Suspension Shouldn’t Factor into Potential Pineda Reunion

I should premise before you guys blast me, I was trying to lobby for why Pineda should be considered as much a candidate as any other free agent pitcher. That was the purpose

Not to rail against the ramifications of PEDs to be accepted as another offset of the game.

I think he should be a candidate to resign because 1.  He is a good pitcher and 2.  because he wants to be here.

I like all 3 of Pineda, Gibson and Odorizzi.  I hope we sign 1 if not 2 or three.  I could see the offseason going like this.  Odorizzi accepts the Qualifying Offer, Pineda signs a reasonable 2 year 26 million contract because of the Suspension and Gibson resigns on a 2 year contract 26 million w/ incentives and option year with a reachable trigger like 350 innings during the 2 years guarantees third at 15 million, because of his illness.  

Thoughtful article. I think they should try and resign him, although I also think they should make a real run at Cole.

The suspension for the beginning of the season could also benefit Pineda by giving him some extra rest which he seems to need. Plus, I think he feels like he wronged the Twins, so he may come back on a more team friendly deal. Overall, I think he will be a great value considering his talent level and the Twins are going to need to add a lot of starters anyway, so I am all in favor of resigning Pineda. 

He should be ready after his suspension. I recall Santana being able to play in the minors prior to his suspension ending. I also think that they will need someone by that point in the season.  Those aren't my concerns.

My concern would be that he was masking PEDs and those PEDs helped his performance or kept him healthier. Given those concerns I wouldn't pay more than 8 million (essentially 6 million) for his services. 

Does he need to sign a contract to begin serving a suspension? I would guess so. If not he might be better off waiting and seeing who needs pitching at the quarter pole.

Of course Michael Pineda was using steroids. Are we going to feign stupidity? Athletes cheat all the time these days. I'm not going to forgive it or forget it, because it's just a fact of life in a capitalist society. People that grow up desperate for financial security will lie, cheat and steal to get it. Even people that grow up rich will lie, cheat and steal to stay rich.

Now, if we have all thrown off our baby one piece jammies, should the Twins pitch a contract to Pineda? Heck yeah, he was a bargain basement special, and he might go slightly under top dollar to make things right with the Twins. He did put the team in a pickle by getting caught. He needs to learn to build his body legally. It can be done. Meanwhile, Pineda looks great on the mound for this team. Innings eating horse, with ace potential. Keep the man in Minnesota. 

Time for a contrarian.  Pineda lost my respect.  Does anyone not know that they test players now?

Kick him to the curb. He screwed the team over at the worst possible time. He'll be screwing the team over again by not participating for a quarter of the season and the playoffs.

Bad content. Why is it front page?

The suspension should absolutely be a factor. If Pineda misses 40 games next season, that's maybe 8 starts that you have to give to a placeholder starter instead.

Who is going to be plan A out of the gate? Most likely a lesser pitcher than Pineda.

Same thing I've said on this board elsewhere: Pineda is never going to give a team a full season anyway. He's just not built for it. Look at his injury history, including before TJ...

But if the price is right you sign any player that can help your team. In a vacuum, I'd rather have a player whose is scheduled to miss a chunk of the season than a July 1 free agent signee. This is presuming that Pineda is, in fact, post season eligible in 2020.

Pineda should go into free agency with the belief he owes the Twins one year. There's two reasons for this:

1) He was paid millions to rehab last year.

2) He was an important part of the staff and he got caught doping.

He owes the team one full year of 100% honest effort.

I like Big Mike because he pounds the zone. No more pitchers afraid on the mound. My concern with Big Mike is health: I think his body is going to completely fall apart in the near future

  On 9/15/2019 at 1:05 PM, MMMordabito said:

Kick him to the curb. He screwed the team over at the worst possible time. He'll be screwing the team over again by not participating for a quarter of the season and the playoffs.

Bad content. Why is it front page?

Tough Criticism.

I never in the article said that Pineda’s injury history or PEDs should be specifically ignored in the aggregate, but expecting him to trend upwards and not downwards would and should be a realistic possibility coupled with a low price tag, making him a very realistic option for resigning.

There has never been a baseball team to enter the season with 5, and come out with 5 starters with 30+ starts in who knows how long. That’s just reality now. And given three roster spots have come open, the fruits for possibility are endless.

I thought exploring this possibility was intriguing and that I’d get mixed bag reactions. I assumed that readers would enter this with open, impartial view and not be vindictive and resentful. Obviously I was wrong. I apologize if my content wasn’t up to your standards. I’ll try harder next time.

I think the better question is...

What contract would you offer Pineda for 2020?

I guess that does assume everyone would take him on a minimum minor league deal but maybe that isn’t true. My negotiation ceiling is at one year 8 million (effectively 6 million).

Pineda will have to sign a major league contract, and then those games will click off at the beginnng of next season, so he will sit for a good mont-and-a-half. I imagine he can workout, on his own dollar, in Florida at the Twins complex. But would have to spend sometime in the minors upon reinstatement.

The biggest question will be the dollar amount, and if anyone wants to go beyond the season (or maybe just a mutual option...probably for the amount of the "missed games."

Be an interesting gamble to take, and I would like to think that barring other free agent signings, the Twins will have 1-2 spots being filled by newcomers from their system, which factor in two ways...the amount of innings the guys can pitch for the year, as well as the quality of the innings overall. So it could be a good reasonable cost alternative as more arms mature in the Twins organization.

I definitely think they should offer a QA to Odorizzi and offer both Gibson and Pineda 2 year contracts. That way if Odo goes elsewhere they get something for him and I think they can get both Gibby and Pineda on the cheap which if they fail makes it a lot easier to move on from them rather than going out and getting that supposed sure thing and have them fail then trying to hold on to them because of some ridiculous contract. So if they lucked out and got all of those guys back. You go with

Berrios

Odorizzi

Gibson

Sign Wheeler

Pineda, use a new guy like Grateral until Pineda is ready to go.

Then the rest of the depth is there for when the inevitable injury happens. These guys minus Wheeler are all short term contract obligations, none of them are 4 - 5 year contract guys due to their issues. So realistically it fits the Twins mold currently.

Next question, is Pineda eligible for the playoffs next year? Or is being suspended from this year's postseason good enough??

If it was up to me I think the most i would offer him is a one year deal and a team option. He needs to prove he's trustworthy and not about to fall apart based on his "choices" and what he puts into his body. I'm more inclined to move on due to the fact that he's put the team in such a difficult position at this point in the season. And what about the games he's suspended next season and the disruption to the rotation carrying on into 2020? Sometimes you just have to know when to call it quits.

  On 9/15/2019 at 4:51 PM, diehardtwinsfan said:

I would note that the need for a 5th starter at the beginning of the season is somewhat muted. Obviously, you have an issue b/c it's 40 games, but it's really not going to be much of an issue until May timeframe, so if they aren't going after a big name, I'm fine with something like this.

I think it depends on who the Twins resign or trade for. If they don't bring anybody in to fill a slot Pineda's suspension becomes much more painful considering he was arguably the team's best starter the past month and a half.