Time to fess up Twins fans, you’ve watched games over the last three seasons and said “I wonder what this team would be like if we still had (insert former Twin here),” or “wow, our center field situation is bad, didn’t we used to have Torii Hunter, Denard Span, and Ben Revere?”
Yes, yes we did. It’s OK, you’re not alone. In fact, we’d venture to say that 90% of Twins fans have muttered one of those frustrated quips more than once.
That got us thinking, if we were to assemble a 25-man roster of the best and brightest former Twins to make everyone’s dream come true, would it be fiscally possible?
Here’s what we found, with their 2013 stats and salary included for your perusal.
POSITION PLAYERS (Starting 9):
C: A.J. Pierzynski, .272, 17HR, 70RBI, $7.5 million
1B: Justin Morneau, .259, 17HR, 77RBI, $14 million
2B: Nick Punto, .255, 2HR, 21RBI, $1.5 million
3B: Danny Valencia, .304, 8HR, 21RBI, $515,000
SS: JJ Hardy, .263, 25HR, 76RBI, $7 million
LF: Torii Hunter, .304, 17HR, 84RBI, $12 million
CF: Carlos Gomez, .284, 24HR, 73RBI, 40SB, $4.3 million
RF: Michael Cuddyer, NL-best .331, 20HR, 84RBI, 10SB, $10.5 million
DH: David Ortiz, .309, 30HR, 103 RBI, $14 million
Lineup total: $71.315 million
POSITION PLAYERS (Bench):
OF Denard Span, .279, NL-best 11 3B, 4HR, 47RBI, 20SB, $4.75 million
OF Ben Revere, .305, 17RBI, 22SB, $515,000
OF Jason Kubel, .216, 5HR, 32RBI, $7.5 million
OF Delmon Young, .260, 11HR, 38 RBI, $750,000
Reserves total: $12.765 million
ROTATION:
1. Francisco Liriano, 16-8, 3.02 ERA, 163K in 161 IP, $1 million ($6 million in 2014)
2. Matt Garza, 10-6, 3.82 ERA, 136K in 155 1/3 IP, $10.25 million
3. Kyle Lohse, 11-10, 3.35 ERA, 125K-36BB, $4 million ($11 million in 2014)
4. R.A. Dickey, 14-13, 4.21 ERA, NL-best 34 starts, $5 million ($12 million in 2014)
5. Johan Santana, missed two of last three seasons with injury, 2012 stats: 6-9, 4.85 ERA, 111K in 117 IP, $25.5 million
Starting pitcher 2013 total (we decided to leave the pay bumps in 2014 alone, otherwise it would’ve been $19 million more): $45.75 million
BULLPEN:
Long relief: Kevin Slowey, 3-6, 4.11 ERA, $750,000
Long relief: Jason Marquis, 9-5, 4.05 ERA, $3 million
Situational 7th: Pat Neshek, 2-1, 3.35 ERA, $975,000
7th: Latroy Hawkins, 3-2, 2.93 ERA, 13 saves, $1 million
Situational 8th: Jesse Crain, 2-3, 0.74 ERA in 38 appearances (injured in June), $4.5 million
Setup: Grant Balfour, 1-3, 2.59 ERA, 72K in 62 2/3 IP, 38 saves, $4.5 million
CL: Joe Nathan, 6-2, 1.39 ERA, 43 saves, 73K in 64 2/3 IP, $7 million
Bullpen total: $21.75 million
Overall total (using higher pitcher total): 152,325,000 (would rank 5th in league)
2013 Twins total: $75.802 million (21st in league)
Double the Twins payroll? Perhaps not so fiscally possible.
Oh well, fans can still dream, right?
