7:30 pm - Another very quiet day. The crickets are chirping...
- Scott Miller from CBS Sports says that Matt Guerrier is NOT looking for a Joaquin Benoit-like 3 yr / $16.5M contract. MLB Trade Rumors cites last year's $15M contract for Brandon Lyon as an example of the market coming down quickly on relievers.
- David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that the Brewers are shopping Carlos Gomez and are reluctant to part with Lorenzo Cain. That was quick. Been there, done that with Gomez.
- Joe Pawlikowski from Fan Graphs notes that Koji Uehara is close to returning to the Baltimore Orioles.
12:00 pm - Still quiet, a couple notes about potential Twins targets going elsewhere
- LEN III guesses that any Twins interest in Rich Harden would be as a reliever. I agree, though he'd probably be an expensive option.
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MLB Trade Rumors reports that Josh Willingham may be expendable now that the Nationals have signed Werth, but that the asking price is very high. The Twins are not said to be involved, but if the asking price comes down he may make a decent platoon mate with Jason Kubel.
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Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun thinks the Rays are on the verge of trading Jason Bartlett to the Orioles in exchange for outfielder Nolan Reimold. This is interesting on a number of levels, not only because it would take another potential Hardy suitor off the table, not to mention Bartlett, but also because I like Reimold as a solid right handed outfield bat with around average range. Coming off an injury, he could be a decent buy low candidate. I wouldn't give up Hardy unless there was another very good piece.
9:10 am - Not much to report yet, mostly reaction from previous signings and rumors
- LEN III gets the sense that the Twins want to get the Nishioka done "soon" so they can get onto other things (presumably pitching, trading J.J. Hardy). He also notes that the Joaquin Benoit contract (3 yrs, $16.5M) has really shaken up the bullpen market, and may have outpriced the Twins.
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MLB Trade Rumors reports that the Rockies have signed Ty Wigginton to a 2 year, $7.5M contract. Dave Cameron at Fan Graphs is not impressed with this, or with the Jose Lopez trade, and believes the market appears to be "bananas" at this point.
- Ben Goessling at MASN Sports believes the Nationals are very much in the market for starting pitching, even after signing Jayson Werth to a $126M contract. The Nationals have been noted as a possible destination for Carl Pavano.
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Jon Morosi of Fox Sports says the Twins have "checked in" on Rich Harden, and asks whether he is a starter or a reliever at this point.
Day one, and especially day four, can be kind of slow. Let's see if things pick up today. Now, let's start the day right with a heaping bowl of Twins breakfast news...
6:45 am -
- According to this, the Twins have discussed one, two and three-year deals with Tsuyoshi Nishioka's agent, Rick Thurman. The latest offer is reported to be three years at a total of $9 to $10 million (not including the posting fee, naturally).
- Jon Heyman has just reported that Nishioka is looking for three years at $12 million.
- I don't know who's really instigating all this J.J. Hardy trade talk. It might be Gardenhire, but even Smith is dropping too many hints. He says Gardy will be allowed to determine which position Nishioka will play. Okay, we get it: Hardy is available. Going beyond that, can we please stop saying how flexible Alexi Casilla is and how flexible Nishioka could be? If the front office is trying to get everyone to notice the blatantly obvious writing in between the lines, they've done a brilliant job of it. To me this looks like a trainwreck waiting to happen. And I'm usually pretty optimistic and can see the front office's view on almost anything. But all this anti-Hardy bias is really quite startling. You have one of the best shortstops in baseball, why are you working so hard to make it look like you don't care whether he stays or goes?
- On that same link from LEN III, he notes that if Carl Pavano can't find a three-year job that he likes, it might be possible for him to come back to the Twins on a two-year deal. Pure speculation, though. Neal also was doing some checking on rumors that the Twins were interested in Sean White. If we are, we might as well be interested in any other reliever who can't strike anyone one.
- Almost every team in baseball has expressed interest in Jesse Crain and Matt Guerrier.
- Parker thinks that Koji Uehara makes a lot of sense for the Twins. I agree, to an extent. Uehara was the only new name to crop up in the Twins rumor mill yesterday.
- Ken Rosenthal says that Ty Wigginton is close to signing with the Rockies as a bench bat. He's the kind of guy that would have been useful off the bench for the Twins, but if that's what the front office determines they really need, then those kind of players always available at the trade deadline.
That's all for now. Check back regularly, as Adam will be periodically updating this thread throughout the day.