Two right-handed relievers off the market...

[Parker Hageman]

Both for under a million bucks. Brad Lidge goes to the Nationals on a one-year, $1M deal while the Indians sign Dan Wheeler to a minor league deal. Unless the Twins have secret plans for someone like Todd Coffey, today is a big miss in my eyes.

[Seth Stohs]

I agree... no one answered my quesiton on Twitter, but how does Joe Nathan get 2 years and $14 million and Brad Lidge gets 1 year and $1 million. I don't know which one is right, but the difference isn't that big. Injury risk for both is similar. Anyone have any thoughts?

[Parker Hageman]

Given his second-half performance, I believe Nathan is likely in position for a decent season. His velocity was getting back up there while he had regained the bite on his slider. Still, based on how the market played out, $7 million wound up being pretty steep. In Lidge's case, he finished the season strong in September but his velocity had dropped to below 90 on average and greatly favored his slider - throwing it 70% of the time. For someone with a rash of arm ailments, turning to a slider that frequently can led to more injuries. But for a million bucks, it's worth it to see what Lidge can provide as he has been very good when healthy. If I was a contending team in need of a closer, I would have turned to Nathan over Lidge.

[John Bonnes]

Heh. The Twins already signed their low-risk bullpen arm: Zumaya. Heh.

 

Lidge hasn't bee "right" in years, and his walk rate even in limited time last year was through the roof. Nathan looked like his old self from June through Sept. They might both have a similar injury risk, but the risk of Lidge being ineffective looks a lot higher. (Not that I wouldn't love to have signed him.)

 

Lord, but these signings are making the Twins looks pennywise and poundfoolish.

 

Did we get definitive word on how much Wheeler signed for? As we saw with Francis, it doesn't mean it was a cheap contract just because is was a minor league deal. If it really was just $1M, how little must the #Twins have offered him?

[Nick Nelson]

The injury concerns surrounding Lidge are far more significant than Nathan. I'm not sure the Twins ever made an offer to Wheeler.

[Parker Hageman]

And now Chad Qualls is off the market and Darren Wolfson says the Twins ain't talking to Todd Coffey either. Given that the Twins have roughly $1.4M under the ~$100M budget (and no, they are not obligated to spend it), I'm surprised that there hasn't been more interested in acquiring a right-handed arm in the event that Zumaya's arm assplodes again. They do have plenty of young potentially talented arms in Oliveros, Burnett, Burton, Grey, etc, etc, but one would think they would be looking for more of a sure-thing, particularly given how far the market has dropped too.