Ranking the Worst Free Agent Signings for the Minnesota Twins Since 2017

Buxton?

None of these are that bad. Most are only 1 year deals which helps. They also were able to mitigate the downside on the Donaldson contract.

Look at Colorado's signing of Kris Bryant which will devastate their franchise for the length of the contract. That's a terrible free agent deal.

Wow! Not sure I'd know where to begin on this one. 

Matt was bad but his contract was nothing. Carlos Santana is arguably a worse signing. I wouldn't argue it, but someone could. 

No Gallo?

If the money is small enough that you can walk away from it then it’s not so bad. Donaldson was the worst in my opinion as it was a lot of money and it didn’t make sense at the time. Thankfully the FO slithered out of that deal with only minor pain. 

I don't think I'd include Donaldson on this list.  For me, the best part of the Donaldson signing was that it showed the Twins were willing to spend real money on a free agent from outside the organization.  Big contracts like that rarely provide as much value per $ as smaller contracts, but they are necessary sometimes for a team to compete with the big spenders.  He was hurt for most of 2020 but had a pretty good year stats-wise in 2021.  Certainly not worth the $40M they paid him over those two years, but it's not like he was 2017 -2021 Albert Pujols.

I think the flip side to my argument is that Donaldson's attitude/approach may have had a negative impact on the rest of the team.  Probably don't want to open that can of worms again though.  Well, maybe I just did.  🤭

I get the hate for Donaldson, he only played 28 of 60 games in 2020 but did produce a .842 OPS, in 21 he played 135 games and produced a .827 OPS, yes both of those are lowered than we hoped. and in a year and a half had a WAR of 3.7 and had OPS+ of 132 and 127.

Bundy for example was allowed to pitch 140 innings with a negative WAR.

How much was Pineda paid to produce 4.6 WAR over 4 years?

2 minutes ago, Karbo said:

I have to go with Gallo.

Gallo was a bad signing when it was announced. The last thing the Twins needed on the roster was another LH outfield bat. His performance was as bad as most predicted.

Gallo was a bad signing, but he at least added 0.5 bWAR with that hot start to the season. Those games count too.

Donaldson shouldn't be on the list; he actually produced about like we thought he would. The bigger issue was he got hurt by the time playoffs rolled around in 2020 and the team wasn't competitive in 2021. It just didn't synch up right. We were correct to move off him in 2022, but the signing itself isn't close to top five bad.

I'd give the last slot to Happ. He sucked for us, and didn't work out at all.

No Jorge Lopez???

I give you   Tsuyoshi Nishioka

1 hour ago, FritzDahmus said:

No Jorge Lopez???

That was a bad trade, not a bad free agent. 🤣

7 minutes ago, mickster said:

I give you   Tsuyoshi Nishioka

5 years before the cutoff here

16 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

5 years before the cutoff here

I realized that after I posted.........

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

None of these are that bad. Most are only 1 year deals which helps. They also were able to mitigate the downside on the Donaldson contract.

Look at Colorado's signing of Kris Bryant which will devastate their franchise for the length of the contract. That's a terrible free agent deal.

Agreed, because of that I'd rate my

#1 as Donaldson- his production wasn't bad but his salary killed us & devasted our catching corp to appropiate.

#2 Park- he never adjusted

#3 Shoemaker

#4 Happ

#5 Gallo

#6 Lynn- he was a good signing but being disgruntled made it bad

All other signings were good signings but poorly managed. Colume if used in lower leverage 1st instead of being showcased extensively as our closer, he'd have been fine. Bundy was signed as a piggy-back pitcher, in limited innings he was very good but they later decided that all SPs needed to go 7. Being overextended his pitching went down hill. Simmons was a great signing. W/o spring training, he provided great defense & before he went down because of covid he was having a career hitting season. But during his IL stint, they "properly" trained him & after his return he was absolutely terrible.  The Vazquez signing was very good. Besides providing great defense, it took the burden off Jeffers's shoulders so he could lift himself up from the ashes to be a 1st class hitting catcher.

7 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

In what way did his salary kill us? He was a late signing after striking out on pitching free agents. 

Twins' main reason to trade him was his salary. They wanted to free up his salary to sign a big-name SS. & I agree with your reason why we signed him.

8 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Agreed, because of that I'd rate my

#1 as Donaldson- his production wasn't bad but his salary killed us & devasted our catching corp to appropiate.

#2 Shoemaker

#3 Happ

#4 Gallo

#5 Lynn- he was a good signing but being disgruntled made it bad

All other signings were good signings but poorly managed. Colume if used in lower leverage 1st instead of being showcased extensively as our closer, he'd have been fine. Bundy was signed as a piggy-back pitcher, in limited innings he was very good but they later decided that all SPs needed to go 7. Being overextended his pitching went down hill. Simmons was a great signing. W/o spring training, he provided great defense & before he went down because of covid he was having a career hitting season. But during his IL stint, they "properly" trained him & after his return he was absolutely terrible.  The Vazquez signing was very good. Besides providing great defense, it took the burden off Jeffers's shoulders so he could lift himself up from the ashes to be a 1st class hitting catcher.

Colome had been a closer for 5 season at this point; why exactly would we have brought him to be a low-leverage pitcher? he was brought in to close, and flunked out. Bundy pitched into the 7th inning exactly once in 2022; it was his best start of the season by a mile. He wasn't any better in limited innings; he just wasn't very good. Simmons had a good first week of the season that propped up his early stats, and was passable hitting with his defense (which was still very good, just no longer Hall of Fame worthy) until July, when he collapsed utterly; the idea that the Twins "trained" him in their way that wrecked him during his IL stint with COVID is a) not backed up by evidence, and b) laughable. he sucked at the plate the next season with the Cubs and was out of the league at 32.

Which is more likely: these veterans were washed up, or the Twins didn't handle them right? Because Colome and Simmons both sucked in their next stops too.

4 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Topics like these are really difficult to analyze. Evaluating free agent signings is more than just dollars paid or WAR, etc. The player's fit on the team's needs, and what position they were supposed to occupy, what expectations were, and whether or not the player remained on the team could be taken into consideration.

I still like the Bundy signing in a vacuum. The Twins paid him nothing, he gave the Twins a ton of solid starts, and I think Baldelli was way too quick with the hook when Bundy was pitching well. 15 of 29 starts, Bundy left the game with an ERA under 4.00. 2x he left with an ERA of 4.50. For a guy making $5MM and giving the Twins 29 starts? That's pretty dang cheap.

He was not the pitcher the Twins should have been signing, though. The Twins didn't need a whole bunch of #5's. That's why it was a bad signing for the team.
 

I fully agree with this statement on Bundy.  He was a solid pitcher for the price paid.  He led the team in starts and I think innings pitched.  Unless Berrios beat him.  He wasn’t great but was also on a 1 year deal.  
 

if your talking about free agent contracts under Falvine leadership then what about the Addison Reed contract.

6 hours ago, mickster said:

I give you   Tsuyoshi Nishioka

Even though the time was pre Falvey; didn't he return the guaranteed signing $ for pulling out?