued to perform at that level for any significant amount of time. Age kills performance at some point. No one debates that and writers, teams and even players accept it as a given. Mark doesn’t even conjecture about Cruz’s performance here, even says he shows no sign of slowing down
You make no sense. No in the history of sport has broken out as a perennial MVP at the age of 45 and continued to perform at that level for any significant amount of time. Age kills performance at some point. No one debates that and writers, teams and even players accept it as a given. Mark doesn’t even conjecture about Cruz’s performance here, even says he shows no sign of slowing down
Not suggesting Cruz is using now but he did get popped in 2013 so no HOF I think.
Not suggesting Cruz is using now but he did get popped in 2013 so no HOF I think.
Not suggesting Cruz is using now but he did get popped in 2013 so no HOF I think.
The real reason Rich Hill avoided TJ surgery: he was afraid Dave Roberts would come into the OR and pull the scalpel out of the surgeon’s hand about 5/9 of the way through the procedure
But a 40-year-old person heals from injury significantly slower than a 24-year-old.
My point remains that a player Cruz’s age doesn’t “slow down” so much as he doesn’t come back from injury as well, and then eventually doesn’t come back at all.
David Ortiz was about washed up and then magically(sp?) got better and better as he got older.
The Twins don’t have to take any additional risk. Even a one year extension takes his through age 41. Let him play out 2020. Let him leave if age finally catches up to him, or negotiate a new deal if he’s still good. He’s likely going to be limited to one year deals at his age and skill set, meaning DH only.
I could see him transitioning to coaching hitting in the Twins system beyond his playing years. Maybe that is some of the future they are discussing. Imagine building “napping” rooms for the players to use before games.
I still wonder how it took 7 years for this guy to get a chance. All he’s done since his second year in the minors was hit and hit for power. It’s not like he ‘suddenly’ started thumping the ball out of nowhere.
You’re correct, but thumping at 25/35 is much different than continuing at the same pace after. He’s 40 and hitting like 25, oh, and mysteriously he was caught up in the Biogenesis scandal.
I agree the guy can hit, but this sustained ability is unquestionably related to performance enhancement. Either people believe it or they won’t but professional baseball players inevitably slow down. Most don’t make it to 40 at all, forget about being in the top of the league in hitting at 40.
Nevertheless, everyone is entitled to his own opinion.
Rich Hill – Dick Mountain
Kind of surprised about all the comments of steroids. Cruz is just a big dude and always has been. His pull hitter tendencies fit well into Target Field as well just as Josh Willingham and Brian Dozier did. I think he will fall off in the next year or so. The power should be there, but once the average starts taking a nose dive like Albert Pujols then you know the end is near. By the way Donaldson’s swing also plays well to Target Field.