Hey, in order to get the credibility of this site on par with Hartman’s, we’d have to start breaking rumors here, citing unnamed sources and/or little birdies.

If we can fill a need by trading young, I’m all for it. Maybe Garret Atkins or Ian Stewart. I’m wary of trading for Rockies, but they are both pretty good. I’m also not too sure if the Rockies would bite on that trade.

But in all honesty, this is from Sid Hartman. And any time he says something that would be this huge, he prefaces it with “The Twins won’t talk about it, but it’s expected that…” Yeah. Expected by whom? Sid Hartman? He’s just making stuff up to get the hot stove season started.

I doubt the Twins will actually dangle either Delmon or Cuddyer, and if one of them ends up being traded it’ll have to be a killer offer.

I think the Twins will re-sign Punto, probably for a salary in range with what you’re thinking. Hopefully it’s no more than a two year deal. But in reality, I think Punto is a valuable player — he’s proven his ability at three defensive positions and is almost adequate with the bat. Harris is nowhere close to as versatile AND is a disappointment as a hitter. Tolbert looks like he could be the next Punto, but I don’t see the Twins taking the risk on a new Punto who hasn’t proven anything and also hasn’t learned to avoid the idiotic “fake hustle injuries” that plagued Punto earlier in his career. (Remember when Punto broke his collarbone diving for a popup that was 20 feet past his reach? Ultimate fake hustle injury.)

Of the current players, I think the biggest question is whether they offer arbitration or a multi-year contract to Guerrier and Kubel. In Guerrier’s case, arbitration may be the right route, given that he showed that he may have lost it this season — on the other hand, given his performance this year the Twins could get a multi-year deal on the cheap if they believe it was a fluke. We’ll see, but I’m leaning towards arbitration.

Last season, Kubel was clamoring for a multi-year deal, saying that he wanted to be part of this team for years. The Twins were reluctant, probably because they hadn’t bought their t-shirts. Kubel is the team’s third best hitter, and is more valuable than Cuddyer — his numbers are actually remarkably similar to Cuddyer’s. He’s weaker in the field, but it looks like Cuddyer will be squeezed out of the outfield, making that difference unimportant. If I were the Twins, I’d lock Kubel up on a 3-4 year deal. But since I know the Twins hate Kubel, I’m guessing they’ll just go to arbitration. I think they’ll enjoy trying to convince the arbitrator that Kubel sucks.