AaronGleeman.com

Last week owner Jim Pohlad and general manager Bill Smith both indicated that the Twins' payroll for 2012 will be close to and perhaps slightly lower than this year's $115 million mark, which got me thinking about how much payroll space they'll have to spend. An official decision still needs to be made regarding the 2012 option for Joe Nathan, but assuming that's declined here's where the Twins' payroll and roster stand heading into the winter:

    LINEUP                                      BENCH
 C: Joe Mauer - $23.0 million                C: Drew Butera - $0.425 million
1B: Justin Morneau - $15.0 million          IF: Tsuyoshi Nishioka - $3.0 million
2B: Alexi Casilla - $1.5 million            IF: Trevor Plouffe - $0.425 million
SS: [UNKNOWN]                               OF: [UNKNOWN]
3B: Danny Valencia - $0.425 million
LF: Ben Revere - $0.425 million
CF: Denard Span - $3.0 million
RF: [UNKNOWN]
DH: [UNKNOWN]

Alexi Casilla is arbitration eligible, so his salary is an estimate. I've also assumed that neither Tsuyoshi Nishioka nor Trevor Plouffe will be the Twins' starting shortstop, leaving that spot open while slotting them both into reserve roles. Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel are free agents, so I've left designated hitter and right field empty along with the fourth outfielder job. There are obviously plenty of internal candidates to fill those spots for the $425,000 minimum.

Assuming my projected roles above are correct the Twins would be spending about $47 million on position players while still needing to fill shortstop, right field, designated hitter, and fourth outfielder. Jason Repko, Matt Tolbert, Luke Hughes, Rene Tosoni, Joe Benson, Rene Rivera, Chris Parmelee, and Brian Dinkleman are among the other in-house options currently on the 40-man roster.

    ROTATION                                    BULLPEN
SP: Carl Pavano - $8.5 million              LH: Glen Perkins - $2.0 million
SP: Scott Baker - $6.0 million              LH: Brian Duensing - $0.425 million
SP: Francisco Liriano - $5.5 million        LH: Jose Mijares - $0.75 million
SP: Nick Blackburn - $4.75 million          RH: Anthony Swarzak - $0.425 million
SP: Kevin Slowey - $3.0 million             RP: Alex Burnett - $0.425 million
                                            RP: [UNKNOWN]
                                            RP: [UNKNOWN]

Francisco Liriano, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, and Jose Mijares are arbitration eligible, so their salaries are estimates. I've also assumed Liriano and Slowey will be starters and Brian Duensing and Anthony Swarzak will be relievers, which are far from givens. Scott Diamond, Phil Dumatrait, Liam Hendriks, Jim Hoey, Jeff Manship, Lester Oliveros, Kyle Waldrop, and Esmerling Vasquez are among the other in-house options currently on the 40-man roster.

Assuming my projected roles above are correct the Twins would be spending about $32 million on pitchers, plus another $2 million on Nathan's buyout, while still needing to fill two bullpen spots. Non-tendering or trading arbitration eligibles like Liriano, Slowey, or Mijares would alter the salary commitments and roles considerably, but for now their projected payroll is around $81 million with shortstop, right field, DH, fourth outfielder, and two bullpen spots empty.

Subtracting that from their presumed $110-$115 million budget would leave approximately $30 million to spend. That's certainly more than they've typically had available most offseasons, but they also have many more significant holes to fill than usual. In other words $30 million is a lot, but not when you need three starting position players and some bullpen help while also trying to upgrade the rotation. It'll be a busy offseason, but don't count on big free agent splashes.