Here’s the latest from around the AL Central…
- The Twins don’t have interest in free agent southpaw Matt Thornton, 1500 ESPN Twin Cities’ Darren Wolfson reports (Twitter link), though in a subtweet, Wolfson said “seven or so” other teams are interested. Wolfson speculated that Thornton could be a fit in Minnesota due to the team’s familiarity with him as an AL Central rival in Chicago for so many years. The Twins are also in need of bullpen help and the 39-year-old Thornton has posted a 1.98 ERA over 77 1/3 innings in 2014-15 (though advanced metrics aren’t as bullish about his performance).
- In today’s mailbag, a reader asked Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer about the Indians’ decision not to protect Hector Rondon in the Rule 5 draft after the 2012 season. Thanks to injury troubles, Rondon didn’t pitch much in the three years leading up to that Rule 5 draft. Beyond that, Rondon was asked to pitch in relief in after returning from elbow surgery and the Tribe’s bullpen was already stacked. Of course, Rondon would go on to break through with the Cubs and become their closer.
- Also from Hoynes’ mailbag, he discussed a bit of trade speculation and said he personally doesn’t think the Indians will end up dealing Carlos Carrasco.
- Tigers GM Al Avila said the team extended a contract offer to Rajai Davis before deciding to trade for Cameron Maybin instead, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. “At the end of the day, we felt [Maybin] was the best option for us,” Avila said. With Maybin now in the fold, Davis will almost certainly be with another team in 2016.
- Tigers executive vice president and GM Al Avila has followed through on his promise to beef up the club’s scouting and analytics staffs, Chris McCosky of The Detroit News writes. The Tigers announced several new additions to both departments and their international scouting staff earlier this week, all of which are listed in McCosky’s piece.
MLBTR’s Zach Links also contributed to this post