Jerry Crasnick of ESPN reported late Monday night that Kevin Correia is set to sign a $10 million/2 year deal with the Minnesota Twins.
And then Minnesota fans went a little crazy on Twitter.
Correia debuted in 2003 with the San Francisco Giants and stayed with them until 2008. He then played two season with the San Diego Padres and two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Baseball-reference.com lists his career ERA as 4.54, his strikeouts per nine innings as 6.0, and his walks per nine innings as 3.2. He certainly doesn’t seem like a player that will inspire enthusiasm in fans, some of whom are already on edge following the Span and Revere trades.
Here’s one of my favorite summaries of the (assumed) new Twins starting pitcher:
Terry Ryan has reminded us many times in the last month or so that it takes two to make a deal. It seems realistic to worry if Correia is the best caliber of pitcher that is willing to tango with the Twins. Unless another trade is made and a Justin Morneau or Josh Willingham plus prospects are put on the trading block, it seems like the Twins are going to have a hard time signing anyone to the #1 or #2 spots on the rotation.
I get that, it makes sense. It’s difficult to persuade someone to sign with a team that has struggled mightily for two seasons. Maybe Correia is just as frustrated about signing with the Twins as fans are about the Twins signing Correia. What worries me is the two-year part of the deal. The recent transactions have tacitly, though not formally, declared 2013 is a “rebuilding” year, and the team has made moves that show glimmers of promise for 2014. They are now saddled with an undesirable starter that will still be around in 2014. In all likelihood, even Correia had enough of an upper hand to insist on that second year of guaranteed money before he would agree to a deal.
It may be that a wise Twins fan is one who would lower his/her expectations of the next two or three years a few more notches.