Good-bye, Pelfrey

Mike Pelfrey spent three seasons with the Twins, or two
seasons if you don't count the year he spent mostly on the
disabled list, and went 11-27, 4.94. This got him a sizable raise.

There has been quite a few eye-popping contracts for free agent pitchers in the past few days. Mike Pelfrey's two-year deal at $8 million per with Detroit is far from the richest of them, but it's noteworthy in its own right.

Big Pelf is a back-of-the-rotation arm who has qualified for the ERA title once in the past four seasons,which he did with two innings to spare last season. He did go at least seven full innings in 10 of his 30 starts for the Twins; he also had 10 starts in which he didn't work five full innings. 

I expected his departure but was nevertheless half afraid that the Twins would re-sign him. They don't really have any place to put him in their rotation, but that doesn't always stop their decision makers.

This tweet caught my eye:

Avila on Pelfrey: "I'm not going to throw our analytics guys under the bus. This wasn't an analytics signing, it was a scout signing."

— Chris McCosky (@cmccosky) December 7, 2015

Avila, to be clear, is the Detroit general manager. And yeah, I'd bet there isn't an analytics department in the game that recommended signing Pelfrey. Scouts see a moving fastball with velocity; the stats show a one-pitch wonder with a dismal strikeout rate. 

There's a line of thought that Pelfrey would be a better fit in a relief role. He's resisted that notion in the past, and it appears that the Tigers view him as a starter. Which, as a fan of a divsion rival, suits me just fine.

The Sunday Funnies

Dan Quisenberry, the ace reliever of the Kansas City Royals, in the mid 80s signed a complicated "lifetime" contract tied to the real estate developments of a Royals co-owner. But soon after he signed the lucrative deal, his manager lost confidence in him, and he fell into disfavor and disuse.

One day Donald Fehr, then the head of the Players Association, was visiting the Royals clubhouse, and Quis casually asked him if he had any recourse if the Royals continued to refuse to pitch him.

"Well," Fehr said, "you could always buy them."

Outfield options: Oswaldo Arcia

Oswaldo Arcia
reportedly turned down
an opportunity
to play in Asia next year.

Oswaldo Arcia didn't sustain a career-threatening injury in 2015. But he damaged his career enough to threaten it.

He went from a 20-homer season in 2014 and a cinch to be in the major league outfield to mired in Triple A for the vast majority of the season -- and he put up a dismal .630 OPS in Rochester. He didn't even get a September callup,

Arcia is out of options now, and in my opinion should have been waived to clear room on the 40-man roster. I think he would have cleared waivers; if not, let somebody else carry him on their 40. The Twins are being more patient than that, but the rules limit their patience; he either makes the 25-man roster out of spring training, or gets waived then.

By now you know his pluses -- genuine power from the left side of the plate, and he doesn't turn 25 until May -- and his considerable minuses, which are pretty much every other aspect of the game. He's a horrid defensive outfielder, doesn't run the bases well, hasn't hit lefties at all, can't or won't adjust as a hitter, has displayed poor strike zone judgment. He's best suited to being a platoon DH, and that doesn't work when half the roster consists of pitchers.

Despite all that, he's got a genuine chance to revive his Twins career in 2016, but he probably needs some help.

The retirement of Torii Hunter and the trade of Aaron Hicks opens two outfield slots (the other being filled by Eddie Rosario). As matters stand, those slots could/should go to Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, but  ...

• Sano might not become an outfielder.
• Buxton might be sent to Triple A.

Take either of them out of the equation, and Arcia's current outfield competition dwindles to Danny  Santana and Max Kepler. Kepler is more likely to get sent to Triple A than Buxton is, and Santana's status isn't much better than Arcia.

The help Arcia needs to get another genuine opportunity with the Twins is a Trevor Plouffe trade. That would take Sano out of the outfield picture. Even if Buxton is, as I think he should be, the center fielder on Opening Day, that still leaves a regular outfield job open.

One can even imagine a scenario in which  Plouffe isn't traded, Buxton and Kepler are sent to the minors, and the Twins torture their pitching staff with an outfield of Arcia and Sano flanking Rosario in center. I think it's unlikely; Paul Molitor might be willing to have one defensively challenged outfielder in the lineup, but not two.

Even if Arcia opens the season in the lineup, I expect it will be short-lived. Kepler is a better long-term bet than Arcia is. The blunt truth is, the Twins have many better alternatives for their outfield.

Outfield options: Byron Buxton

Byron Buxton hit
just .209 in 138
major league plate
appearances in 2015.

Byron Buxton remains, by the slimmest of margins, officially a rookie in 2016. He's likely the early favorite to be Rookie of the Year next year.

Assuming, of course, that he plays.

The trade of Aaron Hicks opens center field, and Buxton is presumably the front-runner to claim the job. But he didn't hit in his limited major league duty in 2015, and it's possible the decision makers will opt to give him some Triple A time to start 2016.

I wouldn't. Between his undeniable ceiling and his defensive prowess, I'd rather have him in center field from the get-go in April. The alternatives at this point are Eddie Rosario and Danny Santana. Rosario is better suited for a corner outfield spot, and there is nothing Santana does as an outfielder that Buxton doesn't figure to do better.

Notes, quotes and comment

Byung Ho Park donned a Twins jersey -- No. 52
-- at a press conference Wednesday.

The Twins trotted out Byung Ho Park on Wednesday morning for his introductory press conference. All the standard things were said.

Terry Ryan repeated that Trevor Plouffe will be the third baseman next year and that Miguel Sano will be in the outfield. I continue to be skeptical.

---

The Twins filled out their 40 man roster on Wednesday by picking up catcher John Hicks on waivers from Seattle. His record says he's a poor hitter, but his caught stealing rates are pretty impressive, and he apparently has options left, so he can be readily sent to the minors. More catching depth!

The Twins added a good-catch, no-hit receiver in Juan Centeno on a minor league deal earlier in the week, so they are stockpiling quite a few of these guys. I had presumed that Stuart Turner, who also fits that mold, was going to be the primary Triple A catcher this year; now I'm not so sure about that.

Or perhaps they are setting themselves up to move Kurt Suzuki, I don't expect that; I can't imagine that there's much to be gotten in a trade for Suzuki, But I can't dismiss that possibility now.

---

Wednesday night was the deadline for tendering contracts to arbitration eligible players. The Twins had six such, and they retained all six. No real surprise, although I wouldn't have been too surprised had they non-tendered Eduardo Nunez or Casey Fien.

---

Among players who were cut loose by teams Wednesday night were a pair of big-power first basemen with a lot of swing-and-miss to their games, Chris Carter (Houston) and Pedro Alvarez (Pittsburgh). They are, to some degree, what I expect Park to be. Presumably the Twins expect Park to hit for a better average than those two, but he's going to strike out a lot. Park's also a year older than Carter and Alvarez. As we gauge how the Korean fares in American ball next year, Carter and Alvarez might be interesting yardsticks.

The Park signing

Byung Ho Park played for Korea in the Premier 12 tournament
last month in Japan.

The Twins made it official Tuesday: Korean slugger Byung Ho Park has signed a four-year contract with a fifth-year option. It's $12 million guaranteed and a max value, apparently, of $22 million. $12 million is a lot of money to me and probably to you, but is maybe half of what was generally expected.

#Twins’ signing of Park reinforces unfairness of posting system. Player has no leverage if he burns to play in majors. At MLB team’s mercy.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 1, 2015

He may well have gotten more in a free market, but it wasn't a free market. The Twins may have lowballed him, but that's happened to players entering pro ball for generations.

Park is hardly a sure bet. Behind his big home run totals in Korea are some equally big strikeout rates. His contract is roughly the same as that of Jung Ho Kang, who came over from Korea to have a very strong rookie season for Pittsburgh, but the Twins paid more than twice what the Pirates did for the posting fee.

If he turns out to be merely an average 1B-DH, this contract is a bargain. If he turns out to be better than that, it's even more a steal for the Twins. And if he turns out to be a complete bust, this contract is digestable in the context of a $100 million payroll budget.

The return of Joe Benson

The news was short of earthshaking, which is why it was the Rochester Red Wings announcing it rather than the parent Twins:

ROSTER MOVES: The Minnesota Twins have signed OF Joe Benson, C Juan Centeno and LHP Aaron Thompson to minor league contracts.

— Rochester Red Wings (@RocRedWings) November 30, 2015

Centeno is next year's version of Eric Fryer, catching depth. Thompson we saw quite a bit of early in 2015; if he's in next spring's bullpen, I will view it as a bad sign.

And Benson is sort of the prodigal son returning.

Around the time the Twins experenced their big collapse, Benson was viewed as a hot outfield prospect. Big, strong, fast, dripping with tools. But his career ran aground on injuries and his chronic inability to control his strike zone. The Twins waived him after he didn't make the team in 2013; he finished that season in the Rangers system. He spent 2014 in the Marlins system. He split 2015 between independent ball, the Mets system and the Braves system.

He'll turn 28 in March, and he hasn't been back in the majors since his cuppa coffee in September 2011. Despite a little Twitter chatter Monday afternoon about his chances of landing the fourth outfielder job, I don't see much chance for him this year either.

Benson's biggest problem: So much of hitting depends on the batter's ability to decide, practically as the pitcher releases the ball: Strike or ball, what's the velocity, hittable or not. He just doesn't have that ability, and all the other athletic tools are wasted by that flaw.