John Bonnes

It's indispensable.

The Twins and Miguel Sano announced their contract extension on Tuesday morning. The new guaranteed deal could keep Sano in a Twins uniform for two extra years, through the 2023 season. “Regardless of winning or losing, I think I made up my mind that I want to spend my entire career here,” Sano said in a press conference. “This is the first step.” It really wasn’t. The Twins and Miguel Sano announced their contract extension on Tuesday morning. The new guaranteed deal could keep Sano in a Twins uniform for two extra years, through the 2023 season. “Regardless of winning or losing, I think I made up my mind that I want to spend my entire career here,” Sano said in a press conference. “This is the first step.” It really wasn’t. There have been many steps, both forward and back, and almost all of them were giant, like he is. He’s been a top prospect (2010-2015), a Tommy John casualty (2014), and an instant success and late season hero (2015). Then he was a cautionary fielding experiment (2016), an All-Star (2017), and an out-of-shape pariah (somehow, also 2017). The drama has played out as a reclamation project (2018) and a breakthrough player (2019). All this, and he’s not yet 27 years old. So when evaluating his $30 million dollar contract, it is probably unwise to assume any smooth career progression, even if baby steps are what Sano is trying to emphasize for himself. “Just be professional. Take care of my routine; keep doing my routine. Take care of what I eat, what I put in my body,” lists Sano, in response to how he can stay healthy. Health is perhaps the biggest risk in the long-term deal the Twins offered. Sano’s major injuries were Tommy John surgery and a foul ball off his shin that resulted in a titanium rod being inserted into his leg. Neither are the usual chronic injuries that worry teams, but the perception remains that the 6’ 4”, 272 pound (listed) frame was at least a partial cause of injuries, and maybe more than a partial cause of slumps. Even last year, a heel injury, suffered in an offseason celebration, caused him to miss the first quarter of the season. So what could a healthy Sano do over 162 game? Well, last year, he had 34 home runs in 380 AB. “If I play an entire season, I think I can probably double those numbers,” he says. That’s obviously exceedingly optimistic. Fangraph’s STEAMER projections suggest 38 home runs is a more realistic target, but that also factors in a slight step backwards towards the mean. Slight steps in any direction have not been the norm for Sano. If the doubters are correct and he takes yet another giant step backwards, it will cost the Twins an extra $24M over the next four years, given he would’ve made $6M one way or the other this year. On the other hand, if he takes a giant step forwards, replicating the 923 OPS he posted after June 27th? What then? Sano seems to have an idea. When asked what he will do with his newfound riches, he smiles and replies “Nah, it’s not a lot. I can get more than that.” Indeed he can, if the 26-year-old‘s baby steps lead to giant steps in the right direction. View full article

Sure, we have lots of beer at the Winter Meltdown, but our 400-person crowd has asked for something a little warmer for their hot stove talk. This year we’re happy to announce that Conor McGregor’s Proper Twelve Irish Whiskey will be on hand to warm people up. We’ll have a sampling table, a specially priced drink just for the Meltdown, and the company’s first $1 million in sales is being donated to first responders. Sure, we have lots of beer at the Winter Meltdown, but our 400-person crowd has asked for something a little warmer for their hot stove talk. This year we’re happy to announce that Conor McGregor’s Proper Twelve Irish Whiskey will be on hand to warm people up. We’ll have a sampling table, a specially priced drink just for the Meltdown, and the company’s first $1 million in sales is being donated to first responders. If you’re new to Twins Daily’s Winter Meltdown, we hold is just a couple blocks from Twins Fest on January 25th at the Lumber Exchange Event Center from 4:30 to 7:30. We’re joined by a Twins player (who we’re not announcing just yet) and 400+ Twins fans, media members, Twins execs and many more to celebrate the upcoming season. Not only will you get to gather with Twins Daily writers and members and talk Hot Stove, but we’ll include: A Twins Daily Winter Meltdown Pint Glass (picture above). Two complimentary local craft pints from 612 Brew Raffle prizes, Drink specials, like Proper Twelve, Food stations, Interviews with special Twins guests and It’s only $40 (if you can get tickets). We’ll announce details about all of the above as we count down the days to the event. Tickets can be hard to come by; the event has sold out every year, and we’re limiting sales to just 400 tickets this year. They go on sale Friday morning on Twins Daily at 8:00 AM. Plus, the majority are already gone due to a Christmas pre-sale. So find a way to stop by TwinsDaily.com this Friday morning (1/17) and get your tickets while you still can. Or, here’s a secret: if you sign up for Twins Daily’s Events Email List, you can get them vefore they go on sale to the public. We’ll be sending out a link to the tickets Thursday to those on our list. You can sign up here. I guarantee you’ll wish you were there if you miss it. Stop by the rest of this week and next for more news on our prizes and guests or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. View full article

Here in the Twin Cities, another couple of inches fell last night, and we’re about to head into the coldest weeks of the winter. But a week from Saturday, we’re all gonna Meltdown. The last available tickets to the Winter Meltdown will be released this Friday morning at 8 AM. From today until the event, we’ll be releasing snippets of what we have in store, including today’s reveal of our Winter Meltdown pint glass, courtesy of 612 Brew. Here in the Twin Cities, another couple of inches fell last night, and we’re about to head into the coldest weeks of the winter. But a week from Saturday, we’re all gonna Meltdown. The last available tickets to the Winter Meltdown will be released this Friday morning at 8 AM. From today until the event, we’ll be releasing snippets of what we have in store, including today’s reveal of our Winter Meltdown pint glass, courtesy of 612 Brew. If you’re new to Twins Daily’s Winter Meltdown, we hold is just three blocks from Twins Fest on January 25th at the Lumber Exchange Event Center from 4:30 to 7:30. We’re joined by a Twins player (who we’re not announcing just yet) and 400+ Twins fans, media members, Twins execs and many more to celebrate the upcoming season. Not only will you get to gather with Twins Daily writers and members and talk Hot Stove, but it includes: A Twins Daily Winter Meltdown pint glass (picture above). Two complimentary local craft pints from 612 Brew Raffle prizes, Drink specials, Food stations, Interviews with special Twins guests and It’s only $40 (if you can get tickets). We’ll announce details about all of the above as we count down the days to the event. You’ll be treated to some fantastic locally brewed beer from 612 Brew in Northeast Minneapolis. This is 612 Brew’s seventh year sponsoring our Meltdown and has supported various Twins Daily and Gleeman and the Geek events for several years. You can see some of the previous year's designs below. The tough part could be getting tickets. We’ve sold this out every year. Tickets will go on sale Friday morning on Twins Daily at 8:00 AM. A special pre-Christmas sale took care of most of our inventory, so I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you find a way to stop by TwinsDaily.com this Friday morning (1/17) and get your tickets while you still can. Please join us for our biggest event of the year. It’s easy, it’s affordable, it’s crazy fun and you’re going to be kicking yourself that weekend if you can’t be there. Stop by the rest of this weekend and next for more news on our prizes and guests or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. View full article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins signing Miguel Sano to a long-term extension, arbitration settlements with everyone except Jose Berrios, the latest on Josh Donaldson, the basics of the arbitration process, and a special clip from the Patreon podcast interview with Glen Perkins. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. http://traffic.libsyn.com/gleemangeek/Ep_461_Signing_Sano.mp3?dest-id=74590 View full article

Yep. So it's essentially something like 6/9/12/3+11M option. I wouldn't be shocked if the negotiations came down to how much of that 4th year was guaranteed. 3M feels a little high; Sano won on that one. But, I believe in him, so it's worth it to keep him around for two extra years.

Guess we don't have to worry about him being traded. I'll be very interested to see the details of this deal. I'll guess... 6/9/12 and option for 14. So a $27M over 3 years with a $14M option.

Holy Geezus but a Gardy reality show is exactly what I need. I'm not even talking about a baseball-ish Hard Knocks. I mean just following him around in regular life. I imagine it like "Dog The Bounty Hunter" only it's Gardy going around and tying up milb prospects to drag back to the Tigers training facility.

Twins Daily experienced explosive growth in 2019, so on an irregular basis, we’ve tried to provide updates on its health and plans. We do this for a couple of reason. First and foremost, Twins Daily is a community in which a lot of people have invested time, passion and energy, and it’s important that we communicate the state of that community, and the direction it is heading. The second is that as a new media model, it’s important to be transparent so people can see that there is a market for in-depth, independent, community-driven coverage. Twins Daily experienced explosive growth in 2019, so on an irregular basis, we’ve tried to provide updates on its health and plans. We do this for a couple of reason. First and foremost, Twins Daily is a community in which a lot of people have invested time, passion and energy, and it’s important that we communicate the state of that community, and the direction it is heading. The second is that as a new media model, it’s important to be transparent so people can see that there is a market for in-depth, independent, community-driven coverage. Stories and Authors Our front page is filled with names you would not have recognized a year ago. The number of writers, and the quantity, diversity, and quality of stories increased dramatically in 2019. The passion and skill of editor Tom Froemming and two dozen active authors has been remarkable - even during the offseason. This site has published 300 stories since the Twins were eliminated from the ALDS. That’s 100 stories per month in an offseason that has largely been devoid of good news. Perhaps the breadth and depth of that content is the good news. Revenues Those writers have also been paid better. Programmatic ad revenue rates increased considerably, and since those are passed directly to the writers, writers saw a threefold increase in pay. This also gives us hope that we can fund a redesign of our site because… Traffic Traffic went nuts. Yes, there is a market for in-depth, independent, community-driven coverage: Unique Readers – 1,141,165 (up 94% from 2018) Sessions – 4,493,194 (up 57% from 2018) Page Views – 11,605,698 (up 34% from 2018) The craziest fact about those numbers? On June 1st, those numbers were actually down compared to 2018. So take all those percentages and double them, and that’s what we saw over the second half of 2019. Plus, they’re increasing even more during the offseason. We have an incredibly welcoming community and an ever-increasing reach. Twins Daily is not your dirty little secret any more. (So it’s OK to share it.) Forums As a result of that welcoming community, we continue to see strong interaction in our forums, and this year we welcomed several new moderators to our ranks. A successful team brought a new set of challenges to the moderation team, as did all the increased traffic. They handled an incredible amount of discussion from the 12,179 registered members of Twins Daily. Registrations – +1026 (up 35% from 2018) Topics –2619 (up 19% from 2018) Posts – 132,373 (up 24% from 2018) Who comes up with over 2600 baseball topics for a team in a year? (A: You do. Thanks!) Blogs Over on our blog page, you’ll find some of our next wave of writers, or just excited fans finding their voice. Beyond the stories on our front page, you found 408 additional blog entries in 2019, along with comments that both challenged, encouraged and congratulated. If you are interested in writing about baseball for a built-in audience, it remains a great place to start. If you’re interested in reading and helping along those people, stop by every day. I’ll add one other point: if you think your point of view is downplayed or doesn’t receive the recognition it might deserve, show us how it’s done. Start a blog. Write a story. React to the comments. Go first-hand through the process, and take the risk, that writers do every day. With our traffic, you’re going to find an audience – for good or bad. 2020 Our focuses in 2020 are to accommodate, and enable the community growth we’re seeing. Web Site Redesign – Our increased traffic means increased stresses on our software architecture. We will invest in a rebuild of the site, and we’ll be reaching out for suggestions to make the site better as part of that effort. Stay tuned. Social Media- More and more Twins fans are finding Twins Daily from social media posts. We have always been a little haphazard on staying on top of that. That’s going to change. (We would love to have you follow us on Facebook, Twitter and email.) Events – Beyond the Winter Meltdown, this October we hosted 300+ people at the ALDS Game 1 Watch Party at Brothers Bar & Grill. We want to expand to have even more watch parties, growing the “in real life” community as much as the virtual one has. Partnership with Zone Coverage – Last, but not least, I'm finalizing a partnership with Zone Coverage, another local sports-based web site, to work together on business-side efforts, like local ad sales, systems development, social media and more. Doing so allows me to work half time on both sites instead of trying to find time to squeeze in work on Twins Daily outside my full time job; Twins Daily and Zone Coverage will be my new full time job. This past year was a breakthrough year for Twins Daily in a number of ways, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We are really looking forward to seeing if the site (and the team) can keep the momentum going in 2020. You’re a big part of that, so we would love your feedback, questions and comments in the comment section. Thank you all so much from all of us at Twins Daily. View full article

Tickets for the Minnesota Twins’ Diamond Awards are SOLD OUT, but you can still get their brand new stadium seating option. If you do, Twins Daily will throw in a Winter Meltdown ticket ($40 value) free! Twins Daily is proud again to be an official sponsor of the Diamond Awards, a banquet to raise money for life saving research and enhanced patient care focused on ALS, ataxia, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease from the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center (BAARC). Tickets for the Minnesota Twins’ Diamond Awards are SOLD OUT, but you can still get their brand new stadium seating option. If you do, Twins Daily will throw in a Winter Meltdown ticket ($40 value) free! Twins Daily is proud again to be an official sponsor of the Diamond Awards, a banquet to raise money for life saving research and enhanced patient care focused on ALS, ataxia, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s disease from the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center (BAARC). It’s the night before Twins Fest, Thursday January 23rd, at The Depot. It’s an awesome event. The local BBWAA chapter gives their awards for Most Valuable Twin, Most Outstanding Rookie, and many more. Receiving awards this year will be Nelson Cruz, Taylor Rogers, Luis Arraez, Byron Buxton, Mitch Garver, Justin Morneau among others. It’ll be a star-studded event. You can get all the information, here. Tickets are usually $150 and include a meal, but those are sold out. Fortunately, this year there is a $75 ticket that doesn’t include a sit-down dinner, but does include lots of other activities in the stadium seating section. Snag a selfie with the official Target Field Bomba home run counter, showcasing the record-setting 307 home runs hit in the 2019 season. Enter the WCCO Radio 830 raffle for a chance to live it up with an exclusive patio party at Target Field for a Twins home game. Give Maestro Dobel tequila from Proximo Spirits a try. On your way to your seats, swing through the stadium reception to grab complimentary stadium fare from Old Dutch, Cub, Pan O Gold and Coca Cola. Get your photo taken in the interactive photo booth and share it on social media to show your friends they are missing out! #MNDiamondAwards Grab a drink at one of the Depot bars throughout the auction and program. Witness something special while remarkable individuals are presented honors from the Baseball Writers Association of America Minnesota Chapter and the Minnesota Twins. The awards will be hosted by the renowned and Dick Bremer. You can get your tickets now and when you do, just type “Twins Daily” in the comments section. The week of the event, we’ll reach out to you with your free Winter Meltdown tickets for January 25th event at the Lumber Exchange Event Center. The Winter Meltdown is legendary, and will include a pint glass, two free beers, an appearance from a special Minnesota Twin and lots of Hot Stove talk with 400+ other Twins fans. But you have to get your tickets before these sell out, too. Grab them at: https://umf.formstack.com/forms/diamond_awards_2020 We’ll see you at the Diamond Awards! View full article

Star-Tribune Twins beat writer Phil Miller is reporting that the Minnesota Twins are “pessimistic” about their chances of signing free agent third baseman Josh Donaldson. It was reported Friday night that Donaldson, a former American League MVP, had given his price to the remaining suitors, believed to be around $110M over four years. The Twins are either unwilling to take that shot, or believe that even if they did, he would end up with another team. So what now? Image courtesy of © Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports Star-Tribune Twins beat writer Phil Miller is reporting that the Minnesota Twins are “pessimistic” about their chances of signing free agent third baseman Josh Donaldson. It was reported Friday night that Donaldson, a former American League MVP, had given his price to the remaining suitors, believed to be around $110M over four years. The Twins are either unwilling to take that shot, or believe that even if they did, he would end up with another team. So what now? The cost of the Twins current roster is approximately $117-120M, with a projected payroll ceiling of $135M or so. (It’s worth noting that had they been able to sign Donaldson to an estimated $25M/year contract, they would have had a payroll level of $142-145M, above that projection.) So they still have plenty of money to spend. What they’re short of are options. The Twins say their focus is on adding an infielder, but Donaldson represents the last impact infielder available on the free agent market. Rena looked at some less impactful free agent infield options a couple of weeks ago, and Cooper detailed four names the Twins could now consider and a couple of other wild card options. The team could also explore trading for an infielder, such as Pirates first baseman Josh Bell. Or they could pivot back to looking for impact pitching. There are several starting pitchers that could make an impact, provided the Twins are willing to pay the price. There are also some salary dump pitchers available, like David Price. And the Twins have plenty of pieces they can trade, even without dipping into their farm system. The question is whether they will be more willing to spend prospects than they have been to spend money. They weren’t at last year's trade deadline. So the most likely scenario is that they essentially keep their powder dry; sign a mid-level infielder and enter spring training with a payroll of $120-$125M, which would be a lower payroll than they carried into the season two years ago. If so, that is a failed offseason. Given an unprecedented opportunity to make a division contender a world championship contender - an opportunity so ripe they themselves proclaimed their intentions to add impact players - they will end the offseason with exactly zero new impact players. Proponents might suggest that at least they didn’t make any mistakes, and that seems true. But that is also the problem. This management team was unable to chance the big signing, the big trade, the potential mistake. The most likely path forward is that same one. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email View full article

Aaron and John talk about the Josh Donaldson end game, what the rotation plan looks like after signing Rich Hill and Homer Bailey, year-end podcast numbers, the Twins' newest outside-the-box hire, going out for a birthday meal. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. Aaron and John talk about the Josh Donaldson end game, what the rotation plan looks like after signing Rich Hill and Homer Bailey, year-end podcast numbers, the Twins' newest outside-the-box hire, going out for a birthday meal. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. http://traffic.libsyn.com/gleemangeek/Ep_460_Hill_and_Bailey_and_Donaldson.mp3?dest-id=74590 View full article

I guess something had to be done to fill these spots, and it's nice they left themselves some room for another big signing or a couple of spring-training-value buys, but unless we see the big signing, the is a failed offseason. It certainly doesn't help them significantly in postseason matchups. For like the third offseason in a row, I like almost all their moves, yet find myself frustrated by them not addressing their biggest needs.

According to Dan Hayes, the Minnesota Twins are signing two starting pitchers, Rich Hill and Homer Bailey. (UPDATE: The Twins have confirmed the signings.) Bailey is a 33-year-old right-hander who posted a 4.57 ERA last year and finished his year with the Oakland A’s. Rich Hill is a 39-year-old left-hander who posted a 2.45 ERA last year, but will not be able to pitch until June or July due to elbow surgery he underwent in October. Neither represents the Twins' stated offseason goal of adding an “impact” pitcher, and might represent an acknowledgement it’s possible no such move is coming, or at least an insurance policy if it does not. Image courtesy of Jake Roth, USA Today According to Dan Hayes, the Minnesota Twins are signing two starting pitchers, Rich Hill and Homer Bailey. (UPDATE: The Twins have confirmed the signings.) Bailey is a 33-year-old right-hander who posted a 4.57 ERA last year and finished his year with the Oakland A’s. Rich Hill is a 39-year-old left-hander who posted a 2.45 ERA last year, but will not be able to pitch until June or July due to elbow surgery he underwent in October. Neither represents the Twins' stated offseason goal of adding an “impact” pitcher, and might represent an acknowledgement it’s possible no such move is coming, or at least an insurance policy if it does not. The Twins missed out on the starting pitchers at the top of this year’s free agent market, though they retained veterans Jake Odorizzi and Michael Pineda. Bailey is a pitcher Twins Daily’s Tom Froemming has brought up frequently this offseason. Earlier this month, Tom pointed out some ways in which Bailey compares favorably to Madison Bumgarner. Bailey gave up a lower OPS to non-pitchers (.719 vs. .764), had a higher K% vs. non-pitchers (21.4 vs. 21.3), surrendered a lower hard hit % (38.7 vs. 41.5) and a lower barrels/plate appearance % (4.0 vs. 6.3). https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1212058730394767360 Tom also used Bailey as a case study in pointing out how it may not be the worst-case scenario if Jake Odorizzi were to decline his qualifying offer. . Bailey had a better ERA, WHIP and xwOBA than both Odorizzi and Jose Berrios from June 13 forward.Hill has been outstanding - when he's been on the mound. He's had a career ERA of 3.82, including a 2.91 ERA since 2015. But he also hasn't been able to make more than 25 starts since 2007. His contract reflects the risk and reward he presents: he will make $3M guaranteed, with the possibility of making an additional $9.5M in performance bonuses. https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1212058963266682881 The moves will likely disappointTwins fans, who have been waiting for the team to achieve its offseason goal of adding “impact” pitching, as neither pitcher represents impact pitching, or even an upgrade to last year’s starting rotation. They do, however, establish a “floor” for the starting rotation, which still had two vacant spots, not to mention Pineda missing the first 39 games of the season due to a PED suspension going back to September. Instead of filling those 2+ spots with internal candidates like Randy Dobnak, Devin Smeltzer and Lewis Thorpe, they now, in theory, have all five spots covered by Jose Berrios, Odorizzi, Pineda, Bailey & Hill - though they will still need coverage at the beginning of the season for Pineda and Hill. Bailey's $7M one-year deal and Hill's $3+M guaranteed also leave payroll room for a more significant move this offseason. Twins Daily projects the Twins to have about a $116M payroll after the signing, below last year's level, and about $20 million below our projection of the Twins team's payroll budget. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email View full article

Rest in peace Stella. I'm so glad you shared your memories with us. Thank you.

Aaron and John talk about forming very strong opinions on a Twins offseason that isn't actually finished, the latest on Hyun-Jin Ryu and Josh Donaldson, which free agent contracts the Twins should have happily handed out, quotes people wish they could take back, and mailbag questions from listeners. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. Aaron and John talk about forming very strong opinions on a Twins offseason that isn't actually finished, the latest on Hyun-Jin Ryu and Josh Donaldson, which free agent contracts the Twins should have happily handed out, quotes people wish they could take back, and mailbag questions from listeners. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. http://traffic.libsyn.com/gleemangeek/Ep_459.mp3?dest-id=74590 View full article