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Hunter was a fixture -- THE fixture, really -- in Minnesota's run of AL Central dominance from 2002 through 2006, when they won four division titles in five years. He has continued to produce at a consistently excellent level since leaving in '07. There's no denying that he's had a fantastic career and has taken pristine care of his body.
But the No. 1 imperative for the Twins this offseason, if they wanted to meaningfully improve in 2015, was to find ways to prevent more runs. A contact-heavy pitching staff with a league-worst defensive outfield was a recipe for disaster needing to be addressed.
In theory, signing a nine-time Gold Glover would appear to do just that, but Hunter is no longer the asset in the field that he once was. Far from it.
I don't put a ton of stock into defensive metrics but Hunter ranked as the worst right fielder in the majors this year by both DRS (Defensive Runs Saved) and UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating), so it's probably safe to say he wasn't good.
Now, the Twins are evidently going to stick him in right field and move Oswaldo Arcia -- who was already a liability there due to lack of range and bad instincts -- to left, where his weaknesses are magnified by increased action and real estate.
The Twins aren't improving their outfield defense. Astonishingly, they are moving in the opposite direction.
In order for this signing to benefit them, Hunter would have to make up for that negative impact in other ways. I can't see him doing it offensively. This year he posted a .765 OPS with 17 homers and 33 doubles in 142 games, which is impressive for a 39-year-old but only slightly above average for an American League right fielder.
He has remained stunningly effective into his late 30s, but Hunter will turn 40 next July and is at an age where skills can deteriorate quickly. As you may recall, Jim Thome went from being an MVP-caliber hitter at 39 to out of the game at 41. Hunter will still probably bring a decent bat but it's a stretch to expect much more than that.
What it comes down to, then, is a word we'll probably hear tossed around a lot in discussion of this signing: mentorship. The Twins have a young club, and Hunter generally has a reputation for being a good guy who brings energy and positivity to the clubhouse.
I don't know how to weigh that. It's the same kind of stuff we heard from Ron Gardenhire last year in justification of Bartlett's inexplicably long leash, so I tend to downplay it. This notion that attitude is the difference between a 90-win team and a 60-win team is comically ludicrous.
The $10.5 million price tag is high, but that doesn't bother me -- quite to the contrary actually. They had to overpay on a one-year deal to lure their guy away from interested contenders, and for that I commend them.
I just feel like the Twins view Hunter as "their guy" for all the wrong reasons. Why do they need to sign a mentor/leader when they just assembled an entirely new coaching staff? Why add a 39-year-old in the twilight of his career when they're rebuilding? How does it aid Arcia's development to be playing out of position for one season before inevitably moving back to right and needing to re-adapt?
The Twins may still be stuck with the idea of Hunter as the player he used to be, but he's no longer a guy who hits 25 homers, steals 20 bases and tracks down everything in the outfield. He's an aging and declining version of what he was, much like the last round of reunion tour additions.
I can only hope things work out a whole lot better this time, but it certainly doesn't seem like the Twins learned much from that fiasco.
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