Jeremy Nygaard

Strasburg with a 70 fastball is still a legitimate front end pitcher. Strausburg - out of college - with his fastball/slider combo was an once a decade prospect.

The Twins completed a series victory in Cleveland and returned home to rest before welcoming the Colorado Rockies and then the Kansas City Royals to Target Field. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next six days as rain is forecasted nearly every day while the Twins are back in town. Though the Twins were off, there were plenty of transactions throughout the system. The Red Wings welcomed RP Michael Tonkin (outrighted) and SS Engelb Vielma (from AA). They released 1B/OF Ben Paulsen. The Lookouts added OF Ryan Strausborger (activated and sent from AAA) and 3B TJ White (activated). Fort Myers added OF Tanner English from Chattanooga and released P Chris Anderson. Cedar Rapids activated RP Zach Tillery.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 0, Lehigh Valley 1 Box Score The Red Wings offense only managed two hits: a Zach Granite two-out single in the third inning and a leadoff double off the bat of Tommy Field in the seventh. Field didn’t score as #oldfriend came Casey Fien came in and abandoned him at third base (after he advanced on a wild pitch). Engelb Vielma went 0-3 with a strikeout in his AAA debut. Kyle Gibson took a hard-luck loss and dropped to 0-2 with Rochester. He allowed six hits, four walks and only a lone run - though a solo home run - while striking out 10. Kevin Chapman struck out three getting five total outs and Drew Rucinski struck out two in his inning of work. Rochester drops to 17-15. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 6, Birmingham 0 Box Score Chattanooga led a close game throughout before adding four insurance runs late and winning a game that was closer than the final score makes it appear. Nick Gordon led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on an Edgar Corcino sac fly. Corcino scored the second run after singling and eventually crossing home on a Travis Harrison sac fly. The four runs in the eighth came by way of two singles, four walks and a hit by pitch. T.J. White was 2-4 with an RBI in his return to the lineup. Randy LeBlanc picked up the win, scattering seven hits and a walk in six shutout innings. Miraculously, he didn’t strike out a single batter. Randy Rosario struck out four in three no-hit innings. The Lookouts jump to 22-16 and are among the leaders in the Southern League North (unfortunately the best four teams in the Southern League are all in the Northern Division). MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 7, Clearwater 3 Box Score Max Murphy and Bradley Strong both hit solo home runs, Zander Wiel and Nelson Molina tripled, and Alex Perez, Chris Paul, Tanner English and Brian Navarreto all doubled in an extra-base hit barrage at the Lee County Sports Complex. No one drove in more than one run and no one scored more than once in a balanced offensive attack. Cody Stashak struggled through four innings - five hits and four walks - but only allowed two runs while striking out three. Jonny Drozd allowed five hits in two innings; one runner scored and Drozd struck out four. Williams Ramirez struck out two in the final frame. Fort Myers is now 18-20 on the season. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 8, Peoria 12 (GAME ONE) Box Score Cedar Rapids scored seven third-inning runs, but Peoria scored in six of the seven innings to win game one going away. Jermaine Palacios scored in the first inning after being hit by a pitch. He also walked to start the third inning. Lewin Diaz doubled him home to score the first run of that frame. Travis Blankenhorn, who also walked, scored as well. Diaz scored on Jaylin Davis’s ensuing double. Davis scored on a Ben Rortvedt single. Aaron Whitefield hit a sac fly to score Alex Perez, who walked. Christian Cavaness later homered to bring in Rortvedt. When all was said and done, the Kernels had an 8-3 lead… but their offense was done. And their pitching was done in. Eduardo Del Rosario gave up three home runs - seven runs total - on five hits and three walks. He struck out one in five innings, but was still in line for the win. Logan Lombana took care of that, allowing four runs, including a home run, in 1.2 innings. He couldn’t finish the game and Alex Robinson got the final out, but not before giving up a three-run home run to close the book on Lombana. Cedar Rapids 2, Peoria 0 (GAME TWO) Box Score The Kernels went with the bullpen approach in the second half of the doubleheader and got much better results. Max Cordy struck out three in three innings, allowing three hits and a walk. Colton Davis picked up the win striking out two in two innings and only allowing a single hit. Tom Hackimer earned his fifth save of the year. Hackimer struck out three, issuing a walk and a hit in two innings. Offensively, the bats did little, but enough to win. Jermaine Palacios hit his third home run of the year in the fifth inning. Mitch Kranson doubled. Diaz, Caleb Hamilton and Cavaness added singles. Cavaness also stole his third base of the season. The Kernels improve to 21-16. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Randy LeBlanc, Chattanooga Hitter of the Day – Jermaine Palacios, Cedar Rapids (maybe only 1-5 on the day, but scored every time he got on base - three times - and continues to be a catalyst for their offense) TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs Lehigh Valley (6:05 CST) - LHP David Hurlbut (2-2, 1.59 ERA) Chattanooga vs Birmingham (6:15 CST) - LHP Matt Tracy (2-3, 4.40 ERA) Fort Myers vs Clearwater (5:35 CST) - RHP David Fischer (2-2, 3.54 ERA) Cedar Rapids vs Peoria (6:35 CST) - RHP Tyler Beardsley (3-2, 4.34 ERA) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Monday’s games. Click here to view the article

A new day, a new draft prospect that has some momentum to go 1/1. Twins fans have embraced high school phenom Hunter Greene. Some have warmed to one of the best collegiate players of all time Brendan McKay. But the name that has the most momentum is Kyle Wright, a right-handed pitcher from Vanderbilt. This story was sent out last week on our Twins Daily newsletter. Sign up below or in the upper right-hand corner to get insights like this first. Rewind to late September of 2016, around the time the Hunter Greene Train started barrelling down the tracks as the Twins barreled towards clinching the first overall draft pick in the 2017 draft. I sent out a series of texts about the upcoming draft class, trying to gauge which guys might be getting early consideration to go first overall. One text response really stuck out: “I’d take Wright.” Kyle Wright was a name I’d heard, but not one that was firmly on my radar. (It was only September.) Sure enough, Wright was someone that many felt could go early. He was arguably the best pitcher in college baseball. Fast forward to February and Kyle Wright starts slow. Command and consistency, his two biggest question marks, were lacking. Short starts, walks, wild pitches… and the big draftniks questioned if he would go Top 10. Things started to change on April 14 when Wright dominated Florida. Wright pitched a complete game shutout, allowing only three hits and striking out a career-high 13 batters. Most importantly and impressively, though, Wright didn’t walk anyone. Wright backed that game up with two more starts - neither great, neither horrible - before getting a chance to impress in front of Twins CBO Derek Falvey. He responded by throwing an absolute gem. Nine innings, three hits, one walk, one run, 13 strikeouts and 119 pitches. I reached back out to the same scout from last fall and got this no-nonsense response: “Best player in the draft by far.” So who is Kyle Wright? Prototypical size (6’ 4”, 220), mid-90s fastball, a really good slider, a good curveball and an improving changeup. Wright is represented by CAA (who also represents Phil Hughes) and doesn’t seem to have any sort of injury history. All seems too good to be true, right? Maybe. Doing research on Wright, I’d noticed a lot of pictures of Wright, in mid-delivery, in the Inverted W or at the moment your lead foot lands, your throwing elbow being higher than your throwing shoulder. I remember that being a concern about Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg. I’m not a scout and don’t pretend to be one, so I asked a Twins scout who has seen both. Initially, he had no concerns about Wright’s delivery. But later said this, “I’ve looked more. There are more similarities, delivery-wise, than I knew.” But the similarities don’t stop there. There are no Strasburg-type pitchers in the organization. Wright has that potential (minus Strasburg's 80 fastball). And if the risk of arm potential arm issues down the line precludes an organizaton from drafting a potential ace… well, what’s the point of drafting any pitcher ever? Click here to view the article

If you would have given me 10 guesses for #3, I don't think I would have gotten it.

Despite the Twins being off to travel, there was still plenty to go down on Monday. Young Dominican Lewin Diaz was named Midwest League Player of the Week just a day after being named Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Later in the afternoon, the Twins worked out a trade with the Atlanta Braves. All four full-season affiliates were in action on Monday.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 0, Lehigh Valley 9 Box Score The bats and gloves didn’t show up on Monday night and, interestingly, three members of the Red Wings rotation made an appearance. Aaron Slegers made the start and lasted four innings, getting knocked around for five runs on seven hits and one walk. He struck out two. Reliever Alan Busenitz hit the first batter he faced before getting a fly out and striking out the last two batters of the inning. Longtime starter Jason Wheeler came in to face Lehigh Valley in the sixth inning and was on the receiving end of three errors committed behind him in two innings. At the end of those two innings, Wheeler had allowed six hits and four runs, though only one was earned. Nik Turley, who made a start for the Red Wings last week after being promoted from Chattanooga, got two swinging strikeouts and a foul pop-out. (Maybe Turley could help the Twins bullpen?) Wheeler and Turley shifting to the bullpen is the result of all of Gibson, Berrios and Mejia being in AAA. The bats managed one more hit (five) than errors (four). Matt Hague led the offense with two hits. Tommy Field, Niko Goodrum and John Ryan Murphy combined for the other three. Ironically, Field (two), Goodrum (one) and Murphy (one) also committed the four errors. The loss drops Slegers to 2-3 and Rochester drops to 14-12, two games off the IL North pace. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 4, Montgomery 9 Box Score Fernando Romero didn’t have his best stuff on Monday, allowing nine hits in 5.2 innings. He allowed seven runs (five earned). He hit a batter and threw 94 pitches (63 strikes). Romero struck out four and got 12 outs by groundball. Randy Rosario struck out two, allowing two runs (one earned) in 1.2 innings and Mason Melotakis struck out three in an inning. Both walked one batter. LaMonte Wade reached base safely four times (single, double and two walks). He’s brought his batting average up to .321. Nick Gordon and Engelb Vielma each added singles and are batting .330 and .316 respectively. Gordon committed his sixth error of the season. Daniel Rohlfing’s fourth inning grand slam put the Lookouts up 4-1, but Montgomery scored the next eight unanswered. The Lookouts drop to 17-14 after suffering their first loss in May. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 5, Palm Beach 2 Box Score Cody Stashak pitched well enough to give Fort Myers a chance to win on Monday, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out four. Unfortunately for Stashak, he only lasted five innings and the Miracle didn’t put their big inning together until the sixth. The Anderson Boys combined for the win and save. Brady struck out two in three shutout innings and improved to 2-0. Nick picked up his second save, striking out one in a scoreless ninth frame. None of the hitters did anything extraordinary, but seven of the nine registered hits and when four of them come in the same frame, good things tend to happen. Rafael Valera tripled and drove in two runs. Max Murphy, Nelson Molina, Chris Paul, Zander Wiel and Kevin Garcia all singled and scored. Sean Miller also singled. Garcia stole his first base of the year. Fort Myers clawed back to .500 and 16-16. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 1, Lake County 4 Box Score The Kernels bats didn’t show up after the long bus trip to Dayton. Besides Jermaine Palacios’s second home run in the fourth inning, the only offense came from Christian Cavaness, who singled and was picked off in the third. Eduardo Del Rosario cruised through the first three innings before running into trouble in the fourth. Four hits and three walks later, Del Rosario was getting the hook. Failing to complete four innings, Del Rosario gave up four runs, striking out five. Logan Lombana escaped a bases-loaded jam and worked three additional scoreless innings, striking out three. Tom Hackimer pitched the final scoreless frame. Travis Blankenhorn was ejected by the home plate umpire after being called out on strikes in the second inning. The loss drops the Kernels to 17-13. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Logan Lombana, Cedar Rapids Hitter of the Day – LaMonte Wade, Chattanooga TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester at Lehigh Valley (6:05 CST) - RHP Kyle Gibson (0-0, -.-- ERA) Chattanooga at Montgomery (10:35 CST) - RHP Paul Clemens (1-0, 3.46 ERA) Fort Myers vs Palm Beach (5:35 CST) - RHP David Fischer (2-1, 2.74 ERA) Cedar Rapids at Dayton (6:00 CST) - RHP Tyler Beardsley (3-1, 3.91 ERA) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Monday’s games. Click here to view the article

I've gotten that info from a variety of people within the organization.

Good talk here. If Greene doesn't go #1, it will have very little to do with his perceived attitude. Character-type stuff is what removes guys from the draft board. That's not happening - from all accounts Greene is a very mature, high-character guy. But, yeah, he does have people around helping him make good decisions. Hard to blame him for that. He also has the drive to be the absolute best. That probably rubs people the wrong way. But you can't teach a kid to have that drive. Obviously the floor of all players is out of baseball before making the big leagues. But those are things that you just can't account for happening. Wimmers was a high-floor guy, Gibson was a high-floor guy, Jay is a high-floor guy. You can't account for injuries. And all have dealt with them. If McKay can stay healthy, he's a #3 starter (floor) with the potential to be better.

If you read the Draftbook (not many of you did!) after Wade was drafted, there was a lot of mention of his last year at Maryland. He was hurt, missed a lot of the season. His signing scout told me that he'd be really good and that the scouting community missed on him. He comped Billy Burns when was playing well for Oakland. He was playing out of position at Maryland and the games he truly showed his potential - I believe a tournament in Alabama that postponed games due to rain so he was playing really late - were not scouted heavily. Wade was a great find!

It was a full slate of baseball on Thursday as the Twins hosted Oakland and all of the affiliates were in action (including one playing a doubleheader). While there were no moves in the minor leagues, the Twins optioned Buddy Boshers after Tuesday's slugfest and activated Hector Santiago from the bereavement list on Wednesday.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 5, Buffalo 3 (Game 1) Box Score David Hurlbut gave the Red Wings a solid effort in the front end of a doubleheader. Hurlbut was touched up for eight hits over five innings, but he allowed only three runs (two earned) while striking out two and walking one. He allowed a two-out, two-run home run to let Buffalo back into the game in the third inning. Hurlbut did coax nine outs by way of the groundball, which is impressive. Alan Busenitz and Alex Wimmers each threw scoreless frames to finish the game. Busenitz struck out one in a perfect sixth inning. Wimmer walked two in the seventh inning. Rochester did damage with their bats in the top half of the second inning. Matt Hague singled to start off the frame and was advanced to third on a Daniel “Power” Palka double. John Ryan Murphy drove them both in with a one-out single. After a Quintin Berry single moved Murphy to second, both were driven in on a Bengie Gonzalez triple. Murphy added an insurance run in the seventh inning with his second home run of the season. Rochester 1, Buffalo 4 (Game 2) Box Score Nik Turley made his Rochester debut and it certainly wasn’t memorable from a production standpoint. After giving up a single in the first and a walk and single in the second, but escaping without damage, Turley hoped to calm down in the third and started the inning by getting a called strike three. Then the trouble started. Turley allowed two straight singles and both players advanced on a wild pitch. A walk eventually loaded the bases. After another wild pitch allowed the game’s first run to score, Turley got the second out by pop up and looked to be getting out of the inning without further damage. But Bengie Gonzalez committed an error allowing an unearned run score. Two other runs followed in the inning. Turley didn’t come back for the fourth. He finished with three innings, four runs (three earned), five strikeouts, two walks and a loss. Despite his costly air, Gonzalez did have a decent night at the plate. He was the only player with a multi-hit game and scored the team’s lone run. Ben Paulsen had his third double. Rochester is currently 13-10. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 7, Pensacola 4 Box Score Paul Clemens spotted Pensacola four runs in the first four innings, but held on to make it through six innings. Clemens allowed eight hits and a walk which resulted in four runs. He struck out seven. The bats got going in the bottom of the fourth and didn’t stop. The surge was led by Edgar Corcino, who hit his fifth home run of the season in the fifth inning. Corcino had three hits and a walk, drove in three runs and scored once. LaMonte Wade hit his third home run of the season, a solo shot, in the seventh inning. He also had three hits. Nick Gordon also hit a home run, his second, in his two-hit game. Todd Van Steensel threw two shutout innings and struck out two to pick up the win. John Curtiss earned his fourth save of the season, weathering a walk and double in a rough ninth inning to close it out. The win got the Lookouts back to .500 at 13-13. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 2, Daytona 5 Box Score David Fischer took the loss, allowing five first-inning runs. It turned out to be all the runs Fischer would allow in his four innings of work. All told, three hits, three walks and two hit batsmen did Fischer in. Brady Anderson gave up one hit in three solid innings of work. Anthony McIver allowed a hit in two innings. Not a lot of offensive firepower on Wednesday for the Miracle. Zander Wiel hit his ninth double of the year and scored on Shane Kennedy’s first double. Kennedy then stole third base and was driven in by Brian Navarreto. The Miracle lineup struck out 12 times. Fort Myers dropped to 13-14 on the season. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Lake County 3 Box Score Cedar Rapids used a balanced offensive attack and solid performances from their staff to win Wednesday’s tilt. Tyler Beardsley struck out seven in seven strong innings. He allowed three runs on a walk and five hits (two solo home runs). He picked up his third win of the season. Alex Robinson struck out two and earned a hold. He allowed two hits. Max Cordy picked up his second save of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. He struck out one. Despite giving up an early run, the Kernels answered back quickly. Jermaine Palacios extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a leadoff hit. He would come around to score on a Jaylin Davis groundout. Palacios is hitting a cool .391 on the young season. After getting behind in the third inning, the Kernels strung together some keys hits to regain the lead. Christian Cavaness hit a leadoff double and scored on a Mitch Kranson single. Both Kranson and Jaylin Davis, who walked, scored when Ben Rortvedt doubled. Cedar Rapids added two more in the bottom of the sixth. Aaron Whitefield singled, Brandon Lopez walked and Shane Carrier drove them both in with a double. Davis and Whitefield also both stole bases, their third and fourth respectively. The only batter in the lineup who has not yet been mentioned is Tuesday’s hero, Lewin Diaz, who went 1-4. Cedar Rapids has ridden this hot streak to a 15-10 record. Seth will be in Cedar Rapids til Sunday, so there will be lots of Kernel talk popping off. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Tyler Beardsley, Cedar Rapids Hitter of the Day – Edgar Corcino, Chattanooga THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester at Buffalo (12:05 CST) - RHP LHP Adalberto Mejia (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Chattanooga vs Pensacola (6:15 CST) - RHP Randy LeBlanc (0-1, 36.00 ERA) Fort Myers vs Daytona (5:35 CST) - RHP Keaton Steele (1-3, 8.10 ERA) Cedar Rapids vs Lake County (6:35 CST) - RHP Tyler Wells (2-0, 1.88 ERA) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Thursday’s games. Click here to view the article

They probably do have the best ability to manipulate the draft... but it pales in comparison to past years. Having the #1 pick is much less of an advantage pool-wise.

So what I'm hearing is more something like this: 2018: $2 million 2019: $6 million (would be first arbitration year) 2020: $9 million 2021: $12 million 2022: $18 million (would be first free agent year) 2023: $21 million or $3 million buyout 2024: $24 million or $3 million buyout Max deal: Seven years, $92 million. If $100m is the magic number it could be... Signing bonus: $2 million 2018: $2 million 2019: $6.5 million (would be first arbitration year) 2020: $10 million 2021: $13.5 million 2022: $19 million (would be first free agent year) 2023: $22 million or $3 million buyout 2024: $25 million or $3 million buyout Again, adding a few more years on is great from a team perspective... but one of the perks of a player signing a deal is letting him free agency before he's well past his prime. You could do this: 2018: $2 million 2019: $6.5 million (would be first arbitration year) 2020: $10 million 2021: $13.5 million 2022: $19 million (would be first free agent year) 2023: $22 million or $3 million buyout 2024: $25 million or $3 million buyout 2025: $30 million (Sano can opt out after 2025 season) 2026: $35 million 2027: $40 million (mutual option) 2028: $40 million (mutual option) $245m over 11 years.

You used WAR to compare the players. But now it's meaningless? I just asked you to include Sano's (which was 0.8 last year but already better this year). I think everybody is undervaluing Yelich and the deal he signed was ultra team-friendly.

Update on draft things, but didn't want to make a new article. Thad Levine watched Texas Prep P Shane Baz on Tuesday. My assumption was that Baz is someone being considered for the second round. Not so fast, I guess. The Twins are casting a very, very wide net (much bigger than two players) and the narrowing in won't happen for a bit. Things like bonus demands aren't even being exchanged yet... right now the focus is on seeing all the guys. So when we read things like the Twins are considering Pavin Smith and Royce Lewis and Kyle Wright, etc... there's actually many more players... like Shane Baz. As Levine said last night, there isn't a clear-cut guy. So the team is out searching for the one they like best.

Stanton's contract is a great comp. The six years of his his deal compared to the six years of Miggy's: $37.517 million. I'm totally cool with backing that up with deals in the $20-$25 range... for as many years as he want. But the selling point for him is that he's still a free agent at 30. (Just like Stanton can opt out of his deal at 30.) Those later years are what inflates the contracts. Not years 1-6.

Compare those WARs to Miggy. How has power done on the free agent market? Harper and Sano are NOT close comparisons.

$39.5 million guarantee. Similar structure. Works for me.

Sure, add a few more. But would a player rather have that or guaranteed free agency at 30. How about Kepler and this deal... would you? How about Buxton?

Now that we’ve got to see Miguel Sano play third base for the better part of a month, it’s probably fair to say that he’s going to man the hot corner for the foreseeable future (or at least until Mauer moves on). The pop-ups that plagued him last year haven’t been an issue (yet) and the barehanded plays that he seems to make on a consistent basis are starting to prove the doubters wrong. And he’s taking walks and hitting bombs again.Pre-arbitration extensions have been pretty popular around the league. There have been eight such deals in baseball since the end of the winter meetings. Though the Twins, who have a whole nucleus of players that fit in that pre-arb category, were not one of those teams. That should change with Sano. Currently, Sano is a 1+ player, which means that he’ll be a pre-arbitration (near minimum) player again in 2018. He’ll enter his first of three arbitration years in 2019 and will first be eligible to be a free agent after the 2021 season. Looking specifically at deals of players with 1+ year of experience, we need to look no further to find one than the most recent extension that was signed: The Cardinals and outfielder Stephen Piscotty. The two parties entered into an agreement that will earn Piscotty $1 million in each of the 2017 and 2018 seasons. He will earn $7 million in each of his first two scheduled arbitration years and $7.25 in what would be his final arbitration year and his first free agent season. The Cardinals hold an option at $15 million for the 2023 season with a $1 million buyout. Piscotty also got a $2 million signing bonus and is three years older than Sano. The formatting of this deal - the large jump into arbitration and the small jump into free agency - is definitely unique. He also was given a $2 million signing bonus. His guarantee is $32.5 million over the six years that begin next season. We can look further though to see, perhaps, a better comparison: Christian Yelich of the Marlins. Yelich was 24 when he signed his deal, a year older than Sano is currently. Yelich also holds an advantage in bWAR, both career-wise and in head-to-head seasons. Any potential deal should probably follow the Yelich framework. Scheduled to receive $570,000 and $1 million in his final two pre-arb years, Yelich will get a big bump during his arbitration years, earning $3.5 million, $7 million and $9.75 million. His first two free agent years are bought out at $12 million and $14 million. Then there is a team option for $15 million with a $1.25 million buyout. All told, Yelich is guaranteed $49 million from his 2+ year through two years of free agency plus an option (seven years). Using those two as models, what would an offer to Sano potentially look like? It would be fair to assume that the bump he’ll receive in his final pre-arb year (‘18) will be $1 million. Piscotty’s deal gives a significant bump in the first year of arbitration, but not the first year of free agency, which makes Yelich’s a more believable model. Looking at the Twins pre-arb extensions, they’ve used even jumps from arbitration years to the next. (Span was $1.75m and Dozier was $3m.) Using $3 million as a good starting point with $3.5 million increases, Sano would make $3 million, $6.5 million and $10 million. The part that I will always feel the Twins screwed up with Dozier’s deal was not buying out any free agent years. The Twins can’t make that mistake with Sano. Though the Marlins got two years of Yelich plus an option, I’m not going to suggest the Twins do the same with Sano. Mostly because I don’t think his reps would go for it. But my contention has always been that the tradeoff of cost-certainty for the team and guaranteed money for a young player isn’t fair. There has to be an added benefit for the team. And that comes in the form of a free agent year and a team option. The $12 million that Yelich is getting for his first free agent year is fair and the $15 million option that the teams are getting on both players are getting is also fair. As an added bonus for Sano, the team’s buyout will be $2.5 million, increasing the guarantee. Here’s the breakdown: 2018: $1 million 2019: $3 million (would be first arbitration year) 2020: $6.5 million 2021: $10 million 2022: $12 million (would be first free agent year) 2023: $15 million or $2.5 million buyout Six years and $35 million. Would you? Click here to view the article