And another day to keep pressing reload on ESPN.com. By the end of the day, we'll know whether or not we have any baseball players left besides utility infielders. From the Strib:
Having endured a Dec. 7 deadline requiring an offer of arbitration to free agents, Ryan now faces a second arbitration-related deadline. This time he is required to tender contracts by Monday at 11 p.m. to the team's seven arbitration-eligible players.Those players -- Santana, Lohse, Jones, Rivas, Romero, Carlos Silva and Matthew LeCroy -- would become free agents if not offered arbitration.
Already down two position starters -- Cristian Guzman and Koskie departed via free agency -- from last season, the Twins could find their roster further depleted from the fallout accompanying Monday's decisions. Although the Twins can continue to negotiate with their players who are not tendered contracts, the reality is they will be difficult to sign on the free-agent market with the Twins' limited payroll.
Ryan said his goal is to have "the framework of an agreement" with each arbitration-eligible player. And if he hasn't reached that framework by late Monday?
"Then you've got a decision to make," Ryan said.
Jim Souhan's got a nice column on Torii "Last Man Standing" Hunter's reactions to the dismantling of the team that we all "got to know" and his future as a highly paid babysitter, plus he demonstrates his mastery of inflation:
"I think we still have young talent, but we don't have the talent to win a World Series," he said. "I think we can probably win the division. I'm not happy with that. I'm tired of losing in the first round. The only reason we lose in the first round is we don't have heart, we don't have players. Well, the way I'll put it is we don't have 'Ballers.' "Meaning players combining heart and talent?
"Exactly," he said. "We're losing them instead of gaining them. If all of us could have stayed together, we would have eventually won that World Series. That's the business of baseball, and everybody hates that. We win in the season, and we lose in the offseason."...
...Pohlad and the math say Ryan can't keep everyone.
"I understand, but you've got to change with the times," Hunter said. "We should be going out and adding quality free agents, instead of losing good players. I know it's expensive, but, you know, movies used to cost a dime, and now they're like 12 bucks. You've got to change with the times."