Twins Worst Free Agent Signing Ever?

Was Nishioka considered a free agent when he signed with the Twins?

19 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

Seriously? You think Simmons is the worst signing ever, in all of Twins history? That's a pretty sensational proclamation, imo. I think there were worse signings this year alone than Simmons ... and the two other you mentioned I think were far worse.

Yup. This is just recency bias and I get Simmons has been bad, but since he came out against vaccines and made comments against them, people have been a lot more negative towards him. I'm not defending him, he's been bad. I don't see how Simmons signing though could even be considered close to the Nishioka signing. Below are the stats for both. I don't know how you can make a case for SImmons over Nishioka. Nolasco is up there too because of the length of the deal. A 1 year deal can't be the worst ever for me as you can wash yur hands of the player after 1 year.

Simmons                                                                     Nishioka

1 year deal                                                                   3 year deal

116 GP                                                                           71 GP

.221/.286/.275 (.561)                                                    .215/.267/.236 (.503)

OPS+ 58                                                                        OPS+ 41

Nothing about the Simmons signing says it has been worse than Nishioka. Simmons has been very bad too. You could make a case for Nolasco as he was terrible for a team that desperately needed pitching.

I don't know Happ and Shoemaker might have been as bad or worse.  Being dead last in OPS is pretty damming evidence but as stated his defense has been essentially as advertised.  I get the disappointment but not sure he qualifies as worst given he at least has contributed to the success of the team on defense. 

Nolasco was a painful signing and I thought it was a good decision at the time.  That was a signing that was hard to live through.  I don't know if I have ever seen a pitcher give up so many hard hit balls.  He was a disaster IMO.  I don't see how we got much of any value in that deal.

He's not even the worst free-agent signing of this year!  Colome, Happ, and Shoemaker were all worse!

I doubt he'd even be in the top 50 worst FA signings by the Twins.  It's only a one year deal, it's not like we are talking Albert Pujols or Jacoby Ellsbury.

If you go by ranking the FA hitters by their hitting skill, Simmons is near the worst ever. But his strong defense should keep him away from the likes of Nishioka, who not only couldn't hit a lick but also had horrible fielding skills.

At no point was I in favor of adding Andrelton Simmons last offseason, but he has not been the worst free agent signing by a long shot. His defense is decent and his bat poor, but it is pitching that failed the Twins this season. 

Rondell White has to rank up there too

Yeah, I'm not sure Simmons makes the top five worst signings? He's been bad, but Nishioka was worse and was a multi-year deal.

I tend to agree that 1 year deals limit how "bad" it ever is. You're much worse off when you sign a guy to a 3-5 year deal and he bombs than having a bridge signing (which Simmons clearly has been) to a 1 year deal. Nolasco's deal was ugly, though I'm sure I was hopeful at the time. But he was awful and we had to give up on a prospect that we still liked to get rid of his contract. (Meyer busted out too, but at the time it was hard to be happy about seeing him go...was even worse when Icky Nolasco was good for half a season for the Angels...)

1 hour ago, jbooth2367 said:

OPS+ 41

And don't forget that Nishioka literally did not know how to play shortstop at a major league level. Horrible, horrible signing

1 hour ago, redstorm said:

Rondell White has to rank up there too

In hindsight only.   I was pretty pumped at the time.    Lecroy, Tyner and Ford didn't appeal to me much at DH or the 2rd outfield spot.  White was a very good hitter in his career and coming off a .313 avg and .827 OPS year in 2005.  There is a difference between bad signings and good signings that didn't work out.  White was the latter.

Nishioka gets such a bad wrap for being such a cheap signing, but yeah, he was pretty awful. He wasn't expensive, though. For the 2 years he was under contract, the Twins paid $5MM in salary and a $7MM posting fee to negotiate. Nishioka forefitted the 3rd year and option year to return to Japan. It was pretty clear Nishioka's swing was not going to play at the MLB level, and it was also pretty clear he wasn't one of Gardy's Guys so he was also going to be thrown under the bus and backed over a couple times for good measure.

Bleacher Report did an article on the worst FA signings for each team. Twins? Ricky Nolasco and I can't really argue with that.

I dislike Simmons both because of the selfish covid caper and because his affect on the field is highly unattractive. He never acts like he cares, never seems to smile, and just seems like he's counting the dollars per inning and waiting to get back to the hotel. 

Maybe it's not fair to judge a guy based on his demeanor, but I suspect that this is one reason that he gets so much flack. He is an aging player who was a great fielder (and is still good) but was never a good hitter (and is now poor). In other words, about what we should have expected. Surely not even close to the worst ever signing.

Donaldson is a much bigger millstone around our necks with the multi year deal.
 

At least with Simmons it’s one and done at less than half the annual cost as Donaldson. 

Simmons is no where near the Twins worst free agent signings?

The dissing of Simmons is here, is based purely on bias -- I don;t like his style, therefore; he is bad -- grade school prejudice.

He, in his career, had only one season with a goodly number of home runs and one year with a large number of RBIs, but his career batting average , even with this years slump is still .265, and he hit .281/78/92 in 2016/17/18 so stick your childish hatred for him in your back-pocket and stick to the facts.

I personally like his  laissez faire attitude  even over Astudillo's who looks like he is annoyed with some thing, or Polanco who looks like a deer in the head-lights.

With names like Phil Hughes, Matt Capp, Mike Pelfrey, Rondell White, Kendrys Morales, and I cannot even list all the FA BP pickups that we made this year.  I am not a fan of Simmons, but there is a lot to choose from.  

You cannot be serious.  And it is more likely that he is resigned for next year than DFA’d this year.

Some of the players that have been listed were obtained by trade.    I think an international signing like Nishioka shouldn’t count either.  Ricky No-Fastball was given a four year contract and stunk for the two years he played with the Twins.  So - he is indeed the biggest loser of all. 

Colome may have been overall a bad signing but his recent good performances will lead the Twins to pick up his option next year.