And not just because Sweet Drew wouldn't have someone to protect him from those random fires he starts.
A couple of Tweets have emerged in the past hour or so, indicating that Minnesota is going to make an attempt to keep Carl Pavano and his Pavstache. Just a few notes, after the jump.
Initially, there was this quote from Jon Heyman:
#twins seem very interested in retaining pavano, who was great for them. hes said to want "lilly money.'' ($33 mil, 3 yrs)
Which was followed up with this from Ken Rosenthal shortly thereafter:
#Twins making strong push to keep Pavano. Could happen, but pitcher committed to going through free-agent process.
This isn't much to go on, but it's enough to convince me that if the organization can find the money they'll make every effort to keep Pavano in a Twins uniform. I wouldn't think that the kind of money he'll demand would be there (I always thought three years, $30 million, which is close to what Heyman mentions), but I guess there's credence to the philosophy of: you never know.
As far as Brandon Webb goes, this isn't exactly a surprise. Jerry Crasnick lists the Twins as one of a few interested teams, which is fair. Minnesota bid on Hisashi Iwakuma, and it's no secret that they like to have as much pitching depth as possible. Arms like Kyle Gibson and Alex Wimmers aren't terribly far away but this isn't an organization that will make a point to rely on them going into Spring Training. And it's safe to say that Pavano, even if the club would like to try to keep him, isn't a sure bet. Backup plans will be made, and I'm sure Webb won't be the last starter we're tied to.
Webb is still recovering from right shoulder problems, meaning he hasn't faced a Major League hitter since Opening Day 2009. Clearly any team interested will see potential arm problems as the number one issue, and I have a hard time believing he'll command the dollars that guys like Ben Sheets ($10 million) or Rich Harden ($6.5 million) received. Although Erik Benard's $1.5 million might actually come in a little low.
With his upside, a lot of teams will be willing to take a chance. His great sinker and groundball tendencies would certainly be a welcome change from the flyball pitchers that inhabit most of the Twins' rotation. All I'll say for now is that my interest is based solely around Webb's contract demands.
Anyone else been interested in all the Twins news since yesterday? Lots happening right now...