Comments on: How much payroll space will the Twins have this offseason?

By: by jiminy

by jiminy — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:59:50 +0000

my main thought reading that list is, wow, that’s not a very intimidating team. There are only three position players that would start for most other teams, and they all have serious health concerns. There aren’t any sure thing pitchers, though Baker and Liriano at least are good pretty much of the time. And there are only two relievers that another team would probably want to trade for. Mauer, Morneau, and Span all better have great years next year, or it could be 2011 redux. Otherwise it just looks like the same team, but without Kubel, Cuddyer, and Nathan. Hard to see 30M changing that enough to do much more than replace those three, and if lucky, some of the missing relievers from 2010.

By: BM Berry

BM Berry — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:28:34 +0000

I don’t think it will happen, but the team needs to collect insurance on Morneau if he is unable to play. He needs to be pushed hard in the pre-season, I unfortunately think he will have a relapse, and then won’t be able to play during the season. The key is for him to have this relapse BEFORE the season starts, collect insurance, and work with a much larger payroll, instead of him playing 20 games and then sliding into second, having PCS again and being out for the next 75 games.
If he’s having PCS at 18 months, there’s a real possibility that he’s completely finished and I don’t think enough people realize this.

By: scot

scot — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:56:40 +0000

A lot of things depend on Morneau, Span, and most of the starting rotation getting healthy first. It has been suggested moving Justin to DH which may be a good option if Kubel is not resigned. Who is new 1B? Cuddyer if he is brought back and/or Parmelee would get a long look in ST but really think he could use a year at AAA first.
Lots of big decisions for the Twins coming up, I hope they make the right ones to get this team back in contention in 2012.

By: Son of Shane Mack

Son of Shane Mack — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:31:13 +0000

Most expensive bunch of bums ever?

By: bill

bill — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:28:55 +0000

Please don’t resign Cuddyer, Kubel or Nathan. Shop Liriano, Yankees and Red Sox desperate for starting pitching but would want to get one of their catching prospects. Talk to Florida about Logan Morrison and Toronto about Travis Snyder. Shortstop? Brendan Ryan would be fine. Exchange Slowey for some skinny jeans.

By: cmathewson

cmathewson — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:40:19 +0000

As others have said, Slowey is headed for nontender, which reduces our commitment to $78 million. Not sure if that makes that big of a difference in the scheme of things. It’s worth a decent reliever anyway.

By: MC

MC — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:36:55 +0000

I think they’ll offer Arb to both Cuddy and Kubel but only end up with one, at the most. I could see the Phillies making a play for Cuddy this off season, before the Howard injury I was strugling to see which contender was going to go for larger dollars with him… Maybe the Phils… outside of them I’m not sure. I think they’ll play it the same way they did with Pavano last year.

I think they’re going to have to look for scrap heaps otherwise… It’d be nice to bring in a catcher FA and some BP FA help but not much…

I’m more concerned about developing replacements for the Starting Pitchers otherwise we could be in a tough spot in the years to come… The Cheap and productive SP has allowed them to spend on their premier talent but they need to have replacements in the pipeline and the Priemier talent needs to perform in that manner.

By: BeefMaster

BeefMaster — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:03:30 +0000

Mild correction to your list of other position players – I don’t know if Repko is actually under Twins control for next year. He was up for arbitration and got a $600k deal this year, and Cot’s lists that as the fourth “avoided arbitration” contract, although I don’t know whether the fact that he’s been released and the Twins signed him to a minor league deal changes anything. Regardless, he’s not a minimum-salary guy, so making him the fourth outfielder would cost an extra $250k or so (assuming $700k-ish to sign him) over a minor leaguer.

By: hansob

hansob — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:52:36 +0000

I think they’ll end up giving Slowey away. Which is a shame, because he would seem like the kind of pitcher you’d want in Target Field if you have Span and Revere in the same OF.

My only reservation with Revere is that you know Gardy will want to bat him leadoff or 2nd.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:34:46 +0000

I can’t imagine any scenario where Kevin Slowey remains on this team. between his injury history, inability to pitch deep into games, and “attitude issues” he’s a goner. This frees up another $3M…and puts another hole in the Twins roster, since there’s no obvious choice to fill int he rotation in the minors right now (I really thought we’d be seeing Gibson next season, the Tommy John surgery really hurts. Would have been a great staff for him to join: he wouldn’t have had to be a savior, would have had some veteran pitchers to learn from…)