Josh Donaldson Upgrades Already-Potent Twins Lineup
The Twins won 101 games last year, set a major league record with 307 homers, and ranked second in the American League in scoring at 5.80 runs per game, yet they found a way to improve that juggernaut of an offense by signing Josh Donaldson to a four-year, $92 million deal. The just-turned-34-year-old slugger will man the hot corner, while incumbent third baseman Miguel Sanó will take over first base duties. It’s a risky move given Donaldson’s age and injury history, but it’s a bold one that improves the Twins’ chances of winning another AL Central title and returning to the postseason for the third time in four years.
Donaldson spent the 2019 season with the NL East champion Braves, and stayed healthy for the entire year for the first time since 2016, playing 155 games; by comparison, he played a combined 165 games for the Blue Jays and Indians in 2017-18 while battling shoulder and calf injuries. He hit a robust .259/.379/.521 (132 wRC+) with 37 homers, up from eight in 2018, and won NL Comeback Player of the Year honors.
Donaldson finished with 4.9 WAR thanks to above-average defense that resulted in his being a Gold Glove finalist. By UZR, he was 2.4 runs above average at the hot corner, by DRS he was second among all third baseman at 15 runs above average (trailing only Matt Chapman), and by Statcast’s new Outs Above Average, he was third at eight OAA (trailing only Nolan Arenado and Chapman).
Despite his age and injury history, Donaldson entered the offseason ranked fourth on our Top 50 Free Agents list behind Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon, and Stephen Strasburg. In a market that didn’t lack for third basemen at various price points — among them free agents Rendon, Mike Moustakas, and Todd Frazier, as well as trade candidates Nolan Arenado and Kris Bryant — the Braves, Nationals, Dodgers and Twins all vied for Donaldson’s services with varying degrees of vigor. He reportedly sought a four-year deal with an asking price said to be as high as $110 million, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.
Donaldson didn’t get to that figure, but he could approach it. Per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, he will earn $84 million over the next four seasons, with a $16 million club option and $8 million buyout for 2024 — a guarantee of $92 million, with escalator clauses that could push it as high as $104 million. According to Feinsand, it’s the second-largest guarantee ever for a player 33 years old or older. It’s the fifth-largest deal of the winter, with Cole ($324 million), Rendon and Strasburg ($245 million apiece), and Zack Wheeler ($118 million) the only ones outdoing him. Donaldson’s $23 million AAV matches what he made in each of the past two seasons; he set a since-broken record for the largest one-year deal for an arbitration-eligible player in 2018, then signed a one-year pillow contract last winter after his injury-wracked season. He turned down a $17.8 million qualifying offer from the Braves; as revenue-sharing recipients, the Twins will only have to forfeit their third-highest selection in the 2020 draft.
With his deal, Donaldson outdid both Kiley McDaniel’s projection (three years, $70.5 million, $23.5 million AAV) and our crowdsource median (three years, $60 million, $20 million AAV). That’s not too surprising given that both sources also undershot the aforementioned larger deals as well in what has been a stronger free agent market than last winter.
Projection-wise, ZiPS forecasts a steep fall-off from Donaldson’s age-34 to age-37 seasons, but just a hair under 10 WAR for the four guaranteed years — which is to say that this contract isn’t likely to be a bargain, but it should easily be worth the money on the front end, if not the back:
| Year | BA | OBP | SLG | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | SB | OPS+ | DR | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | .252 | .373 | .481 | 449 | 75 | 113 | 23 | 1 | 26 | 79 | 83 | 126 | 4 | 127 | 3 | 3.8 |
| 2021 | .248 | .364 | .455 | 420 | 66 | 104 | 22 | 1 | 21 | 68 | 73 | 111 | 3 | 118 | 1 | 2.9 |
| 2022 | .243 | .351 | .435 | 395 | 58 | 96 | 20 | 1 | 18 | 59 | 62 | 97 | 3 | 110 | 0 | 2.1 |
| 2023 | .234 | .334 | .390 | 367 | 49 | 86 | 16 | 1 | 13 | 48 | 52 | 82 | 2 | 94 | -2 | 1.0 |
The addition of Donaldson gives the Twins lineup six players who hit at least 30 homers last year, with Nelson Cruz (41), Max Kepler (36), Sanó (34), Eddie Rosario (32), and Mitch Garver (31) joining Donaldson. He represents a significant upgrade for the Twins, who received a solid 3.0 WAR from their third basemen in 2019, but -0.2 from their first basemen. Sanó, who missed the first quarter of the season due to surgery on his right heel stemming from a laceration he suffered after a collision on a metal stair, made 86 starts at the hot corner, with Marwin Gonzalez starting 35 times there, mostly during Sanó’s absence, and Luis Arraez, Ehire Adrianza and Willians Astudillo combining for 40 starts later in the year. At first base, C.J. Cron took 110 starts, Gonzalez 19, Adrianza 12, Astudillo 11, and Sanó eight. Cron was non-tendered in December after hitting for just a 101 wRC+ with 0.3 WAR. Going by Steamer projections (since we don’t have full team ZiPS for our depth charts yet), Sanó (3.0 WAR) and Donaldson (4.6) would together represent nearly a five-win upgrade on the team’s 2019 production at the two positions, with the discrepancy between the latter’s projection and his ZiPS from the table above based on an estimated 20% more playing time.
A good chunk of the Twins’ gains would come from the defensive realignment:
| Player | Pos | UZR | DRS | OAA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C.J. Cron | 1B | -0.6 | 3 | 1 |
| Others | 1B | -1.0 | -6 | 2 |
| Miguel Sanó | 3B | -6.7 | -5 | -3 |
| Others | 3B | 2.2 | 4 | 4 |
| 2019 Configuration Total | -6.1 | -4 | 4 | |
| Miguel Sanó* | 1B | -5.3 | -10 | 5 |
| Josh Donaldson | 3B | 2.4 | 15 | 8 |
| 2020 Configuration Total | -2.9 | 5 | 13 |
Sanó’s numbers are based upon just 31 games and 223 career innings at the position; with a full, healthy spring to focus on polishing his skills there, the 6-foot-4, 272-pound slugger may be better than the numbers above indicate. Donaldson may well be better than what’s shown above given his career UZR/150 of 5.2, and about 10 DRS per 150 games as well.
The Twins have had something of a busy offseason, retaining Jake Odorizzi, Michael Pineda, and Sergio Romo and adding Alex Avila, Homer Bailey, Tyler Clippard, and Rich Hill, but all of those moves were one-year deals except for Pineda’s two-year contract, and with the exception of Odorizzi, none of those players projects to produce even 2.0 WAR in 2020. The addition of Donaldson is by far their splashiest move, and while it won’t shore up the gaps in their rotation, it should particularly help the more contact-oriented Randy Dobnak and Devin Smeltzer, rookies who are currently projected to round out the starting five while Pineda finishes his PED suspension and Hill works his way back from elbow surgery.
Given that it ranks 21st in out depth charts, the rotation could still use additional improvement, though with the team’s payroll now at an estimated $139 million — an increase of about $20 million over last year and about $11 million ahead of the franchise record set in 2018 — finding a way to add such an arm could take some creativity. It will be up to president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine to figure something out but with the Donaldson signing, they’ve pulled a rabbit out of a hat, adding a legitimate star to an already-potent lineup and strengthening their already-strong chances in the AL Central.
Brooklyn-based Jay Jaffe is a senior writer for FanGraphs, the author of The Cooperstown Casebook (Thomas Dunne Books, 2017) and the creator of the JAWS (Jaffe WAR Score) metric for Hall of Fame analysis. He founded the Futility Infielder website (2001), was a columnist for Baseball Prospectus (2005-2012) and a contributing writer for Sports Illustrated (2012-2018). He has been a recurring guest on MLB Network and a member of the BBWAA since 2011, and a Hall of Fame voter since 2021. Follow him on BlueSky @jayjaffe.bsky.social.
In related Twins news: What is wrong with Jose Berrio’s Steamer Projection? Was there a mistake somewhere?
This was a serious question, for all down voting.
Berrios steamer projection as of today is showing a 4.49 projected ERA and 4.47 projected FIP. Over the past two seasons, Berrios has thrown 392 innings with a 3.74 ERA and 3.87 FIP. If you take his past three seasons, the numbers remain nearly identical around 3.75 and 3.85. He’s 25 years old coming off his third consecutive season reducing his BB rate.
I just don’t understand that number at all, and I’m trying to understand if it was a mistake or if there’s some underlying reason that STEAMER thinks Berrios is going to get significantly worse as a 25/26 year old despite three straight seasons of pretty consistent production.
Steamer basically thinks he’ll allow way more homers. 8.63 K/9 is a little low compared to his 17-19 average but let’s call that regression; 2.71 BB/9 is just not buying all of his BB/9 gains.
But it thinks he’ll average 1.46 HR/9, way more than he has since his bad rookie year. Last year’s MLB-wide HR/FB was 15.3%, it seems like they’re assuming he’s not immune to that trend.
Looking around the league it seems like Steamer is hitting everyone with this, I’d be interested to read more about it if anyone knows details.
Just guessing…
His xFIP in 2 of those 3 years was a half run higher than either his FIP or ERA. I think xFIP is based on HR/FB% among other things and his is very low – 15th best among qualified starters last year. Some of that probably has to do with Target field (which is especially brutal on LH home runs and the RH Berrios presumably benefits from that more than a LH pitcher would). Maybe Steamer expects regression in his HR/FB rate?
Yeah, I saw that but even using his xFIP, he’s around 4.25 the past three years. And his HR/FB rates weren’t abnormally low by any means last year at 12%. Maybe it is as simple as that, but I find it to be incredibly odd. Looking through all the players, most that have those discrepancies make a lot of sense; for example, Giolito has only 1 year of success, and 1 year of misery, so the slow movement on his projection is logical to a degree. Berrios has been consistent as can be over the last three years though, and as I said above it’s not like he’s old and running into the aging curve. He should be entering the prime of his career.
I find this even weirder than Steamer’s projection for Kyle Gibson having a career year at age 32. My guess is that this is because Steamer basically believes that players never change except based on age. Berrios was terrible in his first look at the majors, and has been off that initial curve for a while.
I’m a little reluctant to hit Steamer too hard here because this approach at a population level is surprisingly accurate, but you can get some totally bizarre results if a guy has an incredible or terrible first look in the majors.
Someone who knows more about Steamer’s mechanics can refute or confirm this.
Steamer’s mechanics have improved but the inverted “W” configuration is still a big red flag for injury.
That’s great. As a Yankee fan, I really like the Twins and hope they win the division. No snark, really. Especially the way Cleveland is behaving, I’m glad they’re trying and Chicago, too.
And I hope we see them in the ALCS so they can finally have won a series before they see us again.
It’s nice that they’re trying, but they aren’t winning jack shit with that rotation.
They’re winning the division and the playoffs is a crapshoot, and getting Donaldson not only makes their offense more potent but they’re defense all the more better moving Sano to first and having Donaldson’s good defense. There is some upside with Pineda,Odorizzi , Hill and Bailey along with Berrios that could make it a mid level rotation and who knows where that could take them?
Regression is going to be a problem for the Twins. The rotation is still bad. There is actually little to no upside with Pineda, Hill and Bailey. We have a pretty good idea of who they are.
Indians still look like the best team even though they lack an OF. However, any one of the Indians, Twins or White Sox could win the AL Central. I think all 3 end up between 85 and 95 wins in some order. Health and young player/prospect development will probably determine who wins.
I think the “rotation is bad” point is very overstated. By FIP the Twins had the 4th best pitching staff in baseball last year. Regression for Odorizzi sure, but Berrios could very well take the same step forward and replacing Gibson and Perez with Bailey and Hill could be a big step forward if Hill is healthy for the playoffs. That’s not even getting into Thorpe, Graterol, and Duran possibly making an impact.
Their starters’ FIP was 8th best overall, not 4th (they were 4th best in the AL). Their starters’ ERA was 11th best, and their xFIP was 10th best.
That’s fine, and certainly good enough when they have a great offense.
But now Pineda (who was better than their average starter) will miss 60 games. Perez and Gibson were nothing special last year, but Bailey hasn’t been better than either of them since 2014. Hill could be great, but you can’t expect more than 120 innings from him at this point.
Odorizzi’s HR rate is going to regress even if he keeps the strikeouts. He had an absurdly low 35% GB rate and somehow allowed less than a homer per 9. That’s not going to happen again. He had the lowest HR/FB in baseball among starters with 150+ IP.
So their rotation was decent last year but has the potential to be quite bad this year, even if Berrios takes a step forward.
Teams by projected WAR, using Steamer:
Twins, 45.2, 5th best in baseball.
Cleveland, 41.6, 11th best in baseball.
White Sox, 37.9, 15th best in baseball.
It’s not impossible that we could see these flipped and Steamer does have some weird quirks that I don’t fully trust (see: Berrios, Jose), but keep in mind that comes out to approximately 94, 89-90, and 86 wins, respectively. You can regress a fair amount from a run differential of +185 and still be good, and very good if you’re adding Josh Donaldson to that lineup.
I mostly agree on Bailey but find it bizarre that you think Hill and Pineda offer little in terms of upside. I’m not sure I could think of a pitcher who offers more risk and potential reward than Hill.
“the way Cleveland is behaving”
As an Indians´ fan, I’m really tired of all the complaining about how the team is run (which admittedly often comes from Indians’ fans themselves).
There are only two teams in baseball that have won 90+ games each of the past four seasons. The Indians and the Dodgers. So I’m willing to give the FO the benefit of the doubt in terms of how they “behave”. Cause it sure seems like they know how to field a winning team, Geez, last year the team was devastated by injuries yet they still won 93 games.
And sure they’ve benefitted from an easy division, but winning 90+ games is never easy in baseball. Never.
I don’t think that was a slight towards the front office but more so a slight at ownership. The Indian’s won 93 games last year in spite of ownership. The Indian’s could be a 100 win team with their pitching but ownership puts a stranglehold on spending.
Perhaps but I don’t think you can completely separate the FO and the ownership.
And I’m not convinced that just spending more money will automatically make them better. They’ve spent big before on guys like Hafner, Swisher, and Bourn. And they ended up getting locked into bad contracts and struggling as a result.
Finally, I think it’s just a little rich (pun intended) that the original comment came from a Yankee fan…
I’m not saying you have to spend money for the sake of it. The opening day outfield consisted of of Leonys Martin, Tyler Naquin and Jake Bauers. That is not the outfield of a playoff team. They were too cheap to give Brantley a QO (who would have 4.2 fWar 2019) and they could have signed someone like Pollock or McCutchen to shore up the OF. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 but they didn’t even try to improve.
“they didn’t even try to improve.”
Ummmm….except they did actually improve. They went from 91 wins in 2018 to 93 wins in 2019. Despite the fact that they were devastated by injuries.
And their idea of improving isn’t by paying for guys who are 30+. It’s acquiring young, undervalued talent. They went out and traded for Oscar Mercado the year before. They traded for Luplow. They traded for Santana and Bauers (who didn’t work out last year but might this year). They traded for Puig and Reyes+. They opened up a spot for Roberto Perez who blossomed as an everyday player. How is that not trying to improve?
Sure they have a tendency to sign washed up vets like Cargo and Hanley (which I suspect is mostly Francona’s doing) but at least those guys cost nothing and were therefore easy to release when they failed.
it’s not trying to improve because financial considerations forced the team to get creative, and their owner is a billionaire and baseball has no salary cap.
sure, the Indians won more games last year than the year before, but plenty of worse teams win more games – that doesn’t mean that the process that led them there wasn’t flawed.
The choice doesn’t have to be young, undervalued players OR veterans. You can acquire undervalued, cheap talent AND acquire veterans.
No one is asking them to spend a ton on free agents. But at least giving Brantley the QO would have been nice.
And trading Kluber to save money with not much of a return (I like Clase but he’s just a reliever) was all about being cheap.
I think it’s totally fine to shade a winning team for cheaping out or making questionable decisions. We hear the same things about any number of winning teams and we give them a pass; I’d like to hold other teams to the same standard that we apply in Cleveland rather than the other way around.
Like the Rays and Yankees and Dodgers, it’s clear that Cleveland has one of the best amateur scouting/player development system out there. I’m not so sure that any of that halo should carry over to decisions outside of those departments.
See this I actually agree with and is part of my frustration. Seems like Cleveland is the team that is always put under the microscope for every bad decision they make. Why doesn’t this seem to happen as much to other teams???
I think it’s because they seem like they’re actively trying to cut salary when the team is ready to make a run and improving shouldn’t be that hard (because of all the holes everywhere). It’s really obvious that the team is in cost-cutting mode. And they’ve been doing it for a while, too.
Everyone else who makes questionable decisions or cuts costs do a much better job of signalling that they’re trying. The Rays and Dodgers make so many moves it’s tough to keep track of whether they’re cutting or adding salary, going for it or rebuilding. The Brewers spend a lot of money for their market size overall, so even when they sign Jedd Gyorko instead of someone good (but who costs more) people kind of shrug and say “they’re trying” (which is true, just depressing). The A’s aren’t adding salary outside of arbitration raises, but they’re not cutting it either, at least not right now. Teams that win generally get a free pass around here except for Cleveland because they don’t do as good a job of hiding their cost control.
I don’t like what Cleveland is doing, but they’re doing at least as good a job with their offseason this year and last year as the Rays and Dodgers have done.
“The Brewers spend a lot of money for their market size overall, so even when they sign Jedd Gyorko instead of someone good (but who costs more) people kind of shrug and say “they’re trying” (which is true, just depressing). The A’s aren’t adding salary outside of arbitration raises, but they’re not cutting it either, at least not right now. ”
Except the Brewers were last in payroll as recently as 2017, with a payroll that was basically half of Cleveland’s. And the A’s were about 2/3 of Cleveland’s payroll at that point.
And then in 2018 the A’s and the Brewers switched. The A’s were last in payroll (half of Cleveland) and the Brewers were 2/3 of Cleveland.
Now last year, the Brewers did pass Cleveland in spending. Though they still spent less than what Cleveland spent in 2018. And Oakland closed the gap, but still lagged behind Cleveland.
So two points:
1) Oakland and Milwaukee were likely able to save money in those low spending years. Money that they can spend now. Something Cleveland wasn’t able to do.
2) It’s a heck of a lot easier to add payroll (and “try”) when you start off at such a low point. But would Milwaukee and Oakland been able to add payroll the past couple of seasons if they had started off with Cleveland’s 2017 spending? Or would they also be looking to cut costs?
Either you’re missing my point completely or you’re getting it completely, and I can’t tell which. Cleveland is terrible about disguising the fact that costs are extremely important to them. Oakland actually used to be more like Cleveland, telegraphing how dire the financial situation was all the time, and they got nailed for it too. These are largely independent of actually trying to win now. If they just didn’t sign anyone and didn’t trade anyone, the team would probably be worse off but it wouldn’t look so bad. If they made a thousand moves like the Rays do, they would probably be worse off but it wouldn’t look so bad.
And on the somewhat unrelated note, I think it’s totally fine to spend more when you’re winning and less when you’re so far down in the standings it seems hopeless, so I don’t really have that much of a problem with what the Brewers and A’s are doing.
you think that cleveland gets it more because you are a fan of Cleveland and therefore are more likely to read and hear about them.
plenty of people have gone after the Red Sox this year for signalling they want to get below the luxury tax, for example
“you think that cleveland gets it more because you are a fan of Cleveland and therefore are more likely to read and hear about them.”
Ummm….Sadtrombone is not a Cleveland fan and he’s the one who made the point that Cleveland takes more grief on here than other teams. So why does he see things that way???
“Seems like Cleveland is the team that is always put under the microscope for every bad decision they make. Why doesn’t this seem to happen as much to other teams???”
Of course it happens to other teams. People aren’t out to get Cleveland.
That’s a damned good lineup. Especially if Mitch Garver’s breakthrough (disclaimer – he’s a player I liked very much since his MLB arrival) is at all sustainable.
definitely sustainable, imo. Guy joined pulled fly ball revolution last year
A 29% HR/FB isn’t sustainable, though. But even if he gives some of that back, he’ll be really good still. Especially with more PA.
The Twins need better starting pitching. They’re depending on everything falling right with health and performance with the starters they currently have. That’s a recipe for disappointment.
You don’t believe in Randy Dobnak?
The Dobnak/Smeltzer combo will be legendary.
Meh. Berrios, Odorizzi, Pineda, Thorpe, and Bailey can get you through a lot of regular season games if you’re scoring that many runs, Graterol and Duran might be ready soon, and Dobnak and Smeltzer are fine as swing guys. In the playoffs, yeah, they’re going to really wish they had another guy they could slot into a playoff rotation comfortably, but I’m going to bury my head in that sand about that for now and you should too because it’s a bit away and there’s lots of fun to be had in the meantime.
100% agreed. Playoffs are 9 months and a trade deadline away. There are a lot of candidates to take a big step forward and solidify things. What they have now is plenty good to win the division and if Hill is healthy and who he has been for the past 5 years when the playoffs get here that’s already a huge addition.
4 years. He wasn’t good in the playoffs in 2019.
Wow five whole games
that’s fine, but you can’t really count it as a year.
Also, it’s been only 3 years and not 5. 2016, 2017, and 2018. 2 quality starts in those 3 years.
The Twins are going to be winning a lot of games 13 to 8. It should make for a very good, exciting, and terrifying team for Twins fans. This lineup is incredibly deep now, with good production throughout the lineup (including catcher!), nobody who is an OBP hole except for Buxton, and Gonzalez and Lamont Wade (among others) to keep things humming when the starters are unavailable. They’re going to score a ton of runs.
i wonder how many cheeseburgers Miguel Sano ate in celebration of hearing this news. Now playing first base, he’s free to “bulk up” as much as he’d like!
Come on you should be better than that.
Sano, who is pushing 300 lbs should be better than that. He can barely stay on the field as it is and it will only get worse with age.
forgot about how sensitive fangraphs can be.. ive been to some of the meetups.. you guys are not an athletic group to put it nicely
You should probably check out what Sano looks like right now before making another stupid comment in this thread.
Here’s a recent photo of Sano since you’ve proved you’re too lazy to look for it before commenting. https://www.instagram.com/p/B7JXYsgDlhj/
I’m glad Jaffe mentioned Donaldson’s defense because the Twins infield really needs an upgrade in that department. Polanco and Arraez are young enough that they should be able to improve. The improved defense will make some of the pitchers look better. The only downside is that we’ll probably see less of La Tortuga.
I mostly agree. Though if he hits, I think they will find 200-300 plate appearances for him between first, third, catcher, DH, and corner outfield. If he doesn’t hit, then it won’t matter much.
I dunno. There should be more catcher ABs for him this year if the Twins are comfortable with him back there twice a week or so.
Near as I can figure, the only higher contract for a guy who was already 33 is Kevin Brown’s $105M deal back in 1999.
****EDIT: Check that. Miggy’s 8/$248M contract extension that took effect in 2016 was for his age 33 season.
List of largest deals here:
https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/league-info/highest-paid-players/
Plenty of guys who signed deals for their age 32 season, none that signed for their age 33 or 34 season except Brown, Donaldson and MIggy. I only eyeballed it and didn’t cross-check everyone so I could have missed a guy in there.
Love this signing for the Twins. Donaldson, Grandal, Wheeler, Hamels, Betances, and Gausman are my favorite signings of this season with Rendon an honorable mention in the big budget category.
I like this much better than giving Ryu 4/$80M, more because I think Ryu’s injury history and age make him continuing his stellar performance unlikely. It’s difficult to acquire 4.5-win players. The Twins got a very nice deal on one.
I’m a little surprised that Ozuna is still out there and think fans vastly overrated the market for Castellanos. A poor man’s JD Martinez or a better Avisail Garcia is not that valuable.
Let’s see what exactly happens with Ozuna and Castellanos before we go there. As far as I can tell, the Reds and Rangers are still involved with both of them and lost out on a bunch of their targets, so they’ve got money left, with the Cards and Giants in on one or the other. I don’t know exactly how much money they’ll get but those crowdsources projections still look reasonable to me.
Great signing. Improving an already good offense is a great leverage play… The offense becomes greater than the sum of their parts.
Thank goodness Donaldson is out of the NL East now the Nats lineup is looking somewhat light behind Soto just hope they or the Braves don’t get Bryant.
Underrated, especially for his age. Can’t name many guys last year who performed that well with his service/injury history.
Really like this signing. Donaldson wasn’t himself in the first half last year. He improved everything in the second half. Bb%, K%, FB%, pull%, hard hit/soft hit%, triple slash. He was a 6 win guy the second half. Plus what’s fun to daydream on is if he can start this year as a 5 win guy and lost,say .75:wins a year he’ll add 17.5 wins, warrant another 1 or 2 year contract where he might be able to reach 400 HR and or 2000 hits s well as eclipse 60 WAR and he’s looking like a potential HOFer. Not the likeliest of outcomes but doesn’t seem entirely outlandish either.
Twins fan here. I still can’t get excited. I know I should be. Feels like , if the Vikings were to sign Antonio Brown or something. Great player, but we already have two WRs. If/until this team addresses it’s top of the rotation, or assembles a shutdown trio of bullpen guys, I’m going to be emotionally uninvested.