Pavano signs with Twins, tells Yanks no thanks.
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In a deal that might or might not jack the jaw of Yankee GM Brian Cashman, Carl Pavano has re-signed with the team he spent part of 09 and all of last year with, the Minnesota Twins. Pavano and the Twinkies inked a $16.5 million, two-year contract. 2010 was the best year of Pavano’s career. Prior to that, his 2004 season with the Marlins was considered the pinnacle of his success. From ESPN:
Pavano went 17-11 with a 3.75 ERA and seven complete games last season to help the Twins win the AL Central title. More impressive for him, he pitched 221 innings, the second-highest total in what had been an injury-plagued career.
“He was in demand,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said. “I know he had a lot of teams that called him. The best thing we both had going for us is he kept saying that he wanted to come back to the Twins and we kept saying that he was the one guy we really wanted to get.”
Pavano came to Minnesota in a 2009 trade with Cleveland and has been reinvigorated after four tough seasons with the Yankees. Injuries caused him to miss the entire 2006 season and much of three others, and he made only 26 starts for New York.
He was lampooned in the city tabloids as being fragile and couldn’t wait to leave after 2008. Despite all the acrimony, Pavano said he has always kept in contact with Yankees GM Brian Cashman and still holds him in high regard.
“It shows a lot that he was going to stick his neck out there for me if something was going to work out,” Pavano said of the possibility of returning.
He’ll once again join a Twins rotation that includes Francisco Liriano and Scott Baker, with Brian Duensing, Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey likely competing for the final two spots. On a team with so many young starters, getting the veteran Pavano back was essential.
Carl Pavano is no spring chicken at 35 years of age. In his four years with the Yank$, Carl did very little, other than spend time on the DL. Why the Yank$ would even consider rehiring him is beyond me, as he played a total of 26 games in four seasons with them. I know money is no object for the Yankees, but even they have to realize that paying someone who really only accomplished the goal of sitting on his ass and collecting a full paycheck ($40mil) as a ridiculous waste of resources.
Personally, I think it’s a gamble for the Twins, on several levels due to his age, injury history and the high number of innings pitched last year. That they only signed him to two years tells me they knew it was a gamble too.
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I am always shocked when an over the hill pitcher gets money like this.
Pavano will be a major league bust.