Minnesota Twins Offseason Recap | Joe Mauer Has Kidney Surgery

(Editor’s note: All of us at Midwest Sports Fans would like to welcome Tyler George to the writing crew. Tyler will be covering the Minnesota Twins, beginning with his first post today: an recap of the Minnesota Twins offseason activity and a quick update on Joe Mauer’s kidney surgery.)

Twins fans, if you’ve been hibernating this offseason apparently you’re not alone; the front office has been napping right beside you. In an offseason where it’s obvious we need to upgrade before April 6th, we’ve talked big and done very little. So here’s your recap of the last few months:

–The Twins re-signed Nick Punto to a 2 year 8 million dollar contract.

–The Twins signed knuckleballer R.A. Dickey to a minor league deal.

That’s it.

Surprised?

From the sounds of it, names like Adrian Beltre, Ty Wiggington, J.J. Hardy, Casey Blake, Joe Crede, Mark DeRosa and Michael Young, among others, have been thrown around on various rumor boards; but as we stand now, every major lead has come to a dead end. And this by no means is anything new for the Twins fan out there.

We’ve watched Minnesota dump big name players year in and year out to make room for other up and coming stars. However, what makes this year frustrating is that we’re not seeing the payroll gain from the losses of Santana, Hunter, and Silva being reinvested in the team. We’re just watching each FA opportunity fall to the wayside while we have the makings of a great team that needs just a little more to get over the hump.

So what is it that we need?

It’s simple: upgrades at the left side of the infield and relief help.

Now that Minnesota’s re-signed Punto, (unfortunately, Ron Gardenhire insists that he will be the Opening Day starter) we need to look at 3B to replace the Harris/Buscher platoon and find a real bat that won’t just make our lineup more lethal, but will also help the stars of our lineup see more favorable pitches. We’ve gotten close on Casey Blake and Mark DeRosa this month but nothing came of it, leaving Adrian Beltre, Ty Wiggington or Joe Crede for us to bid on (and the Giants are already moving in on Joe Crede). So what are we going to do?

Unfortunately as Twins fans we fight the internal battle of the optimist and the realist when it comes to our off-season acquisitions and realize that the optimist rarely ever wins, but half the fun is in hoping, right?

The optimist: We take a stab at Adrian Beltre. Yes, he no-trade-claused the Twins recently, but that’s protocol for a player wanting more money in the event of a trade. Adrian Beltre has the most upside of any of the 3B out there this year and would be a huge threat in the middle of our lineup. We would have made a bigger stab at Blake or DeRosa if we thought there wasn’t something else we wanted down the road, right?

The realist: The Twins wait around a few months and hope the prices fall on somebody so they can grab them at a discount. We’ll take a hard look at Ty Wigginton and decide if we want to pay a few million extra to grab him. If we decide not to we start the season comfortably having done nothing to improve our infield and hope that the Harris/Buscher platoon can pan out.

One of these days the optimist will win a battle or two. But as our current ownership stands I wouldn’t bet on it. It’s frustrating to the Twins fan who really thinks we could put forth a World Series caliber product if given the appropriate upgrades, but I suppose that’s the fun in being a Minnesota Twins fan. Being the Davids of baseball is far more satisfying than being the Goliaths.

On the defensive side of the ball, our relief was terrible late last season and possibly cost us a division crown. Our relief was overworked and we needed a few more arms to help out. Luckily for us, last year Jose Mijares came along and nearly saved our bullpen (and he’s pitching phenomenally right now in winter ball).

With Pat Neshek out again this year, we need an 8th inning setup man for Nathan to help fill that void, as well as a few more quality arms in the bullpen throughout the season. This is going to help out guys like Guerrier who was just killed when he wasn’t given the appropriate time off in-between appearances later in the season as our relief continued to wear thinner and thinner.

Signing guys like R.A. Dickey (most likely low impact), could still help out some of our relief later in the season when we start to overwork them. And signing Dickey to a minor league deal isn’t going to hurt anyone (although LEN3 may disagree). Hopefully there will be some more positive news coming your way next week.

In other news today:

Joe Mauer had Kidney Surgery, but it doesn’t look like it will be serious. Thank God.

The Rangers may pick up Eddie Guardado, good for him.

The White Sox are looking to deal Gavin Floyd for Brian Roberts straight up.

The Giants seem to be entering the Manny Ramirez debacle. If things keep going like they’re going we might just snag him out from everyone in early April for $15m/yr!!!

Tags: adrian beltre, hot stove, joe mauer, minnesota twins, MLB

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