Twins Sign Span

Well, once again it’s not Joe Mauer, but it’s nice to see that Denard Span will be a Twin for awhile, according to Star-Trib writer Joe Christensen. The deal will be for five years, which covers his controlled seasons, as well as an option for a 6th year. The salary breakdown, courtesy of Twins Now:

10: 750k

11: 1M

12: 3M

13: 4.75M

14: 6.5M

And then 2015 features a 9 million dollar option with a 500k buyout.

Although he struggled with his plate discipline in the minors, Span has found it in the majors, posting .387 and .392 OBPs the past two seasons. He has been worth nearly 7 wins over the past two years, and it should only get better now that Span will have the opportunity to play Centerfield full time. I think UZR has been underrating him out there a bit, given that he was one of the best defensive corner outfielders, and yet below average in center. His throwing arm isn’t great, but now that he is the full time guy in center I think he’ll have a chance to put up some stellar defensive numbers.

In all, this is a good deal for the twins. Span likely would have made more than 13 million in his three years of arbitration, plus the Twins buy out a free agent year. Span will put up somewhere between 35-45 million worth of production in the three years he should have spent in arbitration (assuming he stays somewhat near his current level of production) and will be paid not even half that. Nice job by Bill Smith and company.

And, as this must always be mentioned, Joe Mauer is probably happy with it as well.