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The MLB Winter Meetings are typically an ice breaker to the offseason, but this year’s event will be held remotely. As if the current economic situation wasn’t clouding the situation enough, it’ll be interesting to see how the event going virtual may slow things down compared to prior years.
Speaking of which, last year’s meetings saw some of the biggest contracts in baseball signed. Stephen Strasberg signed a record-breaking deal for a starting pitcher, seven years and $245 million, only to be bested by Gerrit Cole’s nine-year, $324 million contract the next day. Anthony Redon also inked his seven-year, $245 million deal with the Angels.
The Twins, however, had a quiet 2019 Winter Meetings. The Michael Pineda and Alex Avila signings were made official, but they were originally reported a week prior to the event. Let’s run through who they’ve been liked to thus far this offseason.
Twins Rumors
Darren Wolfson of KSTP has reported that the Twins are interested in Kiké Hernández, Joakim Soria and Corey Kluber (link to Kiké Tweet, Soria Tweet and Scoop podcast).
Hernández’s overall numbers don’t stand out, but he brings one particular skill that could be of great value to the Twins.
https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1315834623042170881
That ability to crush left-handers combined with positional flexibility — he provides depth at virtually every position in the field — means Hernández could solve a lot of the Twins’ problems all on his own.
Soria, a right-handed relief pitcher, has been worth 5.2 WAR the past four seasons, per FanGraphs. That ranks 11th among all relievers, two spots above Taylor Rogers. He’s entering his age-37 season, but this Twins front office has been very open to adding veteran relievers in the past.
Kluber was a leading Cy Young candidate as recently as 2018, but that feels like forever ago now. He’s pitched just 36 2/3 innings over the two seasons since. He’s entering his age-35 season.
Jayson Stark of The Athletic recently noted that every executive he’s spoke with “expects the Twins to spend money.” That leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but it’s a much more positive outlook than some other fanbases are faced with heading into the Winter Meetings.
Catching Up
The MLB offseason is always a bit slow to pick up steam, but this year feels especially sluggish. Just four players have signed contracts with new clubs in excess of $2 million. Here’s that list:
The other significant deals all involved players returning to the teams they finished the 2020 season with. Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman both accepted qualifying offers and Robbie Ray got a one-year, $8 million deal to return to Toronto.
There have also been a couple of trades, as the Angels acquired shortstop José Iglesias for pitchers Garrett Stallings and Jean Pinto while the Reds sent Robert Stephenson and a prospect to Colorado for Jeff Hoffman and a prospect.
But that’s it. There are a lot of moves yet to be made, but whether or not things pick up this week is anybody’s guess.
What About the DH?
It’s possible the fate of the Designated Hitter in the National League is determined this week, though there’s no hard deadline on when the decision needs to be made.
This arguably impacts the Twins as much as any team in baseball, as Nelson Cruz waits to find out whether or not an additional 15 teams may be interested in his services. If so, the likelihood of a team meeting his desire for a two-year contract raise significantly.
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