Twins Tender Contracts to Seven Arbitration Candidates

[Ted Schwerzler]

Friday was the next key moment of the offseason as Major League teams needed to make decisions on their arbitration eligible candidates. Minnesota had already handled some of these situations, but the front office handed out contracts to seven players prior to the 7pm deadline.

 

Image courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Although the morning on Friday was spent unveiling the Minnesota Twins new uniforms, the evening was about exactly who would be playing in them. With a full 40-man roster, the Twins had seven arbitration-eligible candidates left to make decisions on.

Earlier in the afternoon, they avoided a decision (or, very clearly made their decision) on third baseman Gio Urshela when they sent him to the Los Angeles Angels for Single-A right-handed pitcher Alejandro Hidalgo. Urshela was set to make nearly $10 million this year, and with Jose Miranda looking like the Opening Day third basemen, there simply was not enough playing time to be had for that kind of investment.

Before Friday’s deadline, Danny Coulombe, Jake Cave, and Cody Stashak were all dealt with. Each was arbitration-eligible, currently have been left out of the Twins plans in 2023. Emilio Pagan’s outcome was left until the last minute, and although there was talk of a team-friendly extension, nothing ultimately came to fruition.

That left Tyler Mahle, Caleb Thielbar, Jorge Lopez, Luis Arraez, Jorge Alcala, and Chris Paddack, and Emilio Pagan as the only players yet outstanding. Earlier this week Nick Nelson went through the looming decisions for Derek Falvey and Thad Levine, ranking them in order. Urshela checked in at the top and ultimately was the choice for someone else. Of those remaining, only Paddack found himself with a bit of hand-wringing.

As Nick pointed out, it’s a wait-and-see scenario for the former San Diego Padres starter. When dealing Taylor Rogers and Brent Rooker to the Padres prior to Opening Day, Pagan was likely seen as more of a throw-in for the bullpen. Paddack, and his additional year of control, was the prize. After undergoing Tommy John surgery, a second one at that, it remains to be seen what type of pitcher returns, and when.

MLB Trade Rumors has Paddack projected at just under a $2.5 million deal for 2023, hardly a substantial amount of a good starter. The problem is that Minnesota will have a dead spot on their 40-man roster until spring training. They can and will place Paddack on the 60-day injured list at that point, but are limited in their construction by one roster spot until then.

Coming over from the Reds, Mahle was the Twins prize at the trade deadline and should be expected to be relied upon heavily in the rotation this season. New head trainer Nick Paparesta will look to get and keep him healthy, but Mahle has the makings of a breakout ace if he can get there. Like Mahle, Lopez was acquired at the deadline and left a Baltimore team that he represented as an All-Star closer during the Midsummer Classic.

Since returning to professional baseball, Thielbar has been among the most overlooked yet dominant lefties in the game. He’s not exciting, but it doesn’t matter when he’s getting the job done. Rocco Baldelli will hope to have Alcala be the arm he was undoubtedly counting on in the bullpen last season, but a full year off makes that a game of wait-and-see.

There was certainly questions as to whether Pagan would be retained after a tumultuous start to his Minnesota tenure. After working with Twins coaching a bit more as the season went on, Pagan was able to find success to the tune of a 2.16 ERA in his final 16 2/3 innings. The Twins front office did work to hammer out a multi-year deal but ultimately just agreed on avoiding a non-tender. The stuff has always profiled well as evidenced by a strong K/9. Presumably, the sides will stick it out for a few months into 2023 to see if there's a turnaround.

Rounding out the group was the easiest one of the bunch to call. Arraez is fresh off his first batting title, won a Silver Slugger award, was named an All-Star, and has his sights set on a Gold Glove next.

As a reminder, the arbitration deadline is one in which Minnesota had to decide if they would tender a player a contract or not. The sides will then exchange numbers. If the number is agreed to, that will be reported and updated below. If the sides remain apart on their valuations, a hearing could take place at a later date.

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[Nashvilletwin]

100% expected. Had them tendering all eight, so the trade of Urshela was the only mild surprise.

Four of the tendered players were pitchers the Twins acquired in trades.  For each, some of the “value” was the tender option so that each could be on the club through at least 2023.  So the FO doubles down on their trades even though all four have been major disappointments to date.

We shall see if any of them meaningfully contribute to the Twins. I’m pulling for each of them - but, to be honest, I’ve got the under on all four. Hope I’m wrong.

[mikelink45]

Not what I would have done, but let's see how it plays out.

 

[DocBauer]

I understand Pagan has velocity and high K numbers. I understand he was working on a different pitch, or a variation of an existing one, and posted better numbers over the last couple of months when in lower pressure situations. But he remains, at best, a 1-2 inning middle reliever who has some of MLB  WORST performance numbers for 4yrs running!

I would have let him loose last July. Right now, I'd move him for anything I could get, if that's possible. $3M plus for a live but poorly performing arm in middle relief? Come on FO! Stop being stubborn! You should be smarter than this. Move him or cut him and use his $3M towards a better ballplayer and use your system and FA to fill the middle inning role. An expensive middle reliever who K's batters but still allows a HR virtually every other time out just isn't valuable.

[DJL44]

Why would anyone want to sign Pagan to a multi-year deal? Glad he turned them down.

[Pat]

Pagan? Really?

[JDubs]

There's a chance they just signed Pagan with the intention of trading him, and I cling to that sliver of hope because I would rather trot out a local high school pitcher who wins a drawing than I would Pagan.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

14 minutes ago, JDubs said:

There's a chance they just signed Pagan with the intention of trading him, and I cling to that sliver of hope because I would rather trot out a local high school pitcher who wins a drawing than I would Pagan.

[Karbo]

I'm with many others who can't believe they kept Pagan.

[jmlease1]

Other than the Pagan tender, everything else is fine here. I think the Twins are a little lost on him, convincing themselves that with just a little tweaking and work they can get his stuff to play up and he'll be effective. But he's only had one truly good season, and he's had too many poor ones. It doesn't matter that his K/9 is elite, because he can't do it consistently and he's become very hittable. His WHIP has been going in the wrong direction for years now.

Sunk cost fallacy. Some times you just need to move on. Not sure they're going to be able to get anyone to bite on a trade, and now they're committing more money to him. Sorry, I don't want him on this roster, no matter what leverage role it is. He just can't perform consistently enough, there are better options out there, and just having him on the team is giving fans PTSD. 

[Riverbrian]

Baldelli in an interview after one of the 4 Guardian game Pagan meltdowns. He defended Emilio (Manager should defend publicly IMO). I don't recall the exact words but I remember how I perceived the comments he made. Rocco seemed to say that all indications were that Pagan should be performing better based on the quality of pitches and everything they use for such assessments. He seemed to be at a loss as to why it was going horribly wrong but it left me feeling that they were standing behind him (a manager should stand publicly behind his guys).   

They stuck with Pagan throughout the struggles last year so I'm not shocked that they are still sticking with him as we roll into 2023. 

I think it's important to note. This isn't just a manager and a single opinion from that manager. The Twins organization employs a lot of people from the POBO, to the GM to the Manager to the pitching coach(coaches) to the scouts, not to mention a whole bunch of analysts who are paid money to analyze. 

I'm glad they have a full staff of people doing what they do for better information in a competitive business. The information should be helpful most of the time.

However... obviously not all of the time as Pagan demonstrates to them and all of us. If the information was correct all of the time, Pagan would have been good. 14M would have been a bargain for Sano, Kepler would make people happy, Nick Anderson would have been on our disabled list last year.   

The actual performance on the field HAS TO MEAN MORE than whatever information they are getting. The players that they stick with while they are struggling and are what takes a team down. Sticking with Pagan struggling to the tune of him blowing 4 games against Cleveland by himself ended up being a major factor in our sitting out the playoffs. 

I'm tired of playing the guy they THINK will be better. I would rather that they play the guy who is actually playing better. 

Pagan is back... They better be right and if they are not... They need to be quicker to the waste basket. 

[Heiny]

All comments so far concern Pagan. How about that?  LOL.  Yeah, Pagan was very dissappointing last year.  But I thought that Rocco's use of him was even more disturbing.  I'm not sure what the Twins see in him,  but they must think they can fix him.  I hope they are right early.  Or if they can't fix him early then dump him early, because if it is going to be like last year,  he will be a wasted roster spot.  I hope they're right.  I'd love to see him succeed in a big way, just to see the comments on TD!  LOL.

[Whitey333]

If pagan is with the Twins when the season starts, it's time to start thinking about replacing this FO.  

[DJL44]

Arraez is the only player on this list they should pursue a long-term contract with. Even then I think I'd do a Brian Dozier type deal that only buys out a year or two after arbitration.