Jeff Shaw of the City Pages posted an interesting article about Hunter entitled Hot Stove: Why it’s Good That the Twins Didn’t Re-Sign Torii Hunter. He hits on some of my points from my previous post about Hunter. Highlights of Shaw’s article:
You’ll likely still hear friends, neighbors and pundits bemoaning the departure of the star center fielder.
You shouldn’t listen.
After you’ve eaten your last slice of pie and reflected on all you have to be thankful for, you should add this to the list — that the Twins aren’t going to pay Hunter a premium based on what he did in years past. This team needs to look hard at what players are likely to do in the future, and there’s a miniscule chance that Hunter is performing up to this contract by year three — let alone the final two years, when he’ll be 36 and 37 years old, respectively.
David Cameron is one of the sharpest baseball minds I know, and he listed Hunter as the most dangerous landmine in the free agent market this month. Carlos Silva was number two. I’ll summarize Dave’s argument thusly: it doesn’t make sense to commit tons of cash to a player who is getting older, and though talented, isn’t as stellar as his name value indicates.
Again, I couldn’t agree more. To pay for future performance based on past performance of an aging player is not the way for the Twins to build for the future. It might work for the Yankees (or not work for the Yankees). However, it’s not going to work for a team with a very specific budget each year such as the Twins.