It's been a quiet offseason so far, not just for the Twins but all over. There's been little movement among the prominent free agents and a scarcity of trades.
Part of the slow pace regarding free agents may be Scott Boras, who reps a number of the big names on the market: first baseman Eric Hosmer, third baseman Mike Moustakas and starter Jake Arrieta. Boras is big on a slow process.
Personally, however, if I were buying a first baseman on this market I'd rather go for Carlos Santana than Hosmer, there is reason to be wary of Arrieta and Moustakas is not exactly the definition of consistent production.
The current whispers about the Twins have them more active in trade talks than free agents. Now that we've gotten past Thanksgiving, and with the winter meetings looming early next month, things might start to happen.
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MLB dropped a heavy hammer on the Atlanta Braves for circumventing the rules for signing foreign free agents. Twelve Braves farm hands, some quite prominent on prospect lists, were declared free agents this week, and John Coppollela, the general manager fired a few weeks ago as the investigation came to light, has been banned permanently. And it's worth noting that John Hart, the veteran GM who was Coppollela's superior, has left the organization "to pursue other opportunities." Sure he is.
I tried to make sense of the rules for signing the newly freed players and gave up. I'll trust Falvine to know (a) which guys they want to pursue and (b) the limitations on that pursuit.
The commissioner certainly came down harder on the Braves than he did on the Cardinals (hacking), the Red Sox (signing violations) or Padres (hiding medical information in trades) -- hard enough that the general belief is that the rest of the teams are stepping back from the anything goes mentality.
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The Hall of Fame ballot was released this week. Among the newcomers are a handful of former Twins, including Johan Santana. Santana hasn't offiically given up his hopes of pitching again, but it's been five years since he threw a major league pitch. He certainly had a Hall-of-Fame peak, but the longevity was lacking.
Other ex-Twins fresh to the ballot: Jim Thome, who will get in, and Livan Hernandez, who won't.
And a day or so after the ballot was released Joe Morgan, the vice chairman of the Hall of Fame's board of directors, fired off a letter to the electorate urging them to reject steroid users. While he didn't explictly say that he was speaking on behalf of the board, he did mention his position and used the Hall's email account.
Morgan drew some pushback from voters. But this is seen as the first time that the people who run the Hall have put their finger on the scale, and Joe Posnanski, for one, thinks the Morgan letter dooms the rising candidacies of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, each of whom topped 50 percent last year.
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