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Twins Weekend Recap: Hendriks, Pelfrey, Arroyo, Kubel, Garza

Let's get you caught up on all the action.

By Jesse Lund
Rob Carr

I'm having a really hard time functioning on this beautiful Monday morning. How are you feeling? Let's get right to it.

  • Once considered a Top 10 prospect in the Twins system, and once thought to be the guy who would pair with Kyle Gibson to take the rotation into the future, Liam Hendriks was designated for assignment last week when Minnesota officially signed Phil Hughes. On Friday afternoon it was announced that the Cubs were awarded Hendriks, and he's been invited to spring training. Going into his age-25 season Hendriks wasn't the first player on the list of guys who you'd think were eligible for getting the hook, but it's not as though he was undeserving of it. Hopefully the Cubs can help him figure a few things out, and he can be a reliable back-of-the-rotation option for a few years.
  • The Twins signed Mike Pelfrey. We talked about that this morning already, you should check it out. We're still waiting to see who the team will kick off the 40-man.
  • I'm not sure how continuing to chase aging, regression-likely players is going to help this team beyond this season. If the club feels like cleaning house in that 40-man roster, signing free agents for a position already chalk full of candidates is one way to do it, but they're trading the luxury of expelling sub-par talent for the burden of multi-year, multi-million dollar offers to players who aren't a good bet to make the team better beyond the short term. I've already been, quite clearly, baffled by the Pelfrey acquisition. What would signing Bronson Arroyo do for the Twins?
  • Jason Kubel was willing to sign a minor league contract with the Twins because he was confident he'd make the club out of spring training. That might happen, but something would need to happen to Chris Parmelee and/or Ryan Doumit, first. Platooning Kubel versus right-handed pitching and then bringing in Jeff Baker to monster mash southpaws would give the Twins a killer DH combination.
  • Nothing new has developed on the Matt Garza front over the weekend. It feels like the Twins are still interested on a three-year deal, which works for me, but if his camp insists on going longer then he's almost guaranteed to end up in Arizona or, really, just anywhere that's not Minnesota. I'm confident that a rotation of Garza-Nolasco-Hughes-Correia-Pelfrey could help the Twins be much more competitive, but something still needs to happen on the offensive side of the equation.
See you back here later today. The Winter Meetings are over and we're ready to move onto our next round of prospect voting!

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