Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, December 19th, 2017
Welcome to the December 19th 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
No games were played on Monday.
Dominican Winter League Update
Aguillas Cibaenas defeated Estrellas Orientales on Monday. Kennys Vargas started at DH, going 1-3 with a walk.
Venezuelan Winter League Update
Only one game occurred in the VWL, but none of the Twins representatives in the league were involved in the game.
Minnesota Twins news and notes
Twins determined in their pursuit of Darvish
The Minnesota Twins continue to push hard after Yu Darvish, continuing to be in contact with the team, and while a formal offer has not been made, the team seems to be very aware of where that offer range will need to be, even with recent public interest from other teams.
Twins a team that has improved stealthily
MLB.com’s Richard Justice put together a piece on 5 teams that have improved without spending big this offseason. He mentioned the Twins second in the story and utilized the fact that the Twins have made moves without limiting their ability to go hard financially after other players still on the market.
More from Puckett's Pond
- 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
- Minnesota Twins: After signing with the Mets, Correa spurns Twins again
Notes from around baseball
- Rookie’s comforts fan’s family
- A possible Machado deal will likely be done soon if it happens
- Moreland returns to Boston, ripple effects
- Darvish meets with Cubs
- Mets looking forward to healthy Syndergaard
- Top Statcast relievers going fast
- Bregman Instagrammed wisdom tooth extraction
- Only UFO can explain these baseball things
- Jordan baseball movie in works
- Gomez gives bat a checkup
- What hand does this pitcher throw with?
Next: After winter meetings, what's next for Twins?
One Last Thing
As word picks up around Yu Darvish and the Minnesota Twins interest in bringing him on board for what will almost certainly be the largest free agent contract ever handed out by the team, today marks the anniversary of when Darvish’s winning bid by the Texas Rangers was announced.
Darvish was an absolute star in Japan, one of the most dominant pitchers the league had ever seen. In 7 seasons, he won 93 games, finishing with a 1.99 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, throwing 1,268 1/3 innings with a 6.7% walk rate and 25.1% strikeout rate.
The Rangers won the bidding for Darvish with a $51.7 million posting fee. That led to some major changes in how major league teams and NPB teams do posting, with a maximum set at $20 million, so that the player was then in charge of his choice among those teams willing to bid the maximum while still giving the team the “control” of who could negotiate with the player if the posting fee was less than $20 million.
The Rangers then signed Darvish to a 6-year, $56 million deal. How much will the Twins have to bid to get Darvish’s services?