Roster Review - 11/30: Arbitration Results

Hey, me again with your money update. No, not that. No, I — later. We can talk about THAT later!

As per last week’s report, last night was the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. In the interim, the Twins shuffled their roster makeup a bit, outrighting Jake Cave and his shiny new $800k contract straight off the 40-man roster, replacing him with waiver claim Trevor Megill.

Notably, Megill is not Magill, as in Matt Magill, who spent half a season in the Bomba Squad bullpen, a year after joining the Twins — which was two years after a five-game stint with Cincinnati, and three years post-2013, when he debuted as a starter for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Anyway, NOT that guy. Forget all that.

Trevor Megill has pitched in 28 major-league games, all of them in 2021, his age-27 rookie season with the Chicago Cubs. In those games, he mustered an 8.37 ERA (5.62 FIP), 13.7 H/9, 2.7 HR/9, 3.0 BB/9, and 11.4 K/9, facing 115 batters over the course of the year.

Megill has a slider (just 9.6% usage) so maybe Wes Johnson would like to work a little one-year magic on him, and then boot him into the street once teams start wising up. Who’s to say, really?

Wait! Derek Falvey is to say. Megill was almost immediately non-tendered. Surprise, and happy early birthday, I guess. Maybe you’re getting a spring training invite. Here’s former Fangraphs + current ESPN writer Kiley McDaniel with a little insight on this kind of transactional oddity:

That brings us into the arbitration update — below is last week’s table, updated to reflect the decisions that were made regarding each player’s contractual status for 2022 (and beyond.)

Of course, the big adjustment was the extension of Byron Buxton to a sparkling 7-year deal, one that will give him plenty of time to develop some bilateral shortcoming or another and draw the eternal ire of Minnesota sports enthusiasts.

The more recent “big” news, though, is the non-tendering of relievers Danny Coulombe and Juan Minaya. Neither had spectacular years, but they got enough of the job done — Coulombe managed a 3.67 ERA and Minaya put up a 2.48 mark, each doing so in 29 games last season. Still, the Twins are expressing a desire to see different arms, and ideally younger arms — both relievers had gotten their 30s underway, and weren’t expected to develop into a piece of the long-term future.

Jharel Cotton fans can rejoice, though, as the relief waiver pick-up agreed to terms on a quite cheap $700k deal for 2022.

Both Caleb Thielbar and Tyler Duffey took deals just a tick over their MLBTR-provided estimates, by about $100k each. It will be Thielbar’s sixth season with the team, and Duffey’s eighth. Either could be trade candidates should the 2022 season unfold questionably.

Luis Arraez, Mitch Garver, and Taylor Rogers were all tendered contracts, but may be headed to arbitration, with no further agreement details yet made public. These combined moves open up some roster spots for future offseason additions, and altogether, the 40-man roster sits at 37 after the dismissal of Coulombe, Megill, and Minaya.

Whether the Twins fill any of these spots with major-league free agent contracts before the CBA expires in a matter of hours remains to be seen.