Twins Look For Pitching

The Minnesota Twins are one of the many teams in Major League Baseball that are looking for starting pitching this off season. The Twins also have other needs but already started to address those (i.e. the trade for J.J. Hardy, their new shortstop). The more pressing need thou is to add a starter or two to the rotation, which Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune says they’ll address.

The Twins do return five young starting pitchers but can they really trust them? The team ranked near the bottom of baseball last year in ERA from its starting rotation, 26 out of 30 with a 4.84 era.

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“We’ve got [Scott] Baker, [Nick] Blackburn, and we fully expect [Kevin] Slowey to come back [from wrist surgery],” Smith said. “[Brian] Duensing certainly pitched very well for us down the stretch, and beyond that, we’ve got candidates. We expect [Francisco] Liriano to bounce back and hopefully regain the form that he had at the end of the ‘08 season. [Anthony] Swarzak, I think will be better second time around.”

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Those youngsters aided by veteran Carl Pavano still led this team to the postseason but they’ll need a better performance if they plan to return.

So what’s out there for the Twins? It really all depends on how much money they have to spend. They’ll be opening a new ballpark in 2010 but it doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in payroll. And even if it does they need to use a portion of that increase to keep players like Joe Mauer.

I’m sure they’ll first attempt to resign Pavano. His numbers weren’t overwhelming 5-4 record with a 4.64 era since being traded from Cleveland. What he did provide thou was veteran leadership to a pitching staff that sorely needed it.

He’d be a solid pickup for them this off season but he still wouldn’t answer what the team really needs, an ace.

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“We’ll see what’s out there,” he said. “And if there’s a veteran starter or two that’s a good fit for us, then we’ll proceed accordingly.”

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Christensen mentions a possible signing of Jarrod Washburn, a Wisconsin native, who’d like to play closer to home. To me the key would be how much money does he want and how healthy is he. Jarrod was an amazing player before the All-Star break posting a 2.96 era over 17 starts. After the break and injuries started to take their toll he posted a 5.23 era over 11 starts. So obviously if he’s healthy he can produce, the question will be is he healthy and can he stay so.

There is one ace available this off season, John Lackey. He’s going to be expensive with teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and others involved. The question here is do the Twinkies want to get into a bidding war? Probably not but it would give them a huge advantage in trying to repeat in the AL Central.

Christensen also mentions attempting trades for Roy Halladay and Josh Johnson. I think both of those are absolute long shots. Halladay has his no trade clause and the Twins aren’t one of the approved teams. While Johnson is 25 and a player the Marlins will most likely try to extend (finally they’ll try and extend someone). Even if they don’t he’ll be very expensive via trade.

The Twins probably have the pieces to land a starter of this type but is it really worth it? Roy would be a one-year rental and for a team who doesn’t like to spend money, do you really want to mortgage part of the future for those types?

I’d do what it takes to get Lackey to open Target Field. Even if he costs the team $14-15 million over 5 years it will be worth it. He’s a bonafide ace something they’ve lacked since Johan Santana was traded.

If Liriano could regain his form then, he and Lackey would be a formidable one-two punch. Having a front of rotation like that, with their current offense, would put them on the fast track to repeating in the Central.