The Twins and the cash-strapped Tampa Bay Rays had plenty of trade conversations throughout the offseason. Saturday evening, all those cell minutes and text messages finally bore fruit.
Right-hander Jake Odorizzi, who turns 28 just before Opening Day, will make the short drive from Port Charlotte, Fla., to Fort Myers to join his new team. In exchange for Odorizzi, who won his arbitration hearing this week and will make $6.3 million this season, the Twins gave up only Class A shortstop Jermaine Palacios.
Though coming off an injury-marred season that included a 4.14 earned run average and a 10-8 record in 28 starts, Odorizzi becomes the leading contender to start on Opening Day in place of Ervin Santana, who could miss the first month after finger surgery on his pitching hand.
Odorizzi left his final start of 2017 for precautionary reasons with a sore right knee and also had stints on the disabled list due to a lower back strain (July) and a strained left hamstring (April).
A 2008 first-round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers out of high school in New Douglas, Ill., Odorizzi has now been traded three times. He also headed to the Kansas City Royals as part of the package for Zack Greinke in 2010 and was dealt to the Rays in 2012 as part of the haul for Wade Davis and James Shields.
Odorizzi has one more year of arbitration eligibility before his first possible crack at free agency. Factoring in a theoretical 50-percent raise for 2019, he should be under Twins’ control for around $16 million over the next two seasons.
By comparison, they spent $16.75 million last month for two years of setup reliever Addison Reed on a strangely frozen free-agent market.
With Odorizzi and newly signed right-hander Anibal Sanchez in the fold, the Twins have 17 players under contract for around $106.8 million. Their Opening Day payroll should fall just short of the club-record $113.2 million they spent in 2011.
Odorizzi, who features a 92-93 mph fastball along with a cutter, curve and split-change, has fanned exactly eight batters per nine innings over each of the past three seasons. His nine-inning walk rate, however, jumped from 2.6 to 3.8 last season, and his fielding-independent ERA was a career-worst 5.43.
He also gave up a career-worst 30 homers (1.9 per nine innings) after surrendering 29 the prior year.
Palacios, 21, was rated as high as the Twins’ No. 19 prospect by Baseball America after a breakout season in 2015, but he fell off the last two years due to streakiness and poor plate discipline. Originally signed out of Venezuela for $70,000, he has decent pop and more than enough arm strength to stay at shortstop but struggled to a .303 on-base percentage after a second-half promotion to the Florida State League.
Palacios just missed this year’s Top 30, with Baseball America including him as No. 31 in their annual supplemental list.
The Twins, seeking to upgrade a modest starting rotation, waited most of the winter for Japanese free agent Yu Darvish before he eventually agreed to sign a six-year, $126 million deal with the Chicago Cubs on Feb. 10. Along the way, the Twins also investigated potential trades for right-handers Gerrit Cole of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Collin McHugh of the Houston Astros and Rays ace Chris Archer, among others.
Cole, who landed in January with the Astros, also carried just two years of club control via arbitration, but he still brought back a four-player package from the defending World Series champions. The Twins liked Cole, who has a similar pitching profile as Odorizzi, but ultimately decided not to stretch their offer in order to acquire an erratic talent who will make $6.75 million this season.
The Twins also weighed potential free-agent bids for the likes of Jake Arrieta, Lance Lynn and another ex-Rays right-hander Alex Cobb. They had rare insight into the Rays’ pitching staff after the December hire of noted pitching analyst Josh Kalk, a former math professor and physicist who had worked with the Rays front office since March 2009.
Odorizzi closed his 2017 with a flourish, posting a 1.03 ERA over his final five starts while twice carrying no-hitters through at least five innings. That stretch, Odorizzi told reporters after his final outing for the Rays, marked “probably the best I’ve thrown the ball, maybe in my career here,” which dates to 2013 and includes all but two of his 126 career starts.
“I’m very happy with the way I’ve finished,” he added. “throwing the way I’m capable of and going into the offseason with confidence.”
To make room on the 40-man roster, the Twins moved right-hander Michael Pineda to the 60-day DL.