John Perrotto of Baseball Prospectus reports that “the Twins have no plans to re-sign Orlando Hudson,” which jibes with what I’ve been told from various people who know about such things.
Outwardly he has a reputation for being a chatty jokester who lightens up a clubhouse, but I’m told he rubbed some people the wrong way in Minnesota and is highly unlikely to be back in 2011 despite giving the Twins more or less the production they should have expected.
Signed to a one-year, $5 million contract in early February, he hit .284/.358/.402 through the end of August before putting together a horrible September. Hudson hit .268/.338/.372 in 126 games overall, which along with solid defense at second base made him a very nice pickup for $5 million, but the Twins may feel they can get 90 percent of the production for 10 percent of the cost in Alexi Casilla. I’m skeptical of Casilla as a full-time player, but it makes some sense.
Hudson projects as a Type B free agent, so it’ll be interesting to see if the Twins offer him the arbitration necessary to receive a compensatory draft pick and also risk him forcing them into another one-year contract by accepting. If he ends up instead ranking as a Type A free agent, Hudson’s deal prohibits the Twins from offering him arbitration. I’d risk him accepting since the draft pick is valuable and the downside of him taking another one-year deal isn’t so bad.