The Twins killed four birds today when they settled with four players who were headed to arbitration. The big one was AL MVP Justin Morneau, who signed a one year, $4.5 million deal. Morneau had a monster season and even if he just comes close to doing what he did in 2006, we’ll have a huge bargain on our hands. PECOTA looks for more of the same from Morneau. His weighted mean average has him at .293/.362/..526 with 30 homeruns and 108 RBIs. I could live with that for sure. And it’s also pretty ironic that Morneau’s most comparable player is none other then 1980s Twins star Kent Hrbek.
Thirdbaseman Nick Punto signed a two year deal that will make him $4.2 million. This might have been a little much but Punto can play a few different spots he’s just light with the bat. He hit one homerun last year and he had a .373 slugging percentage.
Juan Rincon was Joe Nathan’s setup man and he’ll make $2 million next year. He’s a quality arm out of the pen that, along with Nathan, allows Twins starters to shorten up their game without giving up wins. Lew Ford will make $985k. Ford will be the fourth outfielder and he’s had a hard time replicating his breakout season from 2004 when he hit .299 with 15 homeruns.
The Twins still have two big guys left who haven’t signed and are headed to arbitration. You have Michael Cuddyer and batting champ Joe Mauer. Both of those guys will cost the Twins a pretty penny.
