Friday,
November 23, 2007
Hunter’s
Gone
I am constantly searching and thinking
about and learning more about the Twins and their players. I have an opinion on
everything and am always more than happy to talk Twins with anyone. I have my
thoughts as a pretend Twins GM. I have my thoughts as a pretend manager. That’s
what we do as bloggers. But we also all just are big
Twins and baseball fans and want to know information right away. I feel as up
to the minute on Twins info as anyone.
So that is why what happened on Thursday
was really strange to me and completely through me off. I went to bed fairly
early on Wednesday night. Although I was up early Thursday morning, I was busy
packing and preparing for a trip north for Thanksgiving. And on the 2+ hour drive
to our final destination, we listened to Elmo and the
I was surprised first that Hunter had made
his decision, but especially with the decision to go to the Angels. The money? Well, it actually wasn’t quite as much as I had
thought, and in reality, it was probably not as much as he could have got had
he played the free agent game a little bit longer.
What will the Angels OF look like? I mean,
they signed Gary Matthews Jr to a five year, $50 million contract to play CF just one year ago.
However, they could move Matthews to left field, and they could have a pretty
strong 2/3 of the outfield and RF Vlad Guerrero can
make up for his lack of speed with his strong arm. Then I started thinking that
in four years, they are going to have three outfielders that will be 36-38
years old and each will have likely spent plenty of time on the DL already.
Then what?
That is the point in which I remembered
just how happy I was that the Twins did not up their offer to the 32 year old
Hunter. Should they have thrown an option year into their offer? Maybe, but
that wouldn’t have mattered. Five years for Hunter is just crazy! And that is
why I am happy that he is now officially gone.
Now, many of you think that I have had it
out for Hunter for awhile, trying to get rid of him. And that is true. I think
that he had an excellent last two months in 2006, right before there was a huge
decision on whether to pick up his option. He also had a very strong 2007
season when he knew he would be a free agent. Don’t forget, his one other big
season came in 2002, ironically, a contract year.
His leadership and team and winning attitude is touted. He certainly was the
voice of the franchise and the guy the media loved, for good reason. But what
happened when things went bad for the Twins the past couple of years? Well, let’s
see. First, he got hurt and left the team. Then he decided to show up in
September only to bash the Twins top two hitting prospects. He threw a punch
intended for Justin Morneau only to hit Nick Punto. Then what? That’s right, he left again. And what about in 2007. He continually bashed Joe Mauer for not playing hurt. Well, Mauer
was hurting more than people knew. And, as Aaron Gleeman has pointed out
before, who has missed more games in the last two years, Hunter or Mauer? (Note – the answer is Hunter)
The big problem I had is the years though.
And that is why it may surprise some to hear me say (or read me type?) that I
do think that the Twins roster is not as good today as it was a couple of days
ago. Hunter did have a very good 2007 season. He was probably the Twins most
consistent (positive) performer. He did a lot of good things to help put the
Twins in position to win games. Is he really still a gold glove CF? That’s
debatable but he was better in 2007 than he was in 2006 or 2005.
I am very curious to see how Torii will do
out on the west coast. The Angels go into the 2008 as the likely AL West preseason pick to win the division and they have a very
strong pitching staff. Hunter is likely to hit somewhere around 5th
or 6th, similar to where he hit with the Twins. He will be playing
on grass, which should be a very good thing for him. He will live up being in
LA! It will be interesting to see what the Angels do now. Will they now be more
willing to give up more to get Miguel Cabrera? Will they go after Johan
Santana? We shall see.
As for the Twins, I know many casual fans
seem to think that this is the beginning of the end, and I for one am not yet
ready to concede that. There is just too much talent on the 2008 roster to just
pack it in and completely rebuild. They still have Joe Mauer
and Justin Morneau and Johan Santana and Joe Nathan
and Michael Cuddyer. Francisco Liriano
is coming back and young, talented pitchers like Matt Garza, Kevin Slowey and Scott Baker are around. This is in no way an indication
of a team that is giving up next season.
However, the team was willing to pay Torii
Hunter $15 million a year for the next three years. My big question to
management would be, how are you going to use that
money now? How will they replace Torii Hunter on the roster? And no, I don’t
want them to go out and sign another $15 million. Signing Aaron Rowand for $14-15 million a year is not the answer.
However, they could get two really good players at key strategic positions for
that $15 million. In reality, I would be happy if they spent $11-12 million of
that ‘available’ money on a couple of players in free agency or trades. They
should then use the remaining money to take the best available players with
their two first round draft choices and their supplemental draft choice and be
able to sign them. That’s what the Yankees have done the last two years with Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy!
Johan Santana didn’t accept the Twins
offer of 5 years and $93 million (and he probably shouldn’t have), but that was
also a very fair offer by the Twins. He wants $126 million. That is fair market
value. The Twins can not afford to pay him fair market value, but if Santana
really wants to stay with the Twins, they will still be able to meet in the
middle.
However, it would also not be stupid of
the Twins to consider dealing Santana, and we have been through this before.
Again, if they do that, that does not mean that the
team will be giving up on the 2008 season. Santana pitches one in five games,
that’s it. There are still a lot of other games to be won when he isn’t
pitching. The return for Santana would have to be great, and it has to be more
than a 1st round pick and a supplemental first rounder. Those chips
can keep the Twins competitive AND competitive for years to come.
Joe Nathan was apparently offered four
years and $40 million. I don’t know if he would take that but it is certainly
below his market value (thanks Mariano!). Very fair offer by the Twins, but if
Nathan says no, that is well within his rights. Because he is making just $6
million, I would keep him until the July Trade Deadline and see where they are.
He would be a lock to be a Type A free agent and
getting the two draft picks for him would make a lot of sense. Again, no step backward and there are several internal options
available to fill the role.
Carl Pohlad is
loaded. I believe he is the richest owner in major league baseball. But he
didn’t get to be
rich by being stupid. He is (or at least was and his sons now are) a smart
businessman. Signing Torii Hunter for more than three years makes little sense.
Having Johan Santana take up 25-30% of your payroll makes little sense. Having
a guy that will pitch 70 innings making $10 million does not make sense. Let
the other guys do that and lets just play the games and see what happens. A lot
can still be done.
This is an offseason
of change for the Twins. It will be tough for a lot of Twins fans to deal with.
But we just have to remember that the Winter Meetings haven’t even started. The
Twins haven’t even made a real deal yet (
I know. People want me to be more grumpy and be more negative, but you won’t find that
from me here. Not yet at least.
I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this topic over the weekend or whenever. Please feel free to e-mail me and I will get back to you as I have time. I certainly hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving!