Ervin Over James, The Twins May Have Done Better

The Minnesota Twins knew that they needed to address pitching this offseason. Starting pitching was once again a problem in 2014, with Phil Hughes being the only viable starter for the club. After signing Ervin Santana this offseason, Minnesota is in a much different place. However, with James Shields just agreeing to a deal with the Padres, maybe the Twins did even better than we originally thought.

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Going into the offseason, it was Shields, Max Scherzer, and Jon Lester that were going to be the starting arms commanding a big payday. Scherzer landed with the Nationals while Lester went to the Chicago Cubs. Shields road was a bit more bumpy, having just signed this week with the Padres. While the former two got their payday, Shields had to take concessions on his.

When looking at the four-year, $75 million deal that Shields commanded however, maybe the Twins did even better on Ervin Santana than we thought.

Let’s examine…