The prices weren't an anomaly, but relief pitching is a young man's game so building bullpens through free agency is a high risk / low reward venture. The Twins were smart to avoid the Bastardo and Sipp contracts in favor of Abad. Ditto Burton, Fien, etc. That doesn't excuse the extensions for those players or more importantly, the long-term trend of terrible bullpen performance going on 6 years now. In fact, I'd argue that nothing gives us clearer insight into the health of a franchise than its bullpen. Since good ones require so many arms, only an effective scouting, drafting, and developing apparatus can produce them, and in that respect the Twins have failed miserably for 6 years running.