The Twins have made an offer to left-hander Jarrod Washburn and are currently awaiting his response, reports Scott Miller of CBSSports.com.
The Twins have been linked to Washburn over the past couple of years, mainly due to Washburn's desire to play close to his home in Northwestern Wisconsin. But other than that, this move makes little sense from any standpoint. The Twins already have several internal options that are better fits. He got off to a great start in '09 but after he was traded to Detroit, he completely fell off the deep end. Washburn's a flyball pitcher, which matched with the Twins poor defensive outfield, probably won't make for a happy marriage. Washburn looked great early last season with Franklin Gutierrez and Ichiro Suzuki, two of baseball's best defensive outfielders, behind him.
If this deal is for 1 year $1 million, I won't cry about it. But I do agree with Parker Hageman of Over The Baggy and John Meyer of TwinsMVB.com that the starts Washburn will be wasting is bigger than the money aspect. The Twins would be better served spending the money they're looking to invest in Washburn, even if it's not much, and putting it toward a better pitcher, second baseman/third baseman or Joe Mauer.
I really don't see any reasoning behind this offer. Hopefully it's just another baseless rumor.
January 5, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Josh,
I very much disagree with you!! The Twins tried letting the young pitchers throw last year and it was a disaster. Bringing in Pavano helped but they could use one more proven veteran in the rotation for depth. Let Liriano stay in the bullpen to build up some confidence and trade Glen Perkins.
The nice thing about Washburn is he is a workhorse and threw 176.0 IP last season between Seattle and Detroit. He also has a history of staying healthy so you are going to get anywhere to 25-30 starts from him. This takes pressure off the young arms to produce. He is not in the prime of his career but would give us another LH option and he wants to play for the Twins. As far as money goes don't worry the Pohlad family has enough!!
I would still love to have you on Twins Talk some night if you are interested?
Jack,
My problem isn't really that we're bringing in a pitcher, it's that he's not an improvement over what we have. I'm all for an improvement, but Washburn isn't one.
And yes, I'm definitely interested in being on the podcast at some point.
Josh
You are spot on. Washburn is junk. I can't believe the Twins are wasting time and potential money trying to get him.
I wouldn't mind seeing a pitcher added to the rotation, but Washburn's run last year in Seattle, had much to do with outfield defense and a cavernous ball park. This is a very poor decision on the part of the Twins.
I hope Washburn doesn't bite. Yuk.
Everyone who cares about the money, Don't worry the Pohlad family has enough!!
Post a Comment