March 20, 2022

Twins top Gray, Sanchez, Urshela trades with 3-year deal to get Carlos Correa

Days after landing pitcher Sonny Gray, catcher Gary Sanchez and infielder Gio Urshela, the Twins pulled off an even bigger blockbuster overnight Saturday, agreeing to a three-year $105.3 million deal to get free agent shortstop Carlos Correa, according to various reports.

“The top free agent of the winter goes to Minnesota in a stunner,” ESPN’S Jeff Passan said via social media.

And if these collective deals don’t signal just how serious the Twins are about getting back to winning baseball, nothing will.

It’s a huge upgrade at that position for the Twins. Although Andrelton Simmons remains a top fielder, his hitting pales in comparison to Correa’s seven seasons in the bigs. Over that time, Correa has hit .277/.356/.481 with 133 home runs. He’s also a former Rookie of the Year, a two-time all-star and a winner of both Platinum and Gold gloves. In 2020, he led the American League at his position with a fielding percentage of .995.

Perhaps most important: He has 18 career postseason home runs, the kind of clutch hitting the Twins need to end their winless postseason streak and to beat Kryptonite, the New York Yankees.

Meanwhile, Spring Training is underway and the Twins are off to a slow start — not that it matters in March, right? Yes? No?

The Twins fell to 0-3 on Saturday, but it was also their best game so far. They lost 1-0 to the Boston Red Sox, but the bats showed a little more life with six hits. Byron Buxton, Luis Arraez, Tim Beckham, who signed a minor-league deal with the Twins in the offseason, and Nick Gordon connected, although Gordon may have been hurt in the game.

On the mound, the Twins’ Bailey Ober and Griffin Jax pitched four scoreless innings. Jax also struck out two batters in his two innings of work, and the Twins got a look at pitching prospect Jhoan Duran, the No. 5 prospect in the system.

Duran struck out two in two innings and reportedly hit 100 miles per hour on the radar gun.

Twins Territory was giddy on Saturday:

Source: Baseball-Reference.com

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.