Taylor's Twins Talk

Focusing on the Twins, with a few ramblings on other things that catch my attention

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Crain Locked Up

The Twins announced this morning that they have agreed to a three year contract with Jesse Crain that will keep him in Minnesota through the 2009 season. Crain almost certainly would have been eligible for arbitration after this season (to not be, he would have had to spend the majority of the season in the minor leagues), so this move pre-emptively removes him from the list of players that Terry Ryan will have to worry about next year.

I can't say yet whether this was a good move or a bad one, simply because terms of the deal weren't disclosed. I will say, however, that Crain could be a vital piece of the bullpen if he pitches like he did late last year. He could become even more important if the Twins feel the need to deal one of the other members of the bullpen, such as Juan Rincon (not that there's anything in the works that I'm aware of on that front).

Hopefully the Twins will now turn their attention to Joe Nathan and Johan Santana. An announcement on either before the start of the season would be extremely welcome news, and an announcement on both would probably make me euphoric.

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1 Comments:

  • At Tue Feb 27, 11:00:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    It takes away two years of arbitration, so it makes a lot of sense (of course, depending on the numbers). My guess is that we are looking at something like 3 years at about $3.5-4 million. Something like $600,000 in 2007, $1.25 million in 2008 and $2 million in 2009. Assuming he even pitches as he has, he will get at least those numbers in arbitration.

    With the size of the contracts coming up for Santana, Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer, etc, having some cost certainty from some of the other guys is a good thing.

    SethSpeaks.net

     

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