Twins

Zack Wheeler is one of the most sought after free agents this off-season and there will be not shortage of teams interested in his services. Minnesota has been connected to Wheeler, but there is no guarantee that he will wind up in a Twins uniform. Let’s dive into the Wheeler market and see what could separate the Twins from his other offers.

Yu Darvish is still out there, and the Twins are still (theoretically) in pursuit. But Jon Heyman reported on Thursday that the right-hander is seeking a deal in the area of seven years and $175 million. Anything approaching those figures would be unrealistic, not to mention irresponsible, for Minnesota to offer.

Conventional wisdom says that if they miss out on Darvish, the Twins will turn to one of the market's other top starters such as Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb or Lance Lynn. But I actually think they might lower their gaze significantly and aim for a starter on a one-year deal. Here's why.

Your favorite writers predict the fate of the American League in 2021.

Your 2019 Minnesota Twins are off to a solid start. As of this writing they are in sole possession of the AL Central lead and own the third best record in all of baseball. Rocco Baldelli has this lineup firing on all cylinders, and one of the most intriguing pieces is the emergence of the long-awaited Byron Buxton. Nineteen games in, we’re left wondering if a jump in the order might make some sense?

You’re not going to win many games in which your starting pitcher goes less than four innings. On the other hand, you’re probably not going to lose many games in which Bobby Wilson hits a home run. Both of those things happened in Wednesday afternoon’s game, but it was the Twins’ bullpen that really turned in the performance that mattered.

You won’t find these guys listed on any of the top free-agent rankings, but here are eight under-the-radar players from this year’s class I think would make sense for the Minnesota Twins.

You win some, you lose some and sometimes you get your butt kicked. Monday night’s game would fall into the third category, though the score was 2-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. Not a good look tonight, but regardless, the Twins still hold the second American League Wild Card spot.

You tired of playing the Yankees? Me too, luckily the Twins can move on physically and emotionally and take on the Chicago White Sox, doesn’t that sound so much better? Now, I actually already previewed this series almost a month ago so I’ll use that as a reference for much of the same material in order to highlight what has changed recently but for the most part, this team still is beatable.

You only get one opportunity to make a first impression. Isn’t that unfortunate? Here’s how Lance Lynn’s tenure with the Twins started: walk, RBI double, walk, strikeout, groundout, walk, grand slam. Five-run first inning. He settled in, the bullpen worked out of jams and the bats got going, but the team’s comeback attempt fell just short.

You might have heard the news already, but Yu Darvish followed Chris Gimenez and signed with the Chicago Cubs. There are many contingencies. But at this point, a trade may make more sense for the Twins than signing any of the remaining free agents. There are several trade targets that should be considered. Today, we consider Astros right-hander Collin McHugh.

There are still the bigger named free agents from this year’s class, Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn and Alex Cobb. Signing any of them would cost the Twins their third draft pick in 2018. There are the third-tier free agent pitchers like Jaime Garcia and Jason Vargas. They won’t cost a draft pick, but there is minimal upside. There are several other free agent starters that are back end of the rotation types at best.

You may or may not have heard, but there is a football game on Sunday late-afternoon in Miami. It will pit the AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs against the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers. As we have for several years now, we have accumulated the Super Bowl predictions of many Minnesota Twins players from the past, the present and the future, coaches, front office members, and more.

You may have missed out on investing in GameStop or AMC over the past week, but there are three Minnesota Twins players worth investing in right now, while their values are at their lowest.