The Twins are nearing a deal with free agent starter Jason Marquis, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (on Twitter). ACES represents the 33-year-old right-hander.
Marquis made 23 starts for the Nationals and Diamondbacks this past season, finishing the year with a 4.43 ERA in 132 innings. His rate stats (5.2 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 55.1% ground ball rate) were right in line with his career averages (5.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 50.4% ground ball rate) and his average fastball checked in at 89.3 mph.
Francisco Liriano, Carl Pavano, Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Brian Duensing and Anthony Swarzak are options for the Twins' rotation in 2012. Liriano may be able to bounce back from an up-and-down 2011 season, but the Twins will need improvement from others as well if their rotation is to become respectable in 2012. Twins starters finished the 2011 season with a 4.64 ERA (26th in MLB) and 5.8 K/9 (28th in MLB) in 961 innings (21st in MLB).
The Mets also had interest in the New York native this offseason. Marquis signed a two-year, $15MM contract with Washington when he hit free agency after the 2009 season.
meh
Well they do need another starter, but Marquis?
Ehh. He’s been knocked around by the AL in his career, don’t really like this deal.
Super! A .500 pitcher, who turns 34 next year and doesn’t miss many bats. Print those World Series tickets.
Yep. Its the sequel to the Livan Hernandez signing of 2008.
Hope he starts of 6-0 like Livan did…and you know the rest of the story.
Thought he would take a low low deal just to fulfill his dream of pitching in new york.
New York teams should also be interested in signing him , right?
I’m sure at least one New York team was interested… namely the Long Island Ducks.
The mets for sure i thought.
It figures.
The one free agency prediction I guess right is one that does not count. SMH.
mlbtraderumors.com/2011/12/twins-notes-willingham-…
Dang good call.. I bet it was tough for the Twins to pass on Francis.
Hard to not see something like this coming. Would have been better off not spending the money than doing this.
No I wanted Pineiro!! He must have been out of the Twins price range…. seriously Ryan has too much fun dumpster diving for pitchers.
It was probably Pineiro’s injury from last season that scared the Twins off.
The sad thing is you are probably right it was the injury and not his ability that scared them away.
A back of the rotation starter. I wouldn’t pay too much for him.
he was pretty awesome for the nats last year, good back of the rotation guy, but i guess he’d be front for the twins. when his sinker is on he is nasty, but when it’s not he gets rocked
Sounds like Blackburn except even when his sinker is on he is not nasty and it is never on.
Scott Baker
Carl Pavano
Francisco Liriano
Jason Marquis
Nick Blackburn / Anthony Swarzak
I vote Swarzak!
Ide almost rather see them hand the spot to Liam Hendriks cant be much more than Blackie or Swarzak and defiantly has more upside.
Exactly, his sinker is his key to success.
This is basically like signing a RP. Brain D to the bullpen with no upgrade to the rotaition.
I think Brian D is already a given in the pen, maybe this means that Blackburn is going there too.
Who do you think will be the 5th starter? Swarzak? If it came down to that I’d probably rather have Blackburn in the rotation I guess.
Right now I’m clinging to the fantasy that they sign or trade for a real pitcher. I like Marquis as a #5. I watched him last year in Washington and he had some big games.
Maybe Harden? 1.5 Mill with incentives. If it doesn’t pan out because of injury…no biggie, it aint my $.
I would guess Harden would cost at least 4-5m. I would like someone who can throw some heat.
If this deal is for more than $3 Mil, then its hard to see it working well.
I mean, Marquis was torched when he went to the Diamondbacks and this will be his first AL team.
I know they see Gutierrez as a reliever, but wouldn’t they have been better off giving him a shot? Or what about Jeff Manship and his good curveball?
If I had to guess, this will probably be more Livan Hernandez than Carl Pavano, results wise.
low to mid 4’s era (hernandez) is worth about 8 mil in todays market, no joke
not saying he will get nearly that much
Let’s just hope for no Sidney Ponson flashbacks.
Oh man. I completely forgot about that one. That and Ramon Ortiz.
Too many scary memories there.
I forgot about Ramon Ortiz. I don’t know which one was worse either.
Terry Mullholland and Kenny Rogers!
I would still prefer a Sidney Ponson on a minor league deal over Marquis with any guaranteed money.
Marquis, in the AL? counting on him as a rotational starter?
I mean.. Like what are the Twins trying to do here? Isn’t there one medicore guy at AAA ready for a try? Not trying to torch them here, but come on, this guy is awful enough on an NL team.. They might of well gotten hold of Paul Byrd, even Wake and his knuckler…
Paul Byrd was a Twins killer.
Gardy is the real Twins killer. Just watch what Kubel and Cuddyer do this year. Nathan on the other hand…washed up. Not sure which is the dumber deal signing Nathan or bidding $30 million more than the next team for Darvish.
I am going Darvish.
we will see… Darvish put up some ridiculous numbers and he is only 25 years old. This isn’t Dice-K. I would worry about his work-load, but that isn’t something to Rangers worry about.
They are going to have a lot of money invested in him. If he doesn’t work out it could be huge.
Typical Twins low risk even lower reward deal. The guy hasn’t lasted a full season either of the last two years. His chances aren’t any better a year older. With half a bullpen, the Twins will benefit greatly from another 5 inning starter who can’t crack 90 MPH!
My thoughts exactly it seems like if you throw over 90 the Twins have no interest under 90 they are willing to shell out the dough.. watch out for Jamie Moyer!
Ho hum… a typical Twins move. Jose Mijares signing with the Royals might be a bigger move for them!
The Royals grocery bill just went up.
Pretty unspectacular off-season so far for the Twins. I thought bringing Capps back to be closer was bad enough, but signing Jason Marquis is about as useless. Sure, he’ll eat a boatload of innings – but not many of them will be worthwhile. Twins would have been better off keeping Slowey at this point. Looks like another long, LONG season ahead – hello 5th place!
I guess it’s just me, but this hasn’t exactly been a bad off-season. They signed Willingham for $10.5MM less than Cuddyer, filled two major holes in the lineup, and re-signed a good reliever when healthy.
I can’t take another season of watching Matt Crapps pitch and blow saves. I really hope he turns it around and becomes Matt Capps again.
It’s almost guaranteed that the Twins won’t pick up his option if he has another year like he did last year. Capps was injured last year, so that may be a big reason as to why he preformed how he did.
He wasn’t bad when he first came over in the trade I hope he can get back to that.
How many holes did they fill, net total? Set aside the merit of each move and focus on body count. IF 38 year old Jamey Carroll can play a full season (what are the odds?) at SS or 2b, that’s one hole filled. Then they created a hole and filled it by swapping Doumit in for Thome. They created another hole and filled it by replacing Cuddyer with JWill. They created another hole and filled it by replacing Slowey with Marquis. They created a hole in middle relief by replacing Nathan with Capps. They created a hole by letting Kubel leave. They created a hole by letting Mijares leave.
Again, merit aside, that’s two net holes created, not filled.
eh whatever team he is on seems to always make the playoffs… thats something, right?
Trade for A J Burnett. He would be the ace of the staff. No more New York pressure to screw him up. Perfect place for him to turn it around.
Morneau for Burnett.
A real headache swap.
Ya if he would just take about 10 million less.
That would be if New York would pick up nearly half of $33 million left for the 2 years. Throw in a couple of low level prospects done.
yawn – still holding out for the Astros to realize a) they aren’t getting their ridiculous demands for Wandy and b) they be broke. I fear Ryan is still focused on dumpster diving for a back-up plan to this move.
Further dramatic evidence that the Twins are no longer the Twins.
Gone: Nathan, Cuddyer, Kubel, Delmon Young, JJ Hardy.
Diminished: Mauer, Morneau, Span.
Replacements: Willingham, Marquis, Carroll.
The rest of the AL Central no longer fears this team. This roster couldn’t win half its games in that ridiculous dome that so unnerved visiting teams.
Not a bad move. Marquis is a competent pitcher…and it has the added benefit of pushing Duensing to the bullpen where he can be very effective. Perkins and Duensing in the pen…starting to look better there. Marquis will be solid, but the Twins still need an ace. I guess they are hoping for an offensive resurgence this year to make up for pitching deficiencies. The starting 9 is actually looking pretty solid – assuming they can stay relatively healthy (a big if). I still have hopes Baker will break out and become the ace they have been looking for…he has the talent!
I facepalmed when I read this, but after thinking on it more, I think it’s an okay signing. Marquis is a veteran that can eat up a lot of innings, which I think is the main reason we’re pursuing him. WAYYY too much stress on the bullpen last year. If we get Livan Hernandez numbers out of Marquis, this is a definite positive for the Twins.
Livan Hernandez numbers a positive for the Twins?
I’m sorry to sound like a dink about this, Julian, but I can’t remember a dumber post about a Twins personnel move. Livan has had exactly ONE season of ERA+ better than the league average of 100 in the past 9 years. He’s only broken EIGHTY twice in the last eight seasons. Livan Hernandez is a terrible pitcher. If the Twins signed Marquis to get Livan numbers, then they deserve to get Livan numbers from him, and are still idiots even with Smith sorting paper clips.