There has been a lot of discussion about the Twins and their payroll lately. The Twins struck early, completing their lineup, but remaining mostly inactive when filling out their pitching staff, aside from the recently added Blake Parker. The payroll sits at $96m by the most recent total I’ve seen, which is a $34m drop from last year.
There were many available relievers that likely would have thrilled Minnesotans if they had joined the team, but now only Craig Kimbrel remains as an elite relief option. Looking at where the other top relief arms signed, though, it’s a legitimate question whether or not the Twins were ever in the mix for these guys,. Jeurys Familia – Mets, Zach Britton – Yankees, David Robertson – Phillies, Adam Ottavino – Yankees, Andrew Miller – Cardinals, Joe Kelly – Dodgers, Kelvin Herrera – White Sox,. Those are all big markets, or in the case of Miller and the Cardinals, one of the most storied teams in baseball. I don’t think the Twins were necessarily too timid on these players, but rather that they never had a chance.
Relief pitchers are volatile entities. Greg Holland, Rafael Soriano, Mark Melancon, Eric Gagne and Matt Capps are more evidentiary than Aroldis Chapman or Trevor Hoffman when it comes to espousing the virtue of free agent contracts to relief pitchers. While you may look at the Twins as being cheap right now, in retrospect, I think we will believe the Twins dodged many bullets.
The noisy, angry fans upset with the Twins for not adding free agent relievers suggest that arbitrarily spending a lot of money will be a good thing. I think it’s fairer to assume that the Twins didn’t want to pay the standard location premium to get high end talent, when they have faith in their ability to build out the bullpen more affordably.
It seems more likely that the Twins thing they are closer to having a set ‘pen than we think. Their willingness to part with John Curtiss suggests as much more explicitly. The fact that they haven’t spent too much money on another mercenary reliever means they will have space to patch things up if their young players put them in playoff position, and to extend some of their in house talent when the time comes.
Not signing one of the high end relievers isn’t a travesty, it’s just good business.
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