Seth Stohs

I'm pretty sure people in Chicago are fed up with Castro. They have Addison Russell at shortstop and now they can put Javy Baez at 2B. Zobrist can play Left Field (or anywhere), so that Schwarber doesn't need to play out there. Zobrist is really good. He can hit. He's an athlete. Who knows if he'll last all four years, but he should be good for 2-3 more at least. This isn't like the Victor Martinez deal. And, Adam Warren is good and could be very good out of the bullpen. He could start, but the Cubs don't need starters. I like this series of deals for the Cubs.

The Twins, Cleveland and Texas are reportedly in on Rajai Davis. He's got talent still... can be a stop gap in CF and a 4th OF. Speed. They wanted him two years ago but he went to Detroit.

While this is true, and it's fun to see in person and in action, Tommy is also a tremendous coach. He studies the game. He knows the fundamentals. He got to the big leagues because of an incredible will, and he oozes that work ethic and love of the game. He's very deserving of the promotion.

On Tuesday, the Rochester Red Wings announced that 2015 All Star James Beresford had re-signed with the Twins organization.

Though I agree that Santana probably isn't going to be a regular big league shortstop, I think Eduardo Escobar took the job and ran with it. It's both things. Santana had all the tools. As I've said many times, I saw him play his first game in Beloit, and then saw him again the following year. He definitely has the tools. He can have amazing range and a powerful arm, but he was never able to consistently make the routine plays. So, what happened? Unfortunately nothing. No improvement over time. Frustrating for all involved, I'm sure. It's not like the Twins didn't have him taking tons of ground balls.

A couple of righty relievers appear to be off the board already this morning. David Hernandez signed with the Phillies. John Axford appears close to a deal with the A's.

Well, Tuesday was pretty quiet on the Twins front. In fact, it was really quiet all day long in Nashville. Until about dinner time. At that point, there was a flurry of activity. The Cubs traded infielder Starlin Castro to the Yankees. Once that was complete, the Cubs announced they had signed Ben Zobrist to a 4 year, $56 million deal. Soon after that, the Braves shipped Shelby Miller to the Diamondbacks for three very good prospects including last year's top pick Dansby Swanson. So, what is in store for the Twins on Wednesday? Terry Ryan said several things to local media last night. Nothing too earth shattering. For instance, he basically said that they are moving on from Brian Duensing and Blaine Boyer. They aren't interested in Johan Santana or Joe Nathan, or other reclamation projects. He told them nothing was immenent. But the thing I thought was encouraging was that he told the media that they are focused. Here's a tweet from Rhett Bollinger: They're definitely focused on left-handed relievers. Tony Sipp? Antonio Bastardo? Matt Thornton? Neal Cotts? I mean, there are several options out there yet. Will the Twins (or anyone) land one of them on Wednesday, or even this week? We'll see. The other thing to watch is the Twins 40 man roster. Terry Ryan indicated that it is unlikely the team will make a Rule 5 selection this year. However, if he wanted to, someone would have to come off of the current 40 man roster today. Not likely, but something to consider. Other than that, there are still some big free agents out there, and who knows who will get traded today! Enjoy!

Posted this on Twitter this morning (I've been updating this every couple of days there):

Starlin Castro to the Yankees for Brendan Ryan and Adam Warren. Shelby Miller from the Braves to the Diamondbacks.

Terry Ryan met with reporters tonight (as he does every day). Here are a few tidbits from the Twitter handles of Rhett Bollinger, Mike Berardino and LaVelle E. Neal: He's talked to Brian Duensing and Blaine Boyer and has said that they will move on from them.Johan Santana will not be brought back. He wants the prospects to believe they have a chance.Nothing immenent. Nothing is close or just a phone call away.Twins unlikely to make a Rule 5 pick on Thursday. Haven't met with Joe Nathan... not planning to have any reclamation projects this year. May add more here if you read anything. Also, Doogie tweeted that the Twins heard a pitch from Henderson Alvarez today but they're not interested. They're focusing on left-handed relievers. From Rhett:

Ben Zobrist to the Cubs... 4 years, $56 Million.

Rumors of Mike Leake to the Diamondbacks... Tyler Flowers to the Braves, two years, $5.3M with incentives: Per Bob Nightendale:

Holy wow!! Quiet on the transaction front so far today... Uggh! Obviously teams and agents and such are meeting, but it's just so quiet.

I'm not privy to that information... But I typically don't worry about it on December 8th. Clippard, Sipp and Bastardo are still out there. And success with minor league signings and Ryan Madson from last year remind me not to get too worried about it in general. Sipp wasn't all that good until about a year and a half ago. The nature of relievers is so unpredictable. It's not like signing those big guys guarantees anything either. Signing them is as much about making the fans happy in the offseason. That said, I'd like to see them add one of those "Big 3."

Yeah, somehow when I read this, I managed to just skip an entire paragraph. My bad!

That shouldn't be controversial, and it's part of who he is and what he believes. We want people to say things and show who they are beyond baseball and then then get criticized for doing so. Whether or not that makes him grounded? I don't know, but I'm good with people discussing their faith. Good for him! And no, they don't get coached to speak about such things.

I don't think that is/was the plan.

I'm fine with two FAs, if they're good... I have pretty much no interest in the middle-of-the-pack relievers. Guys like Chad Qualls and Jason Motte and Matt Thornton ... They're as big of questino marks in my mind as Casey Fien is, so I'd prefer to give Michael Tonkin the shot at 2 months without going back and forth. I'd rather try Taylor Rogers or even Logan Darnell or Ryan O'Rourke out of the bullpen as lefty specialists. I'm not against signing free agents, but why sign bigger question marks to middling amounts when you've got other guys?

Several things recently: Reports that the Padres are going to trade Jedd Gyorko to the Cardinals (which because it's the Cardinals will likely mean he'll return to his pre-contract form). Kenta Maeda is being posted today.

Generally I agree with the concept of bringing them up as starters and seeing what sticks, but the Twins are now in a position to win, AND they have starting pitching depth, so with someone like Rogers who could be a really good lefty reliever, I'd prefer that to a maybe 5th starter (or 6th/7th starter in AAA).

per Ken Rosenthal, the Chad Qualls deal was two years, $12M.

Jason Motte's deal with Colorado - 2 years, $10M.

It was announced yesterday that RP Mark Lowe signed a two-year deal with the Tigers. Today, they announced it was 2 years, $11M.

Relievers Jason Motte and Chad Qualls have reportedly signed with the Rockies.

Sounds like late in the night (or very early in the morning) the Nationals and Shawn Kelley reached an agreement.