The Minnesota Twins were hoping to keep the door open for Carlos Santana’s return but ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that Santana has agreed to a one-year, $12 million contract with the Cleveland Guardians.
The move comes hours after the Guardians agreed to trade Josh Naylor to the Arizona Diamondbacks and turns first base into an even bigger issue as the Twins try to figure out their offseason plans.
Carlos Santana’s price became too high for the Minnesota Twins
Santana’s contract is a sign of a market that exploded over the past three days. Christian Walker started the spending spree by agreeing to a three-year, $60 million contract with the Houston Astros on Friday and Paul Goldschmidt agreed to a one-year, $12.5 million contract with the New York Yankees on Saturday morning.
Both moves jacked up the price of the first base market, which played into the hands of Santana. In his age-38 season, Santana had a strong year by hitting .238/.328/.420 with 23 home runs, 71 RBI and his first Gold Glove Award. Santana also had the highest wins above replacement (2.5) of any free-agent first baseman available in free agency before signing with Cleveland.
The Twins were open to keeping Santana but his $12.5 million contract was well over his $7 million projection by FanGraphs. With Santana set to turn 39 in April, it was logical for Minnesota to let him walk – even if the move creates even more questions at first base.
Jose Miranda, Edouard Julien among Minnesota Twins options’ at first base
Passan reported last week that more teams are looking to the trade market to upgrade their rosters and Cleveland’s decision to trade Naylor was the first domino to fall. With Justin Turner and Mark Canha also celebrating Santana’s contract, it leaves the Twins in a bind as they’re priced out of Pete Alonso or acquiring a first baseman such as San Diego’s Jake Cronenworth via trade.
This could leave the Twins to fill the void internally. Jose Miranda and Edouard Julien have both been rumored as candidates to replace Santana at first base but both would make the Twins a weaker team in the field.
It’s another bad development that has been more about listening to trade offers for Carlos Correa and Pablo Lôpez than improving the team. While the Twins should survive Santana’s departure, it’s becoming a difficult task to thrive in a division that has spun its wheels this winter.