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Minor Moves: Rox, Gonzalez, Rodriguez, Turpen, Clark

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Here are the day's minor transactions:

  • Middle infielder Niuman Romero and backstop Jose Gonzalez have also signed on with the Rockies on minor league pacts, per the MLB.com transactions page. Since cups of coffee in 2009 and 2010, Romero has played in the upper minors. He maintained a .367 OBP in each of the last two years, playing at the Double-A and Triple-A level for the Tigers and Orioles. Romero has spent most of his time at short in recent years. Gonzalez has spent the past eight seasons in the Rockies organization but slashed just .190/.274/.281 in 250 PAs at Triple-A in 2013.
  • The MLB.com transactions page also notes that the Reds have agreed to a minor league deal with Edgar Gonzalez. The right-hander, who turns 31 in February, allowed 15 runs in 18 innings between Toronto and Houston last season but owns a 4.35 ERA in 854 1/3 Triple-A innings.
  • Free agent infielder Josh Rodriguez will join the Marlins on a minor league deal, according to the MLB.com transactions page. The 29-year-old spent the last two seasons with the Mets, putting up a .272/.371/.390 line last year at Double-A. Rodriguez has seen substantial time at short, second, and third.
  • The Twins have re-signed righty Daniel Turpen to a minor league deal, according to the MLB.com transactions page. Turpen, 27, has yet to see MLB action but has been throwing in the high minors since 2010. Splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A for the Twins last year, Turpen put up a 4.98 ERA in 65 innings.
  • The Mets announced that they've signed utilityman Matt Clark to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training (Twitter link). The former Padres farmhand spent the 2013 season with NPB's Chunichi Dragons, batting .238/.328/.457 with 25 homers. The 27-year-old is primarily a first baseman but also has corner outfield experience. In 1045 Triple-A at-bats, Clark is a .291/.365/.502 hitter. He also bats left-handed, which figures to put him behind Ike Davis and Lucas Duda on New York's depth chart.

Steve Adams also contributed to this post.

Twins Sign Matt Guerrier

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FRIDAY: Berardino clarifies (via Twitter) that Gurrier's deal does contain the standard contract language of a Type XX(B) free agent, meaning he can opt out on June 1st if he is not on the MLB roster by that time.

As Berardino further reports, Guerrier would earn $1MM if he earns a MLB roster spot. He can also make up to $1MM more through incentives, with $250K bonuses triggered upon his 45th, 50th, 55th, and 60th appearances.

WEDNESDAY, 8:14pm: Guerrier's contract doesn't contain a clause that would allow him to opt out of the deal if he isn't in the Major Leagues by a certain day, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets.

11:31am: The Twins announced that they've brought back another familiar face, signing right-hander Matt Guerrier to a minor league deal with an invitation to Spring Training. Guerrier is a client of Pro Star Management, Inc.

Guerrier, 35, broke into the Majors with the Twins in 2004 as a 25-year-old and enjoyed the best years of his career with Minnesota. The Kent State product posted a strong 3.38 ERA in 472 innings of relief in his first run with the Twins, twice leading the league in appearances. He went on to sign a three-year, $12MM contract with the Dodgers, but elbow injuries limited him to just 110 innings in two-and-a-half years with Los Angeles. He was eventually designated for assignment and flipped to the Cubs in a swap that sent Carlos Marmol to the Dodgers.

Guerrier is the third former Twin that Minnesota has signed to a minor league deal this offseason, as they've also brought back Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett. Guerrier, whose season ended in August due to flexor tendon surgery, will look to work his way into a Twins bullpen that figures to be led by All-Star closer Glen Perkins and setup man Jared Burton.

Guerrier drew interest from seven to eight other clubs this offseason, agent Joe Bick told MLBTR, but the familiarity with the Twins' coaching staff and front office as well as the mutual respect the two sides share for one another led to the decision to return to Minneapolis. "In conversations we had with Matt about the whole picture, the decision to return to Minnesota felt right. We're excited about the opportunity."

Bick said that while no assurances have been made as to whether or not he'll make the club, Guerrier plans to "grab this opportunity by the throat" in Spring Training. Guerrier has been throwing off an indoor mound at 75 to 80 percent for the past three weeks and is scheduled to progress to throwing "true" bullpens — hopefully outdoors and off a dirt mound — next Monday.

Hanwha Eagles Sign Andrew Albers

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JANUARY 30th: Albers has cleared unconditional release waivers, the Twins announced via press release. The procedural move allows Albers to sign as a free agent with Hanwha. Minnesota now has one empty spot on its 40-man roster.

JANUARY 29th, 8:49am: The Twins will receive roughly $500K in the exchange, a person with direct knowlegde of the situation tells Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link).

7:40am: The Eagles have officially announced the signing of Albers to a one-year, $700K deal in addition to a $100K signing bonus, according to a report from Korean news agency Yonhap (hat tip: MyKBO.net's Dan Kurtz).

As the Yonhap report notes, Albers is the first foreign player to sign in KBO following the league's removal of the $300K salary cap on foreign players earlier this month. KBO also increased its per-team limit on foreign players from two to three. Albers will be joined on the Eagles by former Red Sox supplemental-rounder Caleb Clay and Felix Pie.

JAN. 23: The Twins have agreed to transfer starter Andrew Albers to the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), reports MLBTR's Steve Adams (via Twitter). Albers has agreed to terms with his new club as well, making the deal complete.

MLBTR learned that a deal was in the works two days ago. The 28-year-old Albers, who is represented by Blake Corosky of True Gravity Sports Management, was a great story last year for the Twins. After being dug out of the independent Canadian-American Association after 2010, Albers became Minnesota's minor league pitcher of the year for 2013. He also saw his first big league action, posting a 4.05 ERA in 60 innings. Though he struck out only 3.8 K/9, Albers allowed only 1.1 BB/9 and generated a 43.5% ground-ball rate.

The move across the Pacific represents a nice opportunity for Albers, who faced an uphill battle at a big league rotation spot after the Twins' offseason addition of three free agent starters. With a salary reportedly set to land in the "high six figures," Albers stands to earn significantly more than he would have if he ended up in the minors. He also gets a chance to test the open market next year, as he will become a free agent after his season with Hanwha.

Quick Hits: Prospects, Cruz, Yoon, Madson, Baker

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MLB.com's Jim Callis has an interesting breakdown of the dollars committed to the game's top prospects. Over $228MM has already been committed by teams to the prospects listed among MLB.com's top 100. Meanwhile, ESPN.com's Keith Law has released his own prospect rankings (Insider links), naming the Astros' system as the game's best and tabbing Byron Buxton of the Twins as the best overall prospect. In his own top 101 prospects list, Jason Parks of Baseball Prospectus agrees with Buxton as the top choice, which certainly appears to be the consensus. And Baseball America has completed its listing of the ten best prospects by team.

Here are some more links from around the game:

  • The Twins are keeping tabs on free agent outfielder Nelson Cruz, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN, but are a long shot to land him. Minnesota is probably only interested if Cruz drops his price fairly significantly, Wolfson adds, guessing that the club would probably only be involved at two years with an average annual value at or below the $10MM mark.
  • Likewise, the Twins are waiting for the price to fall on South Korean hurler Suk-min Yoon, Wolfson reports (Twitter links). When Wolfson floated the number of two years and $10MM total to his source, he was told that cost was likely too steep for Minnesota.
  • Free agent reliever Ryan Madson plans to hold a full public workout on February 7th, reports Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The 33-year-old threw yesterday for an unknown club that is reportedly a leading candidate to land him, Crasnick adds. 
  • Starter Scott Baker chose the Mariners over offers from the Indians, Rangers, and Royals, reports Wolfson (via Twitter). The Twins never had interest in a reunion, Wolfson adds.
  • Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers were discussing a deal in the range of $200MM to $205MM over the summer, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. By waiting until he wrapped up a Cy Young campaign, Kershaw was able to secure a deal with a $215MM guarantee.

Suk-min Yoon In Talks With Two Clubs, May Sign Soon

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WEDNESDAY: The Twins aren't inclined to meet agent Scott Boras' asking price at this time, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN.

TUESDAY, 10:05pm: Yoon has yet to meet with Twins officials and has not visited Minnesota, reports Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press (Twitter links). That does not mean that the club is out on Yoon, says Berardino, who was told by a source that the Twins are "monitor[ing]" things at present.

5:16pm: South Korean hurler Suk-min Yoon is engaged in talks and could sign soon, according to a Naver Sports article (Korean language link, via a tweet from Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). The 27-year-old righty has reportedly fielded four offers from MLB clubs, and is in discussions with two of the offering teams.

Yoon landed at 36th on MLBTR's Tim Dierkes's list of the top fifty free agents. Though he is said to offer substantially less upside than fellow Korean Hyun-jin Ryu of the Dodgers, Yoon is said to be the next-best arm to come out of the KBO. As Dierkes explained in his profile of Yoon, the hurler has experience both as a starter and as a reliever. 

The most recent reports indicated that the Red Sox and Twins both have interest in Yoon, who is not controlled by any KBO club and is therefore a free agent. While Yoon's value remains difficult to assess, Dierkes gave his best guess as a two-year, $10MM deal.

Latest On Johan Santana: Timetable, Twins, Mets

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Still in the midst of recovering from his second major shoulder surgery, one-time Twins and Mets ace Johan Santana could still be half-a-year away from taking the hill in a major league game, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press reports. Discussing Santana at the Twins' winter fan event yesterday, Minnesota GM Terry Ryan said that Santana will "be held back" and "won't be ready to go probably … [until] the summer at some point."

That does not mean, however, that the Twins and other clubs are not keeping an eye on the 34-year-old southpaw. "We do have some interest in him," said Ryan. "Whether or not he wants to sign with us will be up to him." Ryan said that Santana "would be a good fit" for a Twins organization that made three significant free agent rotation additions over the offseason. 

Meanwhile, a return by Santana to his more recent home — the Mets — does not appear to be in the cards. As Andy Martino of the New York Daily News reports, with Daisuke Matsuzaka and John Lannan now added to the club's fifth-starter competition, Santana's time in Queens is now all but certainly over.

Though he never again dominated at his 2004-2006 levels, the Venezuelan native remained quite valuable over his first three years in New York, authoring a 2.85 ERA over an even 600 innings between 2008 and 2010. Over the final three years of his $137.5MM deal, however, Santana threw only 117 innings of 4.85 ERA ball. Unsurprisingly, the Mets declined their $25MM option for Santana's services for the 2014 season, instead paying him a $5.5MM buyout.

Santana figures to be available on a minor league deal given the extent of his injury issues, though the Grady Sizemore signing suggests that a guaranteed deal is not an impossibility. At a minimum, the changeup artist will surely draw plenty of interested onlookers when he decides to audition. After all, it was only two summers back that Santana — returning from his first shoulder surgery — no-hit a potent Cardinals lineup and ended the month of June with a 2.76 ERA over 98 innings (only to see things fall apart thereafter).

AL Central Notes: Santana, Twins, Tigers

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Today’s glimpse at the AL Central..

  • Bob Dutton of the The News Tribune (via Twitter) hears from industry insiders that Matt Garza’s reported four-year, $52MM agreement with the Brewers means that former Royals ace Ervin Santana is unlikely to get more than $40MM over three years and maybe much less.  If there is a drop in price, that could put many more teams in play.  Meanwhile, Garza’s deal with Milwaukee – agreed upon on Thursday – has yet to be completed.
  • Twins GM Terry Ryan says that he’s still got “his eye” on position players as he feels that the club is a little lean that area, tweets Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press.
  • Prospect Robbie Ray, now with the Tigers, wasn’t initially in the trade talks that sent Doug Fister to the Nationals, writes MLB.com’s Jason Beck.  That fits with an opinion just after the trade from an American League talent evaluator, who suggested the Nationals would not have traded Ray for fellow Tigers starter Rick Porcello.

Central Notes: Garza, Twins, Indians

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Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the latest on the Matt Garza–Brewers situation, reporting that it's still unclear what might have delayed things when the two sides appeared to be close to annoucing a deal. While some have posited that the club may be waiting to announce the contract until its On Deck fan fest on Sunday, nothing indicates that is the case, Haudricourt says, writing, "I'm not even sure that Garza is still in town." The situation appears to be little changed from Thursday, when MLB.com's Adam McCalvy reported that progress wasn't halted because of medical concerns. Here's more from baseball's Central divisions:

  • Twins first baseman Chris Colabello discussed his decision to decline an offer to play baseball in South Korea with Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "A lot of people have told me: 'This is an opportunity you can't pass up,'" the 30-year-old slugger said. "I don't think I've ever chased money in my life. Why start now?" Collabello reportedly turned down an offer that would have paid him nearly $1MM this season and will instead compete for a Twins bench job. Another Minnesota farmhand, Andrew Albers, accepted an offer to pitch for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization earlier this week.
  • Jason Kubel, back with the Twins on a minor-league deal, is well-positioned to make the club as a DH and corner outfielder, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com writes. Jason Bartlett is another familar face who'll be competing for a Major League job, but he's seen as having less of a chance to make the team after missing all of 2013 with knee issues, according to Bollinger.
  • The Indians have hired former Diamondbacks pitching coach Charlie Nagy, though they've yet to determine what his role will be, Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer reports. The 46-year-old spent almost all of his 14-year career with the Tribe, throwing nearly 2,000 innings for Cleveland from 1990-2002 with a 4.51 ERA. Hoynes says Nagy is likely to serve as an instructor in the club's farm system.

AL Central Notes: Twins, Tigers

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Let's take a look at the latest out of the AL Central:

  • Twins star Joe Mauer told reporters, including Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, today that former teammate Justin Morneau was among those who urged him to make the switch to first base. "He actually told me, 'Joe, you need to move. It's just not worth it,'" Mauer reported. Morneau, of course, suffered a career-altering concussion in 2010.
  • Justin Verlander may not be ready to pitch the Tigers' season opener on March 31 after undergoing core muscle surgery earlier this month, GM Dave Dombrowski disclosed Thursday (via Chris Iott of MLive.com). However, Dombrowski added that the ace is "doing great" in his recovery, and if he is out of action at the start of the season, it "would only be a very short time period."
  • Alex Avila doesn't expect to go to an arbitration hearing, despite being the Tigers' only arbitration-eligible player to swap contract figures with the club, MLB.com's Jason Beck reports. "Filing numbers just basically gives you more time to negotiate," the catcher commented on Thursday. As the MLBTR Arbitration Tracker shows, Avila filed for $5.35MM, while the Tigers countered with $3.75MM. 

Free Agent Notes: Drew, Twins, Ayala, Wells

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ESPN's Buster Olney hears that the Yankees won't be making a run at Stephen Drew and are expected to maintain the status quo (Twitter link). Likewise, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Yanks are likely at their spending limit, adding in a second tweet that a more likely move would be to swap a bad contract such as Ichiro Suzuki's for a comparably priced reliever. More free-agent related notes from around the league…

  • Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN talked with Twins manager Ron Gardenhire yesterday and was told the team is circling back with one more notable free agent. "[Assistant GM] Rob [Antony] just called me the other day and told me they were gonna make another run at a guy, and I'm like, 'Wow that's pretty good,'" said Gardenhire. "So they did it, and whether it works out or not we'll see, and they're not done. … They're after it. I know that." Wolfson's hunch is that Gardenhire is not referring to Ubaldo Jimenez or Ervin Santana, but rather a bat or Bronson Arroyo (All links to Twitter).
  • Among the teams with interest in reliever Luis Ayala are the Indians, Tigers, and Mariners, reports Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (via Twitter). The 36-year-old Mexican has unquestionably delivered results of late. Over the span of 2011-13, Ayala has a 2.58 ERA in 164 innings, landing him right outside the top 30 MLB relievers in ERA (min. 100 IP) over that time frame. Though Ayala's 3.85 FIP and 3.99 xFIP across the last three seasons may be cause to temper expectations, he has succeeded by consistently inducing grounders (51.4% GB%) and limiting homers (0.77 HR/9) at better than league average rates.
  • Three teams watched righty Jared Wells throw on Wednesday, tweets Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com. The 32-year-old has not seen MLB action since a brief stint in 2008, and played in Independent ball last year after spending a few seasons in the upper minors.

Jeff Todd contributed to this post.

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