Minnesota Twins: Does Jake Odorizzi warrant a qualifying offer?
The Minnesota Twins have put up little resistance against the Yankees in the ALDS sweep. Now the focus turns to the offseason and the upcoming class of free agents.
The bleak, frigid winter has reached Target Field too soon as the upcoming offseason appears to be a particularly harsh one. Minnesota Twins pitchers Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, and Michael Pineda all have expiring contracts.
The majority of one’s rotation, including a portion of the top half of it, leaving has to be traumatic to a team’s chances in the ensuing season. Odorizzi has by far been the most effective of the bunch and reuniting him with Jose Berrios would assuredly create a solid top of the rotation. Then the task would be to fill in the remainder of the rotation with smart contracts.
The qualifying offer is not worth the expense in regard to Pineda and Gibson. They will surely be missed, yet they are not worth that hefty price tag. Therefore, the only true option for the qualifying offer is Odorizzi.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
The preferable option would be to lock him up for more term and a smaller annual salary. Therefore, they could submit the qualifying offer and be content with that or they could attempt to build a long-term contract out of the QO. The other option is to disregard the offer and simply attempt to re-sign him.
The logical decision is to tender the QO and then work out another deal if both sides can come to terms. If nothing comes to fruition then they have an extra year to fill Odorizzi’s rotation spot.
Three starting pitchers are too much to add in an offseason, however, they could add two starters and keep Odorizzi for an extra season. This move will be expensive for one year, but it would be criminally unfair to deprive this core of batters with a chance to compete in 2020.
The other upside with tendering the offer is that if he rejects it and decides to fully move on from Minnesota, the Twins will still receive compensation. If they decided to only attempt to sign him to a multi-year deal and failed there would be no compensation. Therefore, the only downside to a qualifying offer would be an expensive price tag for 2020, which is slightly a bother for a World Series contender.
What are the Yankees' biggest concerns heading into the ALCS?. dark. Next
In essence, not tendering the offer to Odorizzi would only hurt the Minnesota Twins and in such a vital offseason they need all of the help they can get.