One player no one has mentioned is J.D. Davis. He could still be a pleasant suprise—he’s not that far removed from scorch earthing the minors. He’s struggled in the big leagues (a huge adjustment for any player), but has shown some flashes of good play. It’ll be interesting to see how he comes out this spring. I think our FO likes his upside and is comfortable letting him play things out. Honestly, with his versatility, he still has the potential to outplay Diaz/Yuli and maybe a few other players. If he plays his way into absorbing Gattis’ at-bats, could be an interesting development.
Yep. I don't think anyone in the org has given up on him or Reed...some guys blossom late if only for a few years (Luhnow knows this, look at some of the guys the Cards had: Craig, Carpenter, Adams, Piscotty, Jay...)
Sure. Players always admit when they sign somewhere solely because of money. So the logical thing to do would be to wait until Cruz’s signing press conference and take his answer as gospel.
Reporter: “Nelson, rumor was both Tampa and Houston made you competitive offers, why did you choose the Twins?” Cruz: “Well, actually neither of those teams ever made a formal, signable offer. Houston floated $10M/1yr at me, and Tampa said they’d go to $11M. But you gotta understand, I am at the end of my career, and the money I earn Over the next 2-3 seasons has to last me and mine a very long time. Hell, I will probably dramatically underperform this contract and be out of the league next season; I am old as **** after all. Don’t get me wrong, I like winning. It would have been great to go to a team like the Astros who have an actual chance of making the playoffs. And if they’d offered me anywhere close to what the Twins did, I’d be there. But that’s not reality. Reality is, this shitty, mediocre team in a dreary, cold, lifeless town offered me the most money, so here I am. With any luck we will lose enough to be out of the mix at the deadline and they’ll trade me to Houston; of course they’ll probably have to pay Houston to take me, hahahaha! Anyway... Next question.”
Nobody said that, but things always come out after the fact. I'm perfectly content to go with the logic of "Luhnow is dumb, Crane is cheap, Cruz has no ranch 'round here, and his wife loves cold weather" until then.
While it was nice to flip Thornton for Diaz (we'd have lost him in the Rule 5 draft anyway, and Diaz is undervalued IMO), I'd have been happy with just rolling with Davis as a utility man. Love his versatility and raw power, and the PCL batting title is no joke. Always takes time to adjust to the big leagues, see: Bregman.
I think the FO is trying to find guys who already have MLB success. That’s not to discount JD’s future success. I just think it shows they are having less overall success graduating hitters and want to upgrade the offense where possible.
I've always heard good things about the Twin Cities, especially the summers. Surprised Cruz would go to the Twins with his bias against playing with high temps in the 80s in a generally well-respected city(ies).
