The Minnesota Twins inked outfielder Josh Willingham to a three-year, $21 million contract. The Twin City’s addition of “the Hammer” is far from the biggest news the Winter Meetings have brought, but they do mean one thing, that Michael Cuddyer will not be returning to Ron Gardenhire’s club house.
Cuddyer made his big league debut in 2001 and has played seven full seasons since. His career average is .272 and peaked at .284 last season. His power numbers have been far from consistent with homerun totals varying from three to 32. When playing in over 100 games, the former first rounder averages about 18 homeruns.
When the postseason comes around the 32-year-old has only made it out of the ALDS once. His career average in October is .338 and his OPS is an impressive .845. Last year was the first all-star appearance of his career and the corner infielder/outfielder picked a great time to receive that honor.
Entering the free agent market, Cuddyer’s highest contract was $10-million and was a household name looking for a change in scenery. With the Twins feebly talking to his agent, Casey Close, the Rockies, Red Sox, Mariners and Phillies remain in the mix for the utility man. Cuddyer would be crazy to ask for much higher than the $10-million he made last year and general managers would be even crazier if they paid much higher.
ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted that the Rockies are favoring Cuddyer over free agent Carlos Beltran and are willing to make an offer. Cuddyer would add some much needed experience to the Rockies up-and-coming outfield of Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler. Seth Smith finished last season with an identical batting average to Cuddyer’s career high, but the Rockies would like some experience in left field and a minute amount of pop in their lineup.
Troy Tulowitzki explored the impressive lineup Colorado would send out if they signed the Virginia native in an interview with the Denver Post. “I think our lineup is one of the better ones in the National League, but it would be huge to get another bat,” Tulowitzki told Troy Renck. “I have heard nothing but good things about Cuddyer.”
The Red Sox have also snuck into the hunt for Cuddyer, but like the Seattle Mariners haven’t made serious offers to the one-time all star yet.
The Phillies fit somewhere in-between the Rockies and Red Sox in the mix for the lifetime Twin, but have their priorities in a much different place. I’m sure by this point in the off-season, Ruben Amaro Jr would have hoped that Jimmy Rollins would be under contract already and Cole Hamels would have an extension that would leave him as a life time Philly. But neither have been accomplished and despite the fact that everyone keeps debating whether Rollins will return, his contract renewal is a necessity not an option.
Sure Cuddyer could play third for a struggling Polanco and add some stability to the outfield, especially if John Mayberry Jr is moved to first base to start the year. The Phillies traded away unfortunate prospect, Ben Fransico from pitching, but we all know he caught a bad case of the Lastings Milledges, not living up to potential.
On paper the move would look great, but Philadelphia isn’t pursuing the him as hard as the Rockies and have their priorities in the right place by concentrating on J-Roll. Don’t expect Cuddyer to play in Philly until June 19th when the Rockies come to Citizen’s Bank for a three game set.
I believe the Phils are done with adding to their OF for the 2012 Season
They have Pence,Victorino, Mayberry Jr, Lance Nix, and WIgginton already on their Roster whoh all can play OF.. Now Mayberry Jr and Thome will probably split time at 1B while Howard recuperates from his injury.. but who goes if they add Cuddyear
I think the Phils are basically done with this 2012 Roster..
Cuddyer signed with the Rockies.
Good move for Cuddyear and for the Rockies..
If the Phils were going to get him, it would have been a few weeks back when Free-Agency started.. They obviously did not offer him enough
Paulman’s Early NL East Predictions for 2012 Season
#1) Braves 94-68 (1st Place)
#2) Phillies 91-71 (Wild-Card)
#3) Marlins 86-76
#4) Nationals 82-80
#5) Mets 73-89
Phils Face Rockies in the new 1 Game winner take all between Wild-Card Teams and end up losing to the Rockies as Cuddyear goes 3-4 with 6 RBI’s as Rockies win the game 7-3..
paulman stop it, you have a good football mind, Great analysis about Vick and the eagles, but again you are lousy at baseball, the braves have done nothing to promote them over the Phillies, you are inciting the faithful, stop, please
Braves have lots of young talent and players
Rookie of Year Winners and Runner ups
1B R Freeman, OF J Heyward, Closer S Kimbrel with excellent Set-Up Pitchers like J Venters, O’Flaherty, Linebrink out of the Bullpen..
2B is Uggla who got hot in the 2nd Half of the season
3B C Jones still Dangerous and M Prado is more than a capable player at 3B they have M Bourne in CF and a All-Star Catcher B McCann..
A deep Bench led by Eric Hinski,J Constanza, J lugo
They need to address their SS Position
Starting Pitching with T Hudson, T Hanson, J Jurggens, B Beachey and then 3-4 young guns named J Teheran, J Asencio, R Delgado,& R Fish …
They have a ton of arms, the best Bullpen in the NL and solid Everyday Line-up.. If RF J Heyward returns to form and bounced back after a poor 2010, they will be the most complete team in the NL East which includes the Phillies…who are another year older but not necessarily any better
Phillies have and old 1B (Thome) who hasn’t played the field in 4 Years
and Old 2B & 3B who are past their primes and over-paid and untradeable.
A SS who wants $12-$15 Per Season for 4 Years who is 33 Years and a shell of what he used to be offensively and the Phils have no choice since they have no one groomed to be ready to take over at SS
Season.. No clear everyday player in LF, A good and productive CF & RF who are in their Primes right now..
An aging Catcher (Ruiz) who does a great job with the Staff but could use a break everyon once in a while so he doesn’t wear down and out by Seasons end..
3 Excellent Starters in Halladay,Lee & Hamels… A young up and comer in Worley.. Bullpen looks good with Stutes,Bastardo and Paplebon..
Can Worley,Stutes,Bastardo all duplicate what they did las Season.. That may be a stretch.. Then who else, Dave Hernon, Willis, Contreras…
Halladay & Lee are another year older.. If Manuel has to keep on sending them out in the 8th/9th Inning, He will run them down and out of gas for the Playoff Run like he did last Season.. Halladay’s stuff was not the same from August on as he battled and labored thru many games.. Lee is streak and hot and cole and Hamels is probably their most consistent Pitcher now and they better not piss him off and sign him to a long term deal now to lock him in, If Not he will walk after 2012 and get a mega deal out west where he’s from
Where am I off the mark here Jake..
The Braves have some talent in their staff, but Jurjens was terrible down the stretch and Hansen broke down. Even if those guys are healthy they don’t match up with the Phils top 3. Beachy vs Worley is a push and then the rest of the guys are unproved players. The vaunted ROY Kimbrel has gaudy stats but he also blew 8 saves last year. Making an assumption that he will improve upon those numbers. I would take the Phils OF over the Braves and of course McCann is a huge upgrade over Ruiz.
Howard is the big if. If he misses a lot of the season, then I could see your scenario playing out. Although he did only hit .217 against the Braves last year with 3 HRs, so maybe Thome and Mayberry will have more success than him.
As far as the lineups go, the Phils will end up having more production out of 1B than the Braves with the combined total of Thome and Howard. Uggla is what he is. He had a hot July/August, but he hit .238 in Sept. Let’s not oversell him here. He won’t beat out Utley by that much if Utley can play a whole season. (That is a huge if) Jones/Prado will be better than Polanco.
This is the same heartless Braves team that the Phils dominated last year including winning the last 6 in a row. Including sweeping the Braves outta the playoffs when they Phils weren’t playing for anything.
Jurggens was bad down th estretch and was rushed back from the DL after hanson was hurt.. no excuses just sayin.. I think Jurggens has had a lot of success versus the Phils..
Braves 1B Freeman is just a Pup and I see him being a very solid 1B where as I see R Howard continuing to decline
I also see CF M Bourne as a big improvement on their top of the order as the #1 hitter for the Braves who have been lacking for years and could make a big difference in helping to jump-start their Offense..
It will be a close race coming down to the last 10-15 games of the Season
SHould make for a fun,exciting good baseball Season
They have been really trying to move Jurjjens for some reason. I do agree that it will be a much closer race than last year.
I think they may have found something else more wrong with him and may want to move him to get something decent in return.. He lost like 5-7 mph from his Fastball once he returned from the DH..
Their Staff by June will be a lot different than their Opening Day Staff,
a couple of these young guys I mentioned (Teheran,Delgado, Ascencio and Fish) they are extremely high on and I wouldn’t be surprised to see 1-2 in the Starting Rotation by May or June..
by the way, is Kendrick still under Contract with the Phils for 2012??
Paul, you are on a roll this week. I agree 100%. Amaro has done STUGOTS, to better this everyday lineup, since the season ended. If he resigns Rollins, we have the same fundamentally flawed team that got prematurely ousted from the playoffs. He should have signed Bell instead of Papeldouche, Cuddyer instead of Wiggington, & Ramirez instead of Rollins. We would be better, with better hitters at the same or lower payroll. Also gives you the options to play Utley at 1st/2nd, Mayberry at 1st/OF, Polanco at 3rd/2nd or trade & Cuddyer all over. Bad offseason thus far for Amaro. Very questionable & head scratching moves. Hopefully he is just laying in the weeds with a pleasant surprise or two, or next year will be no different. They wasted 100+ wins, just to get dumped again, too early.
BTW, F^#@ YOU HOWARD! Thanks for ending 2 years in a row & blowing out your achilles, ruining all trade value.
this same, broken down, aged ball club won 102 games, and if lee hadn’t chunked it with a four spot the Phillies win the world series, ddcar in the words of that clown real talk, don’t be a dumb ass! Paulman excellent football man, baseball is his weak hobby
Thnx DCar,
But Jakedog doesn’t think I know anything about Baseball…
I am disapointed so far for the Phillies have knocked off about $40 Million from their Payroll by letting go of Big Contracts of Oswalt,Lidge,Ibanez,Madson
and reaplcing them with Papelbon (who they overpaid for) and players like Thome, Wigginton,Nix and Willis who are nothing but bit players at their stages of their Careers .. This team has taken a step back and if they can’t package a Polanco/Blanton and youngster or 2 for a Stud everyday player at either 3B or LF, then they will be worse off and struggle just to make the post-Season in my opinion let alone compete for a World Series…
Maybe a SS Hanley Ramirez, or OF Quentin Carlos or OF Adam Jones could be had with a trade… But this team at the present time does not impress me for the long-run..
They made a huge mistake in not getting 3B Aramas Ramirez who appears to be the steal of the Off-Season, so far by the Brewers..
Phillies only need a third baseman with a stick, the team is older, but built to make another run, paulman put up 100 bucks now, Phillies win the division
I will put a $100 that they don’t make it to the World Series Jake..
I see th Braves/Phils battling it out with some noise from the Marlins..
I believe Utley,Polanco, Rollins if he returns, and Howard when he returns from injury have all peaked Offensively and are on the way down as their last 2-3 Season over Season Stats would indicate, Add that they are another year older, have had all sorts of injuries and all have made big $$$, I just don’t see the same type of Energy from them when they were making names from themselves.. Victorino is consistent and expect his usual .285-.295 Batting Average with 15 HR and 70 RBi type of Season, Pence should improve as he is just in his prime and will be a .290-.300 with 30 HR/100 RBI real potential… I like Thome as a DH where he can get 20-25 At-Bats a week which he will give you production, but platooning at 1B with Mayberry and Pinch-Hitting will relegate him to about 10 At-Bats a week and then once Howard does return, Thome will strictley be a PH getting maybe 5 AT-BAts a week and I am not so sure he can stay very sharp or productive in this kind of roll … Wigginton/Nix are good Bench/Utility Players who are versatile and bat in that .260- .280 range and maybe hit about 8-10-12 HR’s and knock in 35-40 RBI’s or so based on their limited role.. I don’t beleive either of them are every day type of players but should fill in well when called upon..
Willis is a crap shoot who could pay-off well if he buys into that reliever/set up role and can maintain good control (which has always been his problem) but when you look at how Stutes & Bastardo finished the season over the last 4-6 weeks, they had tired arms, lost a little zip on their pitches, the SOuting reports were not out on them and they were not nearly as effective as they were from May to August.. How these 2 Relievers and Starter Tim Worley repsond in 2012, where they will have high expectations on them will be an important key to the Teams Success in my opinion for 2012.. We all know what the Phils will get from Halladay,Lee & Hamels, but how are these young 3 Pitchers going to perform will tell the tale and obvioulsy how well Papelbon settles in..
The Phils have had a great run that last 5 Seasons and last years team was the best in the MLB up until the last few weeks of the Sreason where they lost their edge, their energy and we unable to get it back for the Playoffs and got bounced out by a Hot Team (Cardinals) just like they did the year before versus the SF Giants.. but this team needs a better everyday line-up and more punch from the 3B and LF positions if they are going to get back to the WS and I am not sold that this current Roster has the firepower to achieve this.. but it’s still early and who knows what other pieces will be added in Free-Agency or thru a trade..
A dark horse could be OF Dominic Brown who could come into camp under the radar and ready to win that spot in LF and become the everyday OF that many have predicted/hyped up he would be sinec there are little expectations of him as opposed to last years lost season for him with injuries, sitting on th ebench, slumps,OF gaffes.. but personally for me, I just don’t see him as an everyday MLB Player when watching Brown, he’s still too raw and not very fundamentally sound for me..
Rockies overpaid for Cuddyear.. $10 Million for 3 Years for a 33 Year old jack-of trades .275 Hitter who can play a lot of positions, nut none of them very well.. Crazy $$ spent by the Rockies and now the Twins get 2 Draft picks back for losing him which was a smart deal and went and signed TY Whittington who doesn ‘t have the power that Cuddyear does, but is much better Defenseive players, more speed, younger and more athletic and got him for a 3 Year $21 Million Deal .. Twins saved $3 Million per Season for the next 3 Seasons for basically the same type of player and received 2 Draft Picks when all said and done.. Nice job by the Twins GM..
ESPN reports the Phils Sign SS Jimmy Rollins to a 3 Years $33 Million with an option on Year 4 which is a good move for both Phils and J Ro since in the end, I am not sure either the Phils or ROllins had many options to pursue..
Contract of $11 MIllper Season is in Line with Top SS, maybe a little high but not ridiculous $$$ money for a still very fine fielding SS.. If he can bat .260 – .270 and give you 20-30 Stolen Bases with 15 HR’s and 50RBI’s, then that’s not too bad from the SS spot but I still wish the team used Victorino at Lead-off and J Rollins down in the line-up .. ..
Okay paulman get a third.baseman maybe.wright and.hop on the big red band wagon
Maybe Package OF Dominic Brown, 3B Polanco and either Pitcher Worley or Stutes or a couple of Minor Leauge Pitcher to the Mets for 3B Wright …