Fire Gardy

According to Joe C, the Twins have offered arbitration to Dennys Reyes, who qualified as a Type B free agent. (We have to offer him arbitration to get the supplemental draft pick compensation if he signs elsewhere.)

This was the necessary first step to getting that valuable pick, and now we just have to hope Reyes doesn’t accept our offer.

I’ve heard Reyes is interested in a multi-year deal, so he might be inclined to decline the arbitration and leave as a free agent — this is the Twins’ dream scenario. (At least it should be.) Because if he accepts the offer, he’ll be “worth” over $2M in 2009, according to the arbitrators, and he’s certainly not worth that to us given that we have Mijares and Breslow available as lefties out of the pen.

Also, the Type A/B rankings are based on the player’s previous two seasons — given another year, Reyes might not qualify as even a Type B. On the other hand, he might have a great 2009 and become a Type A.

Honestly, I would not bet $2M on Reyes having a great 2009. The runs he gives up might start counting against his ERA, instead of everyone else’s. I hope he gets a nice three year deal from some misguided franchise, and gets safely away from the Twins. Maybe to Detroit, where he can serve up some meatballs and wild pitches to Mauer and Morneau 19 times next year.