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Minnesota Twins: Finding the Falvine Duo’s Batting Average as GM

By Otto Johnson

Thad Levine, General Manager and Derek Falvey, Chief Baseball Officer for the Minnesota Twins look on. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
Thad Levine, General Manager and Derek Falvey, Chief Baseball Officer for the Minnesota Twins look on. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images) /
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Michael Pineda of the Minnesota Twins pitches against the Cincinnati Reds. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) /

Minnesota Twins Free Agent Signings of the Falvine Era Pt. 1

October 2016-March 2017

  • Minnesota Twins signed free agent C Jason Castro. (Miss)
  • Minnesota Twins signed free agent RHP Matt Belisle. (Hit)

Jason Castro was a solid signing for the Twins, but at the price of $8 million per year, you’re hoping to get a pretty good starting catcher. Castro was just a good rotational defensive catcher. Belisle cost $2.05 million, expensive for an inning-eater, but he did his job well, with a 4.03 ERA and some of the best strikeout numbers of his career.

April 2017-March 2018

  • Twins signed free agent RHP Bartolo Colon to a minor league contract. (Miss)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Randy Dobnak to a minor league contract. (Hit)
  • Twins signed free agent C Willians Astudillo to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. (Hit)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Michael Pineda. (Hit)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Fernando Rodney. (Hit)
  • Twins signed free agent LHP Zach Duke. (Hit)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Addison Reed. (Miss)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Matt Magill to a minor league contract. (Miss)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Ryne Harper to a minor league contract. (Hit)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Anibal Sanchez. (Miss)
  • Twins signed free agent SS Erick Aybar to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. (Miss)
  • Twins signed free agent 1B Logan Morrison. (Miss)
  • Twins signed free agent RHP Lance Lynn. (Miss)

What a list of deals. There are a lot of pitchers, so we’ll start with them and open with the misses that really didn’t work out. Addison Reed and Matt Magill each pitched a large chunk of games for the Twins for one season, but neither was effective. Reed was especially disappointing, given that he cost a whopping $16.75 million over two years.

Annibal Sanchez, Lance Lynn, and Bartolo Colon all have been very good pitchers during their careers, but all three weren’t any good in Minnesota, with Sanchez even being released a month after he signed, playing zero games here.

To finish out the misses, Aybar couldn’t even make the big league roster and while Logan Morrison was cheap, he was a truly terrible signing that offered very little for the team. That said, Falvine did make some good moves here.

Randy Dobnak, Michael Pineda, and Willians Astudillo made solid impacts on the team that have continued til today. Zach Duke was very good in his one year here, and Rodney was exceptional before being traded for a Top 20 prospect. That’s a huge hit. Ditto for Ryne Harper, who had a positive impact and helped earn a prospect when he was traded away.

Batting Average for Falvine on Minnesota Twins Free Agency 2016-2018: .467

It seems the Minnesota Twins are even better in Free Agency than they were in waiver claims. The Twins hit on seven of their 15 signings from their 2016-2018 groups, a pretty solid batting average. Again, that’s hitting on less than 50%, but still a solid number for a Major League team.

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