Here is my initial take on the upcoming Twins offseason. It would be nice to have the Twins Daily blueprint available to edit and post, I have one I can use still for here so I will do the best with what I got. The Twins will be on a limited budget next season, and they are bringing up several rookies next year. We need to keep some veterans to show the rookies how it works in the majors.
Here are my transactions.
1. Sign Ryan to a 4 year 58 million contract. front load it. 14 million in years one and two and 15 million in years 3 and 4.
2. Sign Jeffers to a 4 year 52 million extension with 13 million each year.
3. Ober will be traded in my scenario. I tried to sign him to a 2 year deal but we do not have the budget for him.
I also planned to keep Larnarch too but he too is an expense we can not keep. I wanted these two as depth to help push us over .500 next season. They can do that but we also have players ready to step into their roles.
4. My Plan was to sign a 1B in the 3-8 million range. Ryan O Hearn and Josh Bell seem like the best targets. but we are at budget so at best go cheap here and sign Santana for a million to hold the fort too, I guess.
5. We need to earmark around 5 - 10 million for the pen. maybe not 10 but .... Lets be able to sign 3 or 4 to minor league contracts with invites to spring training. and sign 1 or 2 relievers. Hunter Strickland is a decent reliever we could sign for around 3 million a season. I wonder if we could resign Danny Couloumbe or Theilbar for around 3-4 million next season. Those would be our big budget ads. then to see if we can sign the minor league contracts. I think we keep both Topa and Tonkin, provided Tonkin resigns for around 1.1-1.2 million.
Now lets look at our budget. Are we a potential .500 team next year:
C Jeffers 13 million
1B Gonzales .75 mil
2B Keaschall .75 mil
SS Lee .75 mil
3B Lewis 4.0 mil
LF Martin .75 mil
CF Buxton / Jenkins 15 mil / .75 mil
RF E Rod .75 mil
DH Wallner .75 mil
C Vazquez 3.00
1B/ OF Clemens .75
1B Santana 1 million
Total offense = 42 million
ROtation
Lopez 21,75
Ryan 13 mil
Bradley or Matthews .75 mil
Woods-Richardson .75 mil
Abel .75 mil
Sands 1.3mil
Topa 2.0 million
Tonkin 1.2 million
Coulumbe 3.5 million
Hunter Strickland 4 mil
3 other relievers totaling around 2.3-3 million.
Pitching costs: 52
11 million Correa
Total cost is 105 million (I can see the Twins going to 105 to as high a 108 million) I think they prefer under 100 million and its that way if they take out the 11 million for Correa but they won't want to add the full 11 million back in. This is my best educated guess for next season and gives us a chance at .500 if some of the rookies perform.
Hopefully the Budget will eventually go back up when they get better TV revenue and regain fan interest. but front loading Jeffers and Ryan help like the Polanco and Kepler extensions of yesteryear.