Twins Winter Meetings Notes: Pitchers of Interest

According to LEN III, the Twins are interested in a pair of non-tenders: Jair Jurrjens and John Lannan. While neither player is necessarily of the caliber we might be hoping for, the Twins need warm bodies to suck up some innings. Here's what LEN III had to say about both pitchers.

On Jurrens:

Jurrjens, 26, is 53-37 in his career and was an All-Star in 2011 when he went 13-6 with a 2.96 ERA for the Braves. He was unable to find that form last season, with injuries contributing to his decline. He spent most of 2012 in the minors and went 3-4 with a 6.89 ERA in seven starts for the Braves.

And on Lannan:

Lannan, 28, was a two-time Opening Day starter for Washington but found himself nudged out of a deep 2012 rotation. The ground-ball pitcher spent most of the season in the minors and went 4-1 with a 4.13 ERA in six starts for the Nationals. Lannan is 42-52 with a 4.01 ERA in his career and has thrown more than 180 innings in a season three times.

Lannan and Jurrjens should remind you of Nick Blackburn. Which, to be honest, is just fine as long as we're talking about '08 or '09 Blackburn. But ideally you would prefer to not have three pitchers of this profile in one rotation.

Neal also says the Twins have "other potential targets", including Brett Myers, Brandon McCarthy, and everyone's favorite enigma Francisco Liriano.