Top 50 MLB Free Agents for 2022: Who May the Twins Target This Winter?

Sounds like the Mets tagged Syndergaard with a qualifying offer. I think that should pretty much eliminate him from consideration. To me, it wouldn’t be wise to give up a draft pick for a guy on a bounce back deal. 
 

I think they should focus their free agency energies on one of the shortstops and work the trade market for pitching. 

A dream and not reality since I know the Twins way.....

Any one of the 3 S's at shortstop, Seager, Story, or Semien.

For the rotation all 3, Ray, Gausman and bring back Pineda.

In LF one of these 3, Marte, Castellanos or Bryant.

Ok, I woke up now and the dream is over.

If the Twins will sign Seager and Scherzer, I'll buy season tickets...and I live in North Carolina.

Twins FO will be out of excuses if they don't sign a couple of these guys.

Lots of directions to go.  Remember two years ago, or three maybe, when out of all their FA escapades they latched on to Donaldson to play 3B.

Not many players think of coming to Minnesota as an upgrade, whether late in their career or not. 

We will get what we get and hope they can sign Buxton.

22 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

My dream is to sign any of the top 5 SS free agents - knowing full well that the budget remaining for pitching will suffer. Please take advantage of this elite class. 

My dream is to sign a cheap SS and spend the remaining budget on pitching.

So many teams have money to spend this offseason.  I read that Miami, Mariners, Giants, Detroit, and even Cleveland has little money committed to next year and beyond.  Knowing this I think the Twins will sign Pineda, and another starter like Matz, Duffy, Smyly.  I would like to put Gray in this list but agree he is trending toward staying in Colorado.  But someone in the 10-14 million per season range.  

The third starter will come via trade.  I do not expect us to like any third pitcher we sign so i will go with trade for the last starter.  but if we do sign a third starter it will be someone like Fiers, Rich Hill again, Lester, Quintana, I wonder if Odorizzi is available in trade?  

on SS it would be nice to see us sign a good SS.  I was hoping we could get someone like Chris Taylor but he is now a known quantity and his price went up with his post season.  so I have us either resigning Simmons or signing VIllar 

The bullpen is a crap shoot of who they will sign.  so I wont bother for now.  I do think they have a good pen going into next year as is so its not like they have to do anything but if they can sign an upgrade at a value price they will do it.  I doubt they will pay market price for anyone in the pen since they have been good at finding value relievers.  

And if all goes well we extend Buxton.  

I think this would be a good offseason for us too.  

The Twins rarely sign "sure thing" free agents, if there is such a thing. So pretty much anyone in Top 10-15 or so is more pipe dream. 

These signings along with a healthy Buxton and Garver, progress from Kirilloff into a + MLB hitter, Polanco stays productive and add:

 #18 Rodriguez,  #35 Cobb, #42 Knebel, SP via trade and a new answer at SS

Could well be a dream of the Twins back in contention...

Our main holes should be plugged via trade. #1 and maybe #2 SP, LF/ Buxton and SS via trade. If Marte, Rodriguez, Kneble or lower tier SS could be had for a bargain pursue it. The best bet from your list is Pineda. Nobody wanted him at deadline and there is a good relationship between the 2 so an agreement makes sense.  Tepera  also makes sense but he's not on your list. 

I find it hard to rate like you've done that takes a lot of work so thanks. Of course I don't agree with all the rankings and that's easy to do when you don't have to start from scratch. The biggest takeaway I have is that the twins based on history get two of the players in your 50 and they're probably going to be in the range of 25 to 35. Who they are I don't know but I think that they will spend money but not going to spend outrageous money and I don't blame them. I see the top shortstops aging and moving to second base. The best thing we can do is get a young shortstop from our own prospects and also avoid old arms like Verlander and Scherzer. We need to build for more than one year.

Correa (#1) or Seager (#2) would be nice but shocking and I have no expectations there will even be any conversations with their agents.

Semein (#4), Ray (#10), and Stroman (#11) will be contacted and one of these would be sweet. Stroman might be possible. Similarly, Baez (#12), Marte (#16), and Iglesias (#19) are fits for the Twins and would be excellent signings. 

The players that seem more likely to be courted are: Rodriguez (#18), Canha (#36), Pineda (#39), and the relief pitchers ( Knebel (#42), Graveman (#43), McHugh (#46)).

The free agents I hope to see in a Twins uniform (within reasonable budget) are Marte, Galvis, Adrianza, Rodriguez, Pineda, Iglesias, and Yates. Stroman would be a sleek pickup at the cost of others.

 SIGN BUCK ! 

Remember that free agency is kind of like the anti-draft, especially for top tier free agents. Obviously teams can make offers, but the player chooses the team instead of the other way around. Top tier players will almost always choose teams that are likely to contend during the upcoming season and/or teams that are willing to overpay. The Twins are neither, and factoring in the Twins' history of rarely pursuing such players it is very unlikely that we will land a high-impact player via free agency this off-season. I expect that the front office's strategy regarding free agents will be to rely on our scouts to find and sign someone who is undervalued and on our coaches to help him perform above expectations.

2 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

Remember that free agency is kind of like the anti-draft, especially for top tier free agents. Obviously teams can make offers, but the player chooses the team instead of the other way around. Top tier players will almost always choose teams that are likely to contend during the upcoming season and/or teams that are willing to overpay. The Twins are neither, and factoring in the Twins' history of rarely pursuing such players it is very unlikely that we will land a high-impact player via free agency this off-season. I expect that the front office's strategy regarding free agents will be to rely on our scouts to find and sign someone who is undervalued and on our coaches to help him perform above expectations.

I hate reality when it comes to the Twins adding players. 

3 hours ago, Nine of twelve said:

Remember that free agency is kind of like the anti-draft, especially for top tier free agents. Obviously teams can make offers, but the player chooses the team instead of the other way around. Top tier players will almost always choose teams that are likely to contend during the upcoming season and/or teams that are willing to overpay. The Twins are neither, and factoring in the Twins' history of rarely pursuing such players it is very unlikely that we will land a high-impact player via free agency this off-season. I expect that the front office's strategy regarding free agents will be to rely on our scouts to find and sign someone who is undervalued and on our coaches to help him perform above expectations.

I guess what you are saying is that everyone should focus on trades and look to sign some players that are in the #30-?? range. Is this fair? Do you have any ideas for trades or viable free agents?

I would recommend looking at the bottom 50 and below because that for sure is where the Twins look.  They sign players no one else wants on the cheap and hope they produce.  That's been the Twins way for decades.  Why should this year be any different?  Great article though.  Well done.

Rodriquez was tagged with a QO.  That probably puts him out of our price range.

It's likely that Ray, Syndegaard, and Rodriguez are off the table as the received the QO. I think they all re-sign or accept.

That leaves Stroman with quite a bit of separation at the top.

MLBTR is really down on FA contracts this year, with Stro @ 5/$110, Rodriguez @ 6/$70, and Gray on the Ervin Santana contract.

The ChiSox not offering a QO to Rodon is concerning. I'd tkae a flyer for one year around $15mil, but that likely won't be enough. 

1 hour ago, Minny505 said:

It's likely that Ray, Syndegaard, and Rodriguez are off the table as the received the QO. I think they all re-sign or accept.

That leaves Stroman with quite a bit of separation at the top.

Yep and just think about the competition for him.  The Astros and Dodgers each have almost $90M expiring and that does not count the players the Dodgers got after the deadline.  The Mets have $75M expiring.  The Mariners are siting at something like $60M in salary including their arbitration players and they looked like a team about to enter a window of contention.  Plus, their FO has already said they are looking to spend.  Then, we have the Yankees who have not been nearly as relevant in the post season the last decade.  They could go nuts too.  Cleveland could spend $75M too if they were so inclined.

8 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

I would recommend looking at the bottom 50 and below because that for sure is where the Twins look.  They sign players no one else wants on the cheap and hope they produce.  That's been the Twins way for decades.  Why should this year be any different?  Great article though.  Well done.

Agree. Twins Way means they start searching in the hospital wards, then the Old Folks Home, and eventually rattle all the dumpsters looking for anybody who still owns a baseball glove. I'd prefer they focus on giving our own minor league players a shot at the Bigs.

17 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

Javy Baez (4/$80) might be in the realm of possibilities.

That's a bargain price for Baez. Yes, please.

I think they're wrong - he'll get $100M

21 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

It’s no secret I’m a proponent of going big signing a SS. But now that I see projected crowd sourced salaries on FanGraphs, I think we will be outbid on AAV and years. Trevor Story (projected 6/$150 on FG) and Javy Baez (4/$80) might be in the realm of possibilities. As far as Seager is concerned, who is my dream scenario, I think he ends up in Yankee pinstripes. We knew they were looking for SS at the trade deadline… That sweet LH swing with that short RF porch is a match made in heaven. 

I am with you in terms of prioritizing a SS but reality set in when I started looking who had money to spend and how much.  The national radio shows on satellite radio are buzzing about Seager going to the Yankees so I think you nailed that one.  There are some SS prospects that are blocked.  Maybe we can trade for one.

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

The Yankees have two very good SS prospects.....and need a CF........IF the Twins make the mistake of dealing Buxton, I'd be aiming for one of them and a pitcher from the yankees

I noticed that too.  Peraza is already at AAA but Volpe looks good.  They are definitely trade bait of they sign Seager.  They have not been a big factor lately.  Will they be impatient and look to build through free agency or are they learning that approach is not all that effective even with their budget.  In other words, do you think they sign one of the big FA SSs?