Twins reach one-year deal with Carlos Santana (source)
5:22 AM UTC
MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins wasted no time using the money they saved within the Jorge Polanco exchange, as they reportedly agreed to a one-twelve months take care of dilapidated Carlos Santana on Friday evening, in accordance with a provide.
The club has now not confirmed the deal, which is value $5.25 million plus incentives, in accordance with MLB Community insider Jon Heyman.
Though Santana will flip 38 quickly after Opening Day, he mute equipped 2.7 bWAR of fee to the Pirates and Brewers final season by posting a reduce line of .240/.318/.429 with 23 home runs in 146 video games, which would had been one prolonged ball timid of the Twins’ group lead. His switch-hitting bat and prolonged-established plate discipline will be critically vital for supervisor Rocco Baldelli’s lineup improvement following Polanco’s departure.
A longtime first baseman and designated hitter, Santana has considered his health, defense and manufacturing set up remarkably effectively over time. He represents a extremely smooth, value range-pleasant fit for the Twins’ needs.
Most tremendously, Santana has hit higher from the pleasing aspect at some stage in his occupation, which continued with a .266/.354/453 reduce (and .807 OPS) towards southpaws final season. The Twins considerable some pleasing-handed manufacturing to balance their platoon-heavy lineup, and Santana would possibly maybe perchance well perchance give them affect — and, at minimal, very knowledgeable plate appearances — in that role.
The switch-hitting component is well-known, too, because forward of Santana’s arrival, the Twins moreover didn’t like a transparent designated hitter towards pleasing-handed pitching. They’ll figure to rotate that role to play matchups and set their players fresh, as is Baldelli’s preference, nevertheless Santana’s capacity to hit left-handed offers him the ability to occupy that vital niche.
The pass moreover makes a range of sense in that the Twins ideally considerable extra stability in their first-heinous depth, the build they’ll first and considerable rely on a platoon of the left-handed Alex Kirilloff and the pleasing-handed Jose Miranda. Every approach with vital uncertainty. Kirilloff has never stayed healthy within the Majors, with a range of wrist and shoulder elements, and Miranda is coming off rotator cuff surgical diagram and a absolutely misplaced 2023.
It’s an excellent deal now not a matter for the Twins to play Santana within the discipline, as he’s a reigning Nationwide League Gold Glove Award finalist before all the things build heinous and led his position with 11 defensive runs saved, per FanGraphs. He has constantly been a particular defender, ranked above sensible (62nd percentile) in fielding whisk fee final season, per Statcast, and effectively above sensible (76th percentile) in fluctuate.
It moreover bears mention that Santana has been a model of sturdiness, as he has averaged 152 video games per season since 2011 (now not counting the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign) and has never played fewer than 131 video games in a full season in that time. Brooding in regards to the wound historical previous of many key players on this Twins lineup, that holds particular importance to this roster composition.
The Twins would possibly maybe perchance well perchance mute safe themselves barely rapid on pleasing-handed strategies within the outfield, nevertheless a extra healthy Byron Buxton would possibly maybe perchance well perchance tear a prolonged diagram in that regard. They’ll also unprejudiced mute must rely on extra available from Willi Castro as a platoon bat or the emergence of Austin Martin, their No. 20 prospect within the MLB Pipeline rankings, unless they add one other pass onto their fresh spate of activity.