With the offseason in full swing with the Winter Meetings Here are my thoughts on the team and what they are doing to improve.  As the winter unfolds I see more opportunities for the Twins as Chicago dumps salary in trades and retools, Cleveland hasn’t done much, Detroit just signed Everett to be their SS next year.  The Twins have a huge opportunity for next year and beyond. This piece was written with the future in mind as well as the present.

The Twins have cost control going for them.  All or their stars are signed long term to flat contracts, or frontloaded contracts.  The only are where the Twins could see their payroll spiking up over the next few years is Starting Pitching.  The Twins should be smart enough to sign any or all of Slowey, Baker, and or Liriano to 3-4 year contracts to give the players security and the team cost certainty.  Same with Kubel.  As the OF gets more expensive with experience, We will have a new wave of OF’s ready to contribute with Revere, Hicks, Morales, Martin, Parmelee, and more.  In addition to that the Twins have a new publicly funded stadium with more revenue streams readily available come 2010 I said all of that to say this.  The Twins are poised to be able to do whatever they want to do this offseason.  They Should have at least 20-25 million available for either a 3b or SS and a reliever and excess OF and pitching to trade.  Do I expect them to spend all of that ….NO…

With our available resources, I have to wonder why not go after Furcal.  It’s ok to overpay for a player once in a while.  The main objective is not to be handcuffed by that player.  We are set to be millions under budget for the foreseeable future.  Why not offer Furcal a 4 year 10-11million contract or a 3 year 36-37 million deal.  It makes sense to plug some of our holes with impact players.  Furcal is a good example in this depressed market.

On a smaller scale there is Casey Blake:  I agree that Casey Blake should be a 2 year plus option contract.  But, the market from the beginning was a 3 year deal.  In this depressed market, why not a 2 year 7 million deal with an option or a 500k to 1 million buyout.  That would be favorable to a 17 million 3 year deal Twinsgeek agrees with me to some extent on this.  If Casey Blake is the desired results for Twins management then losing Blake for 3 years and 17 million the Dodgers are offering is no excuse.

Punto:  I can see us resigning him in the 3 year 10-12 million range.

Relief pitching isn’t as bad as it seems the Twins have Bonser, Humber, and Swarzak (who I believe is a real sleeper to do well in the pen next year) to compete for spots in the pen after Nathan, Guerrier, Crain, Breslow, Mirjales.  In my mind I would like to see a proven setup man for the bridge to Nathan.  But which relievers are going to be a guarantee?    If the Phillies include Madsen with Donald for Young then great that would be close to a guarantee. I love the idea of trading Young for Donald and Madsen.  I would even include either Tolbert or Harris in the trade so Philadelphia can have their 2b insurance next year. 

Why do I like this trade idea?  This trade would give us a solid bullpen.! And look at what it does to our options.  We will have some serious prospects ready in the next year for the IF Hughes, Valencia, DONALD, Tolleson, and maybe Plouffe .  This allows us to get a one year player to hold 3b if need be.  All of a sudden a Ty Wigginton salary dump or better yet a Beltre acquisition seems good enough for next year along with resigning Punto for SS.

Now I am not a fan of trading Young.  I don’t see why we would even think of moving him or any OF until next summer.  Young has the potential to be the kind of bat (power hitting RH) that we are looking for.  I guess the Twins brass is fine with Kubel being able to go back to the OF in LF or RF if necessary and a roving DH if there is an injury.  I guess the “roving”  DH would be Harris or Buscher if we acquire a SS or 3B.  Trading Young also gives us 2 CF in Gomez and Span and allow us the option of keeping Pridie or at some point next year Martin as a backup OF. 

There are obviously other options to consider….Atkins for 2 years at 3b, Kouzmanoff, JJ. Hardy, Yunel Escobar……and the list goes on….

For note on Twinsgeek refer to last nights podcast with Seth.