Twins Winter Meetings Afternoon Update: Cuddyer Offered 3 Years / $25M

Update, 7:08 pm - Jayson Stark opines on the closer market, saying that if the Red Sox deal for A's closer Andrew Bailey, it drastically reduces big money destinations for established free agent closers. Could this play into the Twins' hands down the line? There's no way Minnesota goes after K-Rod or Ryan Madsen unless it turns into an Orlando-Hudson-in-2010 type situation.

Update, 6:39 pm - Per LEN III, Matt Capps has passed his physical. It's official folks, he's back.

Update, 4:30 pm - T.R. Sullivan has some good info on the top-tier free agent pitchers. He states that Buehrle is looking for a four-year contract, but doesn't mention the Twins at all. My blueprint choice, Roy Oswalt, is apparently looking for a three-year deal. Take a year off each of those requests and I'd be interested, although I'm not as high on Oswalt as I was when I wrote my off-season plan.

Update, 3:50 pm - The Twins have admitted that they probably don't have room for both Cuddyer and Kubel in their budget, but are clearly keeping their options open as Kubel also has an offer on the table from the Twins.

Update, 1:52 pm - Jayson Stark reports that the Rockies are willing to eat all of Huston Street's contract in a trade, in order to get better prospects back. We've bantered here about a Street-Pavano swap, but how does this new information affect your thinking? Would anyone be willing to trade a prospect or two for Street?

Jon Heyman reports that the Twins have offered Michael Cuddyer a 3 year / $25M contract, and that Cuddyer has not accepted the offer (yet). As much as I like what Cuddyer has done for this team, I do not like the idea of a three year commitment with the number of outfield prospects on the farm. Although $8M+ isn't a terrible amount to be on the hook each year. More to come on this, I'm guessing the Twins are pushing for an answer today, one way or the other.

Kevin Slowey

I can't add much more to Jesse's post below. I'm not a fan of selling as low as the Twins did with Slowey (PTBNL and cash). But I'm not sure Slowey is going to be a fan of Coors Field, given his extreme fly ball tendencies.

Aaron Harang

MLBTradeRumors (Hey! I know this Steve Adams guy) reports that starting pitcher Aaron Harang has signed a 2 year / $12M deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Consider this another inning eating below average starter off the free agent board, which is good for the Twins, who now have fewer in house options after trading Slowey.

Hiroyuki Nakajima

NPB Tracker reports that the winning bid (and team) for Nakajima will be announced today. The Twins aren't mentioned as a top candidate here, and I don't know squat about Nakajima. But given last year's performance from uber-shortstop Nishi, I'd prefer the Twins go another direction for the rotation.

Sergio Santos

The Toronto Blue Jays have announced that they have completed a trade with the Chicago White Sox , acquiring closer Sergio Santos in exchange for A/AA pitching prospect Nestor Molina. I don't know about you, but Alex Anthopoulous (Toronto GM) negotiating with Kenny Williams (Chicago GM) doesn't seem like a fair fight to me. Then again, Chicago has a number of very good bullpen arms and a somewhat ugly rotation situation on the horizon if Mark Buerhle leaves this year and John Danks and Gavin Floyd leave over the next two years. Williams isn't afraid to gamble, though.