Minnesota Twins: 5 non-tendered free agents that could make intriguing signs
The Minnesota Twins looking for ways to improve their roster so they can compete again in 2018. Here are some non-tendered free agents to consider.
The Minnesota Twins, like every major league team, are looking for the best ways to improve and build their ball clubs this offseason to be competitive in 2018 and/or the years to follow. Part of that process often needs to include identifying and signing a play few others are interested in and turning them into a solid contributor.
Non-Tendered free agents can often provide exactly that. Many of these players will have to sign cheaper and shorter-term deals to find their ways onto a major league team this offseason. Others may even need to settle for a minor league deal to prove their worth. Following are five players that were non-tendered that the Twins may be able to strike gold with.
Mike Fiers
If the Houston Astros would have held onto Fiers he was projected by MLB Trade Rumors to make $5.7 million dollars. With Justin Verlander now in Houston that was a price that just didn’t make sense for the Astros, especially for a pitcher they didn’t trust to take the ball all postseason on their way to an Astros World Series title.
The Astros acquired Fiers with Carlos Gomez in a trade where they gave up a load of prospects to the Milwaukee Brewers including OF Brett Phillips, RP Josh Hader, OF Domingo Santana and RHP Adrian Houser. If it wasn’t already apparent, the non-tender of Fiers fully signals the Brewers as the winners in that trade.
Fiers has always been an interesting arm as he has gone through stretches where he looked like a solid major league pitcher but has not been able to be effective consistently. Fiers does have 2 complete game shutouts to his name and this season he dominated the months of June and July. Over those two months, Fiers pitched 59 innings and had a 2.59 ERA and 69 strikeouts. That is the pitcher the Astros hoped for as Fiers came to Houston.
The rest of his season was inconsistent putting him at 5.22 for an ERA and 146 strikeouts over 153.1 innings. That is why he was not retained by the Astros, but that flash of good pitching is why the Twins could look to Fiers on a cheap major league or minor league deal to provide depth to their pitching staff. He has the potential to be even more than just depth. Fiers 2016 ERA of 4.48 would have placed him third on the 2017 Twins staff. And his 3.69 ERA would place him second on the staff. ERA only tells a part of the story, but Fiers could be a potential good, low-risk signing for the Twins.
Hector Rondon
Rondon spent 2014-2016 as the Chicago Cubs closer recording 77 saves in that role. Then mid-2016 the Cubs acquired Aroldis Chapman to take over as closer on their way to the World Series. In 2017 the Cubs handed the closer role to Wade Davis, meanwhile Rondon struggled through the season giving the Cubs enough reasons to not want to pay his projected $6.2 million salary for 2018.
In 57.1 innings in 2017, Rondon had a 4.24 ERA and saw his walk rate double to 3.14 BB/9. While those numbers should cause some alarm, Rondon was still able to record a career-high strikeout rate with 10.83 SO/9 and had a FIP of 4.12 and xFIP at 3.43, both lower than his ERA on the season. Even with the loss of Wade Davis this offseason, the Cubs had grown frustrated enough with Rondon to view cutting him loose better than trying to work on any of his pitching issues.
Even if Rondon’s time with the Cubs is over, he will go down as a successful Rule 5 draft pick. In 2012 the Cubs selected Rondon from the Cleveland Indians. Rondon was once a top prospect in the Indians system but after struggling with injury (Tommy John and a fractured elbow) he was exposed to the Rule 5 draft. The Twins just happen to have a guy with influence who may remember a little bit about Rondon as an Indians prospect.
If Falvey still thinks highly of Rondon as a pitcher he could make a move on a player that certainly has a skill set that this Twins bullpen could use. Rondon’s fastball, that sits around 97 mph, and his strikeout rate that was just mentioned would bolster the back-end of the bullpen if Falvey believes Rondon’s walk issues are fixable.
Bruce Rondon
From one Rondon to another. While the Twins will hopefully pursue some bullpen arms with more certainty to them, at 26 Bruce Rondon is an intriguing arm even after an interesting start to his career with the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers didn’t want to pick up Rondon’s $1.2 million projected salary which ended the hurler’s tenuous relationship with the club.
A look at Rondon’s numbers in 2017 certainly provides support for the Tigers decision to release Rondon. After 21 appearances he turned in a 2017 ERA of 10.91. Rondon has always struggled with surrendering walks. 2016 is really his only season where he was able to stay away from giving the free pass to batters. In 2017 Rondon walked 6.14 batters per nine and it walking batters at a rate like that took Rondon from a feared future closer who could run his fastball up to 100 mph to a non-tender free agent.
Rondon’s velocity has come down a little bit since his debut, but as his fastball currently averages 97 mph, he is still a powerful arm. If Rondon can get his walks under control any team employing him will be able to see the benefits of a pitcher who has always had a good strikeout rate. His major league career best was in 2017 at 12.64 SO/9. Rondon is no stranger to high strikeout rates as he has also turned in seasons of 11.15 SO/9 (2016) and 10.45 SO/9 (2015).
Rondon has clearly never lived up to the hype that followed him as a young player. If the Twins can be the right change of scenery for the young hurler his ability to miss bats would be a good addition needed by the Twins in order to match up against some of the great lineups in the majors if they want to challenge for that World Series crown.
Jared Hughes
If the Twins front office does like a pitcher in the mold of Brandon Kintzler or Bryan Shaw and happens to not sign either of those two, Hughes could imitate the two pretty well. The worm-killer has turned in back to back solid seasons but the Milwaukee Brewers decided to turn him loose instead of paying the reliever a projected $2.2 million for his services in 2018.
Hughes boasted a 3.02 ERA in 2017 and groundball rate of 62.2 %. He gets his work done with a sinker that averaged a velocity of 94.5 mph in 2018. Hughes also has proven to be able to handle a decent innings load cracking 59 innings each of the past two seasons and pitched 67 innings for a career high in 2015 with the pirates.
A knock on Hughes could very well be his walk rate that was 3.62 BB/9. That with the normal low strikeout numbers which are common in a pitcher of Hughes style, making those induced ground balls very important. If this is a role that Falvey and Levine value, Hughes could be a cheap signing that could be an extreme groundball pitcher for the Twins.
Tom Koehler
Koehler who was a consistent member of the Miami Marlins staff for several years was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays this past summer. He was traded in a money-saving effort by the Marlins and is now cut likely with a similar goal in mind. Koehler was slated to make around $6 million this next season and that was a price the Blue Jays weren’t willing to pay for a guy who was, in reality, brought in to eat some innings.
Koehler spent most of his career as a back-end starter where his ERA was anywhere from the high threes to the mid-fours. After struggling in 2017, he spent significant time in Triple-A before being sent to Toronto where he mainly pitched in relief. Koehler isn’t necessarily known for his strikeout ability, but as a reliever, his strikeout rate improved to 9.5 SO/9. Koehler’s overall ERA in 2017 was 6.05 but his Toronto only ERA was 3.22 showing some improvement.
Now Koehler isn’t quite the needle mover like some of the other guys before him that can let us dream of near-100 mph fastballs coming across the plate. I personally wouldn’t have been intrigued by Koehler until reading what Christina Kahrl wrote about Koehler in a piece about which non-tendered free agents will be ready to rebound for 2018. Kahrl points out that in 2016 with a good pitch-framing catcher Jeff Mathis, Koehler held batters to a .593 OPS. Kahrl than goes on to name Jason Castro and the Twins as a potential fit that could produce similar results.
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As with most of these guys. If signing Koehler became the only move made to try and improve this pitching staff we should all be very angry. All five of these guys would be very good on a “prove it” type deal to see if they can find any consistency and turn out more of the “good” of the career than the “ugly” that resulted in their non-tender.