#OldFriends watch

A number of ex-Twins signed minor league deals in recent days.

* Logan Forsythe is now in camp with the Texas Rangers.

Off what we saw during his 50 games with the Twins last year after they got him in the Brian Dozier trade, it might seem surprising that he had to settle for a minor league deal -- he was solid defensively, with a noticably better arm than Dozier, and had a .356 OBP, which would look mightly good on this squad.

But he had little power -- six extra base hits in those 178 at-bats with the Twins, all doubles -- and hasn't really hit for two seasons. Plus he's 32. So, yeah, he's not somebody you sign with the intent of sticking him in the lineup.

* Trevor Plouffe re-upped with the Phillies.

The former first-rounder, also 32, got 12 at-bats last summer for the Phils and spent most of the season in Triple A. I don't know that the Phillies are thilled with Maikel Franco at third base, but I also know that Plouffe isn't a superior alternative.

I'll give Plouffe credit for perserverance, though. The man has made, per Baseball Reference, more than $22 million in his major league career. Presumably he doesn't have to take life in the minors for the income.

* Francisco Liriano returned to the Pirates on a minor league deal.

Pittsburgh is where "Frankie Franchise" turned himself around about six years ago. In 2013-2015 he racked up a 3.26 ERA in 510 innings. Not a workhorse, top-of-the-rotation guy, but a really good rotation piece. But things went sour for him in 2016 and the Pirates unloaded his contract on the Blue Jays, and he's been bouncing around since.

If he has a major league future, it's probably as a reliever. The Tigers had him in their rotation last year, and there wasn't a lot to like in his numbers. And he's 35 now, which seems kind of impossible.

A minor-league deal seems right for him at this point. The head-scratcher is his tale of not getting any offers at all -- and then seven, all pretty much identical, arrived on the same day.

It's not collusion if 30 teams have 30 different formulas that all conclude that 2+2=4. It is odd that everybody would run the numbers on Liriano on the same day.