Twins Sign Hudson

Per MLBTR, our long winter of discontent is over and Orlando Hudson has agreed to become the newest Minnesota Twin.

Hudson has been a 2-3 WAR player over the course of his career, and a lot of that value is tied to his bat. He will be 32 in 2010, although since he’s not in a long-term deal that doesn’t matter too much. Marcel projects Hudson to be a +11 wRC+, meaning he would be 11% above average with the bat. Marcel is the most optimistic projection system by far however, as CHONE, which I think the best readily available one, projects him at 103 wRC+.

Glove wise, Hudson’s projection certainly hasn’t met the reputation, with 2 years in a row with negative numbers. Even with that, it’s reasonable to project Hudson as a ~2.5 WAR player, making him an above average regular. One thing to watch is his BABIP was much lower back when he played for the Blue Jays, and higher when he was in the NL.

In addition, Hudson’s percentage of pitches outside the zone he swings at has gone up the past couple years, and his contract rate has gone down the past couple years. But the big factor in Hudson’s production is who he is replacing. If the Twins were to have Alexi Casilla at 2B, he would be roughly a replacement level guy. Hudson’s 2.5 win increase is a bigger boost that he gives to the Twins than he would to other teams. Obviously things aren’t static, but if the Twins won the division last year with replacement level production at second, I can’t wait to see what they do with an above average regular there.