Tom Froemming

Glad to hear, thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking of incorporating a rundown/news and notes/link dump element like this into next year's game recaps.

Part of it was he swung at up and in pitches that were out of the zone way too much last year. After offering at those pitches 43% of the time in 2017, that jumped to 58% last season. He's not very good at making hard contact on inside stuff anyway, so he'll want to cut that down. Even if the Twins aren't interested in Schoop, Cano or Dietrich, those guys hitting free agency/the trade market will still help them. Second base is already pretty flooded this offseason. I wouldn't be surprised if the front office has a few guys they're interested in and will wait for the market to come to them. It's a really nice year to be shopping for a 2B.

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe interviewed new Twins manager Rocco Baldelli and reported that the Twins were among the teams who’ve expressed interest in Sonny Gray (it’s a long article). His bi-polar name is quite fitting. On the “Sonny” side: He’s still only 29, had a 3.17 ERA on the road and won’t take a king’s ransom to acquire. On the “Gray” side: He’s averaged less than 140 innings pitched the past three seasons, had a 6.98 ERA at Yankee Stadium and is only under team control for one more season.Other teams Cafardo mentions in the mix for Gray are the A’s, Braves, Padres and Rangers. The main thing that stands out as an advantage for the Twins is they seem to be better suited to take on payroll. So if the Yankees are primarily looking for financial relief, boy does that feel weird to say, the Twins have a great shot. Gray is expected to make somewhere around $9 million through arbitration. La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reported that the Twins “have expressed some interest” in DJ LeMahieu. A three-time Gold Glover at second base, former batting champ and two-time All-Star, LeMahieu certainly has an attractive resume. Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs also highlighted his ability to barrel up balls, speculating a power breakout could be possible with an adjustment or two. Still, LeMahieu’s career .264/.311/.362 (.673) line away from Coors Field scares me. I’m pretty surprised the Twins (and every other team in baseball) passed on the opportunity to claim Derek Dietrich. He actually has a higher career OPS+ than Brian Dozier and has hit .272/.351/.465 (.816) away from Marlins Park. One non-tender candidate I could see being a target for the Twins is second baseman Jonathan Schoop. The Brewers acquired Schoop at the trade deadline, but he’s expected to make $10 million ins his final season of arbitration eligibility. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwakee Journal Sentinel wrote that Milwaukee is “believed to be somewhat torn about what to do” and that the decision could go either way. Schoop, 27, had an incredible 2017, blasting 32 home runs while posting an .841 OPS, but he came crashing down to Earth last season, hitting just .233/.266/.416 (.682). Mark Feinsand highlighted one non-teneder candidate for each team for MLB.com. Schoop was among those listed, but there were plenty of other names I could see fitting nicely on the Twins, including relief pitcher Chaz Roe. Give me all the ex-Rays! Roe, 32, had a 3.58 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 9.5 K/9 in 50 1/3 innings last season for Tampa Bay. The Twins added Nick Gordon, LaMonte Wade and Luis Arraez to the 40-man roster and released Alan Busenitz, allowing him to sign with a team in Japan. We could have some further re-shaping of the 40-man roster coming later this week, as Friday marks the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. It’s interesting that the trio of 40-man roster additions could potentially help serve as replacements for the Twins two most logical non-tender candidates. Robbie Grossman and Ehire Adrianza have been fine as role players, but neither offers much upside. It’s not as if those two are expected to break the bank, as they’re expected to cost around $6 million total, but there may be better ways to invest both that money and space on the 25-man roster. Here are the projected arbitration salaries via MLB Trade Rumors. Now that the Twins have added C.J. Cron, things are looking especially bleak for Grossman. Michael Achterling of the Pioneer Press gathered what basically amounted to a scrapbook of Joe Mauer highlights from the publication’s coverage of the homegrown star. Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors passed along some notes on both Zack Greinke and Paul Goldschmidt’s market. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the Mariners are actively trying to move Robinson Cano. I’d imagine those teams would have to eat a significant amount of the money still owed to those players ($104.5 million to Greinke, $120 million to Cano) in order to make a deal. Another name to note on the trade market: Madison Bumgarner. Jon Paul Morosi of MLB.com reported the Giants are “willing to engage teams” in trade talks for MadBum. Bumgarner has built quite the legacy already thanks to postseason heroics, but he’s only under team control for this upcoming season and his FIP has gone up each of the past three seasons. Andrew Simon of MLB.com listed nine sleeper free agents to watch. One name I found particularly interesting was Carson Smith. The right-hander only has one healthy season under his belt, but it was a great one. Back in 2015, Smith saved 13 games for the Mariners while pitching to a 2.31 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 11.8 K/9. Intriguing buy-low option for the bullpen. Also from MLB.com, Mike Petriello took a look at the most extreme home runs of 2018. Guess who homered on the pitch the farthest off the plate? Yup, Eddie Rosario. Another prospect list! Eric Cross of FantraxHQ revealed his top 25 prospect list for the Twins. He’s particularly high on Akil Baddoo, who he has in the sixth spot. It’s a fun list, and Cross goes into some more detail on each player than a lot of other outlets. Just a friendly reminder: The 11th annual Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook will be available later this winter. Over at Twinkie Town, Thomas Reinking did a deep dive on the value of investing in free agents. The results were not encouraging. Click here to view the article

C.J. Cron is the best hitter on the Twins ...

Reed's first half usage 2018: 41 G, 41.0 IP, 667 pitches 2017: 41 G, 42.2 IP, 658 pitches 2016: 43 G, 41.2 IP, 657 pitches That's a lot of work across the board, but it's not like Molitor abused him. It's possible enough was enough and his arm finally reached a breaking point, but I wouldn't pin that on Molly. I don't envy Rocco, this appears to be a difficult first assignment in learning how to manage a bullpen. Hopefully the front office/ownership can provide him with enough arms so that Reed and Hildy don't need to be immediately forced back into high-leverage roles.

The Twins held a Fan Forum for season ticket holders last week and made the audio available on their site. The entire forum lasted more than an hour and included some really great contributions from the fans, but the final question fielded was particularly strong. At about the 59-minute mark Judy from Big Lake asked this: “First of all, I wanted to tell you what a horribly disappointing season this was for season-ticket holders; and I want to know how long do you think it’s going to be before you put a competitive team back on the field?”Wow, Judy bringing it! That’s both scorching and direct, exactly the kind of stuff that makes these fan forums unique. The team deserves some credit for allowing that question to come through. They could have very easily rejected her request, I’m sure there were many more fans waiting in the queue who didn’t have the opportunity to ask their questions. Thad Levine apologized for what transpired last season and admitted the season didn’t go the way they had hoped it would. He added this: “Our goal and our commitment to the fans is we want to put together a team that has the ability to complete year-in and year-out and have a long window for success. So we’re clearly in the building process – we’re not rebuilding, we’re building – and I think we’re building off of the successes of each of the last two seasons with the hope that we’ll take a meaningful step here in 2019.” I’m not sure how Judy from Big Lake received that, but I’m guessing any Twins fans thirsty for success weren’t exactly swept off their feet by that answer. Derek Falvey and new Twins manager Rocco Baldelli were also on the call. One of my favorite exchanges from Baldelli included this quote: “I tend to be curious and like to surround myself with curious people who like to stay open minded.” He also stressed creating a fun atmosphere and making sure the players enjoy showing up to work every day. Here are some other interesting items of note to come out of the forum: -Baldelli is going to try to get down to Georgia over the winter to visit with Byron Buxton. -Miguel Sano will continue to get every chance to play third base. -While Levine rained praise upon Willians Astudillo for both his performance and clubhouse presence, he also said “he’s going to need to earn it again,” implying he’s not being penciled into the Opening Day roster. -Falvey anticipates some changes revolving pace of play going into next year. He didn’t make any predictions as to what they may be, but he made it sound like nothing was off the table for the upcoming Winter Meetings. In his column for the Pioneer Press over the weekend, Charley Walters had some quotes from Jim Pohlad that should temper expectations for this offseason. Here’s what Pohlad said regarding Joe Mauer’s contract coming off the books: “It’s not like ‘OK, we’ve got this money now, and we didn’t have it before, so we can do so much more. I don’t feel that way.” The stove has been extremely cold so far this offseason, but since there have been so few moves, the Twins Daily Offseason Handbook remains very fresh. Just a reminder that the handbook is available as a PDF at whatever price you’re willing to pay. I’m also very happy to report that the Twins Prospect Handbook is progressing along quite nicely. There were a ton of additions to the minor league system at the trade deadline, so you’re definitely going to want to pick up a copy of this year’s edition to study up on all the new names. Speaking of prospects, Mike Berardino recorded a podcast for Baseball America in which he and Kyle Glaser reviewed his top 10 prospect list. Of course there was a lot of talk about the individual prospects on the list, but they also opened things up for a big-picture discussion on where the Twins are headed and made some good observations. Paul Sporer of FanGraphs took a look at what went wrong for Brian Dozier in 2018. I doubt a reunion with the Twins is in the cards, but Dozier does seem to be a really good buy-low option among this year’s crop of free agents. The first huge move of the offseason went down last night (no offense, Eduardo Escobar), as Jeff Passan of Yahoo reported the Yankees had a deal in place to acquire lefty starter James Paxton from the Mariners. Seattle won 89 games last season and Paxton still has two seasons of team control, though he’s projected to make $9 million through arbitration this upcoming year and obviously more than that in 2020. Still, I don’t think it’s a good thing in the grand scheme of things that a competitive team from the prior year is already apparently throwing in the towel for 2019. The Yankees gave up MLB Pipeline’s No. 31 overall prospect in baseball Justus Sheffield and two more players in Erik Swanson and Dom Thompson-Williams who both slot in as top-15 prospects in the Mariners’ system. Given Sheffield’s prospect status and the fact that he already reached the Major Leagues it’s difficult to come up with a similar package the Twins could have offered had they been interested in Paxton. MLB Trade Rumors held a reader poll on where the top 10 free agents would sign. More than 6,800 people voted and the only player the Twins had more than two percent on was J.A. Happ. Minnesota was the destination selected for him 3.1 percent of the time, which trailed the Yankees (30.9), Blue Jays (9.2), Angels (8.2), Brewers (6.5), Phillies (4.7), Astros (4.4) and Nationals (3.7). Along with all the free agents already available on the open market, several more players will be added to the pool of available talent shorty. Brandon Warne highlighted some intriguing names who could be non-tendered over at Zone Coverage. I thought he made a particularly compelling argument for current Marlin Derek Dietrich, pointing out that he’s actually been a better hitter than Marwin Gonzalez over his career and brings comparable positional flexibility. Former Twins prospect Chih-Wei Hu has joined a division rival. He was traded from the Rays to Cleveland on Monday. Originally sent to Tampa Bay in the Kevin Jepsen trade, Hu has pitched to a 3.52 ERA in 23 innings with the Rays over the past two seasons. Ballpark Digest honored the Twins with their Best Renovation award for Target Field’s switch from the Metropolitan Club to Bat & Barrel. I know that change rubbed some season-ticket holders the wrong way, understandably, but the difference in utility between the Met Club and Bat & Barrel is night and day. The Met Club was mostly a giant waste of space and the few times I visited there was very little atmosphere. It was just way too stuffy. The few times I visited Bat & Barrel this past season it was a completely different vibe, it was always buzzing in there. I also love the Adam Turman murals and all the awards on display. Here’s hoping the Twins can be a repeat winner for their renovations taking place at Gate 34. Click here to view the article

Thank you for sharing this. I'll take it as good news for now but the phrasing "as of today" and "at this time" makes me a little nervous. I'm going to a Gopher women's hoops game for the first time, and it looks like Williams Arena has pretty strict bag restrictions. It'll be just the two of us, so luckily no need for a diaper bag, but my wife will need to downsize her regular bag for sure. I doubt she owns any clear bags, because why?

I was surprised Austin led the vote with 34%. Among the options presented, I'd definitely rather have Carlos Santana and would probably lean toward Bour or Adams over him as well.

Target Field is undergoing yet another fairly major update this offseason, the focus being around Gate 34. Rochelle Olson of the Star Tribune relayed an update on the project and noted that there will be added security measures. Though no specifics were reported, Olson wrote that all of MLB is moving slowly toward full NFL-level security.Reading between the lines, that more than likely means there are going to be bag restrictions at Target Field in the future. Here’s a link to the NFL’s current bag policy, which is basically any bag that’s big enough to fit more than just your cell phone needs to be clear. This is obviously a hindrance in particular to women, families and persons with disabilities. The way it is right now, all bags are hand checked by security and all fans pass through metal detectors. I don’t see how restricting bag size and forcing people to use clear bags is going to improve security at all. If there’s a traffic issue, maybe they should just designate certain gates for people bringing in bags in order to keep things moving quickly elsewhere. I guess I don’t have the perfect solution, but then again, there doesn’t really seem to be a problem to fix in the first place. Also from the STrib, some 49-year-old knucklehead who got banned from Target Field for being an annoying rube is trying to worm his way back in. The Twins took action because “he had violated the Twins’ code of conduct for guests by his overly aggressive behavior in chasing down the balls. The Twins allege incidents have included physical altercations and approaching families and asking to trade their game-used souvenir.” The most surprising thing to me about this story is that he was only banned for a year. But the real kicker is this turd plans on violating the ban and showing up to the stadium next season. Really dude? I’ve got nothing against memorabilia collectors, I’ve got a bit of the stuff myself, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about things. Being obnoxious and ruining the experience for other fans is most definitely the wrong way. There’s some really great reporting by Randy Furst in that article linked above, the whole thing’s worth a read. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette shared a lot of interesting details surrounding the Twins’ hiring of new pitching coach Wes Johnson. A particular item of note is that the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Angels had expressed some level of interest in Johnson and that the Twins’ offer is well north of $350,000 per year for multiple seasons. Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press was first to break the news that Joe Mauer’s wife Maddie delivered their third child, Charles Joseph, Wednesday evening. Congratulations to the Mauer family. I assume the Twins have already assigned a local scout to track Charles' development. Over at Twinkie Town, Andrew Bryzgornia highlighted seven names as potential Mauer replacements at first base. There was also a poll included asking readers who their preference would be. I was surprised by the results. Cliff Corcoran of The Athletic listed the five favorites in each league for the 2019 Rookie of the Year awards. No Twins cracked the top five in the AL, but guess who he listed as contender … Willians Astudillo! Yes, his rookie eligibility is still intact. Dave Schoenfield wrote a fun piece at ESPN that projected a blockbuster offseason move for each team. He had the Twins signing Josh Donaldson, Daniel Murphy and Nathan Eovaldi. Not sure if that quite busts my block. Those would certainly be major upgrades, but that’s closer to the type of offseason additions I am expecting the Twins to make, not a blockbuster offseason. Last week, the staff over at USA Today shared their predictions on where the big free agents would sign. Six of their writers gave their best guesses on five of the top talents available: Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Patrick Corbin, Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel. Nobody predicted the Twins would sign any of those players. Richard Justice of MLB.com shared his seven teams most likely to make big free agent signing this offseason. The Twins were not included, but the White Sox were. Also at MLB.com, David Adler hinted at the three potential fits for a Zack Greinke trade. The Twins were not on this list, either. There’s been a lot of buzz about how much money the Twins have coming off the books, but the national media certainly doesn’t seem to be buying them as potential major players on the free agent or trade markets. Expect there to be backlash from some of your friendly local columnist, talk radio hosts and casual fans (read: Vikings fans who are aware baseball exist) if the Twins fail to make significant investments. Now that Mauer’s contract is off the books, they have a lot more ammo. The guys over at 1500ESPN had a good conversation on a number of topics, but they touched on offseason expectations. Derek Wetmore basically asks why not the Twins? Why can’t they sign a Manny Machado or someone like that? Co-host Jake Depue walked him back from that stance a little bit, pointing to the team's lack of activity at the top of the market as reason to doubt their ability to make a huge splash. There's validity to both Wetmore's sort of "why not us" stance and Depue's maybe more realistic response, so it made for a good conversation between the two. That discussion came somewhere around the 25-minute mark, then rolled into some speculation on other free agents and trade options. The whole thing is worth a listen. That outlet does an excellent job of covering the team. Wetmore also wrote a piece about the potential of both Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano switching positions in 2019. He shared some interesting quotes from Derek Falvey from an interview he did on the 1500ESPN airwaves. Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that the Phillies placed first baseman Justin Bour on waivers. Bour has reached 20 home runs three times in his career, but his extreme platoon splits make him more of a part-time player. The 30-year-old has hit .269/.354/.499 (.853) against right-handers but just .220/.303/.335 (.639) against same-sided pitching. Tyler Austin mashes lefties, so an Austin-Bour platoon would make a ton of sense. The big question is can the Twins manage to carry two players who are only able to play first base? That’s a difficult thing to do in the days of three-man benches. Click here to view the article

Dan Hayes of The Athletic is reporting that the Twins will hire Wes Johnson to fill their pitching coach opening. Johnson has been the pitching coach for the University of Arkansas for the past two seasons.Prior to joining the Razorbacks, Johnson was the pitching coach at Mississippi State for a season and before that he filled the same role at Dallas Baptist for four seasons. His profile at Arkansas' official site has a wealth of additional information. Additionally, Hayes' report over at The Athletic also has some interesting details on Johnson's skills with modern technology, specifically TrackMan. Arkansas advanced all the way to the College World Series championship this season before losing to Trevor Larnach and the Oregon State Beavers. That should make for a fun reunion at spring training. UPDATE: John Shipley of the Pioneer Press is reporting that Jeremy Hefner will be transferred from being a member of the team's analytics group to bullpen coach. Stephen Sullivan of KATV Little Rock detailed some of Johnson's climb up to the college ranks, which included a decade coaching high school teams. A quick search of Johnson's name on YouTube brings up a wealth of interviews as well as instructional segments. Here's a good profile on him that goes into his use of TrackMan at around the 2:00 mark. Here's an interesting video that shows Johnson addressing his players on his first day of work at Mississippi State back in 2015. To say this is an under the radar hire might be an understatement, as you don't see coaches make the jump from college ball to the majors all too often. This is a move that further establishes the Twins as a forward-thinking organization that's open to going outside the box. Johnson takes over a role Garvin Alston held for just one season. The Twins ranked 22nd in ERA in 2018. Click here to view the article

Congrats on the engagement Steve!

Could be, but now that we're down this rabbit hole, I'm thinking maybe the Twins should call up LA and offer to help solve their excess lefty issue. They also have Julio Urias, another lefty who was used in the pen last season, but I'd imagine they'd rather stretch him back out to start. The Dodgers seem very motivated to stay under the luxury tax threshold. Would they be wiling to part with Alex Wood for a very modest return? He's projected to get $9 million in his final year of arbitration and was demoted to the bullpen at the end of last season. Not sure they want to pay that much for a guy who right now is projected to be an extra piece. Just a thought.

Maybe, but they did already have three lefties in Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Alex Wood penciled into their rotation even before Ryu accepted the offer.

Yes, there does seem to be belief that his slider and changeup are going to develop. I can see how somebody could fall in love with Duran, I'm just not there yet. But, I was also extremely conservative with how I ranked Brusdar Graterol a year ago, so take that with a grain of salt. Interesting that you bring up Romero, I hadn't really made that connection. One of the things I think Thorpe gets knocked down for his his relative lack of size, but he's very similar to Romero in that department. If anything, I'd think Thorpe would get a little bump simply for being a lefty, though he's trailing Romero by quite a bit in terms of stuff.

For as many words as there have been written and said about Joe Mauer, his legacy won’t truly be determined by what anybody outside the game has to say about him. Instead, it’ll be his teammates, opponents and coaches who solidify how Joe is remembered as a ballplayer. There was an impressive group that attended Mauer’s retirement press conference Monday, and even more who shared their praise of Joe on social media, but my favorite response to his retirement came from a longtime rival pitching coach.There were so many great Mauer articles, and I’m sure there will be more to come, but one of my favorite pieces from yesterday came from Scott Merkin of MLB.com. It may seem weird to include something from a White Sox beat writer, but I’ve really enjoyed hearing the reactions to Mauer’s retirement from sources outside of the Twins organization/Twin Cities. Merkin asked former Twins pitcher and longtime White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper about Joe. Cooper called Mauer the best left-handed hitter he’s seen in the 15 years he’s been with Chicago and added “he became a pain in the ass.” I don’t know if you can get a higher compliment than that coming from a very well-respected pitching guru. There are several other glowing quotes from Cooper on Mauer in that piece. It was prospect list mania last week. Seth shared his preliminary top 30 here at the site. Also, Mike Berardino’s top 10 list for Baseball America was unveiled. Lance Brozdowski shared his own top 30 at Prospects Live. Jhoan Duran, who was acquired in the Eduardo Escobar trade, has some serious steam. He was inside the top 10 in each of the lists linked above. I get it, Duran has good size, a smooth delivery and sits 96 mph easy and the secondary stuff is also getting rave reviews. I do think it’s curious that he had relatively little success in his three and a half seasons in the Diamondbacks system, at least in comparison to how he broke out with the Twins. I’m also surprised at the lack of love for Lewis Thorpe. Seth had him at No. 8, which feels about right, but he didn’t make the BA top 10 and Prospects Live had him at 22. I guess in some ways I can understand that too, as Thorpe’s overall athleticism doesn’t stand out like some of the other pitchers in the system. A lot of scouts also believe Thorpe will end up in the bullpen. As with all prospects, you can see a lot of potential future outcomes with these two, but it seems to me like these rankings are generally bumping Duran more for his ceiling while knocking Thorpe down for his floor. I may end up the high man on Thorpe and the lowest on Duran (you’ll be able to find my list in the Twins Prospect Handbook, which comes out later this winter), but all that really means is I’m more comfortable with Thorpe, who’s a much more realized product. If Duran puts up the kind of numbers Thorpe already has in the high minors, I think we’d all be thrilled. Over at FanGraphs, Craig Edwards both ranked and put a dollar value on all the farm systems across baseball. The Twins slotted in at seventh behind only the Padres, Braves, White Sox, Rays, Blue Jays and Reds. Among the many notes in his latest piece, Ken Rosenthal passed along that the Phillies are pushing Carlos Santana aggressively on the trade market. Santana is coming off somewhat of a down year by his standards, but he still had a .352 OBP and more walks than strikeouts. He’s owed more than $35 million total over the next two seasons, then has a $17.5 million option in 2021. A switch-hitter with good on-base skills would look really good in the Twins lineup, and Derek Falvey is obviously very familiar with Santana after all the years they spent together in Cleveland. Over at MLB.com, Mike Petriello listed the Twins as one of the four logical trade destinations for Santana. The other teams listed were the Rockies, Mariners and Angels. Late last week over at The Athletic, Dan Hayes wrote an article about how Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton have put the Twins at a crossroads. There are a lot of interesting parallels drawn between the Twins and some of the most successful teams in baseball right now, along with some interesting quotes from members of the Astros and Cubs front offices. But something Thad Levine said was a bit deflating to me. Levine told Hayes that if Sano and Buxton take a step forward “I think we have primed ownership to then give us the green light to take more of an aggressive step forward with this unit of players.” We’ll see how the offseason unfolds, but that quote leads me to believe there’s going to be more of a holding pattern this upcoming season. That they'll wait for a Sano/Buxton breakout before really getting aggressive. That’s the last thing I want to see. Be buyers or sellers. You’re either in or you’re out. No more middle ground. Looking for a job in baseball? The Twins are hiring a Baseball Research Analyst. Duties include “statistical modeling and quantitative analysis to aid in the creation and improvement of models/tools for decision making in player development, game strategy, scouting, trades and free agency.” I sure hope they hire somebody soon! MLB Trade Rumors released its list of non-tender candidates and there are a number of interesting middle infielders included. They’re on the list for a reason, but guys like Devon Travis, Jonathan Schoop and Tim Beckham are still fairly young and have shown some flashes. Old friend Yangervis Solarte is also on the list. Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that there’s nearly zero chance Michael Brantley returns to the Indians. He adds that the starting outfield as it stands would be some combination of Jason Kipnis, Leonys Martin, Greg Allen or Tyler Naquin. In other words, not good. Jon Heyman of Fancred reported that Cleveland had talks with the Yankees about potential Corey Kluber and Carlos Carrasco trades. It’s hard to really make any conclusions until actual transactions start to happen, but it’s certainly sounding like Cleveland is more likely to sell off pieces than it is to make any big additions. Six of the seven players who were extended qualifying offers rejected them. The only player to accept was Hyun-Jin Ryu, who will return to the Dodgers. I’m not sure if the Twins would have had a realistic shot to land Ryu, but his absence from the free agent market will create some more competition for the left-handed starters who are available. Click here to view the article

Are Willians Astudillo's days numbered? Jason Castro will be back, Mitch Garver is still around and yet the Twins have shown interest in free agent catcher Robinson Chirinos, per Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Hmm ... is there some kind of a way to maneuver four catchers on the same roster? Well if Ron Gardenhire couldn't do it, that must mean it's impossible.Chirinos, 34, is coming off a season in which he hit .222/.338/.419 (.757) with 18 home runs and 108 games caught for the Rangers. The Twins already have plenty of catching options, but Garver's 2018 season behind the plate was cut short due to a head injury. It seems signing Chirinos would almost certainly mean the end of Astudillo's time with the Twins. This is a move I cannot endorse. Personal reasons. Derek Wetmore of ESPN 1500 shared his thoughts on both Chirinos and another reported Twins target, J.A. Happ. I talked about the possibility of the Twins signing Happ and the future of the team's rotation in a live stream on Twitter Friday evening. Here's a shorter version of it that I edited down: Speaking of pitching, David O’Brien of The Athletic Tweeted that the Twins are believed to be showing interest in former Reds manager Bryan Price as a candidate for their vacant pitching coach position. Price served as a pitching coach for the Mariners, Diamondbacks and Reds prior to making the jump up to managing. He was fired this April after Cincinnati got off to a 3-15 start. Phil Miller of the Star Tribune highlighted the correlation between offense and success in the American League last season and hinted that the Twins could target power hitters this offseason. Morosi also shared five takeaways from the GM Meetings, among them was the impression that the White Sox are ready to spend. Uh oh. Chicago is still a long way from building a competitive roster, but they could definitely obstruct the Twins in their pursuit of free agents. Some of the veteran hitters that would make a lot of sense for the Twins – Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson – would also seem to fit nicely on the White Sox. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com shared 10 names that created a lot of buzz at the GM Meetings. Among them were a few free agents that could make sense for the Twins, but he also listed trade candidates James Paxton and Sonny Gray. Paxton had a 3.76 ERA and 1.10 WHIP for the Mariners last season and comes with two years of team control, but I’d imagine it’d take quite an impressive haul to acquire him. The Twins have enough depth to put together a package without completely crippling the system, but it’s not clear they’re ready to make that kind of a splash yet. Gray would be much easier to get, but he was nowhere near as good for the Yankees (4.90 ERA, 1.50 WHIP) and only has one season before he becomes a free agent. Twins GM Thad Levine was quoted in a New York Times piece. The article revolved around new Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen transitioning from being an agent to in a front office. Levine made it sound like there’s a very buddy-buddy atmosphere across the league. “There’s more camaraderie in this industry than there once was. You see all the G.M.’s are together, there’s some collegial component and we all compete.” Those GM Meetings after parties must have been lit. Jim Bowden listed logical free agent and trade targets for all 30 teams over at The Athletic. Among the 23 possible free agent targets he listed for the Twins were Patrick Corbin, Dallas Keuchel, Nathan Eovaldi, Daniel Murphy, Steve Pearce and DJ LeMahieu. Among the 12 trade targets were Justin Smoak, Carlos Santana and Jean Segura. Over at Zone Coverage, Brandon Warne listed 38 potential trade targets for the Twins. Also, Mike Berardino welcomed former Blue Jays scout Kimball Crossley on the Midwest Swing podcast for an interesting inside baseball discussion about the type of things scouts are typically up to this time of year. They also discussed some free agent options that may make sense for the Twins. Baseball America shared its Twins draft report card. The thing that most caught my eye was that Josh Winder, who was the team’s seventh-round pick, was their choice for best fastball in the class. Winder went from sitting 88-92 mph at VMI to 90-94 after the draft. He had a 3.72 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 38 2/3 innings for Elizabethton. SB Nation conducts a giant GM simulation each offseason in which 30 of its writers assume the role of their team’s GM and they go through the entire offseason. Check out how TJ Gorsegner of Twinkie Town did. Click here to view the article

A 26-year-old who can boast that resume should be able to command something like that on the open market, yes.

The differences are Jason Heyward had a .784 OPS entering free agency (Harper is at .900) and Pujols didn't reach free agency until he was entering his age 31 season (Harper is entering his age 26 season). And while Harper's only had one insane MVP season, he's had several great seasons now. He's 26 and one of the best offensive weapons in baseball, he's going to get a gigantic contract, and deserving so.

Is WAR really that great of a stat? wRC+ 2016-18 Harper 132 Segura 117 Dozier 116 wOBA 2016-18 Harper .375 Dozier .346 Segura .345 OPS 2016-18 Harper .897 Dozier .817 Segura .803 I have a really hard time believing that whatever contributions Dozier and Segura make defensively and on the base paths makes up for that big of a gap in overall offensive production.