Two Non-Tender Bats for the Minnesota Twins

At this point, we don’t know whether these players will be tendered contracts, but it stands to reason that both Hunter Renfroe and Cody Bellinger could find themselves on the open market. The former played 2022 with the Milwaukee Brewers and would be searching for his fifth team in five years should he be sent out. The latter is a former Rookie of the Year and MVP award winner that has fallen from grace for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Looking at the 2020 pandemic season as an outlier, Renfroe has been a solid major-league slugger. He’s consistently posted an OPS+ well above league average, and you can bank on him hitting nearly 30 home runs during any given season. He doesn’t have a great approach at the plate, and with how few walks he takes, it’s no wonder why he routinely struggles to reach even a .300 OBP.

Seeing his projected arbitration number above $11 million, it’s understandable why the Brewers may look to trade or simply unload him. That’s a hefty price to pay for a borderline outfielder with a pretty one-dimensional set of skills.

In Bellinger’s case, you have a player that’s projected to get something like $18 million through the arbitration process. Since winning an MVP in 2019, Bellinger seems to have lost all ability to produce. He has dealt with injuries along the way, but this is a 27-year-old with a .648 OPS across the past three seasons.

The Dodgers would love to have the 112 OPS+ Bellinger posted in 2020 back, but he’s fallen off an absolute cliff since. In 2021 he was virtually unplayable and looking at a .210/.265/.389 slash line last year as a positive development tells you everything you need to know.

There’s no denying that Bellinger has the ability, but unlocking it again and figuring out how to get him right is tough when also paying him nearly $20 million. He was once a consistent power-hitting threat with amazing plate discipline and solid skills in both the outfield and at first base. He still has never lost the defensive ability, but both the production and approach offensively have become all but non-existent.

He does seem like the type of player a team would love to work on as a reclamation project. He’s still young and, at the right price, could have plenty of appeal for an organization in the middle ground. Minnesota would provide less scrutiny than Los Angeles, and being able to unlock his potential could give the Twins quite the come-up.

Both players should have no problem finding suitors on the open market, but maybe Derek Falvey and Thad Levine would have an interest in dealing for one before they get there.