Cubs to Sign Carlos Villanueva, Pay Him the Same As Kevin Correia

According the Jon Heyman, the Chicago Cubs have agreed to sigh right-hander Carlos Villanueva. The deal is reported to be for two years and $10 million dollars.

Carlos Vlllanueva agreement with cubs is $10M for 2 yrs. nice add for chicago.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 20, 2012

I'm sure that contract will look very familiar to Twins fans, since it's the exact same contract that Kevin Correia recently signed. Villanueva is the better pitcher by nearly every comparison. To be fair to the Twins, and I personally need to be fair to the Twins considering I'll be leaving shards of clothing around the workplace if I'm not, we have absolutely no idea whether or not the Twins had been focusing on him.

I would like to think they saw him in the same light as we have, and indeed in the same light as the Cubs clearly do. The north side of Chicago, much like Minnesota, has opportunities for a starting pitcher. It's feasible that the Twins offered him this same deal, or more, and that once again they couldn't "give away their money" and Villanueva went to the organization where he thought he had a better chance of winning.

This is a well you can go to only so many times, but a pitcher like Villanueva really would have been a great fit. He misses bats, he wants to start all season, he's not a top-of-the-line pitcher but would be a definitive improvement on, potentially, every single starting pitcher the Twins could trot out over the first five games of 2013.

Unfortunately, the Twins lose out once again on a pitcher upgrade at a reasonable cost. It's made more painful because we're now stuck looking at the Correia signing, like a guy who just bought an '86 Toyota for the same price as his neighbor paid for an '08 BMW.

Onto the next target.