The Rhino and Compass offseason plan for the Twins

The Twins are not in the playoffs. I feel like now is the time to look forward to next season. It’s clearly going to be an offseason of change in Minnesota, what with the changing of the coaching staff and the many, many losses. I know there are many people that don’t care for this sort of speculative type of post. This is a post about what would make me happy, and though I believe I can appreciate various baseball and payroll situations, I don’t have any inside information on anything, from payroll to internal opinions. This is all me.

TRADE: Ben Revere. Glen Perkins. Despite what you might hear, payroll in Minnesota isn’t really a problem. Mauer is making 23 million dollars, but the overall payroll is around 100 million. Large contracts aren’t really crippling the team, and I don’t believe the team needs to divest themselves of guys like Justin Morneau (although, if they do, they shouldn’t act like they NEED to move him. Extract value for a league MVP). If they are going to make some trades, and they should, they should be sure to use the most valuable components that are redundant to the team. I am always opposed sinking too much money or faith into a closer, and other teams aren’t. Take advantage of Perkins’ small contract and closer status and bring back some talent. As for the redundancies. Ben Revere is a carbon copy of Denard Span, though with less power and more years under team control. Revere may be able to draw as much or more in return than Denard Span in a trade, and the team still has a left handed, top of the order bat with a great glove.

Acquire: Pitching. Duh.

Sign: Relievers. Terry Ryan has always been very good at building bullpens. Without Matt Capps or Glen Perkins, there will be some moves to be made. There will likely be an arm or two coming back for Perkins and Revere, but relievers are often the cheapest free agents to come by. Anthony Slama deserves a chance, Deolis Guerra may soon be in the big leagues, But the team should add some relievers. Also, Delmon Young (ha! Kidding!)

Let the free agents go: All of them. Well, see about retaining Scott Baker. If he can come back healthy.

The tough part would be naming names as targets The Reds would love to add someone like Ben Revere at the top of their order, particularly with Drew Stubbs struggling in center field with the bat. The problem there is that there isn’t much major league pitching that could come back to Minnesota. Tony Cingrani would be great, but would he actually be worth giving up for Ben Revere? You would have to ask the Reds. Again, this is all about what I want, so let’s assume that the Reds are desperate, Terry Ryan can work his voodoo magic, and Cingrani is the return for Revere, though with the prerequisite that this definitely isn’t a one-for-one deal.

The Tigers have proven that they are desperate for late inning work this offseason, and the Twins, if they get the best value from them, may be willing to move Glen Perkins to Detroit. I think for Detroit to get Perkins, they would have to give up a triple A pitcher.  the name that I immediately settle on is Jose Ortega. He did some work in the bullpen in Detroit, but was primarily a starter in Toledo. So again, let’s pretend its Perkins for Ortega straight up, because that’s easiest.

Now, to run through the roster as I have presently imagined it.
Lineup:
CF: Denard Span
2b: Jamey Carroll
C: Joe Mauer
LF: Josh Willingham
1b: Justin Morneau
DH: Ryan Doumit
RF: Chris Parmelee
3b: Trevor Plouffe
SS: Pedro Florimon

Bench
Darin Mastroianni
Eduardo Escobar
Wilkin Ramirez
Ray Chang

Starting pitchers:
Scott Diamond
Sam Deduno
Kyle Gibson
Tony Cingrani
Cole De Vries

Relief Pitchers
Jared Burton
Brian Duensing
Casey Fien
Jose Ortega
Kyle Waldrop
Anthony Slama
Tyler Robertson

No, I don’t trust Alex Burnett, but if you do, feel free to replace Robertson. And I can’t pinpoint who the Twins would actually think to sign in free agency, otherwise you might find Brian Duensing in the rotation, holding Gibson’s spot, or ensure De Vries is pitching in Rochester, I think the most important thing to take away from this post that, even in my most optimistic renderings, I can’t find an easy way to improve the Twins pitching staff. Next year might be rough, but as long as the Twins make some moves to show that they are trying to get better, I think that’s all we can really ask for.