Fallacy

The Minnesota Twins

have signed FA/OF Manny Ramirez to a 2 year, 50 million dollar contract today. It doesn\’t have to be Manny. It could be Adam Dunn, or Bobby Abreu. It could have been Pat Burrell. But it\’ll never happen, and the reason you\’ll hear being thrown around is \”because the Twins already have too many outfielders\”. I don\’t buy it, and let me tell you why. Right now the Twins outfield \’logjam\’ consists of Cuddyer, Kubel, Young, Span, and Gomez. (I\’ll assume some familiarity with the current team, because otherwise why would you care to read this?) Of those five, I believe that Young and Gomez still have minor league options – they can be sent to AAA no questions asked. I doubt that any of the others do, although Kubel may, I haven\’t been able to find a site to tell me the definitive answer. The point being – what would be so wrong about bringing in an OF bat for two years, and lighting a fire under these guys? Gomez, Span, Young, and Kubel, we\’ve got two jobs: Center Field, and DH. May the best men win. If the team is gonna keep 5 OFs anyway, what\’s the big deal? Certainly Gomez could use some developmental time, right? Or maybe Young could use a wakeup call? Or, if Gomez looks like he\’s got it figured out, do we really need Span at all? Don\’t get me wrong, I like the guy, but is he really gonna be on the roster in three years? (The answer is yes, but only because of the combination of facts that he\’s pretty good AND the Twins are cheap.) Bottom line, you\’d displace one guy, while lighting a fire under all of them to have to improve. Try these tops-of-the-orders in your head for a moment: Span (insert Gomez where you see Span, if you like), Mauer, Manny, Morneau, Cuddyer or Span, Abreu, Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer or Span, Casilla, Mauer, Morneau, Dunn, and who cares if they\’re all LH?! Honestly, option #2 there would probably be pretty cheap… and would put a LOT of men on base in front of Mr. Canada, unarguably the team\’s best hitter. If the offseason\’s available talent is at OF, and the market is depressed to the point where signing a player of this caliber is actually a reality, why NOT add talent, and let the chips fall where they may? I\’m happy that last year\’s team was surprisingly good. I don\’t understand why the Front Office staff isn\’t taking advantage of every possible opportunity to make this year\’s team seriously good. And don\’t even get me started on the bullpen.