When aging Torii Hunter signed a two-year deal worth $26 million with Detroit last week, he most likely sealed Josh Willinghams long-term fate with the Twins.
In other words, Willingham does not have a long-term future with the Twins. Willingham is much younger and had far betters stats last season. According to baseball's sabermetrics guys, he also wasn't as horrible as we all thought at fielding his position. The glaring stat? He makes about HALF of what Torii got in his new deal with the Tigers.
All of this information does not bode well for the Willingham and his fans. It's not so much what he's worth to the Twins, it's all about how much the Twins will have to PAY him to keep him. Twins management already regrets the long-term deals they made with Mauer and Morneau. Those TWO contracts have made it impossible to hold onto popular, productive players like Nathan, Cuddyer, and Kubel.
Willingham is now in the same boat except that most baseball general managers now see Willingham as a much better player and worth a lot more money than any of the other high-priced guys I just mentioned.
The good news? The Twins were smart enough to sign Willingham to a THREE year contract before last season started, so we'll have him all this year and at least part of the next unless of course someone offers us some nice trade along the way.
Bottom line? The Twins will eventually try trading Willingham to anybody who offers them reasonably good, inexpensive players in return. Barring major injury, he's going to be highly sought after as a free agent.
The outlook? He will not be a Twin for two more seasons. He's worth way more than Hunter. Both he and his agent know that. And the Twins aren't currently willing to commit another long-term $20 million a year deal to anyone else on this roster.
Another scenario is possible however. Justin Morneau only has one year left on his deal. IF he has an average or subpar year, he'll be gone before this season is out. The money the Twins save on his contract might be made available to Willingham so that we could keep him a few years longer.
The only thing other that might change is if the Twins and Joe Mauer could find a trade partner both would be interested in. If the Twins continue being cellar dwellers this season and Joe starts hitting a few more homeruns, that scenario wouldn't be out of the question either. Mauer wants to play on a winner despite his no trade clause.
I don't think the Twins mind spending money so much as they hate giving long-term deals. And that's actually a good thing. It's easier to trade players who don't become financial burdens to their next team. And as we found out with Mauer, they don't want those long-term burdens on THEIR team either.
The Twins have many good outfielders. We looked at that in a past blog. None are indispensable. And none of them will ever command what Willingham is worth right now. The Twins aren't cheap, but they are not exactly long-term-big-time spenders either.
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