Arbitration decision and prospect rankings

Today was the deadline for teams to offer arbitration to their Type A and B free agents. Joe Christensen reports that the Twins offered arbitration to Jesse Crain, Carl Pavano and Orlando Hudson.

Jon Rauch won't bring
the Twins a draft pick
if he signs with another
team this winter.

The next deadline in the process is Nov. 30, when those three have to decide if they accept. If they do, they're off the free agent market. They can either reach an agreement with the Twins or let an arbitrator pick their salary for 2011. If they don't accept, they remain free agents, and if/when they sign with somebody else, the Twins will get draft pick compensation.

The Twins will not get picks if/when Jon Rauch, Matt Guerrier and/or Brian Fuentes sign elsewhere, because those three were not offered arbitration.

I expect the three they offered arbitration to sign elsewhere, and I suspect that's the Twins expectation also. They were safe offers -- the other three might well have decided that they'd do better with arbitration than in the marketplace.

Considering how poorly Hudson has fared in the marketplace the past two years, it's still possible he'd accept arbitration. I think the Twins would rather he didn't.
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Baseball America today released its Twins Top 10 prospect list. Kyle Gibson tops the list. Aaron Hicks dropped from No. 1, where he's been the past two winters, to No. 2.

There's a lot of good stuff behind the paywall. One tidbit I picked up from the chat with John Manuel, BA's co-editor-in-chief and the man behind the Twins list, is that Miguel Sano, the Twins' Domincan superprospect, is now 230 pounds. Still a teen, but he's definitely outgrown shortstop -- which was always deemed likely -- and may be outgrowing third base as well.