The Twins still have an offer out to free agent starting pitcher Ervin Santana, Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press writes. It's unclear how much the Twins' offer to Santana is worth. Berardino notes that, earlier in the offseason, the Twins offered Matt Garza three years and $42MM with a vesting option for a fourth year, although 1500ESPN.com's Darren Wolfson tweets that the offer to Santana is significantly less. Earlier on Sunday, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported that the Twins had made a three-year deal to Santana, but that Santana preferred a one-year deal if he could not get a deal in the four-year, $50MM range.
The Twins appear to be continuing to try to upgrade a rotation that struggled in 2013. They've already added Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes on multiyear deals this offseason, while re-signing Mike Pelfrey to a two-year deal. The Twins' top 2014 draft choice, No. 5 overall, is protected, so they would only have to give up the No. 46 overall pick if they signed Santana.
Not sure how he expects to ever do any better than that.
Oh my godddd please get this deal done Twins. We’d finally have a real rotation! Give him his 14 or 15 a year for 4!
Why should they bid against themselves?
Sounds like he is only looking for 12.5 per year
Well have you noticed how the twins put out good money for players but players are going to take the better team if they get 2 of the same offers! Twins actually offered garza a better deal than the brewers.. But I think if the twins offer 3/42 with 4th option yr they could get him! Maybe would have to do 3/45 tho
So the Twins offered Garza a deal with an AAV of $14MM and he ended up taking $12.5MM AAV from the Brewers. Once you’re that rich, it might not even matter anymore, but these guys are really overplaying their hands lately.
Another thing that’s worth mentioning, if the Twins do sign Santana, they’d have a rotation that looks like this for next year:
Santana
Hughes
Nolasco
Pelfrey
Correia
I can’t help but wonder, where do the prospects fit in? Gibson and Worley primarily, but also possibly Meyer or May if they’re lighting it up in the minors. Not to mention Samuel Deduno, who’s worthy of a #5 spot in a MLB rotation.
Worley is not a prospect any longer. I’d like to see Kris Johnson get a shot, though.
Maybe he was talking about Trevor May
He a 25 y/o old pitching out of AAA, having never really established consistently himself in the Bigs. That’s a prospect in my book, albeit a borderline one.
My thoughts exactly, if the Twins do sign Santana then it would make the Pelfrey deal look that much worse. There would be no spot for Gibson, Meyer and May who could all be ready this year and it would all but guarantee Worley, Diamond and Deduno are cut. The latter group is not that big of a deal but they don’t seem all that worse then Pelf and he has a two year deal. It’s also noteworthy that Gibson has been the best pitcher in camp this far.
Pitchers get injured. Last year 8 Twins made 10 or more starts, the year before it was 9. Gibson et al will get their chance. Correia will be gone within a year and Pelfey’s contract is small enough to get rid of if they need to.
I made a post about this just now before reading the other posts. I had the exact same thoughts. If Pelfrey wasn’t there this wouldn’t really hurt much, but if you consider the draft pick and what it does to the prospects it seems like a bad idea.
The Twins have improved their rotation a bit. But they still have a rotation filled with #4 and 5 starters. As a Mets fan, them giving Pelfrey a 2 year deal is mind boggling. He is awful. Santana would be a huge upgrade for this rotation no doubt, but he’s a low end #2 starter on most teams. The Twins could use him because he would easily be their best pitcher, but with or without him, this rotation isn’t very good.
Man, I still cannot get over the Pelfrey contract. He was awful in 2011 and missed all of 2012. The Twins then gave him $4MM, which I guess is somewhat justifiable, but then in 2013 he pitches pretty much as bad as he ever has. Then. . .not only does he get a substantial raise, he gets a two year deal! Madness.
Very smart move for Twins.
If he pitches OK, then his trade value will be high this year or next year.