A Log for the Hot Stove: Four Goals for the Minnesota Twins' Offseason

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I've never formally said it, but when Alex Rodriguez announced he was opting for free agency in the midst of the 2007 World Series, I was pretty much disgusted.

I hate it when players try to elevate themselves above the game, and that's exactly what Rodriguez did.

You want the spotlight on you? Get to the damn series yourself. (sidenote: and then he did, and everyone loved him. See how easy that was?)

This is why despite having about 15 articles sketched out for the Twins' offseason, I haven't even posted my idea of how the offseason should progress generally, let alone with any specificity.

But, as soon as Robbie Cano flipped the ball to Mark Teixeira for the final out of 2009, the offseason officially began.

So, with the 2009 season over, I'm ready to begin the offseason chatter. I laid out some groundwork earlier, disproving myths that could lead to signing the wrong player or players, so this guideline will essentially be action steps based on those issues previously raised.

Coming after this will be specific profiles of the players I'd like to see the Twins add, as well as those who may be in the conversation.

1) Re-sign Joe Mauer

Bill Smith told TwinsCentric that as long as they were confident Mauer wanted to stay in Minnesota, they were reasonably comfortable with the idea of going into the season without a deal actually in place.

I can understand where Smith is coming from both in a PR sense and in an actual practice sense.

From a PR standpoint, if you tell people you really want to get [specific thing X] done and it doesn't happen, people will start to question your ability to get things done.

In this case, if Smith had said that getting Mauer locked in was priority No. 1 and it didn't happen, the rumbling going into the season would not be so much rumbling as "that sound a tsunami makes just before making landfall".

From a practical standpoint, Smith has a lot to do this offseason, lots of players going to arbitration, a new field to open, trades to make, etc. The Mauer negotiations will be a protracted affair if for no other reason than it's going to involve a lot of money.

Mauer has said he doesn't care about being the next A-Rod, but the Twins aren't going to lock him in for the most productive years of his life with a bag of McDonald's and a shiny nickel. He's going to get paid.

And when a team like the Twins is pondering a contract upwards of $100 million, it's not going to be something they take lightly.

If they're pretty sure they aren't going to have to convince him to stay and that negotiations will be pretty amiable, saving them for a time when Smith is less swamped is a totally acceptable idea, which is why it doesn't bother me that he said that this was the plan.

It may not bother me that it looks like Mauer could go into the season without a deal, but it's not what I would do. If the Twins start off the season poorly for any length of time greater than about six weeks, the trade rumors are going to be flying.

The air will be so thick with them it will be like that town in Mexico where all the monarch butterflies spend the winter.

Even if the talk of paydays and deals doesn't entice Mauer to actually leave, it's going to be an in-season distraction the likes of which we've never seen.

You think the last few months of Johan Santana's tenure were bad? Mauer rumors:Santana rumors::The Black Death:The Common Cold.

Yes, locking Mauer in for the long haul this offseason, then having him blow out his knee during Spring Training would be awful, but that's part of the game of baseball. Get the business done before on-field matters start complicating off-field negotiations. 

2) Add a power arm

Twins pitchers put a ton of balls in play due to their low strikeout rates and even lower walk rates, which puts a tremendous amount of strain on the defense. And while the easiest way to mitigate this is to improve the defense, having a pitcher on staff who is going to end his own hitters will help as well.

The reality of the game is that luck plays a big role in the outcomes; a median batting average on balls in play [BABIP] for a pitcher is somewhere between .280 and .300, meaning that of every pitch put into play (no walks, strikeouts, or home runs) a little less than one-third will fall for hits.

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