ThejacKmp

I know many 22 year olds but none of them are elite professional athletes - unless you call beer pong a sport? Sano is not just any 22 year old, he's a mature professional hitter (not sure how you can have been through last year and not say he's a professional hitter). We all watched his at bats last year, he looked sure of himself and went into each at bat with a plan. Even his strikeouts rarely looked bad, the process just didn't work out that time. Fielding a new position won't change that - again, I can't think of any player whose batting suffered because of his fielding, it's always the other way around. And he's been playing baseball his entire life, has been in the U.S. for 6 years and knows the guys he works with - this isn't like making me a telemarketer in Brazil all of a sudden. He has the same teammates and coaches, he is assured of a spot in the lineup almost no matter what and while OF and 3B are not the same, it's not like we're asking him to go play linebacker. It's a lot of the same skills. And he doesn't have to be elite, just not awful (remember, the guy he is likely competing with is Arcia, a horrible defender). It's easy to be a skeptic and say that things won't work out - you get to say "I told you so" when it goes badly and no one remembers when it goes well. Let's be a bit more optimistic and realize that no one could plan for what happened here and the Twins are taking a measured gamble that could pay off very handsomely. Their coaching staff, whose job is to know the players, thinks that Sano has a chance to be okay out there. I'm going with the professional coaches over the guys able to use a keyboard.

Yeah but Plouffe wasn't the issue, signing Park was. If Park had not been signed you'd be talking about Sano playing DH when he isn't subbing in the field. No way the Twins could have known that Park was going to happen, that's not something you plan on. So with that and Plouffe not getting much of a market, giving Sano a shot in the outfield is not a bad idea. If he handles it great. If it looks bad on April 20th, then the Twins have more information about Park and Mauer and Plouffe and can make tough decisions. Never bad to have too many good players.

You won't have to wait long, just another 4-6 weeks! As long as Plouffe isn't traded (and there doesn't seem to be a market and likely wouldn't be until end of spring training if some contending team has significant injuries at 3B) you're going to see a bunch of Sano in the outfield. I for one am excited to see it - if it's a trainwreck it'll be entertaining and if he's surprisingly nimble it will just add to the Legend of Sano.

If Span is really willing to take a 1 year deal (seems farfetched, he's 31 and is going to want to cash in now - I imagine that the delay is teams not wanting to give an extra year that he wants, whether that's a third or a fourth) the only thing that would take him back to MN is nostalgia. The Twins could offer to trade him if they don't have room to start him at some point but no players wants that to be the plan because it makes him less marketable the next offseason (not good enough to finish with the same team) and it takes away his choice of where he's going to play (not to mention all of the having-to-move aspects for a guy who just got married). Seems super unlikely. My guess is that if Span takes a 1 year deal it will be with the Rays. He makes his home there and the Rays need a left-handed bat and Span might be a nice upgrade on Desmond Jennings, who has never turned into the player the Rays hoped he would. Would love it though!

Sano is a professional hitter, I can't imagine any struggles in the OF will affect his results at the plate. The issue usually goes the other way around - bad hitting can lead to inattentive defense. In fact, I can't remember a player whose poor defense was cited as a reason for struggling offense. Even Knoblauch continued to hit well as he was unable to throw the ball to first base. The only decent arguments I've heard for keeping Sano out of the OF (assuming you keep Plouffe and only until Kepler comes up) deal with worries about his effectiveness and about him getting injured. The injured bit is patently false since third base is the position which has the most DL stints while LFers and RFers are the least likely to hit the DL. Obviously if Sano DHs he'd be less likely to get hurt but other than that, the OF is actually the best place to stash him injury wise.* http://makenolittleplans.net/age-position-and-injury-risk-in-baseball/ As far as effectiveness goes, it would be one thing if the Twins were keeping Hicks or Kepler out of the outfield - the drop off there would be enormous. But at least until midseason, it seems the guy who is most effected is Arcia. And let's be honest, the difference between Sano and Arcia is likely to be minimal. Yeah Sano hasn't played the OF but at least his athleticism gives us some hope of upside. Arcia is a disaster in the outfield.** Sano in the OF is worth a shot, especially since he only needs to be out there 3-4 times a week and its likely to be a temporary thing, as injury/trade/Kepler will almost certainly move him out of the OF by the time the season winds down. In the meantime, we keep our options open with little to no drop off in defense compared to Mr. Arcia. ------ * There are some obvious flaws in this argument but I still think it holds water at the end of the day. I imagine that 1B and 3B tend to get injured more because they tend to be older and less mobile than OFs. In other words, if you switched your corner outfielders and corner infielders across the league, you'd see more corner OF injuries than corner IF injuries. That said, third base and first base are by no means impact free positions, requiring players to stretch uncomfortably and dive for ground balls. Assuming that Sano is instructed not to lay out too much in the OF (hard to see him doing this) and the Twins take the time to teach him the walls in various parks, he should be fine. ** If Arcia comes out like gangbusters this spring and early season, this changes everything of course. The whole gain of Sano to the OF is gaining Plouffe's bat over Arcia's (and any defensive value from Plouffe/Sano over Sano/Arcia in the field). But at that point, Plouffe may be more tradable or somebody may be banged up.

Out there means Sano in the Outfield. Other days he can play 1B, 3B and DH as Mauer/Plouffe/Park get days off. I thought it was a given that Sano would play every day but I guess not.

Agreed, especially because they can keep him a 4th OF so easily since they have Santana to play CF if Rosario and Buxton are unavailable - Arcia won't be beat out for 4th OF because he can't play CF. Only OFs at beginning of season are Sano, Rosario and Buxton. Arcia easily settles in as the 4th OF with Santana as the 5th. He will be pretty safe until June, when Maximus could be forcing his way onto the scene. As 4th OF, he can get 3-4 starts a week as the Twins rest guys. And if he ends up a 5th OF bench bat, that's a nice tool to have.

Absolutely incorrect. I think they'll try Sano in the OF to start the season. The market for Plouffe is not strong and with giving guys a day off, you're really only talking about putting Sano out there 4 days a week. I for one am excited about this log jam. Yeah it would be nice if we could flip Plouffe for something nice but that isn't happening now (more likely during season when teams have holes they can't fill) and it adds some nice injury/effectiveness certainty. If Mauer/Park/Sano/Plouffe isn't available, the Twins will still be very strong at DH/3B/1B and can sub in any number of fun young outfielders (Arcia, eventually Kepler, maybe even ABW). No team makes it through the season without injuries so it will be nice to see the Twins able to not miss a beat in case of some time off.

I don't think that Nunez is a lock but this seems okay otherwise. Polanco could replace Nunez? They may add a veteran OF but with Santana able to play CF, you don't really need to. I'd much rather see Vargas, though that leaves them with three 1B/DH types. Would love that switch hitting power off the bench.

This is actually something I'm excited for. Next year's free agent pitching pool is god awful - Strausburg is the only elite or semi-elite guy and he's been injury prone. If the Twins have the same log jam in the rotation next year (let's say that Berrios and Duffey and Gibson all show they belong and you have Gonsalves/Thorpe types pushing their way up), the Twins could be in the right market at the right time. This of course requires that (A.) Santana and/or Hughes has a good season and (B.) that the Twins front office is willing to trust that they'd be selling high - both of which are of course not given. But we've seen this offseason that teams are always looking for more pitching and if the market is bleak next year, some of the Twins excess veteran starting pitching could look attractive since it wouldn't require the long term commitments of free agency (Santana would have 2 years at $27 million and Hughes 3 years at $39.6 million). I'm not smart enough to say what type of prospects the Twins might get for those guys but it seems like it could be something nice - if things break our way of course.

Knock on wood while throwing salt over your shoulder and crossing your toes. How dare you speak such blasphemy?

I also don't think it's wise to say "Because Carlos Gomez turned into an All-Star, therefore Aaron Hicks will as well." As much as you may want to compare the two, they have nothing to do with each other. Being afraid to make a strong move because you think a previous unrelated move went poorly is the height of folly. I use that "you think" very purposefully. Let's stop pretending like Carlos Gomez came back to bite the Twins in the butt - that was a fine deal. His OPS+ for the next two years in Milwaukee was 76 and 82. If you want to broaden this a bit, we'll go with a four year span after the trade, where Gomez's WAR was 13.6 (most due to an insane 8.5 year in 2013 which more and more looks like an outlier). JJ Hardy's WAR over that same four year period was 12.5. The issue was never the Gomez for Hardy trade, that was a fine trade. The Hardy to the Orioles trade is where it went wrong. If the Twins learn anything from the Gomez experiment it shouldn't be "don't trade outfielders from a position of strength to cover a postion of weakness." It should be "Don't get frustrated that Murphy isn't fast and then deal him so you can sign a fast base-stealing Japanese catcher." Hicks is super different than Gomez. Gomez was too aggressive and prone to stupid mistakes but showed flashes of greatness at age 23. At age 25 Hicks still has never shown the ability to hit right handed pitching (70% of ABs are against righties) and has hit lefties well for 6 weeks. That was a fun six weeks but the Twins traded from a position of strength to find a solution to a position of weakness. No matter what Hicks does (though its unlikely he's more than a very good platoon outfielder, it is entirely possible he leans how to hit righties), the Twins will likely be set going forward with Buxton, Rosario, Sano, Kepler and even ABW coming up the pipeline. And just take a look at the free agent catching market for the past three years compared to the free agent corner OF market for the past three years. Even if several of those guys don't pan out and the Twins need to find a replacement, it won't be particularly hard to do. Catchers are impossible to find without settling for mediocrity or paying for Russell Martin's inevitable decline. Buxton's defense plays at the ML level. He should start there and move down if he needs to (at which point someone like Kepler can come up if they deserve it).

Agreed. I really hope the Twins learn their lesson from Mauer and apply it Sano and Buxton. We've spent a lot of time on boards talking about how the Twins should or should not sign a multi-year deal with a big name reliever but I think Twins Daily might be able to get unanimous consensus for the first time ever if we were given the choice between signing that reliever or taking that money and using it towards signing Sano or Buxton to a deal which takes them through their age 28 or 29 seasons. It would be a risk but man, I'd love to see them take that kind of a gamble on the young guns. Especially with Buxton - it's the ultimate buy low moment. If they offered Buxton 8 years at $60 million, he'd have to take it right? Especially since even if the last years are a bargain, he would still have another big free agency deal at age 29.

Yeah, I get your point here. But I remember much of the discussion when they were talking about the park being along the lines of "We want to keep guys like Mauer but can't unless we have the funding stream." They didn't use Torii or Santana as much, those were guys we weren't going to be able to keep because the stadium was 3-4 years away. And totally agreed about the contract. The TC media and TD boards castrate Mauer for his contract but it is the Twins who waited until after an MVP season to get a deal signed. He was a once-in-a-generation talent at catcher and they paid an arm and a leg because they were afraid to take a chance. Joe had a knee surgery in his past and certainly had every reason to take a deal the year before, it has to be on the Twins. I firmly believe that the Twins balked because they were afraid to sign the contract before the new field opened and the revenue was in the bag. It was short-sighted and still has ramifications. Mauer wouldn't be such a burdensome contract if that extra year of team control dropped the yearly price 3-5 million $.

I think Joe Mauer has always felt like ours because he was born here and grew up a Twins fan. I don't think that it matters that KG wasn't born here for example, but it certainly adds something to the Myth of Mauer. He also is the quintessential Minnesotan. Polite, quiet, still mostly hangs out with his high school friends, and humble to the point of it being annoying. I'd get it if he acted like Johnny Football but Joe Mauer is all that is MN. If someone from California asked me for the archtype of a Minnesotan, I could do worse than pick the Chairman. You also act like he doesn't live here at all - he has a place just outside of Saint Paul that he uses during the season. Most of those guys who come play here who get a house also have a house somewhere else. Somewhere warmer.

I've moved to Ireland and then New York City. Does this mean I'm not a Minnesotan? Because I will fight someone who tries to take away my Minnesota-ness. It defines me. This argument makes no sense. Of course he moved to Florida - the Twins are there for spring training 6 weeks of the year and have their training facilities there, it's the best place for him to be for work. And the time period he gets off of work would coincide with the worst, coldest time to be in MN. If he didn't move to FL he would be insane. Plus, if you could cut your tax bill by 10% and in doing so move closer to work where it's nicer weather, wouldn't you do it? Don't hold him to a standard you couldn't possibly meet yourself.

Not to mention that no matter the outcome of the rest of his contract, the Twins will have made soooooooo much money off of Joe Mauer's career. So much money. They should call Target Field the House that Joe Built. That contract sucks but it was signed because keeping Mauer "required" a modern stadium.

Crazy talk. This is a guy whose number will be retired someday. Get some perspective. Joe Mauer is not the most hated athlete in the Twin Cities. Maybe in Twins Daily (well after Casey Fien and John Hicks of course) but not in the Twin Cities. He is still beloved by all kinds of people in MN - I hear frustration and I hear worry but very rarely hatred. If he has a decent year next year (not betting on it but to say he has no chance is also crazy) he will immediately regain his place at the top of the pantheon of Twins. Crazy talk. Crazy talk.

Best case scenario is that Berrios gets the first three to four weeks in AAA for service time considerations (which is the right thing to do) and then slots in for whoever is injured/ineffective first. Even if he is insanely lights out in spring training, it still makes no sense not to preserve that extra year of team control since the difference over three or four starts between Berrios and even Nolasco is so minimal. My call: Santana Hughes Duffey Gibson Milone May and Nolasco in the pen and Berrios warming in the minors. Only difference I could see is if the Twins move Milone, in which case Nolasco is in the rotation with a super short leash. That actually might be preferable if your goal is for Berrios to debut ASAP.

I very much hope that they are willing to put Nolasco in the pen. I don't think he has a lick of trade value and there's a chance he could be a nice middle innings guy in the pen. He throws 91-92 MPH so if he can add a bit from the pen he could be okay. He provides some nice starting depth as well and if he's decent as a reliever, maybe he has some trade value next season? It's a big contract but stranger things have happened. I also don't think we'll get a Pelfrey meltdown from him either - say what you will about Old Rick but he showed a ton of character last year when he rehabbed hard down the stretch just in case the Twins needed him. Not everyone would do that. He's not going to love being in the pen but I think he'll handle it gracefully.

I'm not saying AAA doesn't matter at all, just that I don’t think guys development will be blocked by five or six minor league free agents. The difference comes partly from the fact that I don't look at all of those AAAA players as necessarily a good thing – teams facing the Red Wings last year faced guys struggling to hit major league pitching and stalled prospects. Now I get that's just the Twins and I'm nowhere near expert enough to say if we are different than other organizations but I haven’t read anything from the people on this site or baseball writers indicating that Twins are any different – all teams get five or six minor league free agents and stick them in AAA for organizational depth. It just seems like AAA has become a place for lots of MLB teams to stash the minor league free agents and the older prospects that may be fated to be 3rd catchers, utility guys or who have tried the majors and need more seasoning. AA teams are where the impact prospects are and even if the whole batting lineup isn’t amazing, those are the guys you want your up and coming pitchers to face as they develop. Two other things: 1) Last year Kepler, Buxton and Sano all made the jump from AA to the majors. While Buxton did some injury time in AAA later and Kepler was a cup of coffee and may end up in AAA for a few months this year due to crowding/service time, these guys were all judged to not need AAA. And it’s not just last year, Mauer did the same thing a decade ago. If a guy can master AA, AAA seems to be skippable and I haven't heard a ton of evidence that these guys were hurt by not facing AAA pitching. If you want evidence on the pitching side of things, Berrios was primarily in AA all year and when the Twins decided not to bring him up it was because of innings, not because he hadn't seen AAA batters. If he doesn’t make the major league rotation this year it won’t be because he hasn’t faced AAA. So AAA is not necessary to making the jump, indicating that the Twins view the two leagues as relatively equivalent. 2) These minor league free agents won’t all be on the team all year. The Twins exciting relief prospects can start the year in AA and then if they push up to AAA, a lot of those minor league veteran guys can easily be released. But if the AA prospects stall out or the Twins have some pen injuries early in the year, it’s nice to have some options in AAA.

I'm not worried about that. Guys can make the jump from AA to the majors and the difference between the two leagues isn't all that crazy - AAA has more of the AAAA players and guys who are organizational depth while AA often has your up-and-coming arms. Basically, the talent level isn't as big a jump because AAA has a lot of guys whose careers have stagnated while AA tends to have pitchers with velocity who can hit their spots and hitters who go up with a solid plan. The real issue for me would if the backlog builds up and guys are in High A who are ready for AA because that's a huge jump. But I trust the Twins to manage this - they know what their priorities are and I can't remember them blocking young guys up the system by holding onto useless guys in the high levels of the minors.

Maybe I'm missing some joke here and you're going to make fun of me for being square but Joe Mauer? AJ Pierzynski? the vastly underrated Brian Harper? Even Tim Laudner threw up some above average years at the dish. Strangely if you think about the Twins post-Mauer, if you were to pick the Twins best positions throughout the years, it probably goes CF (Puckett, Hunter, Span, Lyman Bostock, Jim Eisenrich) and then C (the aforementioned plus Earl Battey). And it's pretty close there too. You could make an argument for 1B too with Killebrew, Hrbek, Morneau, Dougie. This actually seems like an interesting side topic. Perhaps I'll start it next time I'm bored at work. So next week.

Not totally disagreeing with you at all. On paper I'd choose the younger guy who has had success as a reliever. But baseball is more than paper - I trust the Twins coaching staff to say "This Pat Dean guy might have some potential" and decide to stick with him. I also trust them to say "While we like Zach Jones we think he's a way away and we don't see him really coming back to haunt us if he is chosen - which isn't a given. Plus, we might get him back even if he is picked." I guess my point is that when the margins are this close (and they are, Zach Jones is a ways away and Pat Dean has some real potential as a reliever), I think we have to side with the professionals who watch these guys day in and day out. Not saying you can't ever get upset or that it isn't worth talking about (it certainly is if only so I can drive myself crazy trying to find Pat Dean split stats) but to be so definite about how awful of a decision it is seems like a knee jerk reaction that is easier made from afar. Trust the Twins minor league staff, I think they're pretty darn good at their jobs.

Throws in the low-to-mid 90s. If he adds 2-3MPH to his fastball that makes him an intriguing guy. He also throws four pitches as a starter so losing one or two of those may help too. The Twins didn't try to convert him earlier because the rotation was anything but solid coming into last year - it took them a while to see they wouldn't need him. Santana was out a half year, Pelfrey was Mike Freaking Pelfrey, no one was sure what Berrios would do, Nolasco was hurt, May was uncertain, etc. As it was the Twins ended up dipping into AAA a lot. May, Milone, Duffey. To say they never would've needed Dean is crazy, they probably came pretty close, he wasn't pitching poorly. And then by the time the Twins started seeing that Dean was going to be pretty far down the list this year, it was pretty late in the season. A team isn't going to mess with a guy, especially since the Red Wings were on the fringe of the Wild Card until the last few weeks and Dean was a solid starter. Much better to wait until the offseason and have him start ramping up as a reliever. Its the same thing they did with Taylor Rogers, who will have a decent shot to make the pen this year.