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Cody Pirkl

Entry posted by Cody Pirkl ·

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Tonight we received the news that Eric Thames had signed with the Washington Nationals for the VERY reasonable price of $4m. Thames put together a slash line of .247/346/.505 last season, as well as 1.9 fWAR. He was likely a secondary option for the Minnesota Twins this offseason, who in my opinion very much still in need of a corner infielder after seeing C.J. Cron sign with the Tigers for $6.1m. First base was always a position the Twins were likely to wait on filling, as there were plenty of options on the market. Thames could have admirably platooned with his .877 OPS against righties. As somebody who had already moved on from Donaldson, I wondered why the Twins would allow Thames to go for such a cheap price. Shortly thereafter, I got my answer.

 

According to Darren Wolfson, the Twins do not appear to be engaged in the corner infield market.

 

 

In my opinion, there are two reasons this may be the case.

 

The first is the most likely in my opinion. Josh Donaldson remains on the free agent market. It may be fair to say that the Washington Nationals are out of the bidding war after signing Starlin Castro, Asdrubal Cabrera, and finally Eric Thames. The bigger issue however is the Atlanta Braves involvement. Donaldson has grown up in the area and has been up front about his desire to return in 2020. The last update on the situation had all teams offering 4 years for undisclosed amounts to lock Donaldson up. As we've seen this offseason however, the price may become a moot point to some extent. In fact, it has now been reported that Donaldson may not have any interest in signing with the Twins at all.

 

 

As I had worried throughout this entire saga, Donaldson may have just been using the Twins to bulk his offer up from the Braves. This report also explains that the Twins are exploring other options, which is perplexing given the above report from Wolfson. It appears the Twins aren't willing to let go of hope of signing Donaldson after making no progress on the "impact" talent acquisition mentioned at the start of the offseason.

 

The second scenario for the Twins passing over the corner infield free agent market is a more troubling one for me. There have been rumblings of the Twins using Marwin Gonzalez as a full time first baseman this winter, and they could be content with their internal options rather than spending in free agency. I had actually just written a blog on Marwin Gonzalez having a better year offensively in 2020 citing a full spring training and hopefully less injuries. I was not advocating however that he be given a full time role as a corner infielder. With league average wRC+ coming in at 100, Marwin was 7% worse in 2019 with 93. The bar to clear for "league average" on offense is higher for corner infield as a position that typically houses premier hitters. Even if Marwin rebounds to a bit above league average on offense in 2020, they will still likely have an offensively below average first baseman. On top of that, he would no longer be utilized so widely on the field, which has been his main source of value in his career. They will essentially be taking value away from the roster to fill a spot that they could have easily done more effectively in free agency.

 

Regardless of reason, the thoughts above remain true. If the Twins don't sign another corner infielder and get stuck with internal options for a premier position like 1B, this will be yet another failure this offseason. Unlike with Bumgarner and Wheeler, this will have been an avoidable one. The offense will no doubt regress to some extent. The rotation is already an injury away from being a mess again. Every roster spot that we put a bandaid on instead of seriously addressing is another opportunity for the teams in the AL Central. If the Donaldson decision is holding up other deals, it's time to come to a conclusion one way or another. If the Twins front office believes they have their man already for corner infield, I seriously doubt it, but we'll have to wait and see. One thing is for certain though. Sitting here in January coming off 101 wins with over $10m less in payroll and this roster is not what I had pictured in October.

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High heat

I think more and more that the Twins are set on moving Sano to 1B giving him a full spring training to work on his footwork and defensively there.

 

Maybe they look at a middle infielder and move either Polanco or Arraez to 3B

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Dave Overlund

I really don't understand moving Sano to first base without having a solid plan at third base. Sure, if there is a prospect/free agent ready to take over, then explore it. 

 

Last time Sano moved positions it was a disaster that set his development back. He seems comfortable, at the plate and in the field, when he is at third base. 

 

Further, this isn't beer league softball. Playing first base is not as easy as we would like to think. 

‍♂

 

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Cody Pirkl

 

I think more and more that the Twins are set on moving Sano to 1B giving him a full spring training to work on his footwork and defensively there. Maybe they look at a middle infielder and move either Polanco or Arraez to 3B

There are plenty of internal moves that we can make. My issue is that we're failing to make moves over and over again and settling for what's left at just about every position we have to fill other than the Romo and Avila signings. At some point this "creativity" is going to catch up to us despite how well it worked last season.

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Cody Pirkl

 

I really don't understand moving Sano to first base without having a solid plan at third base. Sure, if there is a prospect/free agent ready to take over, then explore it. 

 

Last time Sano moved positions it was a disaster that set his development back. He seems comfortable, at the plate and in the field, when he is at third base. 

 

Further, this isn't beer league softball. Playing first base is not as easy as we would like to think. 

‍♂

Marwin is a solid 3B on defense but I do agree, I wouldn't expect Sano to move to 1B and be even league average right away. I think he can be down the line but doing so now just to slide Marwin into a full time 3B role would be pretty weak. We'd be left with a likely below average first baseman on defense, a below average 3B on offense, and would sacrifice Marwin's versatility that allows us to give guys off days and cover up injuries. And for what? A few million dollars?

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Cody Pirkl

 

At this point 1B belongs to Larnach/Kiriloff/Rooker/Raley.  I am fine with that.  We have gone beyond the guys I care about so lets see what our highly rated minor league prospects can do.

Larnach has less than 200 innings at AA and has 0 innings played at 1B in his professional career. Kirilloff missed a good amount of time last year and had a down year due to wrist issues, it was also his first season playing just part time at 1B, Raley only played 44 games last season and probably needs to start the year at AAA. Rooker looks MLB ready as a hitter but he's no longer a first baseman. Rolling into the season trusting a premium position to any of them would be rolling the dice bigtime.

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beterday

The problem I have with this discussion is do we ever here the other side, or what is really going on?  Joe Mauer contract was 23 million for 8 years, total of 184 million over those 8 years when he was young and that was looked on as a contract that limited the Twins options for years.  Donaldson, old, end of career and we, I know I do, want management to jump at 28.5 over 4, 110 million?  How have the "misses" from previous free agent attempts turned out well for those team?  The success of a management is more than the moves they do make; it has to look at the mistakes they avoided.  Also, at what point does money just not matter?  I got up this morning to go start my wife's car and it was 20 below zero.  I know Donaldson will live on the road 9 months of the year, but Atlanta is home.  Does an extra couple million on top of 110 really matter?   

 

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Rosterman

I would be more than content on a rotation of Sano, Gonzalez and Garver between first and third. Mitch Garver only played in 93 game last season. 93! and only 73 as catcher (Castro did 72). I doubt Garver will be pushed to 120 or above in 2020. The hope is that Jeffers may be fast tracked and become a aparttime catcher in 2021 with Twins having to move Garver somewhere by 2022 - either at first base of DH depending on what is done with Sano. By then we also will know what we have in Kirilloff, Rooker, Lewis and see if Gordon is still around.

 

Is Garver a safer bet first than behind-the-plate? Can he give us better than adequate defense, but still keep his catching skills top notch? That is the question.

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