The Minnesota Twins have signed Carlos Quentin to a minor league deal.
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Carlos Quentin has signed a minor league deal with the Minnesota Twins. The pact includes an invite to spring training. It is the first transaction of any kind that the Twins have made in nearly a month and a half. The last one was the signing of Keury de la Cruz to a minor league deal back on December 19th.
Quentin most recently played for the Padres in 2014. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners for 2015 but ended up only appearing in 5 games with their AAA affiliate, retiring in May. Earlier this offseason, Quentin pulled a Brett Favre and announced his intention to return to professional baseball in 2016.
Quentin has an impressive resume over his nine year MLB career but has had very little success recently. His best seasons came with the Chicago White Sox from 2008-2011. He was an all-star twice, a silver slugger once and posted a 5.3 WAR in 2008. In his career he’s maintained a .831 OPS.
Can confirm @JonHeyman's report that the #MNTwins signed veteran OF Carlos Quentin to Minor League deal with invite to Spring Training.
— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) February 2, 2016
His last major league action in 2014 was a disaster. Quentin’s knee issues worsened. He managed just a .599 OPS. Quentin has never been a good outfielder which accentuated his struggles that year. In 2013, Quentin put up an .855 OPS in part time work with healthier knees. This is the Quentin the Twins hope they’ll be getting.
Carlos Quentin's MLB salary would be $750K. #MNTwins have worked him out a couple times this winter. Feel he's healthy, ready to compete.
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) February 2, 2016
Carlos could join fellow non-roster invitees, Joe Benson, Darin Mastroianni and Ryan Sweeney, vying for the Twins’ fourth outfielder role. However, in light of his injury history and defensive struggles, he makes more sense as a pure bench bat. Quentin will likely open the season in Rochester as the Twins will be cautious about losing Danny Santana and Oswaldo Arcia.
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Quentin will earn $750,000 if he makes the Twins. If Quentin is healthy, he could be a useful offensive threat off the bench. On the other hand, he might never play a game in Twins uniform. It costs the Twins very little to find out.