Minnesota Twins: Three good fits for RHP Jake Odorizzi
One of the top free agents on the market, here are three good fits for Minnesota Twins RHP Jake Odorizzi.
It’s been widely speculated that the 2020-2021 offseason would be a long winter with very few teams looking to add big pieces to their payroll after a season of no fans in the stands and the uncertainty of what 2021 will bring, despite the light at the end of the tunnel growing bigger and bigger.
But early hot stove action seems to contradict that. We’re talking about a small sample of moves here but nearly $40 million has already been committed to Drew Smyly, Charlie Morton, and Robbie Ray, and the non-tender market, while big, didn’t quite reach some of the bigger numbers many expected.
We haven’t seen what many of the top free agents will get, like Trevor Bauer and J.T. Realmuto, but with the Winter Meetings getting underway this week and the non-tender deadline behind us, maybe the hot stove gets a little warmer over the next few days before the Christmas holiday.
For one free agent, in particular, landing on the open market in 2020 may end up being a blessing. That would be Minnesota Twins right-handed pitcher Jake Odorizzi.
The top of the free agent pitching class is Trevor Bauer, with Marcus Stroman and Kevin Gausman accepting their qualifying offers. That leaves Masahiro Tanaka and Jake Odorizzi next on the list, a thin group for the numerous teams looking for quality pitching help.
That could mean a bigger payday for Odorizzi this offseason than if he would have been available next year. It also likely leaves him with multiple attractive destinations to choose from. Odorizzi wants to pitch for a contender, and a few have already expressed interest in the Minnesota Twins righty.
Here are three good fits for Jake Odorizzi to sign with this offseason.
The New York Mets may be aggressive on the Jake Odorizzi market.
Two things appear to be true when it comes to the New York Mets, they are going to be very active this winter, but as to who they could go out and acquire, the options are seemingly limitless.
The Mets figure to be one of the top suitors for Trevor Bauer, they could also be a landing spot for George Springer and/or J.T. Realmuto, and they may even be major players in a Francisco Lindor or Sonny Gray trade at some point, but it’s clear that the Mets don’t want to wait around too long to start making big moves.
As reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Mets are interested in signing Jake Odorizzi and aren’t eager to see how his market shakes out. The Mets recently signed Odorizzi’s former teammate in Trevor May and pitching coach Jeremy Hefner is familiar with Odorizzi during their time together with the Minnesota Twins.
New York needs more than just Bauer or Gray in their rotation, hence why pairing Jake Odorizzi with either of those bigger targets would be a great signing to round out the backend of their rotation.
Odorizzi has been relatively healthy across his career, outside of a few issues in 2020 which didn’t involve his elbow or shoulder. He logged just 13 innings last season, but was an All-Star as recently as 2019 and can be a solid 2-3 WAR pitcher when healthy.
The Mets want to make some big waves over the next few weeks and there’s little doubt that they won’t. The energy that Steve Cohen has injected into this team was enough for Stroman to quickly accept his qualifying offer and if Odorizzi wants to pitch for a contender, the Mets are one organization poised to quickly put themselves in that position.
With Noah Syndergaard still needing time before a comeback and a shaky backend of the rotation in place, signing Jake Odorizzi makes a lot of sense.
The Toronto Blue Jays need pitching help that Jake Odorizzi can provide.
Just like the Mets, the Toronto Blue Jays have been connected to every big name on the market this winter. With a young core in place, Hyun-Jin Ryu entrenched at the top of the rotation, and an opportunity to make some serious waves in the American League next year, Jake Odorizzi is a much-needed piece.
Toronto quickly inked Robbie Ray to return to the rotation in 2021, but they need additional help outside of Ryu, Ray, and top prospect Nate Pearson. A few more strikeouts wouldn’t hurt either.
The Blue Jays ranked 21st in baseball with a 22.5% strikeout rate. During Odorizzi’s healthy 2019 campaign, he sat down 27% of hitters via the strikeout and has averaged more than 8.5/9 IP across his nine seasons in the major leagues. He was a 3+ WAR player twice for the Tampa Bay Rays when he was last pitching in the AL East.
Signing Odorizzi adds more stability to the back half of the starting rotation and won’t demand a contract that limits them from spending elsewhere. They also have the assets to pull off a trade, if they elect to go down that route.
Coming off a 2019 season where he went 15-7 with a 3.36 FIP and career-high 10.1 K/9 IP rate, Odorrizi isn’t a 30-year-old coming off an elbow injury, but instead, it was blisters and a line-drive to the chest that kept him out much of 2020. He’s a solid sign for any team looking to strengthen their starting rotation.
San Francisco is another team that could be aggressive when it comes to Jake Odorizzi.
A team like the San Diego Padres could be a great fit for Jake Odorizzi, a young team on the verge of a deep playoff run that plays in a pitcher-friendly park and in need of starters to round out their rotation, but the Friars appear to be interested in a few overseas options and could certainly be landing spots for a Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, or Blake Snell via trade.
But another NL West team in the San Francisco Giants could also be a good fit. The Giants probably won’t be as big of a World Series contender as the Mets or Blue Jays could be next year, with the Padres and Dodgers standing in the way in the division, but an expanded playoff field and an aggressive offseason could do the trick.
The Giants are one of the teams reportedly interested in Odorizzi and figure to be one of the more aggressive teams when it comes to adding starting pitchers to slot in behind Johnny Cueto and Kevin Gausman.
If the Giants can offer up the money and convince Odorizzi that they are building a winning ballclub, signing with San Francisco may be Odorizzi’s best opportunity for a lucrative payday.
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With teams active in the pitching market early in the offseason, we may not have to wait long to see where Jake Odorizzi signs. He isn’t a starting pitcher that can lead a playoff rotation but has proven himself to be a reliable mid-rotation arm capable of providing a boost to a team in need.