Twinkies sign Span - Wha? Wha? What?
A week ago I listened to rube nation agnoize over not signing Mauer yet, nothing new, but within the context of "who they will have to sign in a couple years," - ok, also nothing really new. List included: Kubel, Span, Slowey, to name a few but the name that jumped out at me was "Span." At the time I thought "no way we can keep him in a couple years, he's good now and is gonna be expensive later on." Well color me wrong. Twinkies extend Span for five-year and $16.5 million contract with a club option for 2015. Yeah, your Minnesota Twins are wheelin' and dealin' yet again, this time it's not in the free agent market it's with their own talent. Not to mention the little noticed signing of Blackburn to 4 years $14 million with an option for 2014. Don't both of those feel like really good deals too?
3 Comments:
Now that retaining Span is out of the way, we can get to the serious business of finding a trading partner to resolve this Mauer stalemate. I contend that we should seek pitching depth (you can never have too much) and a stopgap 3rd baseman (for use until Valencia matures). Are there any other thoughts on this subject?
March 14, 2010 at 10:29 PM
1. Welcome "Fred" to the Land of Sky Blue Waters.
2. "The Mauer Situation" - Everyone from Mark Rosen (who locally misreported a "done deal" a few weeks ago) to your average rube on KFAN seems to think that all the numbers are worked out and it's a matter of time. I'm not one of those people and I don't think anyone on this blog are. We watched Torii and Johan leave for nothing (Bill Smith can't claim JJ Hardy as the prize from the Santana trade) and if the only leverage the Twins have with Joe is trading him then, well, that's their deal. Not sure what we could get for him or who we would get it from; I'd like to not do a deal with the devil and leave the Yankees and Red Sox out of this but might be the only ones who could both afford him and afford to trade some level of talent.
March 15, 2010 at 9:20 AM
Love both the Span and Blackburn deals. This is quintessential Twins (or 1990s Indians): lock up your promising young talent a year or two before they blossom and the rest of the league takes notice. It saves the franchise millions and it helps maintain continuity in the clubhouse. If you recall, this is exactly what we did with Mauer 3 years ago!
As for Mauer, there are just too many reasons that we MUST sign him. We all know the story…hometown kid, new stadium opening, promising 2010 season, bright future for the team, etc. Trading him would cause such a huge distraction and fan revolt that it would probably crater our most eagerly anticipated season since 1992. In other words: we HAVE to find a way to get this done. C’mon Bill Smith…you can DO it.
March 15, 2010 at 11:20 AM
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