Twins have ‘real interest’ in Jim Thome

Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune did some investigating after a rumor began circulating out of Chicago that Jim Thome is close to signing with the Twins and much to my surprise he found that ... well, there’s actually some truth behind it:

I called a Twins official, expecting to hear that this is totally far-fetched, and turns out they do have real interest in Thome and haven’t ruled out their chances of signing him. Probably not today, mind you, but it’s getting late in the offseason and the prices for free agents are falling fast. The Twins are bargain hunting, and if Thome were to accept a bench role at a severely reduced price--he made $13 million last year--there could be a match.

Just yesterday I wrote about how Thome remained a very productive, useful player despite seemingly getting almost no interest as a free agent, so the Twins are smart to pursue him. With that said, it’s tough to see a real fit for Thome in Minnesota, because the Twins already have Jason Kubel as a left-handed designated hitter and for better or worse (mostly worse) seem committed to playing Delmon Young every day in left field. Now, moving Kubel to left field, sending Young to the bench, and installing Thome as the primary DH would be a massive upgrade to the lineup, but I’d be surprised if the Twins were actually considering that option. Thome can’t hit lefties or play defense at this point, but he hit .262/.383/.498 against right-handers last season. That works out to an .881 OPS versus righties, which would have ranked fourth on the Twins sandwiched between Justin Morneau at .906 and Michael Cuddyer at .803. He can still mash.