Twins make offer for Blake
December 4, 2008
Casey Blake
The Twins are trying to stir things up this week; making it known they are very interested in acquiring Casey Blake from the LA Dodgers. The Twins have offered Blake a two year contract worth $6 million a year, but current reports are that he and or his agent or looking for a three year deal.
Blake was in the Twins farm system for three years, but the Twins opted for Koskie instead of Blake. He landed with the Indians when he was 29 years old and in 2004 had a good season offensively.
Blake surprised most baseball analysts by offensively outperforming what everyone predicted as a declining season for a 34 year old third baseman. Blake was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers mid season 2008 from the Cleveland Indians. At the time the Twins were looking to acquire Adrian Beltre from Seattle. The Indians were shopping Blake and Tampa Bay was seriously looking at the third baseman after passing on Xavier Nady of Pittsburgh.
Although Blake has never been a golden glove third baseman, he has shown some consistency offensively. The Twins likely have a vision of an everyday third baseman that can provide decent offense from the right side of the plate.
The Twins organization has brought in veterans during the off season before and it has had some less then favorable results. The last few years the Twins have paid large contracts for veterans that don’t produce and end up being replaced with young prospects during the year.
Fans should be watching the Twins closely this off season. With a new stadium opening in 2010 and the Twins have told fans they are committed to paying players to keep them. Some questions going forward are do the Twins want to fill third base with a veteran like Blake for the next few years? Will they have a young prospect to replace Blake in a few years? Do the Twins gamble on a third baseman like Beltre and if he is good make every attempt to keep him after 2009?
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