The Twins have agreed a one-year contract with Jim Thome worth (according to my good buddy, La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune) $1.5 million with $700k in possible incentives.
In short, this deal is FANTASTIC.
Without diving too deep into stats, here are my bullet-point thoughts:
- Thome will likely be a part-timer/bench player who primarily faces right-handed pitchers. Is he getting old? Yes. Almost 40. Is his bat slowing down? Almost certainly. Is he as good as he was 10 years ago? Or even 3 years ago? No.
But Thome still crushes right-handed pitching. He posted an .881 OPS against righties last year vs. .743 against lefties, and throughout his career Thomas has crushed righties to a 1.043 OPS clip, vs. .763 against lefties.
- The Twins bench at the end of last season was a mess. They had guys like Alexi Casilla, Matt Tolbert and Brian Buscher pinch hitting in HUGE, high leverage situations.
Jim Thome adds what we call “pine cred” to that bench.
- Thome earned $13 million from the White Sox last year. They apparently didn’t want him back AT ALL, or he really wanted to play for the Twins… Or both.
- I highly doubt that Thome will take away much playing time from Jason Kubel. In fact, when the Twins are facing right handed pitching, it’s probably best to bench Delmon Young, who isn’t a very good hitter in the first place.
This scenario would put Kubel in left field and Thome at DH. Kubel and Delmon are both equally poor defensively. so that’s basically a wash. But the offensive platoon split against right-handed pitching should provide a huge boost for the Twins.
- Jim Thome is to the Twins what Brett Favre was to the Vikings?
OK, maybe not quite that big of an impact… But I hear Thome sings a mean rendition of “Pants on the Ground”…
- The Twins still need help at 2B and/or 3B, but with Span, Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer, Kubel, Thome and J.J. Hardy, the offense is probably more potent heading into 2010 than it’s ever been, especially against right-handed pitching.
- Many people, including myself, are slightly worried about having too many left-handed bats in the lineup. When Thome plays, the Twins will presumably insert five lefties in the batting order (Span, Mauer, Morneau, Thome, Kubel) within the first six or seven slots in the order.
This obviously isn’t a problem against righties. And because Mauer and Morneau both hit lefties pretty well, it’s not a huge deal overall, period.
- The one major problem with this signing, as well as the rumored $5 million offer to Jarrod Washburn earlier this offseason, is that the Twins have yet to address three glaring needs: 2B, 3B, and outfield defense.
But whatever. Let’s worry about that later.
