Minnesota Twins Daily Morning Dip: Demoralizing Deal
Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, November 28th, 2017
Welcome to the November 28th edition of the Daily Dip, your daily piece of news and notes here on Puckett’s Pond, offseason edition. You’ll find the most recent news of the Minnesota Twins organization, stories from around the game, and links to any information you may want to know about the Minnesota Twins or baseball as we work our way through the hot stove season!
Minnesota Twins Scores, News and Notes
Australian Baseball League Update
No games scheduled Monday.
Dominican Winter League Update
Former Twin Nik Turley made the start for Estrellas Orientales on Monday, throwing 3 innings, allowing an unearned run on two hits and a walk, striking out 4.
Venezuelan Winter League Update
No Twins or former major league Twins played in the one game on Monday in Venezuela.
More from Puckett's Pond
- Minnesota Twins: 2022 Year in Review for Twins Baseball
- Minnesota Twins: Making the Case for the Current 2023 Rotation
- Minnesota Twins: Does the MLB or the Twins have a Spending Problem?
- Minnesota Twins: 2 Possible Free Agent Reunions for 2023
- Minnesota Twins: Holiday Wish List for the rest of the Offseason
Many of the Twins young core don’t even reach arbitration until after the 2019 season, so this could be a season or two down the road, but in order to save money then, the Star Tribune considers which young players to reach out to now to sign long-term and save money versus what they would earn in arbitration.
The purse strings coming open?
The Minnesota Twins have been tied down on a few big contracts that limited their flexibility in the market recently, but with recent winning bringing attendance and revenue back up and big contracts coming off the books over the next two seasons, the Minnesota Twins could be in the position to be aggressors in the free agent market, a rare position for them.
Notes from around baseball
- Dodgers reportedly top Stanton’s list
- Best fits for Moustakas
- Texans stage walk-off bunt on Monday Night Football
- Trammell’s HOF case
- Before he was engaged, Prince Harry crushed baseballs
- Sports On Earth – trades we want to see
Next: How Twins should spend international money
One Last Thing
In one of the most unpopular deals of the time and certainly one of the more head-scratching deals in franchise history, on this day 50 years ago today, the Minnesota Twins sent their shortstop Zoilo Versailes, just two seasons removed from winning the 1965 American League MVP, and Mudcat Grant, who had won 21 games for the 1965 team, to the Dodgers for Bob Miller, Ron Perranoski, and John Roseboro. Perranoski lasted the longest with the team, but even he was gone midway through the 1971 season.
While Zoilo and Mudcat were done as effective regulars in their roles, the backlash really indicated that the Twins were selling off and throwing up the white flag after competing hard for much of the first 8 years the team had been in the city.
The Twins would rally in 1969 behind firy young manager Billy Martin to make it to the ALCS, and they’d lean on arguably the greatest starting rotation in team history with Jim Perry, Jim Kaat, Luis Tiant, and a 19 year-old Bert Blyleven to return to the ALCS. However, outside of those two seasons, the team would not return to the playoffs until the 1987 season after this trade, seen by many as one of the darker days of the early Twins organization.