Minnesota Twins: Want to Win the 2009 World Series? Sign Sheets, Trade for Beltre

Ok, so I’m going to enter a fantasy world knowing this will never happen, but let’s just take a second to see what a little spending could get Minnesota this upcoming year. To the Pohlad kids: Do you want to take a shot to win the World Series this year and open up Target Field with a World Series banner for pops? This is what you do:

1) Sign Ben Sheets – his health problems seem to scare teams away but we seem to flock towards injury riddled players. By all means, he’s a excellent pitcher who fills out our rotation, making our staff one of the most lethal in baseball. It seems like he’ll go for $8-10MM a year and is a Type A player (and we may be able to get Type A pick compensation back when he leaves). If we were even considering giving Jarrod Washburn $10.35MM a year, we could certainly consider giving Sheets that kind of dough.

Here would be our rotation to start our 2009 season:

1. Liriano
2. Sheets
3. Baker
4. Slowey
5. Blackburn

2) Trade for Adrian Beltre – Send Perkins and other pitching prospects in a deal to the Mariners. Beltre would be the perfect fit our team: a huge bat and stellar defense. However, this is one guy that I’d hope to lock up for a few years rather than just being a one year rental. He does have a no-trade clause with the Twins, but that just means we need to fork up a little more money. Pohlad’s, that banner would look awfully nice in our new stadium.

Here would be our lineup to start the 2009 season:

1. Span
2. Casilla
3. Mauer
4. Morneau
5. Beltre
6. Kubel
7. Young
8. Punto
9. Gomez

3) Sign an 8th inning setup man. Our relief should get better this year as they were overworked last season, but having one more reliable guy in the bullpen is necessary to give us that deadly late inning combination that we’ve become so accustomed to this decade. It makes it really easy knowing that if you have the lead late in the game, you can turn off your television at 10:30 p.m. knowing you won’t wake up disappointed.

4) Sign Manny Ramirez and deal for J.J. Hardy – ok, I’m just kidding…but isn’t it sad that some teams actually think that way? Can we at least lock up Joe Mauer? I don’t want to have to hear the Red Sox and Yankee fans hype this up for the rest of the season.

……

That’s it.

It would be quite a bit of work and we all know the front office likes to hibernate during the offseason, but it would instantly make us one of the favorites to be still playing ball in November. We wouldn’t have a weak spot in our rotation, we would have filled a huge hole at 3rd base with power and defense, and we would have secured a better option in the 8th inning than Crain or Bonser. It’s a long shot, but that’s the fun in dreaming.

What Options do the Minnesota Twins Have Left This Offseason?

The Minnesota Twins Current Salaries and Payroll Situation:

C – Joe Mauer – $10.5MM

1B – Justin Morneau – $10.6MM

2B – Alexi Casilla – $450K

3B – Brendan Harris/Brian Buscher – $450K

SS – Nick Punto – 4.25M

LF – Delmon Young – $700K

CF – Denard Span – $400K

RF – Michael Cuddyer – $6.75MM

DH – Jason Kubel – $1.3MM+

SP – Scott Baker – $423K

SP – Francisco Liriano – $400K

SP – Kevin Slowey – $400K

SP – Nick Blackburn – $400K

SP – Glen Perkins – $400K

RP – Joe Nathan – $11.25MM

RP – Jesse Crain – $1.7MM

RP – Matt Guerrier – $950K+

RP – Pat Neshek – $435K

RP – Boof Bonser – $433K

RP – Craig Breslow – $400K

RP – Jose Mijares – $400K

Bench – C – Mike Redmond – 950K

Bench – 3B – Brendan Harris/Brian Buscher – $450K

Bench – IF – Matt Tolbert – $400K

Bench – OF – Carlos Gomez – $400K

Others on Payroll: Mike Lamb – $3MM

That’s a full 25 man roster tallying to a cool $58.2 million dollars.

In 2007 before we let go of Hunter, Santana and Silva’s contracts, our team salary was at $71.4 million dollars, quite a bit higher than the 58.2 million we stand at now. It would appear as if we should have room to spend and that our team payroll could be anywhere from $70–80 million if management decided to spend at previous years’ numbers plus increase, leaving $12-22 million dollars of unspent payroll.

So what would our options be?

1. Trade for Adrian Beltre at 3B – Should be at a price $12 million next year and players (possibly a mix of Cuddyer/Perkins/Prospect)? Beltre added the Twins to his no-trade clause list most likely by recommendation of his agent Scott Boras in order to have bargaining chips down the road (i.e. compensation for waiving his no trade clause).

2. Sign Ty Wigginton at 3B – Expect $6-8 million/yr and 3 years plus based on Ty wanting a bigger contract than Casey Blake’s 3 year $17.5 million dollar deal to the Dodgers. Talks seem to have come to a halt in December and the Indians have shown interest.

3. Sign Joe Crede at 3B – Could go anywhere from $2-6 million based on his health and where the market for him is at in a month. The Giants seem to think he’s healthy enough to start pursuing. Should only be a one year deal.

4. Trade for Garrett Atkins at 3B – Salary in the $5 million dollar per year range. Rockies are asking quite a bit for him though (Slowey + Prospects).

So it looks like after the Blake and DeRosa talks fell through we’ve run a little thin on options. Unless we take a good stab at Ty Wigginton and give him a 3^rd year, I believe we’ll be looking at another year of the Harris/Buscher platoon. Joe Crede’s another option that I think is viable, we just haven’t heard much about it from the Twins camp and depending on his health he probably wouldn’t be much of an impact. The Garrett Atkins deal just asks way too much from the Twins (no way the Twins give up Slowey for just about anyone at this point).

The Adrian Beltre option, if it went down as described, is preferred but would be a one year rental (plus this means having Scott Boras around which is certainly not something the Twins want to have on their plate). Grabbing Adrian Beltre though, even in a rental situation, makes this team incredibly dangerous and may be this team’s hope for a World Series run. Unfortunately, Seattle probably wants more than described above and are rumored to be unreasonable in the negotiations around a Beltre deal.

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Guys I would be looking to deal:

Cuddyer – Big contract and we’re overstocked in the outfield.

Punto – Poor production and unfortunately a new big contract.

Perkins – The weakest of our young starting pitching staff. We have a lot of talent in the minors.

Kubel – If the price was right.

Harris/Buscher – If anybody wanted them in a package and we got a 3B in return.

Guys I would NOT be looking to deal:

Liriano/Slowey/Baker/Blackburn – All young cheap studs. Very underrated pitching staff. Many would argue Blackburn is in the “deal” mix if the price was right, but his performance in the play-in game was stellar. When October rolls around this guy will come to play.

Gomez/Young/Span – This is the future of our outfield. Young and loaded with talent.

Mauer/Morneau – For obvious reasons.

Casilla – Young, talented, fast, and versatile with a decent bat. Can’t look for much more out of a guy playing 2^nd base these days.

Speaking of Nick Punto’s new contract: Since when have the Twins overspent on somebody this much? A guy that hit .284 with 2 dingers last year (not to mention a .210 batting average the year before with nearly 500 AB’s!) can not be worth over 4 million a year. Now that the Cubs have signed a similar player in Aaron Miles to a deal half that of Punto’s (Miles has slightly more attractive stats including a .317 average last season) some Twins fans, including myself, have found themselves a little perplexed. Why would we give Punto such a big contract? Maybe he’s just that much of a “gamer” and has too much defensive ability to deny. Maybe he’s just simply that integral to our team chemistry. Maybe it’s just that inspiring to the clubhouse that when he actually hits a home run, it rallies our team for months. Maybe the Twins just have that much of an infatuation with him, knowing that we should trade him away, we signed him to a big contract in hopes some other team takes it on after we deal him away (for say J.J. Hardy, fair?) giving Nick some extra cash. Whatever the case, the contract was too big for a guy who it can be debated whether or not should have a starting job in the major leagues. I love the guy as a competitor, but his numbers are killing us. Fun fact: Nick Punto will be making roughly twice that of our entire starting rotation next year.

Another guy that we should hold onto and that’s been in dozens of rumors is Delmon Young. Ron Gardenhire was quoted in December as saying our starting lineup next year would consist of Span, Gomez, and Cuddyer obviously leaving out the former 1^st overall pick Delmon Young. This seemingly opened the door for Young to be dealt and the rumors flew in.

Wait a minute…

Yes he only hit 10 homers and yes he only hit .290 last year. But, the guy did that as a 22 year old in the majors. At 22! It seems like sometimes we drool over prospects that do that in the minors at the same age. I would hope we give him plenty time to develop being that there aren’t many guys in the game with as high of a ceiling as Delmon. He’s the definition of a low risk, high potential type of player that I would think the Twins would love to have. Worst case scenario, he doesn’t pan out and we pull one of our talented guys playing well in the minors up to fill in, but I really think this guy could do us wonders in a few years as long as his attitude problems are kept in check.

I’m certainly hoping that the Gardenhire quote was a ploy to increase Cuddyer’s trade value.

In other AL Central news today:

Former White Sox Outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. could be heading back to the Mariners.

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!!!