- Michael Pineda tossed two scoreless innings and threw 18 of his 26 pitches for strikes in an outing against the Red Sox today, his first time facing MLB hitters since July 5, 2017. He threw between 93-95mph, matching his old fastball speed, though Pineda told The Athletic’s Dan Hayes and other media that “I’m not focused on the velocity. My goal is to be healthy and get some focus and be back. And be Michael Pineda, back like he used to be.” Pineda underwent Tommy John surgery in July 2017, and his hopes of a return in 2018 were dashed after he suffered a torn meniscus. After signing a two-year, $10MM deal with the Twins in the 2017-18 offseason, Pineda is making positive steps towards being a contributor for Minnesota this year.
Twins Rumors
Sano A Week From Having Boot Removed
- Twins slugger Miguel Sano is still about a week away from having the protective boot from his right foot, writes La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The laceration on his heel is “probably about 80 percent healed,” per Twins trainer Tony Leo, but its proximity to Sano’s Achilles tendon necessitates that it be fully healed up before he can resume baseball activity. That timeline could put Sano in doubt for Opening Day, though if all goes according to plan, he’ll have three weeks to build up to game activity and begin taking at-bats and reps at third base. New manager Rocco Baldelli simply stated that there’s “no way to say for sure” what Sano’s timeline is until the boot comes off.
Twins Designate Zack Granite For Assignment
The Twins have designated outfielder Zack Granite for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for newly signed Marwin Gonzalez, Dan Hayes of The Athletic tweets.
Granite, 26, forced his way onto the Twins’ big league roster with a .338/.392/.475 showing in Triple-A in 2017, though that output was buoyed by a .371 average on balls in play. His time in the Majors didn’t prove quite as fruitful, as he slashed just .237/.321/.290 in 107 trips to the plate. Granite struggled through a dismal .211/.282/.245 batting line in an injury-shortened 2018 season in Triple-A Rochester and, in the process, saw himself leapfrogged on the organizational depth chart by fellow outfielder Jake Cave, whom the Twins acquired from the Yankees last spring.
While Granite has elite speed and a strong defensive skill set, he’s largely devoid of power, never having totaled more than six home runs in a season (which came in 2017 between the Twins and Triple-A). But, as a career .282/.348/.360 hitter in the minors with a 10.2 percent strikeout rate, an 8.5 percent walk rate and a minor league option remaining, he could certainly hold appeal to another club in need of outfield options. A team thin in the outfield could look to give Granite a chance at regular reps, but his speed and defense would also make him a viable fourth outfielder o a team with an already set mix of starters.
Twins Sign Marwin Gonzalez
The Twins have announced the signing of free-agent infielder/outfielder Marwin Gonzalez. Gonzalez, who is represented by the Boras Corporation, receives a two-year, $21MM deal that will pay him $12MM in 2019 and $9MM in 2020.
Gonzalez, 30 in March, emerged as one of MLB’s most versatile utility pieces over the past two seasons and played a major role in bringing the Astros to the 2017 World Series. The switch-hitter’s terrific .303/.377/.530 batting line that year regressed to .247/.324/.409 in 2018, though it’s worth noting that his 2018 results were weighed down by a sluggish start. Gonzalez carried a .612 OPS into June but rebounded to the tune of a .266/.343/.462 slash over the final four months, during which time he clubbed 12 of his 16 home runs. Overall, he’s posted a healthy .274/.349/.467 line with 39 homers, 59 doubles and three triples over his past 1067 plate appearances.
Known as much for his defensive versatility as anything else — agent Scott Boras dubbed him “Swiss G” early in the offseason — Gonzalez logged 150-plus innings at first base, second base, shortstop and in left field last year. He’s logged significant innings at all four infield spots over the past two seasons and has tallied more than 1000 innings in left field as well. He’s drawn plus marks for that work in left (+7 Defensive Runs Saved, +5.5 Ultimate Zone Rating, +2 Outs Above Average) and has generally drawn solid marks for his glovework at first base, second base and third base in recent years (with defensive metrics being less fond of his defense at shortstop).
While Gonzalez won’t be in line to man one singular position on a regular basis, it’s likely that the Twins will mix him into the lineup on a near-regular basis over the next couple of seasons. He’ll provide the club with a high-quality means of keeping first baseman C.J. Cron, second baseman Jonathan Schoop, shortstop Jorge Polanco and third baseman Miguel Sano fresh. Gonzalez also seems likely to log some time in the outfield, and given that all three of Minnesota’s current outfielders — Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton and Max Kepler — can play all three outfield slots, Gonzalez could be the first in line to get some outfield work when any of that trio is out of the lineup. In short, he’ll provide rookie manager Rocco Baldelli with an enormous amount of flexibility when mapping out his daily lineups. And, with Schoop a free agent at season’t end, Marwin could potentially give the Twins a regular option in 2020 if prospect Nick Gordon doesn’t adequately rebuild his stock this year.
The addition of Gonzalez will cost one of Ehire Adrianza or Willians Astudillo a spot on the active roster and potentially puts Adrianza’s spot on the 40-man roster in jeopardy. Like Gonzalez, Adrianza is a switch-hitting utility piece who played all over the infield and in left field last year, though his bat has never approached Gonzalez’s 2017-18 levels. Minnesota also has Ronald Torreyes on the 40-man roster under a non-guaranteed, split contract, though Torreyes has one minor league option remaining.
Entering the offseason, MLBTR pegged Gonzalez as a candidate to receive a four-year contract (at a lower annual rate of $9MM) given the fact that his versatility figured to create no shortage of demand throughout the league. Many pundits at the time — myself included — were surprised that Houston didn’t issue a $17.9MM qualifying offer to Gonzalez; while that’d be a huge price to pay for one season of his services, the thinking at the time was that he’d comfortably out-earn that sum on a three- or four-year pact, thus making him a safe bet to reject the deal and net the Astros a compensatory draft pick. In retrospect, the Astros’ decision not to do so looks quite prudent.
From a broader perspective, Gonzalez’s contract is in some ways indicative of the changing market landscape that has served as a source of consternation for both players and agents this winter. While his $10.5MM annual salary is quite large for a super-utility player, to be sure, Gonzalez’s ultimate guarantee was for half the length and under 40 percent of the total dollars the Cubs pledged to Ben Zobrist as he entered his age-35 season just three years ago. While Zobrist was a more established hitter and predicting that type of money for Gonzalez seemed overly aggressive even at the outset of free agency, few would’ve predicted such great disparity between their contracts. Gonzalez is roughly a half decade younger than Zobrist was at the time of his deal, after all.
While Gonzalez’s contract falls shy of what virtually any publication predicted for him entering the winter, that $10.5MM annual value is nonetheless robust, and he’ll have the chance to re-enter free agency at a relatively youthful age. A four-term deal at that point will be even less likely, but he’d certainly be a candidate to receive another strong annual value on a two- or possibly three-year pact if he maintains his recent level of production.
For the Twins, Gonzalez will join offseason newcomers Schoop, Cron and Nelson Cruz to a revamped lineup that figures to be more productive than it was in 2018. If the Twins are able to coax bounceback seasons out of some combination of Schoop, Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, their offense will be among the more formidable groups in the American League. The team’s pitching staff could certainly use further augmentation, and it’s worth noting that a pair of prominent free-agent arms — Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel — remain unsigned. The extent to which the Twins are interested in either at present isn’t known, though they’ve at least been linked to Kimbrel in the past month.
Whether they ultimately come to terms with either (or acquire another pitching upgrade), it’s clear that Minnesota at least has the financial means to do so. The Twins’ payroll will still be shy of last year’s $128MM Opening Day mark, and they have fewer than $25MM committed to the 2020 roster.
Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter links) first had the deal and some contract terms. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter) had the years and dollars. Dan Hayes of The Athletic first connected the two sides.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Analysis Of The Marwin Gonzalez Signing
- Rival evaluators were “greatly surprised” that Marwin Gonzalez couldn’t find a three-year contract, ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes (subscription required), as the utilityman instead inked a two-year, $21MM deal with the Twins. Agent Scott Boras initially targeted a four-year deal worth around $60MM for his client, and while Gonzalez’s versatility drew interest from many teams, none were willing to approach that price. (MLBTR also predicted a four-year contract for Gonzalez, though only at $36MM.) Olney wonders if utilitymen like Gonzalez are better served by signing earlier rather than later when testing free agency, and Olney also suggested that a reunion between Gonzalez and the Astros could have materialized if Houston had realized the player’s market would be so limited. The Astros seemed to move on early from Gonzalez, acquiring Aledmys Diaz from the Blue Jays to serve in a utility role.
Twins Interested In Marwin Gonzalez
The Twins are showing interest in free agent infielder/outfielder Marwin Gonzalez, according to Dan Hayes of The Athletic (subscription link). The Minnesota organization has “discussed the parameters of a three-year deal,” per the report.
Gonzalez’s market has moved slowly all winter long, but Hayes says the Twins feel there’s “strong competition” from other teams to secure his services. That’s generally promising news for one of the game’s best utilitymen, whose market situation has remained rather foggy.
MLBTR originally predicted a four-year, $36MM deal for Gonzalez. It seems he and his representatives at the Boras Corporation set out with a hefty asking price in the range of $60MM.
For the Twins, adding Gonzalez would represent an interesting, late-breaking move. The club’s recent pair of extensions finally added money to its previously pristine future balance sheets, but it has otherwise focused its spending on players who’ll leave the books after the 2019 season. It seems there’s still quite a bit of untapped payroll availability for both this campaign and those in the near future, though that doesn’t mean the organization is anxious to fill it.
Gonzalez would make for an interesting roster fit in Minnesota. The switch-hitter could conceivably appear just about anywhere on the diamond, as he long has with the Astros. He’d theoretically supplement and serve as a back-up plan at every spot in the infield while perhaps also commanding some playing time in the corner outfield as well.
The Twins’ presumptive starting infield unit is full of righty bats — switch-hitting shortstop Jorge Polanco is an exception, but he has historically fared better from the right side — so it’s not hard to see how Gonzalez might find his way into the lineup quite often. Looking ahead, both second baseman Jonathan Schoop and DH Nelson Cruz could be free agents at season’s end, while the team isn’t committed to first baseman C.J. Cron, so there’ll be holes to fill in the near future as well.
Twins' Spring Training Invitee Dean Anna Retires
- Journeyman infielder Dean Anna, who’d been slated to report to camp with the Twins on a minor league contract, has opted to retire (Twitter link via Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press). Anna, 32, saw brief MLB action with the Yankees and Cardinals back in 2014-15, though he only ever tallied a total of 26 MLB plate appearances. He’s spent parts of six seasons in Triple-A, where he was a career .280/.372/.377 hitter with experience playing all over the infield (plus a bit of outfield work).
Miguel Sano Reports In Good Physical Condition
- True, reports on conditioning entering camp are a tired trope. But given all the heartache over the years surrounding the physical form of Twins slugger Miguel Sano, it seems relevant that he’s said to be in the best shape of his life — or, at least, the best shape of his MLB career. As Dan Hayes of The Athletic writes (subscription link), Sano embarked upon a robust workout program this winter and seems to be in top form. Whether that extends to his productivity on the field remains to be seen, but it’s a positive start.
Twins Not Actively Engaged In Additional Extension Talks
- While the Twins have looked into extensions with multiple young players, and recently locked up both Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco, all is quiet on that front at this point, per LaVelle E. Neal III off the Star Tribune (via Twitter). Players such as outfielder Eddie Rosario and righty Jose Berrios would seem to represent highly appealing targets, though both also have added leverage due to their strong 2018 seasons.
Details On Rocco Baldelli's Contract With Twins
- While terms of his contract weren’t announced or reported at the time, Twins skipper Rocco Baldelli inked a four-year contract when being hired for his managerial debut, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports (subscription required). The deal also has multiple club options. It’s a show of faith in the rookie manager and a departure from the manner in which Minnesota has previously operated, as Aaron Gleeman of Baseball Prospectus notes (Twitter link). Under previous management, the Twins typically only issued two-year pacts to skipper Ron Gardenhire, who was one of the game’s longest-tenured managers when he was dismissed from the organization. And Paul Molitor, whom the the Twins ousted to make way for Baldelli, was one season into a three-year contract when the Twins ultimately changed course.
