Thrylos

Add Alex Meyer to the list of potential starters in 2016; he should be ahead of both Rogers and Berrios at this point... The bullpen needs to get fixed and just one LHP will not do it. They need a LHP and a RHP who can strike people out, let stay at 25% K% or better. Storen (at 29.4%) had his best season according to several metrics last season. I'd try to see what it would take to pry him. As far as lefties go, Bastardo who played most of his career around here, is very frustrating to watch. He was strike out the side or he can walk every batter he faces depending on the day. I'd stay away. There are so many free agents out there with the recent non-tenders that the Twins should be able to find the next Wade Davis or Liam Hendriks (oops) in a lefty version... Milone or Darnell are not it... As far as who should go off the 40-man roster first? Tonkin. He had 54 MLB innings to prove that his flat FB is hitable in the majors. Second O'Rourke. I have no idea why he is there to begin with. Add 2-3 spots that can be freed up via a trade and you are in good shape.

Kudos to Radcliff for saying what a long of us have been saying: Not sure that Byron Buxton belongs to the majors as far as the stick goes right now and not sure if he will fix his deficiencies by next season... Refreshing.

The fact that the Twins while competing were fine with Kepler being in the minors in September instead of helping the club with the final push, speaks volumes about where he is in their minds. The off-season is long and a lot of things might have yet to happen to influence Keplers' position with the team in 2016. Not the least is him winning a corner OF job over someone like Arcia who is out of options. We don't even know whether he will be a Twins' player on opening day at this point

He called you "Star Tribune". Nice.

Hicks is a very good pick up. I would give him a mulligan for 2015 and the PCL, but check his numbers in the Southern League and AFL in 2014 and compare them with Stuart Turner's in the same leagues this season. Cherry on top? Check his CS% number (and compare that with Turner's.) Hicks' ceiling and floor are higher than Turner's who many think is the best C prospect in the Twins' organization... Writeup in more detail and with the above numbers (and a video) here, if anyone cares.

Yeah. Something is pretty fishy here Was that an e-mail interview? The kid does speak English for sure. Oh. And the Liriano comparison is just not there. Totally different stuff. Maybe the slider. M.A.Y.B.E.

And why the hey would the Nationals want Milone again?

That goes to the hoarding part. Hord mediocre people just in case, instead of solving the real problem. And Milone will get $7M in arbitration or so. Would you combine, Milone's, Fien's and Nunez' annual money and add a couple of million and get O'Day and Soria? (because those are the numbers....) Quality vs. Quantity...

Alright. Lemme play: What would you trade him for. Name names and clubs. To see the value. The Twins need to address their bullpen big time. They need a couple of good proven arms, one of each side with close to 30% K%. Can you get one for him? If not, it is not worth it. Low value sometimes is bad value. Spendthrifting and hording quantity over quality does not win titles.

Let me ask this is a different way: Who do you think will be a better starter for the Twins next season: Berrios or Milone? Duffey or Milone? If the answer is not Milone in both, he should go...

That's not % of voters who would offer arbitration to a particular player, it is total % of the vote (adds to 100) - looks like a system bug

Turner 200 spots ahead of Garver? Gee Garver's OPS alone is 200 spots ahead of Turner's in the same league. Turner is Drew-Lite.

Cannot wait for Bert to try to pronounce his name

Nope. Happ has a 91-94 mph FB and he is not a junk thrower. Irrelevant, really. My question was whether he would make it in the rotation of Mets, Royals, Cubs, Jays in the 2015 post-season. If the answer is no, he should be non-tendered.

Indeed

When I look at that list, if I was running a competing team would like to ask myself whether any of the teams that made it to the League Championship Series, would have any of those players on their 25 man rosters, in their rotations/pens/bench etc in the post-season. I'd say that nobody would have Milone in their rotation, Fien in their pen in the post-season. Nunez maybe, but for an NL team... So, because I want the Twins to behave like Champions, Milone and Fien should be non-tendered and depending on the options they have, the same with Nunez... They can do better than Milone, Fien and Nunez.

No surprises at all here. I guess the amount and length of contract, including the option 3 weeks ago down to $500K. To be fair, you have to consider the $12.8M as part of the cost for the Twins, which brings up their annual bill for Part at close to $7M a season. More details here, but since he is practically replacing Hunter from the 2015 squad, they save about $3.5M and realistically in the years 2-4 (at least), he is replacing Plouffe who will make close to what Hunter made, if he matches those performances, the Twins will be ahead. I think that he can do better than what Hunter and Plouffe did last season....

Today the Twins kinda answered that question...

Bit of trivia re: Joe Benson: He was put off waivers to make room for PJ Walters. Good to see him back. I hope he has a chance to make the team.

That list misses a few Twins for my liking No news until a couple days from now.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ------ After the Twins traded Aaron Hicks to the New York Yankees for JR Murphy, there was an assumption that Byron Buxton was de facto handed the Centerfield job to start the season. For the ones who have seen Buxton's close personal battles with breaking balls, this was not a welcome sign. Additionally, Eddie Rosario, has played Centerfield for most of his career, and there was some talk that Danny Santana, who has no business playing the OF, might be tested as a potential backup, or even starter, in case Byron Buxton is still swatting at curveballs in the dirt as if the were the State Bird of Minnesota. Today, thankfully, the Twins took one step in amending those crazy thoughts, by signing Joe Benson to minor league deal. Yes, that Joe Benson, the Twins' second round draft pick in 2006, who put up a .259/.343/.538 slash line with 27 HRs and 19 SBs in 2010 between New Britain and Fort Myers and exclamated it with great body defying defense in the Centerfield. In 2011 he was hitting .285/.388/.495 in June in New Britain with 16 HRs and 13 SBs, when he had a left knee surgery (meniscus) and was not the same, even though he was awarded with a September callup to the Twins. In 2012 he broke his hamate (wrist) in May, which he surgically repaired and had an additional surgery in August, to clean up debris from his previous surgery. After that he went downhill with the bat. I saw him in 2013 play for Rochester and he was not the same guy. You can read that here, along with a very characteristic picture of him. That season he fought additional soreness to that left wrist and was sidelined for a month and a half with a pulled groin. Benson was signed with Miami before the 2014 season where he put a respectable .264/.364/.410, 10 HRs and 15 SB in 124 games, and more importantly finished his season healthy. In 2015 he signed with the Braves were he was released after 41 games in AAA Gwinnett where he hit .246/.346/.331. After 5 games in the Independent Leagues, he was picked up by the Mets who had him be Binghamton's (AA) starting Centerfielder. He hit .250/.355/.380 in 54 games and made plays like this: Benson is a no-risk/high reward signing and a potential great story to watch while he will be fighting for a job with the Twins in Spring Training of 2016. He needs to relax and have fun out there again, like he did in 2010 and 2011, instead of pressing himself to perform at his high level of expectations and get disappointed. That catch up there made a couple of months ago, makes me think that he can do it and finally the Twins' fans will see what made him twice a top 100 baseball prospect.

You don't need a centerfielder. Rosario is one. There are a few of Ryan's darlings in the FA marker like De Aza and Davis who would fit the bill. Austin Jackson would as well. Not my money, but this team still desperately needs someone who can hit RHPs. If I were Ryan, I'd go after Hayward full force. That move would solve a lot of problems...

Here is the South Korean Yonhap News Agency original report in English. Some interesting quotes from Park. Looks like a done deal and there might be some discussion for options and incentives...

Sure: .346/.423/.482 Nishioka's slash line in Japan the season before he signed with the Twins. Guess you can call him a bust, but nobody knows how he would have been if not injured. Kaz Matsui who was not as a big bust as Nishioka, but definitely a below average major leaguer, had a .305/.365/.549 slash line in his last year in Japan. Hard to tell about the KBO, because other than Kang and Park now, the Korean position players came over very young and not directly into the majors. Not sure how close the Japanese league numbers are for comparison's sake, but they are in the ballpark.

Danny Santana career MiLB slash line: .276 /.319/.399 Danny Santana career MLB slash line: .278/.309/.401 That's who he is.