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The Twins entered the Winter Meetings with some holes to plug and connected to players like Nelson Cruz.
The Twins exited the Winter Meetings with some holes to plug and connected to players like Nelson Cruz.
In what the Strib’s LaVelle E. Neal III correctly calls “the Twins’ least active winter meetings in years,” Minnesota’s braintrust was at the airport before the Rule 5 draft even finished.
Before you draft your “cheap Pohlads” screed to send to various newspapers and online outlets, the Meetings as a whole were unremarkable for most everyone, with the exception of the Seattle Mariners and Carlos Santana, who continue to trade and get traded, respectively.
(That said, if you want to start drafting your “Collusion! Again!” screed to send to various newspapers and online outlets, I’m not going to stop you. If we’re still sitting here waiting for big names to sign as pitchers & catchers report, I’ll set you up with my Stamps.com guy.)
MLB.com’s Do-Hyoung Park runs down the Twins three most pressing needs post-Las Vegas, and they track with what’s been discussed here and elsewhere: bullpen depth, veteran bat, fifth starter. The weirdness of the Twins not needing to rebuild at least 60% of their rotation, after essentially a full decade of trying and failing to do just that every winter, is not lost on anyone, I hope.
Although there is no news to report on the Cruz front, the Twins did not lose anyone in the Rule 5 draft, including 2015 number one pick (and sixth overall) Tyler Jay. I’ll turn it over to Reusse for commentary:
LHP Tyler Jay, drafted 6th overall in 2015 (one spot ahead of OFer named Benintendi), sails through Rule 5 draft w/o a claim from rest of MLB. That's embarrassing.
— Reusse (@Patrick_Reusse) December 14, 2018