Remember in the baseball offseason, when the Twins really, really needed a relief pitcher and Eric Gagne really, really wanted to sign here, and it looked like he would, and then suddenly talks broke off? If not, here are a few paragraphs from Joe C.’s late January piece on the matter:

A person close to Gagne said the former Cy Young Award winner was willing to sign a one-year, $3 million deal with about $500,000 in incentives for innings pitched but was told the Twins were moving in a different direction.

Twins General Manager Bill Smith declined to comment, keeping with his policy on every negotiation, but there were indications the Twins had broken off talks with Gagne and were instead exploring trade options for bullpen help.

Gagne, 33, signed a one-year, $10 million deal to be Milwaukee’s closer last year but wound up losing that job to Salomon Torres, while going 4-3 with a 5.44 ERA.

Smith takes his share of rips, but this is proving to be a wiser pass with each day. Why? Well, this week Gagne signed with Quebec in something called the Can-Am League. He’s apparently trying to become a starter. Gagne went to spring training with the Brewers, only to be released after discovering damage to his labrum and rotator cuff. So yeah, that’s probably a $3 million bath the Twins avoided, which is nice to think about regardless of how shaky Luis Ayala and some of his cohorts have been.

Discussion: sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make. Any other examples from Twin Cities sports history?

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