SB Nation Minnesota - Minnesota Twins Offseason: Alexi Casilla Avoids Arbitration

Alexi Casilla Signs With Twins, Avoiding Arbitration

2012-02-15T16:35:54Z

The Minnesota Twins officially can stop worrying about arbitration as they've finally signed their last candidate in Alexi Casilla. The Twins announced on Wednesday that they had agreed to a one year, $1,382,500 contract for 2012.

The 27 year old Dominican infielder batted an average but above average career-wise .260 in 2011 for the Twins in 97 games played, alongside slugging two home runs and collecting a handful of doubles and triples. This will be his sixth year with the Twins organization's top club, having joined the Twins originally in September of 2006. He will likely continue to play his usual role of utility player for the Twins.

Casilla was the third and final arby candidate for the Twins in the 2011/2012 offseason.

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Carl Pavano Will Be Minnesota Twins Opening Day Starter

2012-01-25T23:50:50Z

It seems a bit early to talk about Major League Baseball's opening day, but that's exactly what Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire decided to do this week. When asked about the pitching rotation, Gardenhire said he's already decided the starting pitchers for the first two games of the season.

Gardenhire will start Carl Pavano in the team's first game of the season, scheduled to take place on Apr. 6 against the Baltimore Ooriles, the manager told Charley Waters of the Pioneer Press. Gardenhire also said Scott Baker will start the team's home opener when the Twins host the Los Angeles Angels on Apr. 9 at Target Field.

The Twins will open their Spring Training on Feb. 18 -- 13 days before their exhibition schedule begins -- as Gardenhire attempts to iron out some kinks that were all too evident last season.

"But the extra days are important to reinforce and work more than one day on certain things. We're going to do a few more drills (when) we're on the field - cutoffs, relays, baserunning. We're really going to pound that into their heads. It's all about details and paying attention."

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Minnesota Twins Offseason News: Concussions Remain Concern As Justin Morneau Prepares For Season

2012-01-22T22:50:58Z

Sweet-swinging first baseman, Justin Morneau sure hopes the concussions that ended his past two seasons are a thing of the past, but he remains cautious as he prepares for the season with the Minnesota Twins. Maybe then he can return to a key contributor for the Twins, something he's struggled to do the past two season which were cut short due to the impact of those concussions.

As Joe Christensen reported today, Morneau feels good as he works out and hasn't felt those concussion symptoms for a month and is in a much better place at this point in the year than he was last year.

Even now, a month before spring training, he has questions. He hasn't felt concussion symptoms since December, but he wonders how his head will respond once he's back on the field. He also wonders about his surgically repaired left wrist. Resting on a training table, as he iced his left knee, Morneau called himself cautiously optimistic.

"I wouldn't say the head's perfect yet," Morneau said. "I'm not going to declare that until I go through fielding ground balls, playing catch, taking batting practice, doing all the baseball stuff. But what I was able to do today is miles ahead of where I was at this time last year."

While that sounds like good news, it still appears that Morneau has a long ways to go before regain his All-Star form.

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Minnesota Twins Agree To Deals With Francisco Liriano, Glen Perkins

2012-01-18T00:51:22Z

The Minnesota Twins nearly waited until the final buzzer before agreeing to deals with two of their pitchers prior to the MLB's annual arbitration period. The front office got it done, however, as they signed Francisco Liriano and Glen Perkins before things got messy.

The Twins announced both of the deals on Tuesday and, according to the team's website, Liriano will make $5.5 million in 2012 while Perkins earns $1.55 million for his efforts. It's a bit surprising considering both players struggled last season, but it does seem to be a better option than the crapshoot that can be arbitration.

Minnesota isn't in the clear quite yet, however, as they still have an infielder to agree with before arbitration officially begins on Feb. 1.

The lone Twins player eligible for arbitration who remains unsigned is second baseman Alexi Casilla. Casilla, 27, filed his arbitration figure at $1.75 million, while the Twins offered $1.065 million.

Casilla, who batted .260 with a .322 on-base percentage and .368 slugging percentage in 97 games in 2011, made $865,000 last year.

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The Crazy Injury History Of Joel Zumaya

2012-01-16T02:54:39Z

The Minnesota Twins signed relief pitcher Joel Zumaya to a one-year, incentive-laden contract on Sunday. The reason that it's so incentive-laden is because Zumaya, to put it mildly, has a bit of an injury history. Not all of those injuries have been pitching-related, however.

In the months after the 2007 season, Zumaya injured his shoulder while helping his father move boxes out of his attic because a fire was approaching the area. A box weighing 50 or 60 pounds fell on his pitching shoulder, separating it and keeping him out until late June of 2008.

But the most infamous of Zumaya's injuries would have to be the one that sidelined him for the 2006 American League Championship Series with a sore wrist. The nature of the injury wasn't revealed at the time, but Detroit Tigers' General Manager Dave Dombrowski disclosed during an off-season interview that the source of Zumaya's injuries was. . .that he played too much of the PlayStation 2 game Guitar Hero, causing the injury to his wrist.

To his credit, the injury did get Zumaya a spot. . .sort of. . .in the XBox 360 version of Guitar Hero II, where the credits contained the following message:

No pitchers were harmed in the making of this game. Except for one. Joel Zumaya. He had it coming.

So maybe the best thing for Zumaya now that he's a member of the Twins would be to keep him away from the PlayStation and putting a clause in his contract prohibiting him from helping people move or something.

MLB Free Agency Rumors: Joel Zumaya Agrees To Deal With Minnesota Twins

2012-01-15T20:08:29Z

Free agent flame thrower, Joel Zumaya, who has battled an array of arm injuries since making his MLB debut in 2006, has agreed to join his former team's biggest rival in the Central Division, the Minnesota Twins:

After throwing for teams in December and holding out for a roster spot and the right situation, Zumaya has agreed to terms with the Minnesota Twins, the reliever told MLB.com. The two sides spent Saturday putting together a deal that could pay him anywhere from $800,000 to $1.7 million if he reaches incentives.

A Twins official would neither confirm nor deny the deal to MLB.com, but said they’ve been in negotiations since December.

Zumaya weighed what he called "good offers" from three other clubs, but the Twins included guaranteed money rather than a minor-league deal with a Spring Training invite.

Zumaya's last pitch was in a Tigers uniform at Target Field where he fractured his elbow on a pitch in June 2010. Zumaya made attempts to pitch last season, but the screws that were placed in his elbow were causing discomfort and ultimately shut him down for the season. If healthy, he's amongst the elite, but he's rarely been the former. Before being injured in 2010 he had 34 strike outs in over 38 innings and a 2.58 ERA.

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Minnesota Twins Announce 'Special Instructors' And Camp Invites For Spring Training

2012-01-03T23:21:07Z

The Minnesota Twins announced that they will have 25 extra players that aren't currently on the roster in training camp when Spring Training opens up in Fort Meyers, Fla., next month. There aren't a lot of big name prospects, but the most familiar faces are probably going to be the special instructors in Florida to help out.

Twins announced Eddie Guardado, Tom Kelly, Tony Oliva, Paul Molitor, Rod Carew, Jim Kaat and Terry Steinbach will all be in Fort Meyers when training camp kicks off on Feb. 18 to help coach the following prospects:

There will be 10 non-roster pitchers, including left-hander Phil Dumatrait, who split the 2011 season between Minnesota and Triple-A Rochester. Other pitchers include Jason Bulger, Jared Burton, Samuel Deduno, Casey Fien, Luis Perdomo, Daryl Thompson, P.J. Walters and Brendan Wise.

The five catchers who will be in camp are prospects Chris Herrmann, Daniel Rohlfing and Danny Lehmann, former Astros catcher J.R. Towles and 2011 Twins backstop Rene Rivera.

The seven infielders are Aaron Bates, Sean Burroughs, Ray Chang, Brian Dozier, Pedro Florimon Jr., Mike Hollimon and Steve Pearce.

Among the three outfielders invited are Matt Carson, Brian Dinkelman and Wilkin Ramirez.

For more on the Minnesota Twins, check out Twinkie Town. You can also head over to SB Nation's main MLB hub at Baseball Nation.

Jason Marquis, Minnesota Twins Reach One-Year, $3 Million Deal, According To Report

2011-12-22T20:50:04Z

The Minnesota Twins did indeed reach a deal with veteran right-handed pitcher Jason Marquis, according to Jon Morosi on Twitter. After new broke that the two were close to getting a deal done, it looks like the two agreed to terms early Thursday on a one-year, $3 million deal. He's 33 years-old and a 12-year man in the MLB. Last season, he went 8-5 with the Washington Nationals a season ago before being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he hit a definite slump.

With Arizona, he went 0-1 with a 9.53 earned-run average in three starts, and then missed nearly two months at the end of the season with a broken right fibula after being hit with a line drive. His best season was back in 2004, when he went 15-7 with a 3.71 ERA, and he's never pitched in the American League.

Marquis will likely fill in as the fourth or fifth starter in the Minnesota rotation, after the team traded Kevin Slowey to the Rockies and moving starter Brian Duensing to the bullpen.