Well, it’s something, I guess.
A nearly silent offseason for the Twins came to an end last week when it was reported that the club had actually signed not one but two players: Former Twins reliever Danny Coulombe, who comes to Minnesota from the Baltimore Orioles, and outfielder Harrison Bader, most recently of the New York Mets.
Coulombe gives the Twins some left-handed depth in the bullpen, but these kind of deals also drive me nuts because he once was a Twin and pitched well for them, producing a 2.92 ERA over three seasons through 2022. So why wasn’t he still on the team?
MLB Trade Rumors also seems puzzled by the move that resulted in Danny’s departure.
“He’d been back in camp on a minor league contract, and rather than select him to the roster at the end of (a good) spring training, the Twins allowed Coulombe to use an upward mobility clause that granted him the ability to opt out of the contract if another club was willing to place him on the 40-man roster. Minnesota sent Coulombe to the O’s in exchange for cash, and the lefty gave Baltimore two excellent years in manager Brandon Hyde’s bullpen.”
Of those two seasons, 2023 stands out because Coulombe pitched to a 2.81 ERA across 61 games with a strikeout rate per nine innings of 10.2. So the Twins exchanged him for cash and are now going to give it right back to him in the form of a one-year deal worth $3 million.
Bader also joins the Twins on a one-year deal valued at $6.25 million. Bader, as MLB Trade Rumors reports, is a “glove-first” kind of guy, which means he can’t hit. And he certainly didn’t last season, slashing a dismal .236/.284/.373 for the Amazins. He walked only 21 times versus 95 whiffs in 2024.
However, Bader knows his way around the outfield.
“From 2018 to 2024, he has been credited with 75 Outs Above Average, the top mark among all outfielders for that span,” MLB Trade Rumors reports.
Extra innings…
–Baseball Prospectus has released its projections for the 2025 MLB season, and they have the Twins winning the AL Central with 86 estimated wins, which is only four more wins than they had last season. So why are they projected to top the table?
Well, it appears the projections have the Central reverting to its 2023 form when only one team (the Twins) had a winning record. For 2025, they project the Royals to have 81 wins, the Guardians 80, the Tigers 78 and the White Sox 61, which actually is 20 wins better than last season’s disastrous campaign.
Take heart, South Siders.