ESPN FA Contract Projections

[Fire Dan Gladden]

ESPN cam out this morning with their top 50 FA and their projected salary gets this offseason (paywall article).  They aren't always dead on, but they tend to be more closer than not.  A few Twins related observations:

#30 Max Kepler
Projected 2y/$28m
They are thinking 2024 was more of an outlier and he is prime for a bounce back closer to 2023

#43 Carlos Santana
Projected 1y/$13m
Solid offense, career-best defense.  Age keeps him at a year-to-year contract

Not truly surprised on the Santana projection.  $13m may be a little high, but there are a lot of teams like the Twins needing a 1B that are willing to spend some money.

Looking at the list, a majority of the players are priced out of the Twins market.  IMO, Guys that could be attainable by the Twins (per the article projections) include:

Spencer Turnbull
2y/$13m

Yimi Garcia  (depending on severity of injury)
2y/$13m

Only other players projected to get an AAV contract under $10m are:
Danny Jensen
Hye-seong Kim
Carson Kelly
Andrew Heaney
Roki Sasaki (basically Dodgers or bust)

[DJL44]

There are so many teams that are looking to reduce payroll due to the Diamond Sports bust that I would expect a 10% or greater decrease in the average $$/WAR for free agents.