Winter Meetings Day Two: Twins making headway on Yu Darvish, others

After two days of the MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, the Twins still have yet to make a trade or a free agent signing, but sounds like there was more movement today than on Day One.

Here’s what we’ve learned today:

• The most exciting news of the day came on the Yu Darvish front. Mike Berardino did some excellent work, finding out that Chris Gimenez — who served as Darvish’s catcher for a year and a half with the Rangers — has been answering a lot of Yu’s questions about the organization, and trying to convince him to join the team. Darvish has asked about the organization, coaches, community, and if there are any special “rules” he has to follow — because, apparently, that is a thing with the Rangers. I don’t want to give my hopes up here... but this report is making me feel like a deal here could actually happen. Just a month ago I thought it was just a pipe dream.
• Gimenez himself is also interested in re-signing with the Twins, and per Rhett Bollinger, the team met with his agents today. Seems only fair, given the leg work he’s doing with Darvish, no?
• The Twins also apparently met with Bartolo Colon’s agents. The team has previously said they were happy with Colon’s presence in the clubhouse and potentially interested in bringing him back in 2018.
• According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Twins are among several teams interested in Rays starter Chris Archer. The Braves, Brewers, Cubs, Cardinals, and “others” are said to be interested as well. Archer, who’ll turn 30 next fall, is under team control until 2019, but two team options could extend that to the end of 2021. The righty would obviously be an upgrade to the Twins rotation, but the Rays did have some injury concerns with him late in the 2017 season.
• There’s been a lot of talk about the Mets trying to trade starter Matt Harvey, but Darren Wolfson says the Twins haven’t been in on that.
• The Twins are also apparently not showing much interest in reliever Bryan Shaw, a fact Berardino find peculiar.
• As far as relief pitchers the Twins are actually interested in, the team met today with agents for Juan Nicasio and Brandon Kintzler, according to the Star Tribune’s LEN3. Kintzler remains “very interested” and would be a potential low-cost fit for the bullpen.
• Mike Berardino also reports that the Twins met with Fernando Rodney’s agent. Rodney, who turns 41 in March, had a 4.23 ERA and a 3.03 FIP as closer for the Diamondbacks last year. His 10.9 K/9 was pretty healthy too, but he walks a lot of guys and wears a crooked hat. Also: The arrow thing.
• Last, but not least, there’s this: