I called Dave St. Peter earlier in the offseason and told him about concerns I’ve heard from fans around town and on this blog about what they WEREN’T doing this winter.

“There’s still a lot of time left in the offseason.” St. Peter said. “Let’s see. What happens if we head to camp with Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau signed to long-term deals?”

I was skeptical because of last year’s talk of signing people only to back off because of sticker shock.

But the Twins were finally proactive on Friday in signing both players. Especially Morneau, who gave up three years of free agency to remain with the club.

“This was a very very good negotiation,” Twins GM Bill Smith said. “It went quietly and under the radar. The spirit of this thing was that both players wanted to stay in the organization and we wanted to keep them in the organization.

Gotta give the Twins credit for working so quickly. And new assistant GM Rob Antony sounded like he’s done thousands of these things as he spoke.

“We tried to cut out a lot of the things that could drag it out,” Antony said. “They told us what they were looking for. We told them what we could do and I think we found common ground, which usually is the element that can allow you to get these deals done.”

Many posters here are wondering how this affects the Johan Santana situation. I know Smith said that they’ve tried to sign the two-time Cy Young winner to a long-term deal, but indications are that a trade is more likely. I was told today that next week is a big week in terms of determining if and where Santana will be dealt. Some in the organization feel the Twins can be a factor in a tough AL Central and entertain thoughts of keeping Santana in his walk year and making a run at the postseason.

I still expect Johan to be dealt. 

By the way, Cuddyer is still trying to figure out if Ron Gardenhire really wants him to try out center field this season.

“I don’t know if he’s just saying stuff and throwing it out there,” Cuddyer said. “(But) hey, I’m up for any challenge put out there.”Â

This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 8:33 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.