As everyone knows by now, the Detroit Tigers made a huge splash yesterday by inking Prince Fielder to a nine-year, $214 million contract. The deal ranks as one of the largest in baseball history, putting Prince in the same company as Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols in terms of total contract value.

The impact of this move on the Tigers has been well covered. Detroit ran away with the division in 2011, finishing 15 games ahead of second-place Cleveland and 32 games ahead of the 2010 Division Champs. While they were set to enter the season as the likely favorite in the AL Central, the devastating injury to Victor Martinez had seemingly opened the door for their division rivals.

Then yesterday happened. Prince signs the fourth-biggest free agent contract in history, and suddenly the Detroit Tigers have the best 3-4 punch in baseball to complement a pitching staff that features the best pitcher in the American League. What does this mean for the Tigers - and the AL Central - in 2012? Here's a couple takes, after the jump:

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In any given season, the Twins carry 12 pitchers on their 25 man roster: five starters for the rotation and seven relief pitchers. You can also count off, relatively easily, which position players will make the trip north from Florida at the end of March. Here's our list as of today.

Catchers (2): Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit

Infielders (6): Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla, Jamey Carroll, Danny Valencia, Tsuyoshi Nishioka, Luke Hughes

Outfielders (4): Denard Span, Ben Revere, Josh Willingham, Trevor Plouffe

With 24 roster spots taken, who gets that 25th spot? Candidates after the jump.

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Prior to this weekend, the Twins had only three real locks to play a prominent role in the 2012 bullpen. Love it or hate it (and I don't recall too many loving it), Matt Capps was signed to be the closer. Glen Perkins broke out as a dominant setup man in 2011, and Brian Duensing's deadly numbers against lefties make him well suited to be the pen's secondary southpaw.

Then the Twins, recognizing a lack of power arms and a lack of options against tough right-handers, signed Joel Zumaya. As Jesse pointed out, it's a great buy-low signing that carries very little risk. The problem is though, that the Twins still only have three real locks for the 2012 bullpen. Zumaya could dominate as he did in his rookie campaign, but the smart money is on him spending a great deal of time on the disabled list or perhaps not even making the club at all.

A nice addition to the bullpen in a best case scenario is good, but some stability is required as well. I've compiled a quick custom leaderboard over at Fangraphs that runs down the remaining free agent right-handed relievers and their splits against same-handed hitters over the past three seasons. We'll take a look at more after the jump.

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We know that our Twins haven't done a great deal over the winter. They've plugged some holes with relatively little money, and they've made a couple of shrewd if unpopular business decisions (my dad will be in mourning over Cuddyer's departure for at least the next six months). It's also that time of year where, for the most part, the free agent market starts to look pretty picked over.

But we know there are still some intriguing names out there. Prince Fielder has yet to find a home, so he'll be our first baseman. Our center fielder will be one of the most talented Cuban athletes the sports has ever seen, if you believe the hype. We already know there are still plenty of relief options on the market.

With that in mind, after the jump I present you with the 25-man roster for my free agent squad.

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Michael Cuddyer has departed for the thin air of Colorado, and the Twins need a new team leader. (Much was made of Cuddyer's leadership skills in the clubhouse, so they must be important, far more important than hitting or pitching well.) However, it's still undecided who's going to take over as the de facto team captain. Below, a look at some of the possibilities:

JUSTIN MORNEAU
Pros: Loud. Tall. Canadian. In Canada the order of importance in society looks roughly like this:

1. Prime Minister
2. Captain of any NHL team
3. Coach of Canadian world junior hockey team
   
4. Maple Leafs GM
   
5. Former member of "Kids In The Hall" comedy troupe
   

As you can see, captaincy is very important in Canada, and so all Canadians are automatically natural leaders.

Cons: Impossible to play through injuries when the injury is a head injury. (Unless you enjoy watching a guy with nausea, vertigo, and migraines try to play first base.)

JOE MAUER
Pros: Face of the franchise. Highest-paid player. Dreamy.
Cons: Would require Mauer to offend and/or yell at a fellow human being, something that's not in his makeup.

DENARD SPAN
Pros: Consistently good, and now one of the longer-tenured Twins. Beard makes him look mean.
Cons: Inevitable comparisons to Torii Hunter will mean that eventually Span will have to try to punch Justin Morneau, miss, and hit Nick Punto.

CARL PAVANO
Pros: Mustache.
Cons: Hard to be a leader when you play once every five days.

SCOTT BAKER
Pros: Third-longest-tenured Twin.
Cons: Would require him to talk.

FRANCISCO LIRIANO
Pros: Fourth-longest-tenured Twin.
Cons: Would require him to not anger the coaches every third start for one reason or another.

ALEXI CASILLA
Pros: Has shocking, possibly useful ability to stay on the team through thick and thin.
Cons: Space case.

GLEN PERKINS
Pros: Local boy made good.
Cons: (Joke deleted after Perkins filed a grievance.)

JOSH WILLINGHAM
Pros: Has giant, scary forearms.
Cons: Got here like two minutes ago.

The cupboard's a little bare, I'm afraid. Let's just hope that Morneau can stay healthy.

For years this was one position where, seemingly every season, the Twins didn't have a good option. The position of designated hitter, in some respects, should be one of the easiest positions to fill because it only requires a single skill set: hitting. If a guy can run or throw or field a position or look good in a uniform, those things are simply positives. Just hit.

Chili Davis did his job in '91. Paul Molitor didn't have much power left, but he was still an exceptional hitter. David Ortiz, when he wasn't hurt or in the minors or in Tom Kelly's dog house, had his moments. But in between those guys, and between Ortiz's departure after '02 and Jason Kubel's breakout '09 season, there was a real dearth of hitters for Kelly and Ron Gardenhire to choose from.

Instead, Minnesota filled the DH spot by selecting the hot bat and by using it to give guys a break. It's part of the reason that Twins fans understand how versatility is important in their players: it's easier to give guys a needed breather if the roster is flexible enough that they can move around the field and, on occasion, DH.

Those days might be back. Much more, and a poll, after the jump.

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Update, 3:50 pm
Mark Buerhle to the Marlins. 4 years, $58 million, says Ken Rosenthal.

Update, 1:08 pm - It sounds like southpaw Erik Bedard is close to signing a one-year contract with the Pirates for $4.5 million dollars. If the Twins plan on signing decent pitching at affordable prices, the boats have started sailing here too.

Update, 12:30 pm

Not much on the Twins front, but some interesting things throughout the rest of baseball.

Item #1
-Bryan Hoch, who covers the Yankees for MLB.com tweeted one of the best things you Twins fans will probably read today. "Heard Nakajima's bat could be better than Twins' Nishioka, but not as good a fielder". So, that's kind of fun. Also, this obviously means the Yankees won the rights to Nakajima.

Item #2
-Dan Knobler of CBSSports.com believes that if the Marlins don't get Albert Pujols, they'll make a hard run at Prince Fielder. Their rotation is apparently set as is, so they don't need to worry about spending more money there. The Rangers have apparently also expressed interest in Fielder, but would have to work on a deal that wasn't so long, according to Jon Heyman.

That's all I've got for now. Let's hope something fun happens before the 6 o'clock roundup!

Update, 10:40 am - The Rockies and Padres will complete a trade which will send Huston Street and his $7.5 million salary to San Diego for a player to be named later. This PTBNL is likely to be a non-prospect since the Padres are picking up Street's tab. With Street's obvious availability, and with Ryan's insistance that the organization was looking externally for a proven closer, I do find it somewhat odd that Minnesota wasn't mentioned at all. Target Field would play well for Street, whereas Coors Field was a hell hole for him (and nearly every other pitcher, cough, Kevin Slowey, cough).

Update, 10:20 am - Per LEN III, the Twins will be in attendance for Joel Zumaya's workout next week. Zumaya throws hard and can strike batters out, but needs a year or two to rebuild value and prove he can throw 60 innings without his arm falling off.

8 am updates...

The Twins haven't been talked about much this morning (yet!) at the Winter Meetings in Dallas, and most of the attention is still on the whole Pujols-to-Miami-maybe situation, but there are a couple Twins notes from last night's roundup that we can discuss today (and more Pujols. Everyone wants more Pujols).

Notes after the jump.

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UPDATE: Capuano has allegedly signed with the Dodgers for two years, $10 million. Share your favorite memories of the 16 hours or so when we thought he'd be Minnesota's 4th or 5th starter below.

Object Name: Chris Capuano

Type: Low Risk, High Reward

Position: Starting Pitcher

Reason for Frenzy: Strib beat writer LaVelle E Neal III Tweeted this right about when Nick Kroll was doing the Corndog dance on FX's The League last night:

Twins are Interested in lefty Chris Capuano, who was with the Mets last year. Great pickoff move. Has had two Tommy John surgeries.

The Skinny: the most recent of the two TJ surgeries was in 2008. His last quality season would arguably have been 2006 (top ten NL in WHIP and WAR for pitchers). Spent last season with the New York Metropolitans, where he threw 186 innings and went 11-12 with an ERA just under 5.00; as Ben Nicholson-Smith of MLB Trade Rumors notes, however, advanced stats suggest he pitched more than a full run better than that. He made $1.5 million last year and is said to be looking for a multi-year deal, which, per Adam Rubin of ESPN, is why the Mets are not looking to keep him on board .

Downside: graduated from Duke. I hate Duke.

Your thoughts?