Who do you think is the Twins best/worst Free agent that they let walk away?

[Twodogs]

Who do you guys think is the one who got away? Was a free agent and the Twins let them walk? No not Johan Santana as they traded him, I'm talking Free agent walk year.

 

My first pick would be Jack Morris. After '91 he went to Toronto and won 21 games and another World Series in '92. I think the Twins picked up John Smiley in 92 also, so pairing those two up with Tapani and Erickson would have been pretty good, no? Anyways that's my pick, Jack Morris. My most disheartening one was Shane Mack, I thought he was going to break out had he stayed with the Twins, but he wasn't the best in my opinion.

[lecroy24fan]

They traded for Smiley because Morris walked. no way they would have had both. 

 

Although they replaced him with Josh Willingham i think Michael Cuddyer should be mentioned.

[nicksaviking]

Rod Carew was pretty good.

 

Calvin Griffith either traded or let walk all his good players instead of paying them back in the day. Larry Hisle and Lyman Bostock also got cut loose for financial reasons.

[Twodogs]

Rod Carew was pretty good.

 

Calvin Griffith either traded or let walk all his good players instead of paying them back in the day. Larry Hisle and Lyman Bostock also got cut loose for financial reasons.

Did Rod Carew walk or did he get traded? If he walked then he would be better than Morris, I just assumed he was traded. Hisle was another great player, had a few fantastic years with the Brewers. I thought Bostock was traded also, he would have been a great one had tragedy not struck.

[TopGunn#22]

Rod forced a trade after Calvin's infamous comments in Waseca, MN.  Based on his career path, David Ortiz comes to mind but I have to agree with Jack Morris.

Hometown Boy, comes home, leads the Twins to a World Series triumph only to leave after one-year and help lead Toronto to the World Series title.  There's no guarantee the Twins could have duplicated what they did in 1991 with Morris still on the team in 1992, but they just weren't willing to pay Black Jack what he wanted and we lost him.    

[Vanimal46]

Torii Hunter was productive all 5 years with the Angels, ranging from 2 to 4.7 fWAR. As well as 2 more productive seasons in Detroit before his farewell tour with us in 2015. 

[Major League Ready]

 

They traded for Smiley because Morris walked. no way they would have had both. 

 

Although they replaced him with Josh Willingham i think Michael Cuddyer should be mentioned.

 

If my memory is correct, they got Berrios with the comp pick they got for Cuddy. If so, that was a pretty good result. 

[Dodecahedron]

Joe Nathan. Even if the Twins thought he was cooked (which was a daft thought), getting nothing for him was not smart. Rebuilding would have been a heck of a lot easier with Joe Nathan on the team, and he took a sizeable paycut to play for the Rangers.

[Major League Ready]

 

Joe Nathan. Even if the Twins thought he was cooked (which was a daft thought), getting nothing for him was not smart. Rebuilding would have been a heck of a lot easier with Joe Nathan on the team, and he took a sizeable paycut to play for the Rangers.

 

Nathan was great but they lost over 90 games each of the three seasons after Nathan left so resigning him was pretty irrelevant. It also made no sense for Nathan either given they lost 99 his last season with the team.

[Dodecahedron]

Nathan wasn't with the team anymore and the Twins lost games after he left, so keeping him was irrelevant?  Alright...

[miracleb]

Big Papi

[miracleb]

Hmmm

 

Jack Morris  38-24 with a 5.0 ERA

 

Big Papi.....probably close to 500 home runs!

[Twodogs]

Yep, I didn't think about Big Papi. I just saw Morris won 21 and a world series the very next year.

[Twodogs]

Prob goes

Ortiz

Morris

Hunter

Nathan

Hisle

Cuddyer

 

Of the guys that have been listed on this thread.

 

Shane Mack could make the list too. Did Chili Davis walk or was he traded?

[AlwaysinModeration]

JJ Hardy?

[Nine of twelve]

Much of the time--probably most of the time--teams have no choice other than to "let free agents walk away". The player has earned the right to accept any offer he chooses by putting in his time and playing well. Teams can make a trade (usually getting little in return) or make a QO but that's about it. One must also take into account the value a team has gotten from having that player on the roster, often at below-market salary. Losing a player to free agency should not necessarily be regarded as a failure on the part of the team because many times--probably most times--the team did everything they reasonably could to retain the player.

[lecroy24fan]

 

JJ Hardy?

He was traded.

[Twodogs]

Much of the time--probably most of the time--teams have no choice other than to "let free agents walk away". The player has earned the right to accept any offer he chooses by putting in his time and playing well. Teams can make a trade (usually getting little in return) or make a QO but that's about it. One must also take into account the value a team has gotten from having that player on the roster, often at below-market salary. Losing a player to free agency should not necessarily be regarded as a failure on the part of the team because many times--probably most times--the team did everything they reasonably could to retain the player.

Yeah, the Twins probably did almost everything they could to keep Hunter. But that definitely is not the case with Ortiz. So maybe there is a little give and take with some of them, but sometimes it was just a really bad decision.

[Dodecahedron]

If I recall correctly, Hunter expressed some frustration that the team was not reaching out to talk about signing a new piece of paper.

[Battle ur tail off]

 

Yeah, the Twins probably did almost everything they could to keep Hunter. But that definitely is not the case with Ortiz. So maybe there is a little give and take with some of them, but sometimes it was just a really bad decision.

 

No, in fact they did almost everything they could to show him they didn't want him. The best offer the Twins made for Torii was half of what he got paid. This one was a huge mistake. 

 

[Battle ur tail off]

Ortiz - This might be the worst of all time to be honest, not just Twins, I mean all of baseball

 

Morris - He was just a winner. 92 Twins were a great team also. Might have even been better than the 91 team. Although, man Smiley was pretty good too. For that matter the Twins let Smiley walk as well.

 

Tori - He outperformed the contract he got in Anaheim. The guy produced for almost every season he played. He was also a great leader that the Twins were never able to replace.

 

 

 

[Twodogs]

Ortiz - This might be the worst of all time to be honest, not just Twins, I mean all of baseball

 

Morris - He was just a winner. 92 Twins were a great team also. Might have even been better than the 91 team. Although, man Smiley was pretty good too. For that matter the Twins let Smiley walk as well.

 

Tori - He outperformed the contract he got in Anaheim. The guy produced for almost every season he played. He was also a great leader that the Twins were never able to replace.

Only thing with Smiley is that I don't really think he wanted to be in Minnesota. When you read about the trade back then it seemed like he really didn't want to come to Minnesota in the first place. Morris and Hunter probably wanted to stay and I'm sure Ortiz would have wanted to stay also.

[Battle ur tail off]

Yes, you are right about that. I remember Smiley being surprised and kind of mad that the Pirates would trade him. He had a stellar year with them the year before he came to us. Had a great year in 92 then left and was good but not as dominating as those 2 years. 

[Nine of twelve]

 

Yes, you are right about that. I remember Smiley being surprised and kind of mad that the Pirates would trade him. He had a stellar year with them the year before he came to us. Had a great year in 92 then left and was good but not as dominating as those 2 years. 

By chance I attended at least 4 games that Smiley pitched in 1992. He was consistently dominant in those games. Career highs in IP and WHIP.

[jkcarew]

 

Torii Hunter was productive all 5 years with the Angels, ranging from 2 to 4.7 fWAR. As well as 2 more productive seasons in Detroit before his farewell tour with us in 2015. 

This.

 

A lot of the names being mentioned were not at all worth the contracts they signed when they left.  Morris was good for one year (unfortunately for Toronto, it was a 3-year deal)...and he was actually cooked before the 92 post season started, he was horrible that post season. Larry Hisle was all but worthless over the last 5 years of the 6-year deal he got from Milwaukee. Had one great year...the first year.

 

To be ‘one who got away’...you have to have been worth the contract (or contracts) you got when/after you left.

 

1. Ortiz

2. Hunter

3. Gary Gaetti

[Dodecahedron]

 

This.

 

A lot of the names being mentioned were not at all worth the contracts they signed when they left.  Morris was good for one year (unfortunately for Toronto, it was a 3-year deal)...and he was actually cooked before the 92 post season started, he was horrible that post season. Larry Hisle was all but worthless over the last 5 years of the 6-year deal he got from Milwaukee. Had one great year...the first year.

 

To be ‘one who got away’...you have to have been worth the contract (or contracts) you got when/after you left.

 

1. Ortiz

2. Hunter

3. Gary Gaetti

I don't disagree, but bear in mind that Gaetti was not good again until age 35/36, which was coincidentally the height of the steroid era and when he hit his career high in home runs. Ouch.

[Trov]

 

Rod Carew was pretty good.

 

Calvin Griffith either traded or let walk all his good players instead of paying them back in the day. Larry Hisle and Lyman Bostock also got cut loose for financial reasons.

Carew refused to play for Calvin after his comments about black people.  He was traded I believe, and the claim was to let LA pay him what he was worth.  Overall it was a giant mess. 

[Trov]

Ortiz will go down for me as the worst.  Many others were let got because of cost.  Ortiz was let go because they wanted a right handed hitting DH because we were too left handed.  The cost was minimal at time he walked.  We let him go to play Matthew LeCroy.  Ortiz was not a hot commodity when we let him go, so not like we were outbid.  He went to Boston as a bench player that got his playing time due to injury to others ahead and the rest was history. 

 

Otriz will be the worst for years because there was no real good reason to let him go, other than we did not think he was good enough.  He may become the first DH in HOF, who knows if he will or not, but he was one of best hitters after we just gave up on him.  Matthew LeCroy, although not when with the Twins, might be best known for being pulled in the middle of an inning because he could not throw out a runner.