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Free Agent News
With multiple offers on the table for a number of players, Twins Interim GM Jesse Lund expects the Simulation Twins to announce a number of deals as early as this afternoon.
"We've had discussions with a number of players," he said openly. "Pitching has been our primary target and we've had some success there, but unfortunately the market has taken a number of our primary targets out of our hands." He shrugged before adding, "It's almost as if we Mock GMs aren't playing with our own money."
Frustration evident, Lund did say that he had a few deals ready to be signed. "There are two or three that we think we're close on. We've made a couple of trades to improve our pitching depth in the upper levels of the system, so now we're focusing on putting together a team in 2013 that will be able to win some games. We do not want to lost 90 games for the third season in a row."
Trade Updates
After dealing Denard Span and Ryan Doumit for four pitchers, the requests for trades with the Twins have begun to taper off.
"We had some early inquiries on Justin Morneau," admitted Lund, "but it became evident that other teams believed his salary meant we would allow him to go for next to nothing. Fortunately we're not in a situation where we need to shed salary just for the sake of reducing payroll."
The longtime franchise cornerstone at first base wasn't the only player of interest.
"A handful on inquiries on Josh Willingham, of course, and at one point we thought we may have had a blockbuster involving him and Glen Perkins, but that didn't happen. It would have been a big win for us if it had. We've actually had a lot of calls on Ben Revere. Some interesting ideas, but we would need a center fielder to come back in return and we haven't yet seen one that we like." Lund also told us that Joe Mauer hadn't been the subject of any trade talks.
"Right now we're in a place where I don't really see the need for us to keep moving pieces from our Major League roster," concluded the Interim GM. "We have a lot of work to do. We're already a better team for the future with the addition of four talented pitchers, but if one or two things fall into place we'll also be a better team this year than we were last year."
Here's hoping.