Trevor0333

I bet its 5/70 with a buyout on the 5th year essentially making it a 4/56 deal. Hopefully the buyout isnt too substantial on the 5th year.

Contingent on him agreeing in principle to a extension I would offer up Polanco with Worley & am see if they bite. Polanco is blocked by Dozier & Rosario making him expendable IMO. If it took adding Gibson I'd think hard & probably do it only because I'm not convinced Gibson will ever be anything more than a average # 5. Hell no on Berrios or Rosario.

If this could be followed up by a Garza signing or Homer Bailey trade with Salty it would be pretty hard to not call it a very successful off season for TR.

I thought I saw Hughes wants a 1 year deal. Yeah it will help some to be in TF but Tiger & Sox stadiums are band boxes. The Royals park is about average. An extreme fly ball pitcher does not really work in this division & they still travel to the Yankees & Sox fields a fair amount. The team is loaded on rhp in the bullpen & Joba has never stayed healthy. Fien, Burton, & Swarzak. Tonkin & Zac Jones as well as May I don't see that as a smart or likely move. If Willingham is your full time DH & they hope to transition Pinto to a DH/C come 2015 Salty makes a lot of sense. I really hope they really invest the majority of the available payroll into SP. Garza @ 5/85, Nolasco @ 4/55 or Arroyo @ 3/30, & Capuano @ 2/18 they are investing 30-40 mill a year into the rotation but it's really where it's needed. 3 pitchers would stabilize the rotation immensely while allowing Meyer 1 more year to build up his arm (IP wise) & letting Pinto be an affordable C allowing this to take place. I can't see Pinto not being atleast near Saltys value D by 2015/2016.

Salty for 3/30 isn't terrible, he is one of the top 3rd catchers in the league. He's ok defensively and has some power. It would be nice to let Pinto start in AAA & come up in June. The pair would make a real nice platoon with Pinto giving him rest vs lefties. Gardy doesn't typically do platoons but C is a bit different with the needed off days. That said... This team & especially rotation are 2 years away from being contenders. That puts them in the optimal position to let Pinto work & grow with this pitching staff. If they bring in both Garza & Nolasco I can understand this a little more as they will have a pretty decent rotation giving them a chance to compete for the division. There has to be more to this interest. Such as Salty being a guy they believe will help transform the clubhouse they are finally realizing is just a little too soft.

I really don't understand this signing. The Cardinals are usually smarter about these signings. He hasn't been a full time SS for years & when he has he's been below average at best. Now they are going to give him 12 mill a year to play SS into his late 30's a year removed from being suspended for PEDs? All I can say is wow, I'd take Pedro Florimon & great D at 800k & invest $ for a bat into non essential defensive positions. WTH are they thinking?

The thing with Tanaka is you have a 27 year old ace going into 2015 to Anchor the young upcoming rotation. As opposed to buying a 31-33 year old 2nd tier ace. If you go for tanaka your admitting 2014 is another rebuilding year & then going all in 2015 & beyond. Also Darvish got 60/60 anyone thinking Tanaka is getting less a few years later in a market flush with new TV money your not viewing the market properly. It's going to take 150 to get him, you can say he isn't worth it & have many valid points.

I don't see this as something the Twins FO would do but I certainly would. with the 2014 All Star game coming to Target field. Scrapping one more season to make getting Tanaka a possibility probably isnt likely. Although it can be done & within budget. With the young budding star prospects, a soon to be extremely gifted defensive OF & pitchers park. MN can be a very attractive option for 2015 and beyond. The real question is if this is what it took to land Tanaka would you do it? First off, its going take 150M to possibly 200M even. The bid/posting rules for this year still don't seem to be agreed upon. There were hints the player may have the option to choose from the top 3 bids, that the posting bonus paid may even be the average of the top 3 bids. I haven't seen any final rulings yet. The bid is going to need to be in the 75-100 million range, this will get you in the top 3. A 5Y/75M contract structured at 10/15/15/15/20 feels like a safe number to budget for although I would front load it in 2015/2016. If they can get less that's bonus. The Pohlads are not going to just pull 75M out of their pockets, its going to need to fit into the 2014 budget & here's how. Bid money needed, $75-$100 Million: It's known there was payroll left to spend in 2013 even before Morneau was moved. Theres your 1st $10M conservatively. Another 25M is now coming in annually from the new TV contract, now we have $35M. The 2014 payroll is currently near 60M, attendence has dropped and will likely drop slightly more. 100M is a slightly high end estimate of what the 2014 budget could be considering we already added the new TV money. Now we're at $75M meaning 25M needs to be cut from this years payroll. Trades: Willingham 7M, Corriea 5.5M, Doumit 3.5M, Perkins 4M, Burton 3.5, & non-tender Duensing 2M. Ryan could get easily move the likes of these players while getting a solid return prospect wise. That frees up 25 more million giving the team $100 million withing the 2014 budget to bid on & sign Mashiro Tanaka. 2014 rebuild roster C Pinto 1B Mauer 2B Dozier 3B Plouffe SS Florimon LF Mastrioanni CF Pressly RF Arcia DH Collabello Bench Hermann, Parmelee, Escobar, Fryer SP Tanaka, Deduno, Gibson, Albers, Diamond BP Fien, Swarzak, Tonkin, Pressly, Theilbar, Hendricks, Worley Mid year callups for experience: Sano, Rosario, Meyer, May, Hicks, Buxton The team has the #5 overall pick in 2014 & that is easily a bottom 3 team giving the Twins possibly 2 very high end college SP to add to the current crop of Meyer, Stewart & Berrios. Not to mention an extreme amount of available payroll to go after a strong pitcher in 2015.

Hudson would be a fair comparison but he is going to a NL team with a pitchers park on the west coast who is a WS contender. If the Twins had wanted Hudson they would have had to go 3 years. I think a 3/36 with a 5 mill buyout on the last is probably what it would take to get him. Whetehr you think that is an overpay or not I can't see it being less to get them to come to MN.

This is true and a good point on the real news here. Still Duesning at 2mill should not be on this team. Diamond could fill the Loogy role just as well. How anyone thinks he should be part of the team desperate for talent in other areas is silly. The pen is deep, its like the mentality is we have so much payroll available we dont care if we burn a few extra million here & there. Players in those spots need to be purged and the $ used elsewhere on the team.

It was pretty bad not even in hindsight counting on Pelfrey coming back 9 months after TJ to be an factor in the rotation & Worley who had shown promise but had a year full of elbow problems. Everyone knew they were going to be iffy at best health wise.

Mauer will age better as a hitter while being a pretty good defensive 1B. I would think about it though. The contracts are basically a wash. Kinsler I would have thought about a little more if not for Dozier/Rosario. Its really not that far off though value wise especially considering the concussion fears.

Idk, that is pretty bad for Vargas. Maybe 3/20 but 4/32 is tough to swallow. If you have to overpay in years & $ go big not for replacement level rubble.

How does Jason Vargas get 4 years 32 million, that really scares me. He is a slightly better version of Kevin Corriea & that maybe a stretch... Wow

Kevin Corriea Sam Deduno Kris Johnson Scott Diamond Swarzak/Duensing Ladies & Gentleman, your MN 2015 1st overall draft picks

Just when I was starting to believe, this could be the year they actually spend on a FA pitcher. They appear to be much more aggressive in the headlines in reaching out to players atleast. They had nearly 20 million in dead weight salaries fall of the books in Morneau & Blackburn that is going to increase by another 10-15 million next year with Willigham Doumit & Corriea falling off the books. There is an extra 25 million in revenues from the TV contracts. After 2 seasons of having one of the worst rotations in baseball. All the ingredients are there for the team to finally splurge on some desperately needed pitching. Then today, mentioned above. Mike Berardino reports Terry Ryan tells Duesning & Swarzak to prepare to start over the offseason. Duesning has been an alright bullpen arm against lefties but has always been terrible as a full time starter. Swarzak I can understand experimenting with a little but he was pretty mediocre at best as a starter. How did I fall for this again, dam you TR, dam you...

Duplicate post, didnt see the other containging the same info. plz delete mods

I was worried they would move him too & feel the same, especially considering its for painkillers & not PEDS

I really hope it's not Rosario, he is going to be so much better than some are thinking. It's hard to say who could be moved prospect wise with so many options. Who realistically is available trade wise? I've heard Brett Anderson & Smardizja who would be nice but are on a 1 year deal so I can't imagine the price being too high.

I have no problems tying up 40-50 mill in payroll on 3 players just not for 5 years. Thats why a Garza, Arroyo offseason would be perfect. Garza for 5 years & Arroyo for 3 would be perfect staggering of salaries. Don't forget there is a decent amount of payroll tied up in the bullpen that has many young pitchers ready to take over as well.

Teams can only spend from their draft pool as determined by record on international FA.

Nolasco & Arroyo would dramatically improve the rotation. It's good atleast knowing that even though they are #3 starters whose contract demands are known but the Twins are still being aggressive early. Maybe TR really will spend. Also how many pitchers haven't had better years after joining the Twins even coming from the NL? It doesn't seem like many haven't.

If your not going to go after an Ace, I am ok with going after these older guys who can stabilize the rotation a little while not having to go 4-5 years on mediocre pitchers. They better hope some of these young pitchers start contributing or bust out. There's a lot riding on Meyer, May, & Gibson along with the next wave with Eades, Berrios, Thorpe, Stewart etc...

Can we sign both Arroyo & Hudson giving the team the oldest starting rotation in history? Arroyo Hudson Corriea Deduno Albers Ladies & gentleman, your 2014 MN Senior Twins!

I'm sorry but the Twins are NOT contending next year, even if he struggles at the plate a little it will be good experience to build on for 2015 as well as building familiarity with the pitchers on the roster. Also Hermann can platoon against some of the RHP as well.