Minnesota Twins' Three Offseason Additions Have Already Outplayed Their Contracts

I'll definitely have a helping of crow with France.  All three are basically on prove-it deals as Bader has a mutual option for next year.  I think this says more about the rest of the team, especially the position players, needing to get back to expectations.  Let's hope this winning streak finally starts warming up the offense before the pitching eventually cools off from being elite.

France for 1 million is basically a bench player/ option for playing time that you don’t feel bad if you cut loose.  He is starting and hitting ok. Not great but solid and at 1 million that’s a good value.  Miranda or Keaschall or both could easily push Ty down the depth chart and injuries are preventing that from happening.  Wallner injury helps Ty too because Bader is worth more playing time right now which could push Larnarch or Wallner into more DH or 1B duty taking time away from Ty.  

FanGraphs is a joke.  As is many of the new analytics.  The Twins with this FO frequently dumpster dived for bargain basement deals.  It hardly ever works.  The 3 additions mentioned are nk different.  They are playing well now.  The kind of baseball that is fun to watch  but it took them 40 games just to get to 500.  Making FanGraphs seem like a legit financial estimator is as silly as saying Correa is underpaid at 35 million a year.  Ridiculous.

I didn't hate any of these three signings, but at the same time, none of them seemed "sexy" or looked like difference makers. But yeah, thus far this season those three players have been worth the money and more. Still a lot of season left to play, and most likely Coulombe gives up a run at some point (which eerily reminds me of last year's early season no-runs allowed pitcher, Josh Staumont), but you got to be satisfied with what these guys have done so far. 

The important deal is the Marg0-39 is not pinch hitting. If you base data off that low bar, Bader is a small sample HOF and the FO deserves all the credit with a small amount of thanks to the Pohlads for opening up the pocket book. Bader is exciting to watch and he will draw fans, especially kids, to Target field. 
If these 3 hired guns have career seasons, we are in for a great summer of entertainment! 

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

FanGraphs is a joke.  As is many of the new analytics.  The Twins with this FO frequently dumpster dived for bargain basement deals.  It hardly ever works.  The 3 additions mentioned are nk different.  They are playing well now.  The kind of baseball that is fun to watch  but it took them 40 games just to get to 500.  Making FanGraphs seem like a legit financial estimator is as silly as saying Correa is underpaid at 35 million a year.  Ridiculous.

Here is the harsh reality.  The Twins have far less revenue as compared to many clubs and therefore have far less to spend.  Getting bargains is paramount to success.  They can sign the occasional Correa / Donaldson or Lopez but the only way to combat revenue disparity is to produce more for less.  In other words, find bargains.  If you look back over the past 20 years, teams in the bottom half of revenue that added meaningful production via free agency did so with primarily with players that outperformed their contracts.

Take a look.  Pick a handful of successful teams in the bottom half of revenue.  Then, go to FanGraphs and sort by WAR.  Find the players acquired as free agents and then look at production/dollar spent across all the free agents on their roster.  If you look at the most successful teams in terms of number of 90+ win teams in the past couple decades (Cleveland/Oakland/Tampa Bay/Milwaukee)  You wont find a lot of free agent spending but you will find a lot of under $10M AAV players that contributed to their success.

8 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I think Baldelli made it clear that France was going to play a lot this year, just as he was pretty clear that Santana was his first baseman last year. France's performance has done nothing to change the manager's opinion, I'm sure.

It would take a long hot spell for Miranda to supplant France and Wallner or Larnach are outfielders--very unlikely that either of them would be moved to first base in mid-season. France is going to be a regular for the foreseeable future. His performance has merited it and the lack of better options would seem to seal the deal. 

I was saying that as of the time of signing.  I am sure the plan was to have him start but if he ended up in a bench role due to lack of success, France could still be of value as a bench player.  or He is not a loss if he played bad and was let go.  

He has earned a longer leash as a starter.  I do think Wallner and Keaschall and Lewis and Lee all up and hitting could spell France some to keep the rookies developing in the lineup though.  Not saying thats how it will play out but its in the realm of possibilities.

No question all three are exceeding most people’s expectations.  I look at the France acquisition differently. Bader and Coulombe were / are complimentary pieces. First base is supposed to be a key offensive position; one where you can go with a real slugger who may be limited in other areas. That we don’t have a real slugger for that position and have to have France there indicates a development failure. And nothing against France he is playing to the best of his abilities but this is one of the prices we pay for not developing players well enough. 

It is hard to evaluate WAR to money paid.  It is also hard to say early returns will pay full seasons dividends.  It is possible France falls flat later in year, or Bader comes just a glove, unlikely that fades.  We have seen pen guys falling apart.  

I am happy with what each has given, based on the money paid.  However, what gets frustrating at times, is that I feel GM's see those as huge wins for the themselves, the look what I got for this price, I saw something no one else did.  That is something we ran into with Ryan.  Sure, the owners may be handcuffing the spending, but it leads to the owners saying well you did it before do it again. 

We have seen the bargain bin shopping fail many times.  Yes, sometimes you get a good deal.  Is France one of the best 1st base for the price yes.  If we had more could we have gone out to sign someone else, that would be better overall, most likely.  I personally wish we could have gone internal option, but sadly we have no 1st base guys ready to come up.