The Twins will release right-hander Anibal Sanchez, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune reports on Twitter. Sanchez’s 40-man roster spot will go to fellow righty Lance Lynn, whom the Twins added on a one-year, $12MM deal Saturday.
The Twins brought Sanchez aboard less than a month ago, signing him to a split contract that could have been worth $2.5MM had he made their roster. Minnesota then went on to acquire both Jake Odorizzi and Lynn, making Sanchez superfluous in the team’s opinion. The Twins will now have to pay Sanchez $417K in termination pay, which would have risen to $625K had they waited until Monday to cut him, Miller tweets.
While Sanchez has been a terrific starter for the majority of his career, which began in 2006 with the Marlins, the 34-year-old is clearly on the downside. Sanchez is coming off three straight subpar seasons with one of the Twins’ division rivals, the Tigers, and was hoping to reemerge as a viable starter in Minnesota.
Most recently, Sanchez tossed 105 1/3 big league innings in 2017, which he divided between the Tigers’ rotation and bullpen (28 appearances, 17 starts), and logged an ugly 6.41 ERA despite quality strikeout and walk rates (8.89 K/9, 2.48 BB/9). The Tigers then bought Sanchez out for $5MM in lieu of picking up his $16MM option for 2018.
I knew this was coming.
Only in MLB can a player make so much money with not even playing in such short time for not doing anything. 615k for a months work, must be nice. So curious how the new CBA will be negotiated.
No joke
Jamarcus Russell says hi
We’re sorry we’re not here to take your call, but here at the Bonilla residence, your call is important.
considering how much a player is allowed to make on a rookie contract vs how much money they make for their teams…its pretty nice for a owner too.
There was a time… Man, if he could have just stayed healthy long enough and avoided all those various arm problems.. Could have been one of the best for a few years.
Sanchez cleared about seven percent of Mike Moustakas’s 2018 salary just for hanging out in Twins camp for a couple of weeks.
And don’t forget he got a $5M buyout from Tigers.
His spring numbers haven’t shown much improvement
I don’t know what his pitch usages have been, but looking over at brooksbaseball which keeps track of all the pitchfx data. What intrigued me was that at the start of the 2015 season his slider usage dropped from like 30% down to 15-20% where its been since. Likewise, his four seem usage dropped from 40-45% down to 25-30%. At the same time he added a cutter to his repertoire. His bb/9 and k/9 have been relatiely consistent before and after this time shift, as has his velocity. However his hr/9 shut up a ton. It appears as though the cutter has lowered the effectiveness of both his fastball and slider since his injury and unless he changes his repetoire to be just 4 seam-slider-changeup and works out of the pen I don’t know how successful he can be going forward
Barrios/Santana/Lynn/Odorizzi/Hughes or Gibson is kinda…good? Woah. When was the last time the twins rotation was a strength?
Not since rookie Liriano and Johan made the entire rotation
Not sure, but I’d bet Brad Radke was involved
Baker, Blackburn, and Slowey had a few years where they weren’t indisputably horrific.
Berrios,you idiot!
Sweet, man. Your temper.
Could be a great guy for the A’s to pick up and then Trade mid season.
Trade to who?
Nashville
Didn’t even know he was with Minnesota. Thought he was still with Detroit. He’s trash anyway.
I am a little surprised that no mention is made of his injuries, to which a direct parallel can be drawn for his decline in performance.
His inability to miss bats also has something to do with his decline
Not really. His k/9 numbers are perfectly fine. He just hits barrels far too often now. His hr/9 rates have gone thru the roof.
With 3 of their rotation spots still up in the air, Miami should at least bring Sanchez in for an audition over the next couple weeks. Why not?
I’m thinking Miami or Baltimore looks at Sanchez.
Would be a waste of time at this point like it was for the twins
Maybe. The last 3 years he’s become an absolute Home run machine. Nobody is going to give him any guaranteed money though.
I’d rather have Sanchez than have to watch another year of Kyle Gibson.
If Gibson can turn in what he did in the second half, he’ll be an amazing 5th starter
I remember when Anibal ate that thing and then felt that way.
And then,you know,that happened.
Never should have been brought onboard in the first place. Considering there are FAR FAR better players that are still FAs, he should just retire.
Why would you retire when you can collect 600k for a few weeks of work, and just a few innings of work…
i am ignorant on tbis one but have a question. does that mean he gets 5 mil from tigers and 417 k from twins whether he plays or not?
Yes; the 5 million dollars has been paid to buy out his contract; the 417k is the 1/6 arbitrated contract for the 30 days pay.
Makes one wonder if the Rangers will pick him up? Heck they are dragging up bones anyways, might as well give this dude a shot. Heck he will make the team anyways for the Rangers.
Some of these comments make perfect sense and get down voted ? Why is that?
I always thought it was funny when Anibal had to drug B.A. Baracus, in order to get him in an airplane.
Now he will become the Orioles number one starter.
#4 maybe, but not #1. If you’re going to comment about the Orioles, at least make it believable. If you were trying to make a joke, it wasn’t funny so I didn’t know it was a joke.