Minnesota Twins Daily Dip: Officially Out on Ohtani

Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, December 5th, 2017

Welcome to the December 5th 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 Organizational Scores

Australian Baseball League Update
After rain cancelled games Saturday, the ABL had a pair of double headers on Sunday. In the first game for Perth, former Twin Luke Hughes had a big game, going 1-3 with a double, 2 runs, an RBI, a walk, and a stolen base as Perth won 8-4.

In game 2, Hughes had a solo home run, going 1-4 as Perth won the game 7-4.

Aaron Whitefield‘s Brisbane squad played a double header against former Twin Delmon Young‘s Melbourne team. Whitefield went 0-2 with a pair of walks and a strikeout in the first game. Young went 1-2 with a walk.

In game 2, Aaron Whitefield went 1-3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts, scoring a run and stealing his fourth base already of the young ABL season. Young went 1-3 with a walk for Melbourne as the Aces swept Brisbane in the double header.

Dominican Winter League Update
Kennys Vargas made his first appearance in the DWL this year on Saturday, going 1-5 with 3 strikeouts and a run scored as the DH as his Aguilas Cibaenas team lost in 11 innings.

On Sunday, he went 0-4 with 3 strikeouts as Aguilas Cibaenas lost 4-3. Former Twin Nik Turley got the win against Vargas’ squad, going 5 shutout innings, allowing just one hit and no walks, striking out 4.

Adalberto Mejia made the start on Saturday for Gigantes del Cibao, going 5 innings, allowing a run on 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 4, getting through the 5 innings very efficiently, throwing just 64 pitches.

Venezuelan Winter League Update
Willians Astudillo got a pinch hitting appearance and played third base for Caribes de Anzoategui on Saturday, going 0-1, as the Caribes lost 7-3.

On Sunday, Astudillo hit a rare home run, going 1-5 with 3 RBI as the Caribes won 7-2.

Minnesota Twins news and notes

Twins out on Ohtani
Per reports on Sunday evening, Shohei Ohtani informed teams of his intentions with each of them as far as accepting a meeting to negotiate a potential deal. The Twins were informed that they were not one of the finalists to sign Ohtani, though based on his finalists, the location as not a West Coast team may matter as much as anything.

Twins making minor league managing changes
The Minnesota Twins continued to see changes in their minor league coaching this offseason as AAA Rochester manager Mike Quade requested to move from manager to roving outfield instructor within the organization. No replacement has been announced at this time.

Notes from around baseball

Next: How Twins should spend international money

One Last Thing

While the news that the Minnesota Twins will not be the team to sign Ohtani was disappointing for many Twins fans, the Twins continue to be considered among the front runners for a number of free agent arms, and the team is poised to make some big moves in free agency this offseason. A quick look at the top arms and their records against the rest of the AL Central:

Yu Darvish: 3.47 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 9.9 K/9, 2.91 K/BB
Jake Arrieta: 4.70 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 7.4 K/9, 2.24 K/BB
Lance Lynn: 3.48 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 8.6 K/9, 3.11 K/BB
Alex Cobb: 4.07 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 6.9 K/9, 2.69 K/BB
CC Sabathia: 3.68 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 7.7 K/9, 2.81 K/BB
Jhoulys Chacin: 4.17 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 7.5 K/9, 1.81 K/BB
Tyler Chatwood: 3.27 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 4.6 K/9, 0.96 K/BB
Jaime Garcia: 5.54 ERA, 1.51 WHIP, 6.7 K/9, 2.23 K/BB
Andrew Cashner: 3.88 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 7.2 K/9, 1.39 K/BB