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Hey Everyone, Yesterday I made a case for Addison Reed turning things around in 2019. Today I want to look at recently non-tendered free agent Yangervis Solarte and how he could fit nicely with the 2019 Minnesota Twins. Contract Details (according to spotrac.com) 2017 Salary: $4,000,000 2018 Dead Money (Paid by the Blue Jays): $750,000 2019 Projected Salary (My prediction): $3,550,000-$6,000,000 Before we start, when researching Solarte's history I found a nice little piece of information.
Going into the offseason the Minnesota Twins had more free cash flow than any point in recent memory. Multiple free agents inked to one-year deals are gone, Joe Mauer’s mega contract ended (as well as his big-league career), and the front office is left with something like a $60 million gap between current dollars and the 2018 Opening Day mark. From this we should be able to deduce a windfall of dollars being spent right? Maybe not. On Friday local columnist Patrick Reusse was a guest on the M
Hey Everyone, I've seen a plethora of hate on Addison Reed mostly due to his salary hit in 2019 so, I'm going to take a crack at changing a couple people's minds as I don't think he's getting a fair shake of things and doesn't warrant this much disinterest from his own team's fan-base. Okay before I get into things let's look at his 2019 contract details (according to spotrac.com) 2019 Salary: $8,500,000 2019 Bonuses: None 2019 Market Value: 4 yrs/$8,936,937 2018 was filled with discourage
Bear with me now - I am about to go off the baseball rails here. I read all the speculation, all the projections of player salaries and all the moaning from our team and fans and the rest of the teams and their fans so I am going to say something no one wants to hear. We do not need an Ace, we do not need a superstar! There it has been said. The follow up to that is - and I want us to win the series! Okay, now for my reasons. Lets start with the easiest - the Ace. The Ace in the 1800s pi
Yes, last year wasn't great for Hanley Ramirez. But the fact that there's little news about an MLB team having an interest in Hanley is surprising. The Twins could be a refreshing home for the former NL Rookie of the Year and 3-time all-star. With the need of veteran presence and a gap in the middle of the infield, I'm shocked that the Twins don't have him on their radar. He's playing in the Dominican League right now so I can't imagine he would break the bank... Thoughts?
By Friday the Minnesota Twins will need to decide if they are going to tender contracts to all their arbitration eligible players. The names include guys like Kyle Gibson, Eddie Rosario, and Miguel Sano. Among the ten possibilities, nine of them are near-certainties. If there’s a guy with an uncertain future however, it’s none other than Robbie Grossman. Grossman came to the Twins in 2016, under the Terry Ryan regime, after opting out of a minor league deal with the Cleveland Indians. His care
This is not rebuilding - it is prolonged agony. A rebuild from what - an accidental year that got us blown out of the play offs, Since 2010 we have lost 90 or more 5 times. We have been above 500 twice. We have averaged being 22 games behind for the last 8 years. We have seen attendance go down 7 out of 8 years. We have been 4 or 5th place 5 times and second 3 times - does second in the Central count? We have been in limbo or purgatory. Some teams get better when they get worse because of th
Recently there were two rather significant developments regarding the 2019 Minnesota Twins roster construction. With the deadline to add Rule 5 Draft eligible players to the 40-man roster now in the rearview mirror, we know how the organization handled the situation. Also, in the early stages of free agency, Jon Morosi reported that the Twins have had discussions with the Arizona Diamondbacks about dealing for Paul Goldschmidt. Both of those scenarios could be hints at what’s next from the front
Dan and Panda cover what's been happening in the world of baseball since Boston won the World Series. They finally wish Joe Mauer farewell, break down the end of the year award winners, some of the bigger free agent news (CIN spending, Thor to SD, Machado's antics in NY), and assemble their all-time favorite Twins team! https://www.spreaker.com/user/the4dpodcastnetwork/twins-and-losses-supershow-episode-71-no
According to MLbtraderumors, the Yankees and Mariners have annouced a trade with James Paxton going to New York and Justus Sheffield and two other minor leaguers going to the Mariners. This seems to set up that only about 7 teams intend to compete next year with all the rest in reset or rebuild mode. Good news is that the Yankees will probably only sign one more starter, so some ot the competiton will be less, bad news is that the Yankees will be a very good to great ballclub next year. Th
Last summer during a late season Minnesota Twins game Thad Levine sat on stage with Aaron Gleeman during the now annual Baseball Prospectus event at Target Field. There was a myriad of topics discussed but on point stood out to me. The general manager quipped that while Minnesota may not be able to outspend the competition in the form of player acquisition, they were committed to adding talent and spending dollars in other facets of the organization. Fast forward to today, and we’re beginning to
So the computer guys told us this would be smart, we see the trend and we jump on it. Use relievers every day! Let's look at a couple simple stats that are within my grasp. 162 games - average reliever use per game now 3 - put in an opener and it might be 4, but lets not worry about those games where Giminez came in or other extended innings. Just 162 games times three - 486 relief appearances. So we carry 13 pitchers, 5 are starters. 8 relief pitchers divided into 486 means 60 relief appe
On Monday morning the legendary career of Minnesota Twins great Joe Mauer came to an end. While it's obvious that his exploits behind the dish were far superior to what he did at first base, the reality for Derek Falvey and Thad Levine is that they now have a hole in their infield. Heading into free agency the first base market is pretty ugly, but a familiar name could make a ton of sense. Last winter Carlos Santana signed a three-year, $60 million pact with the Philadelphia Phillies. Now acco
Sitting in the Charleston International Airport at 12 pm eastern time, I grabbed my phone and watched as Joseph Patrick Mauer delivered a 17 minute speech to announce his retirement from playing professional baseball. This is a man who had been in the Minnesota Twins organization for nearly 20 years, and spent 15 seasons at the Major League level. Sandwiched between two magazine covers emblazoned with his image, there was nothing left to say except, "Well played, Mauer." For two straight seaso
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --------- 12/13/1988: The MLB transactions for the Minnesota Twins had one line: The Twins signed free agent catcher Brian Harper to an one year contract worth $90,000. The Twins were the sixth franchise for Harper who was drafted by the California Angels in the 4th round of the 1977 MLB June Amateur Draft, traded to the Pirates and then the Cardinals who released him on April Fool's 1986, and then signed and released by the Tigers and A's i
Bryce Harper has the best hair on the open market this winter, but Josh Donaldson may not be far behind. The oft-injured third basemen is a free agent and coincidentally plays a position that the Minnesota Twins could be looking to rectify. Joe Mauer should provide clarity to the club soon, and that could leave Miguel Sano with an opportunity to swap sides on the diamond. Transitioning from the division-rival Indians, Donaldson could be an answer to the Twins questions. When the 2019 season ge
A team barely alive Some are saying the Twins should abandon the effort to seriously compete in 2019 and aim to reload for 2020 and 2021, when prospects like Alex Kiriloff and Royce Lewis will be ready to contribute. That's a mistake to me--with a payroll commitment of only about $60 Million, they almost can't afford not to spend some serious cash. I'll lay out what we can learn from 2018 and what the Twins can do not only to compete but to put themselves in position to win the American League
Going into this offseason the Minnesota Twins have some very clear needs. Deciding what to do in the infield, and adding a few relief arms are chief among them. If there's a position that isn't immediately on the radar it's adding a body in the outfield. That being said, we don't know what the offseason will bring, and there's a free agent of intrigue on the market. After being the 11th overall pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft, Andrew McCutchen spent the f
The Twins are at a crossroads. 2017 provided fans with the promise of the future as they surprised many to make the Wild Card game and expectations were high for 2018. Needless to say, this past season did not end as many hoped, although at 78-84 they only finished 7 games behind 2017. They had a horrible 15 walk-off losses this past year and had to deal with what would kindly be called disappointing seasons from two supposed cornerstones for the future in Buxton and Sano. Improving their "luck"
I feel like posting a little bit on my trip to Phoenix for the Arizona Fall League. I arrived Thursday and was picked up at the airport by ashburydavid. Nice that he could take a day off from work to join his dad for a long weekend of baseball watching. Salt River, the team all the Twins prospects are on, had played earlier in the day, so we contented ourselves watching the evening game in Scottsdale. You can get good seats at the AFL: The game itself between Scottsdale and Peoria was ver
When it comes to the Twins coaching staff I would like to discuss the hitting coach. I know there are a lot of opinions out there that say that these ballplayers are grown men, professionals, and they don't listen to coaches anyway or you are not going to change their mechanics this late in the game. The choice to retain Rowson is somewhat bewildering to me. The immediate success of the franchise has been pinnned on the potential of Sano and Buxton. these two players have regressed offensively s
With our new manager comes a lot of new stories and expectations, but his arrival actually got me thinking about Italian heritage and the game of baseball. Like the earlier essay regarding the American Indian and another essay looking at the black pioneers who crossed that large barrier of prejudice I know that other ethnic groups also had a lot of challenges. To discover more I found a superb book – Beyond Dimaggio by Lawrence Baldassaro to guide my search. In our age where we see so much
Hey Everybody, This is the second part of my off-season plan for the Twins. I will be following the same needs that I pointed out in my Free Agency Edition and will be treating this post as if we didn't sign any free agents at all and only looked to improve via trades. Needs: Relief Pitcher Second Baseman Designated Hitter First Baseman Starting Pitcher? Catcher? Trade Candidates to improve the 2019 Twins: Relief Pitcher: 1. Raisel Iglesias (I'm not a fan of trading for relief pitching i
On Saturday, Tait went 2-for-4 with a walk and his 17th double. The 19-year-old is hitting .219 with 17 doubles and 15 home runs at High-A Cedar Rapids.
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