Minnesota Twins: Time Has Come To Let Michael Cuddyer Walk

The Phillies have a giant-sized hole at first base. More specifically, a Ryan Howard-sized hole.

The All-Star first baseman is out for most of the first half of the 2012 season with an Achilles tendon tear. The Phillies already signed former Twins slugger Jim Thome to a one-year contract on Friday, but may they still be going after more?

Reportedly, the Phillies are also interested in long-time Twin and current free agent Michael Cuddyer. You can’t blame them, either.

Twins fans know exactly how versatile Cuddyer can be. He’s played 100-plus games at first base, third base and right field. Last year, he played at four different positions, including an appearance as a pitcher.

He’s not only fantastic in the field, but good with the bat too. Last year, he led the Twins in batting average, home runs, on-base percentage, hits, runs, total bases and walks, and he was only two behind Danny Valencia for the lead in RBI.

That being said, it’s time for the Twins to let Cuddyer walk.

Cuddyer was the only All-Star for the Twins last year, but he did make $10.5 million. Plus, if he walks, the Twins won’t miss a beat. If you look at the current roster, there are replacements for Cuddyer.

If you look at what should be Cuddyer’s position in right field, there are plenty of candidates to replace him. Denard Span, Rene Tosoni, Ben Revere, Jason Repko and Trevor Plouffe are all under contract and viable to take outfield jobs. Jason Kubel is a free agent, but if the Twins don’t sign Cuddyer, Kubel will probably be back. Heck even hometown boy Joe Mauer played a game in right.

Mauer also played some first, where Cuddyer always seems to end up playing because Justin Morneau always seems to get hurt. So if Mauer or Morneau would stay healthy, they could fill that hole. Even Trevor Plouffe could play there.

Maybe, it’s not that the Twins can’t replace him position-wise, but instead, they can’t replace him production-wise. The sad thing is they can with people already on the roster. If Mauer and Morneau could stay healthy for all of next year and could be anywhere close to their MVP years, nobody would even notice that Cuddyer was gone.

Granted, Cuddyer is a nice right-handed bat to break up all the left-handers, but it’s time for the likes of Plouffe and Valencia to step up. Don’t sleep on minor league prospect Brian Dozier either, who’s been tearing up fall ball this year. The Twins can always find a steady right-handed bat that costs somewhere south of $10 million.

Letting Cuddyer walk will allow the club to spend that money in areas that need a definite upgrade, like the bullpen, starting rotation and shortstop. There's no point in spending that much money on one player when there are replacements inside the organization ready to step in.

Cuddyer has been a valuable member of the Twins since 2001 and he’s played his whole major league career in the Twins organization, but all good things must come to an end.

Think about how many games the Twins would have lost this past season without Cuddyer. Then again, think how many they would have won if Mauer and Morneau would have been healthy.