Which young player(s) should Twins try to sign long-term this offseason?

Source: www.startribune.com --- Wednesday, November 22, 2017
Star Tribune Baseball writer Phil Miller had an interesting story this week in which he broke down the Twins’ future payroll structure while also getting GM Thad Levine on record saying the organization will look to sign some of its young players to long-term contracts this offseason. There are six such players who stand out. All of them are projected to be arbitration-eligible in either 2019 or 2020 — at which point they would be due raises from their current bargain salaries — and free agents in either 2022 or 2023. The Twins would like to lock some of them in long-term with the idea that it would be win-win — the players get more immediate financial stability while the Twins get cost-certainty and perhaps savings in the later years of deals over what the players could have earned in arbitration or early free agency. A good question, though, is the pecking order — which players the Twins should really work to lock in long-term and which they should hold off on. Levine notes that “The risk, of injury or a drop in productivity, that’s something you don’t want to take lightly.” With that in mind, let’s prioritize the six players in question (all arbitration and free agency data from Baseball Reference: High priority Byron Buxton, 23: Arbitration eligible 2019, free agent 2022 Eddie Rosario, 26: Arbitration eligible 2019, free agent 2022 Miguel Sano, 24: Arbitration eligible 2019, free agent 2022 These three pl ...

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