Twins

This past weekend, several of the top free agent starters received qualifying offers, meaning they'll either come off the market by accepting, or inherit a draft-pick attachment by rejecting. 

One name conspicuously absent from the list: Jon Gray, who is now available in free agency with no strings attached. He'll have plenty of suitors, and the Twins are sure to be among them.

Off the field, pitcher Trevor May likes to create music and spin tracks. However, while on the mound with the Twins this season, this DJ has been unable to find the right rhythm.

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.

This one is from Mark

Not many GMs have had a career arc like Dan Duquette. Despite undeniable success in Montreal and Boston, he spent what would ordinarily be the prime of his career (ages 43-53) unemployed, or at least not employed by a major league team.

There’s no hiding the fact that Danny Santana’s first few weeks as the Twins starting shortstop have been rough.

ESPN’s stats guru Mark Simon tweeted out earlier this week that at -6, Santana’s defensive runs saved total was the worst metric among all qualified defenders. The fact is any defensive metric at this sampling size is not going to be able to give an accurate portrayal of a player’s true performance. After all, by another defensive rating system, total zone, Santana is an above average defender at short (+1). But wait, revised zone rating says he’s one of the worst at converting balls into outs so far this year.

Nick Gordon joined the organization a year ago as their first-round pick. As Parker pointed out earlier this year, the Twins have gotten a lack of production from their shortstops - 28th of the 30 teams - over the last dozen years. The hope in drafting Gordon was that taking the best available player would also fill an area of great need.

Gordon used his professional debut at short-season Elizabethton to propel himself up the rankings, checking in on MLB’s prospect ranking as the fifth-rated shortstop prospect in all of baseball. Two of the four rated higher than him (Correa and Lindor) are currently in the big leagues. So is Gordon still a Top 3 shortstop?