One thing I'd add: I'm not recommending going all-in on Ervin Santana or anything, just that he's the kind of guy the Twins should be making competitive offers for. Same for Anibal Sanchez last year, and maybe Homer Bailey next year.

 

Don't know about Asdrubal Cabrera, we need position players too but he seems like he may have peaked... at least we will have more time to see him before he hits FA.

What I gather from this is, we can over spend and still not end up at where our payroll should be. This has always been my stance. if I was to be the GM and found out that I needed to overspend to land some top talent then I would. You should set a cap for the team not each player. If you over spend on a guy to get what you want, who cares?! You got what you wanted without raising your cap! Plan out 100,000,000 for the team and spend what it takes to get players like Tanaka here. Don't go cheap or scrape the bottom line and hope they choose you. Pay the extra million or 2 more than the other team or give the extra year on the deal to make it happen. That way, you don't end up at spring training explaining to fans that players like other organizations better or they went for more than you thought they were worth.

 

Sorry for the rant, but my goodness, it's frustrating.