mikecgrimes

It seems to me Darvish uses twitter in an odd way. If he thinks other teams are going to up there offer because the Brewers made an offer he's wrong. If Brewers offer is 6 years 125-135 other teams aren't gonna care and neither is Darvish. Nothings gonna happen until someone offers an extra $25 million plus or until June.

Here's a thought if he signs in the middle or end of spring he ramps his innings up as if it's spring the first 3 or 4 starts and maybe doesn't run into postseason problems. I'm guessing he won't lose any money "holding out" a few weeks, and if I'm the team and think inning count was a factor in the postseason I'm on board with the plan.

When he gets an offer his agent is willing to accept. Just because you can beat another teams offer doesn't mean you've matched his price. I'm shocked how low the #'s are. He's not a top of the line ace but even so the way pitcher inflation has been going it felt like 200 million would be the number. If he signs for more then 2 years there's a very good chance he will never see another huge contract. The difference between 120 million and say 160 million is way to huge to care about reporting on time. He's not the only one getting low balled.

Give him 6 and 150 and be done with it

If I'm guessing the latest I'm going with July, maybe not specifically on Darvish but at this point the possibility that at least one of the top 4 starting pitchers takes it into the regular season doesn't seem unlikely. I think were to the point where common sense is out the window. We've seen it with guys like Kendrick Morales. The other thing that seems possible is one year deals as teams that chance and miss next years free agent class will have money to spend on 2nd and 3rd tier options.

I really thought the dominoes would start to fall with the Cole trade. One thing to worry about if this lingers into the early portion of spring training is another team suffering an injury and getting desperate. At this point if the offers aren't in the ballpark of what was expected whats the incentive for settling when that will always be an option.

To me it's about the 1 run saves? a guy with an ERA of 5.50 is gonna save the vast majority of 2 and 3 run games, heck they would also save a solid majority of 1 run games. If you think a certain lesser relief pitcher will handle the pressure better then others that makes sense, but if the heart of the order is coming up in a 1 run game I would hope you go with your best available option. Who knows Rodney might pitch differently with the Twins outfield defense and not try to be to cute and get a few more strikeouts and become a top option. The same could be said for Reed or Duke.

I guess, but I'm already in print the playoff tickets mode.

I had been so focused on the top 3 starting options that I didn't even realize Lynn was a solid option too. As much as I think the Twins are probably fine with just one you tend to be forced to use even your 8th option for a handful of starts. Much like what we've done with the bullpen if you can make that top prospect fall deeper on the depth chart it's never a bad thing. If you end up being able to count on Tyler Jay or Stephen Gonsalves they will show you that without having to force them into the spot. As much as the price may be right in my mind for Darvish it might be even more right for Cobb and Lynn.

I'd rather have Rodney and reed then Reed and rodneys money back. Having an extra above average bullpen option (rodney) is valuable even if he's more comparable to beslile then we would like.

I don't get why we care about term, of course we would all rather sign Darvish to a 3 year 72 million dollar deal then 6 year 144 but we wouldn't be able to get 3 and 72 it would be more like 3 and 100 getting 3 extra years for 44 while not ideal might pay off and might not but it's only 44 additional dollars no matter what the actual structure of the contract is. The dollar amounts thrown around are not so crazy that we should be afraid, Darvish isn't Kershaw or Santana in his prime but based on the contracts thrown around in the past you would think it would take 200-250 to get this done and it sounds like it will be nowhere near that. I'm already pumped and ready for the season to start with the Reed signing, lets finish off free agency with a bang.

It's possible the Twins have already made a sure thing offer once the market price for pitchers is established, but until someone signs it isn't yet 100% clear. It sure feels like this is about to happen with the only thing standing in the way of people's optimism being lack of past history with the Twins making big free agent moves.

I don't really care who closes so long as Addison gets the outs that matter more often. Let Rodney have have the 2 and 3 run saves. If he blows those he won't have much claim to the spot. I don't really think it matters if they go back on their word to a 41 year old, but it's also not going to be much of a problem to live up to that word to the point that it creates no issues if things change.

If I'm darvish I probably demand a move like this. It really feels like it might in a sense be a package deal. Prior to this news I might have thought 25-33% chance of darvish now I'm more like 50-75.

I'm of the belief that bullpen depth increases the value of every member of the bullpen by allowing better situational matchups for everyone. For that reason I was probably more sold on the Duke and Rodney signings then most. This is huge, now if we get one of those starters i almost think we are the division favorites.