I click on this blog and the drool pours out of my monitor as I read all these cries for information. I understand that Twins Nation is hungry for news, but there’s nothing earth-shattering going on right now. But there are a few tidbits….

Indications are that the Twins have been in contact with the agents for both Torii Hunter and Carlos Silva. Based on discussions I’ve had with various people on both sides of these issues, the Twins haven’t formally made an offer to Hunter since he rejected a three-year, $45 million extension late in the the season. The Twins have told Silva’s agent that they definitely want to take a shot at keeping the sinkerballer.

But it will take a lot for the Twins to sign these guys at this point. At this time of the year, a player wants to see what’s out there on the free agent market. If you get to the beach, you at least want to stick a toe in the water, and the vibes I’m getting are that Hunter and Silva will both do that. That means these cases will play out over several weeks. I expect to see Hunter pimped out at the winter meetings in Nashville in December, strutting his stuff for potential employers.

That puts the Twins in a position where they will have to compete with other teams, not a good spot to be in for an organization that historically plods along in their contract negotiations.

There appears to be no major news on the Johan Santana front, other than rumblings about possible suitors if he does go on the trading block. Twins officials have told me that if they feel they can contend next year, they want to hold on to Santana. I generally agree, but I’m also fascinated with the potential package of players the Twins could get for Santana. Take a step back in 2008 to get after it in 2009? As the young pitching staff develops? As Francisco Liriano regains his groove after Tommy John surgery? With the M&M men still around?

The PP reports that Joe Mauer will have hernia surgery, which I’m trying to get on record. The thing is, I contacted Mauer on Monday and he indicated that it would be several days before he knew for sure if he needed surgery. So I don’t know how several days turned into one day. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s confirmed.

I’ll have some tidbits from offseason league over the next few weeks. Actually, the Twins’ instructional league wraps up this week. Matt Moses, I’ve been told, has split time between second and third base as the club wonders if he can make a permanent move to second. I’ll have some stuff from Arizona Fall League sometime next week because a slew of Twins officials are headed out there as soon as organizational meetings end this week.

I’ll blog at you soon….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.