Whammy

I think many of us would like to think that the Twins' time in the bottom 10 will be fairly short-lived. As such, if we were ever going to sign a compensatory pick player NOW is the time. What better time than right before you get good? Drew doesn't cost a second round pick. He costs a FIRST round pick. He costs US a 2nd round pick because we sucked last year. Next year we might not have that "luxury".

Plus there is much less need for an interview. It's not like I have a ERA+, K/9in, and hours of video of me doing my job

Pffft.... that's a state beef

I'm sure there is some reason why this wouldn't be allowed, but couldn't a player's contract pay him a significant amount of money for Spring Training participation (FL and AZ both don't have state income tax) and shave that off of their "normal" salary? Joe Mauer.... $11 mil per year for showing up to Spring training and $11 mil per year for playing regular season games. It would net out the same for Joe, but save the Twins $1M Maybe I should put this in the "Ask Jack Goin" thread

3/50 for Garza As was mentioned above, about that time our youthful pitching depth is starting to mature. Also worth mentioning is that 3 years from now Garza will (hopefully) be looking for one more big contract. That means a) he's likely to take a high AAV and give up some years so that he can cash in at a younger age than if he got a 5/60ish offer now, and he would be unlikely to accept arbitration. The three new pitchers would provide a bridge from when we have almost exclusively young hitting talent to a time when we'd have hitting talent in/near their prime and young pitching talent hitting the majors... and it would come at a time (2014-2016) where we have a significant amount of money available are quite a few cheap contracts coming.

The JJ comp is a decent one. JJ a little slower, but a little better glove? I literally did a forum search for "Stephen Drew" and "Drew," before starting this thread, and came back with nothing recent. I think the search tool isn't working. I like Perdo, don't get me wrong. But it's one of the few positional players I can advocate the Twins spending money. All the rest (even Catcher) feel like a stopgap (or waste of money) until a legit prospect gets his opportunity. I'd be fine with them throwing $30M+ at pitching and not touching the positional spots, but I think we'd all be even more shocked by that than if they actually signed Drew.

There's been a decent amount of talk about us not really having a great SS option at the moment, but I've never heard anyone talk about Stephen Drew. He's had some injury issues the last couple years (missed about a month last year, and more the year before) and he'd cost us a 2nd round pick, but he'd be a pretty serious upgrade at a position of need. If I had to choose if we spend on pitching or spend on a position player, I'd pick pitching, but there are only really 2 positions I could advocate us investing on a $10M/year player.... Catcher (short contract) and Shortstop (longer contract) I've seen projections in the 4/45 range, which a) The Twins could certainly afford, and isn't too crazy high

Part of me wonders if Mauer will go down as one of the last all-around great catchers. Unbelievable offense (for a catcher) as well as really good on defense. As concussions become more and more of an issue, I think that players with Mauer's offensive abilities are going to be ushered to other positions. Organizations will tell themselves that it's just not worth the risk to keep that player at a high risk position. In that regard, Mauer could be highly regarded over future years, especially since it's the very injury that teams are worried about that forced Mauer to make a switch from his "natural" position.

I think most people aren't looking at this quite right... Of course it's not a positive for the team. One of the best hitting catchers ever, moving to a position where his talents aren't a ton better than his peers is OF COURSE a bad thing. BUT.... This isn't a "well what do you think... should we move him or keep him at catcher" decision. This is a necessary move to ensure than Mauer doesn't suffer a career ending injury. What were the chances of that happening? Based on like a third of the catchers in the league going on the 7day DL last year, I'd say chances are pretty darn good that he'd get another concussion in the next few years. The Twins can't risk having a $23M door stop. The Twins can certainly handle having a $23M above average hitting, highly marketable firstbaseman, who will likely be in the lineup every day and perhaps just tick up a little at the plate because of the less wear and tear on his body.

No Q.O. for Hughes (I think that's a mistake) New York Yankees extend qualifying offers to Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, Hiroki Kuroda - ESPN New York

According to my Cardinals friends, they have a bunch of money coming off the books this offseason. Like $120M down to $70M committed in 2014

He's Back - HR: Buxton (2, 1st inning off Hutchison, 0 on, 1 out)

Circling back on 2006... Because of the glut of money being tossed around in 2006, the following 2 years had relatively few signings more than $10,000,000 (total contract). I'm certainly not in the "hold your nose until 2015/16" camp, but it could be that our money is more wisely spent those years, when a) there might be some relative bargains, and we are closer to competing. I'd like to think that agents saw all of this coming and targeted their clients contracts to end this season, but I often give people too much credit, and this year certainly doesn't seem very strong for the quality of free agents out there. What is all of that pointing to?...... TANAKA!!!!! Break the bank, Terry.

Jackson didn't have draft pick compensation tied to him, right? Regardless... Agree to disagree. I think we are going to be doubled over with laughter a lot this offseason (See: Lincecum, Tim)

Given the parallels with 2006 (new TV contract = GMs spending tons of money) i would be shocked to see Hughes get anything less than 4/50. If I was going to go on record with a guess.... 4/54 with a team option in year 5. I realize that's an insane price tag for a pitcher with Hughes numbers, but I'm sticking to that guess. (Gil Meche is a decent comp and he got 5/55 in 2006) That number probably comes down a little bit if the Yanks do a Qualifying Offer. If you are the Yankees and you think Hughes' free agent market value is anywhere north of $40M, why wouldn't you make the Q.O.? He has to turn it down, right? Thankfully, they will need to make the Q.O. before it becomes obvious that the F.A. market is going to be flush with money.

May 14 was a BOMB - Cleared the (tall) batters eye in dead center

Thanks for the more complete list. I'm curious why "TOR Ryan 5/47 (2006)" didn't show up on my original list. Oh well. The most interesting thing out of this exercise, for me, ended up being the 2006 info. Big new TV contract and teams went CRAZY with high dollar FA contracts. Like I said, 33 of them that were higher than $10M in total contract value. WAY more than any year since (almost as many as the next 3 years combined). Same thing will probably happen this off season, and I fully expect Terry Ryan to get cold feet.

My final list only included players that switched teams. And yes, Ben Sheets was the player that exceeded the $7M per year for Willingham

I'm not totally sure what their criteria was because some were included and others were not

Answer to the 2006 TV contract question: Yes. A new lucrative contract was signed that year ( Fox, TBS have seven-year, $3 billion TV deal with MLB - MLB - ESPN ) Someone warn Terry Ryan

[TABLE=width: 433] Team Years Dollars Player Angels 10 250,000,000 Albert Pujols Astros 6 100,000,000 Carlos Lee Athletics 2 10,500,000 Brian Fuentes Blue Jays 2 18,120,000 Frank Thomas Braves 5 75,250,000 B.J. Upton Brewers 4 42,000,000 Jeff Suppan Cardinals 2 26,000,000 Carlos Beltran Cubs 8 136,000,000 Alfonso Soriano Diamondbacks 3 26,000,000 Cody Ross Dodgers 6 147,000,000 Zack Greinke Giants 7 126,000,000 Barry Zito Indians 4 56,000,000 Nick Swisher Mariners 4 48,000,000 Carlos Silva Marlins 6 106,000,000 Jose Reyes Mets 4 66,000,000 Jason Bay Nationals 7 126,000,000 Jayson Werth Orioles 3 20,000,000 Aubrey Huff Padres 2 11,500,000 Orlando Hudson Phillies 5 120,000,000 Cliff Lee Pirates 2 17,000,000 Russell Martin Rangers 6 96,000,000 Adrian Beltre Rays 2 16,000,000 Pat Burrell Red Sox 7 142,000,000 Carl Crawford Reds 4 46,000,000 Francisco Cordero Rockies 3 31,500,000 Michael Cuddyer Royals 5 55,000,000 Gil Meche Tigers 9 214,000,000 Prince Fielder Twins 3 21,000,000 Josh Willingham White Sox 4 56,000,000 Adam Dunn Yankees 8 180,000,000 Mark Teixeira [/TABLE] Worth noting: There are 6 teams with a lower "Highest paid free agent signing" than the Twins (A's, Blue Jays, Orioles, Padres, Pirates, Rays) Of those 6 teams, they all have a higher "per year highest paid FA" than the Twins (Willingham @ $7M per year), except for the Orioles (those contracts are not necessarily shown on this list) This is only since 2006 Teams spent a lot of money in 2006 compared to the years that followed. There were 33 contracts handed out in 2006 that exceeded $10,000,000. That is more than any year since (33,12,14,18,20,21,24) Was there a new TV contract in 2006? I've completely strayed off topic here, but it's interesting to me. Hopefully it's interesting to at least one other person.

A very quick look here: ( 2012 MLB Baseball Free Agent Tracker - Major League Baseball - ESPN ) and I didn't find one above $21M for Oakland or San Diego. The list goes back to 2006 Cinci would be tied at $21M (Jonathan Broxton) if you don't count Chapman (which this list did) I did find some forgettable signings from Milwaukee though

I'd love to see a breakdown of the largest F.A. contract ever handed out by each team in MLB. Twins have to be last, right? Oakland? Houston must have had a big one before the rebuild Off the top of my head I can't think of a big one in Cinci (unless you count Chapman, but then you'd have to count Cespedes in Oakland) Milwaukee has had some splashes, but really only in the trade market San Diego?

Hasn't played since last Wednesday (4 games missed). I can't find anything on here or elsewhere on the internet about it.

If I told you that the Twins would get Tanaka (Let's say $50M posting and 6yr/70M contract), but not ANYONE else for the rotation, would you be happy with that offseason?