Twins fans have been waiting for the new front office to make a splash during their first offseason. It hasn’t happened, but not for lack of effort.
According to reports, Twins Vice President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey and General Manager Thad Levine were attempting to make such a splash this week when they made an offer to slugger Mike Napoli, which he passed up to return to Texas.
FOX’s Ken Rosenthal reports the Twins offered Napoli more money than the one-year, $8.5 million deal he signed with Texas Wednesday. But Napoli chose to return to the Rangers, believing Texas will have a better chance to contend.
The plan in Minnesota would have been for Napoli to alternate at first base and DH with Joe Mauer – a role that will likely fall to Kennys Vargas.
Napoli would actually seem to be a perfect fit for twins, a young team in need of leadership/hitter
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 28, 2017
Shortly after Falvey and Levine were hired, they talked about adding some veteran leadership to the Twins clubhouse. They had some success with that by signing catcher Jason Castro and reliever Matt Belisle.
Minnesota also added reliever Craig Breslow and Ryan Vogelsong, who both have a decent shot of making the Opening Day roster with a strong spring, but Napoli would have been a big and splashy piece of that plan.
Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in Ft. Myers next week.
