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Terry Ryan On Gardenhire, Morneau, Interim Tag

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Twins interim general manager Terry Ryan spoke to Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (in two separate pieces) about the Twins' season, offseason plans and his own future with the team.  Here are some of the highlights…

  • Ryan doesn't plan to fire Ron Gardenhire and says that he wouldn't make any changes to the coaching staff without Gardenhire's approval.  "I don't think either one of us should independently make that call. I wouldn't want to force-feed a coach on a manager. That never works in a clubhouse," Ryan said.  Souhan notes that Ryan didn't fire former Twins manager Tom Kelly even after Kelly had presided over eight consecutive losing seasons.
  • The Twins' biggest offseason need is starting pitching, though Ryan described the free agent pitching market as "a little lean."  The club isn't likely to get into a bidding war over big name free agent starters, though Ryan said the team would explore all avenues to improve their pitching, including possibly re-signing Carl Pavano and Scott Baker.  The Twins have a $9.5MM team option on Baker for 2013 but I would think the team would decline that option and try to re-sign Baker on a new, smaller deal.
  • Ryan is satisfied with the team's payroll (slightly over $100MM in 2012) and said finances weren't to blame for the last two seasons.  "This one isn’t payroll-oriented at all. This is just making good baseball decisions," Ryan said.
  • Justin Morneau has been the subject of trade rumors this year but Ryan sees the former MVP as part of next year's Twins.  "I think his numbers are going to return. I think he's a core guy. He's a former MVP who's what, 31? He's one of the most important people in this organization, no doubt," Ryan said.
  • In regards to his future as the Twins' GM, Ryan said he would make a decision after the season, though Souhan noted that Ryan "sounds as if he is determined to keep the job, even if he won't yet admit it."  Twins owner Jim Pohlad said earlier this week that he would like Ryan to remain as GM and Ryan is free to remove the 'interim' tag from his job whenever he wishes.

Joe Mauer Clears Waivers

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Joe Mauer has cleared revocable waivers, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). The Twins can technically trade Mauer now, but they would need his permission to do so and a deal is highly unlikely. 

The Twins, who placed Mauer on waivers earlier this week, would have to complete a trade by Friday for him to be eligible for another club's postseason roster. However, it's more likely the Twins placed Mauer on waivers as a matter of procedure and don't intend to trade him.

Mauer's record-setting eight-year, $184MM extension assures him of a $23MM annual salary through 2018. The 29-year-old has a .309/.403/.425 batting line with as many walks as strikeouts (70) in 522 plate appearances this year.

Outrighted To Triple-A: Jeff Gray

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The latest outright assignments from around MLB…

  • The Twins announced that they outrighted right-hander Jeff Gray to Triple-A Rochester to create 25-man roster space for Chris Parmelee. Gray, 30, posted a 5.71 ERA with 4.5 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 52 innings of relief work for Minnesota this year before being removed from the roster.

Joe Mauer On Waivers

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10:00am: The Red Sox won't claim Mauer, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter).

7:17am: The Twins placed Joe Mauer on revocable waivers, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports. The Red Sox, who recently freed themselves of more than $260MM in future salary obligations, have long-standing interest in the catcher, Rosenthal reports. Mauer has full no-trade protection and approximately $142MM remaining on his contract through 2018.

Teams routinely place their players on waivers, so this isn’t an indication the Twins are looking to move Mauer. They recently placed Justin Morneau on waivers but declined to let him go when he was claimed. If Mauer goes unclaimed, the Twins will be able to complete a trade just as easily as they could have before the current waiver period began at the beginning of August.

If a team claims Mauer, the Twins will have three choices. They can let him (and his contract) go to the claiming team, they can complete a trade with the claiming team, or they can pull him back off of waivers. American League teams will have claiming priority on Mauer, whose waivers expire at 12pm CDT today.

Mauer's record-setting eight-year, $184MM extension assures him of a $23MM annual salary through 2018. The 29-year-old has a .309/.403/.425 batting line with as many walks as strikeouts (70) in 522 plate appearances this year.

The three teams American League teams with waiver priority over the Red Sox have young catching of their own and payrolls that rank among the lowest in the sport. It would be a surprise if the Blue Jays (J.P. Arencibia, Travis d'Arnaud), Royals (Salvador Perez) or Indians (Carlos Santana) submitted a claim on Mauer.

Justin Morneau Claimed On Waivers

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Justin Morneau was claimed on waivers several days ago, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports (Twitter links). The Twins didn't work out a trade with the claiming team, so the first baseman will be staying in Minnesota. If the Twins place Morneau on waivers again, the waivers will no longer be revocable. However it seems unlikely that Morneau will be placed on waivers again since the Twins don't view him as a giveaway, according to Heyman.

Morneau earns $14MM this year — approximately $2.8MM between now and the end of the regular season — and the same amount in 2013. The 31-year-old has a .274/.332/.472 batting line with 17 home runs and 25 doubles in 446 plate appearances this year. This marks the first time since 2009 that Morneau has played in 100 games, an indication that Morneau's concussion issues are not preventing him from producing.

Quick Hits: Clemens, Plouffe, Drew, Ortiz

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On this date 20 years ago the Mets sent right-hander David Cone to the Blue Jays for 24-year-old second baseman Jeff Kent. Cone helped Toronto win the first of two consecutive World Series titles and Kent went on to become a borderline Hall of Famer (though he spent his most productive seasons in San Francisco). Here are today’s links as we await the next major trade of the 2012 season…

  • Alan Blondin of the Houston Chronicle writes that Roger Clemens called his recent performance for the Sugar Land Skeeters a favor to Skeeters manager Gary Gaetti. Clemens told Blondin he doesn't have plans for further pitching performances, but cautioned, "That could change in a couple days." 
  • Twins general manager Terry Ryan feels that now is the time for Trevor Plouffe to step up and establish himself as the team's long-term answer at third base, writes Phil Mackey of 1500 ESPN. Mackey quotes Ryan as saying Plouffe "[has] the rest of the year" to show the Twins that third base isn't a position they need to address.
  • Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson and general manager Kevin Towers told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that they don’t regret trading Stephen Drew to Oakland, even though Willie Bloomquist experienced a setback in his return from a back injury. “No. We wanted to see what [Jake] Elmore was capable of doing,” Towers said. “He’s held his own, I think, defensively out there.”
  • David Ortiz, a free agent this offseason, wants to re-sign with the Red Sox, according to Alex Speier of WEEI.com. “This is what I know and this is something I want to be part of,” Ortiz said.
  • The Athletics and Astros have improved their farm systems considerably in the last year, Jim Callis of Baseball America writes in this week’s edition of Ask BA.
  • The Blue Jays should have publicly told the Red Sox that manager John Farrell is off-limits long ago, Shi Davidi writes at Sportsnet.ca. The Blue Jays have failed to limit speculation about the possibility of Farrell returning to Boston, Davidi writes. Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos has said the Blue Jays won’t announce an extension with Farrell, even if the sides agree to one.

Steve Adams contributed to this post.

Pohlad Talks Twins, Ryan, Gardenhire, ASG

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The Minnesota Twins enter play today on a five-game losing streak, which has sunk them to a season-low 24 games under .500. With this as a backdrop, Twins owner Jim Pohlad was a guest Saturday of Darren Wolfson on 1500 ESPN.  Phil Mackey of 1500ESPN.com has excerpts from the interview.

  • On approaching a second consecutive 100-loss season, Pohlad said, "It's very frustrating. There's only one way to describe it, and that's losing (stinks)."
  • On the future of interim GM Terry Ryan, "When Terry wants to remove the interim (label) from his title, we'll welcome that." Pohlad added that Ryan's "interim" label still exists only because Ryan "hasn't chosen to drop that (label) from his title (yet). But on the other hand, we don't keep revisiting that every week or every month. We don't keep saying to him, 'Terry, why are you still interim?' Whenever he wants to take that way, he can, as far as we're concerned."
  • Pohlad "can't foresee" a change in manager. He did say that any decision regarding the future of Ron Gardenhire and his coaching staff would be Ryan's.
  • Pohlad does not believe the Twins are looking at a lengthy period of futility while trying to rebuild. "We have no desire to have our history defined by losing. With some tweaking — or maybe some people would say it's more than tweaking, and they could be right — we have faith in the future."
  • One of Twins' problems is they have $32MM invested in players who are either on the disabled list, in the minors, or no longer with the organization. "That's true," said Pohlad, "and that unfortunately happens throughout baseball. It's part of the game, and it's not an attractive part of the game. And we don't like that. Nobody would like that."
  • One thing Pohlad would like is for Target Field to host the 2014 All-Star Game. "Dialogue between the Minnesota Twins and the commissioner's office has increased noticeably over the past couple weeks," he said, "and we believe something is really imminent."

Quick Hits: Giants, Ross, Rangers, Morneau, Royals

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One of the largest trades in baseball history was made official on Saturday, but here's a look at what else is going on in baseball…

  • The Giants' search for an outfielder is going "nowhere fast," reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). The Dodgers and Diamondbacks have waiver priority and can block deals, though San Francisco likes having Gregor Blanco's defense in left for their fly ball pitching staff.
  • Following their recent major move, the Red Sox want to keep Cody Ross according to Rosenthal (on Twitter). Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston says that Ross knows this and an extension could happen before the end of the season (Twitter links). Talks have not yet begun, however.
  • The Rangers have claimed a number of players this month, including Justin Upton according to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan. The club is looking for a number of ways to improve prior to August 31st.
  • Before moving on to Adrian Gonzalez, the Dodgers made another attempt to acquire Justin Morneau last week according to Dylan Hernandez of The Los Angeles Times. They tried to land the Twins' slugger prior to the trade deadline as well.
  • There is mutual interest between the Marlins and Carlos Lee about a return next season, reports MLB.com's Joe Frisaro. Earlier this month we heard that Lee wanted to return to Miami, but the club's intentions were unclear.
  • Royals GM Dayton Moore told Bob Dutton of The Kansas City Star that the team's focus this offseason will be the pitching staff, including an attempt to re-sign Jeremy Guthrie.
  • Jonny Gomes told Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle that he would like to return to the Athletics next season. The 31-year-old is hitting .248/.360/.478 with 15 homers in 267 plate appearances this year.

Twins Outright Blackburn, Nishioka

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The Twins announced that they outrighted right-hander Nick Blackburn and infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka off of the 40-man roster. Blackburn has been outrighted to Triple-A Rochester and Nishioka, who had previously joined the Triple-A team, will remain in Rochester.

Blackburn, 30, has a 7.39 ERA with 3.8 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 in 98 2/3 innings over the course of 19 starts this year. He's under contract for $5.5MM in 2013, the last season of the four-year, $14MM extension he signed following his respectable 2008-09 seasons. Nishioka, 28, has spent most of the 2012 season at Triple-A, where he has a .252/.311/.313 batting line in 380 plate appearances. He's under contract for $3MM in 2013. The Twins have 2014 options for both Blackburn and Nishioka.

Outrighted To Triple-A: Abreu, Ekstrom, Igarashi

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Here are the latest outright assignments, courtesy of the MLB.com transactions page…

  • The Blue Jays have outrighted right-hander Juan Abreu to Triple-A. Toronto claimed the 27-year-old off waivers from the Astros earlier this week. He's pitched to a 7.04 ERA in 46 Triple-A relief innings this year.
  • The Rockies have outrighted right-hander Mike Ekstrom to Triple-A. The 28-year-old was designated for assignment earlier this week after allowing 11 runs in 15 2/3 relief innings for Colorado this season.
  • The Yankees have outrighted right-hander Ryota Igarashi to Triple-A. New York claimed the 33-year-old off waivers from the Blue Jays earlier this season, and he's allowed four runs during his three innings in pinstripes.
  • The Twins have outrighted outfielder Rene Tosoni to Triple-A. The 26-year-old hit .218/.299/.314 in 293 plate appearances at various levels of Minnesota's farm system this year.
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