Kuzul

Torii Hunter certainly got his money’s worth as he argued a call and was subsequently ejected during the Minnesota Twins‘ 7-2 defeat to the Kansas Royals on Wednesday night. Now, it’s really going to cost him.

Major League Baseball announced Friday that Hunter will be suspended for two games in addition to having to pay a fine, the amount of which wasn’t revealed.

MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger reported that Hunter will not appeal his suspension and will be active Tuesday vs. the Cardinals. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press showed Minnesota’s lineup without Hunter:

Many baseball fans have already seen replays of Hunter’s meltdown. Disagreeing with a called third strike by umpire Mark Ripperger, the 39-year-old proceeded to throw his shin guard, elbow protector, batting gloves and jersey onto the field of play:

After the game, Hunter explained what set him off:

Although the whole situation was rather innocuous, it was inevitable that MLB would levy some sort of punishment, be it a suspension, fine or combination of the two.

ESPN’s Jim Bowden wondered, however, why Hunter got two games, while Seattle Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon didn’t receive any additional reprimand. McClendon was animated, to say the least, as he argued with umpires following an ejection earlier in the month:

Dropping the appeal will allow Hunter to get back on the field as soon as possible which will only benefit the Twins as they continue their quest for a postseason berth.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Former Minnesota Twins first baseman Kent Hrbek has a restaurant named after him at Target Field, and with the season approaching, Hrbek’s Pub is using different items to attract visitors to the bar located behind home plate in the downtown stadium.

Hrbek‘s wife tweeted out the new menu, which included something that will make you look twice:

A Bloody Mary garnished with a pizza slice.

It’s called the “College Daze Bloody Mary,” and it costs $19. Here’s the official description of the concoction, per Grub Street:

This Bloody Mary will bring back the memories (or not)! This cool Bloody Mary gets a cold slice of Pepperoni Pizza which is just what you need with a Bloody Mary! If that wasn’t enough you also get all the other fixings! Beef Stick, Pepper Jack and Cheddar Cheese Cubes, Pepperoncini, Olive, Celery, & a Pickle Spear. Served with a Bud Light Beer Back.

What’s next?

[Twitter, h/t Grub Street]

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With the 2015 regular season on the horizon, the Minnesota Twins locked up one of their key pieces by signing second baseman Brian Dozier to a contract extension.

According to the Twins’ official Twitter account, the 27-year-old middle infielder inked a four-year deal:

The contract is worth $20 million in total, per MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, and Dozier’s salary will gradually increase from 2015 through 2018:

After a solid 2013 campaign, Dozier enjoyed a breakout season in 2014, as he batted .242 with 23 home runs, 73 RBI, 112 runs scored and 21 stolen bases.

Due to his mix of power and speed, Dozier is undoubtedly a great building block for the Twins as they attempt to return to their former status as perennial playoff contenders.

Dozier is in the prime of his career and on the verge of becoming one of the best second basemen in the league. With that in mind, locking him up for an average of $5 million per season has to be considered a major win for Minnesota.

Provided the Twins are able to put some other pieces around Dozier in the coming years, he promises to be a huge part of the franchise’s resurgence.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Heading into the 2014 season, it was almost a forgone conclusion that several of the Minnesota Twins’ top prospects would reach the major leagues. But that never happened.

Center fielder Byron Buxton, widely considered the sport’s top prospect, lost most of his highly anticipated campaign with a wrist injury and a concussion, while slugging third baseman Miguel Sano ultimately missed the entire season following Tommy John surgery.

The Twins’ first-round draft pick last year, Nick Gordon (Dee Gordon’s brother and Flash Gordon’s son), has a high ceiling as a true shortstop with a natural feel for hitting and the underrated strength to put the ball in gaps. The club also added several potential late-inning power arms in the draft in Nick Burdi, Michael Cederoth, Sam Clay and Jake Reed.

Beyond that, the Twins have an intriguing mix of high ceilings and depth on the mound, highlighted by hard-throwing right-handers Alex Meyer and Jose Berrios, both of whom are likely to reach the major leagues in 2015. Beyond that, the organization’s lower-level arms like Kohl Stewart, Lewis Thorpe and Stephen Gonsalves seem poised for breakout campaigns in 2015 and could end up being three of the more talked-about pitching prospects in the game by season’s end.

Here are the Minnesota Twins’ top 10 prospects for 2015.

Begin Slideshow

Coming off a strong 2014 MLB season, Minnesota Twins starter Phil Hughes reportedly agreed to a contract extension with the club on Monday.    

MLBRosterMoves provided the latest on the agreement between the two sides:

Hughes, 28, emerged last season as a true ace despite another down season for the franchise. Finishing 16-10 with a 3.52 ERA and a career-high 186 strikeouts, Hughes completely turned things around from his horrid 2013 campaign with the New York Yankees.

Prior to the confirmation of the deal, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News reported an agreement was in place.

Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports offered his take on the deal for Hughes:

Last season, Hughes had a chance to cash in on a $500,000 bonus if he recorded one more out. However, he decided to look toward helping in the future with the franchise, as he told ESPN.com.

“I just didn’t think it was right,” Hughes said. “I owe too much to this organization for the next two years to risk getting hurt for an incentive. For whatever reason it wasn’t meant to be. There’s a lot bigger problems out there. I’m proud of my season.”

In the end, Hughes still comes out with a big payday thanks to last year’s performance.

Under team control until 2019, the Twins now have the pieces to make the AL Central one of the most competitive in the MLB. Already acquiring Torii Hunter and getting a healthy Joe Mauer back, 2015 should be an intriguing season in Minnesota.

In an increasingly competitive division, the Twins still have a tough road ahead. Bringing back Hughes gives Minnesota a true ace, but it is still in a tough division to make a playoff run.

Follow @RCorySmith on Twitter.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Minnesota Twins didn’t have to look far to find their next manager. According to Judd Zulgad of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, they are on the verge of naming Paul Molitor to the open position.

Zulgad reported that former Twins first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, who was considered a strong contender, is out of the running, leaving Molitor the presumptive favorite. Patrick Reusse of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities added that a deal could be done by Monday:

Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press provided some more info:

Although Molitor would be a first-time manager, he has coaching experience with the Twins. He worked with the team last year and he was the baserunning and infield coordinator for Minnesota’s minor league system from 2005-13, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com.

Molitor, a St. Paul native, spent his final three years in the league with the Twins. In 422 games, he had 23 home runs, 271 runs batted in and a slash line of .312/.362/.432 leading to his Hall of Fame induction in 2004.

In the event Molitor takes over as manager, he has big shoes to fill. His predecessor, Ron Gardenhire, amassed the third-most wins in franchise history (1,068) and won six American League Central titles.

The Twins only made marginal improvement from 2013 to 2014, jumping up to 70 wins from 66 a year ago. But with young stars like Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, the groundwork is there for Minnesota to be a contender again.

Hiring a first-time manager is always a bit of a risk, but Molitor could be the guy to turn the team’s fortunes around and make Minnesota a contender again.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Minnesota Twins acquired promising pitching prospect Jason Adam Monday in exchange for 35-year-old Josh Willingham in a deal with the Kansas City Royals.

The Royals’ Twitter account broke the news:

It is a win-win trade for both parties. Kansas City gets an expiring contract and a bat to help contend after a flurry of consecutive wins, while—more importantly—Minnesota gets some serious help in the farm system’s bullpen.

Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press noted that Twins general manager Terry Ryan has a plan in place for Adam:

Baseball America noted that Adam was a coveted member of the farm in Kansas City:

That said, not all of the reviews are positive in nature, such as one courtesy of JJ Cooper of Baseball America:

Adam seems to have an off night like any developing prospect, although nobody can deny there is a certain allure to a 23-year-old arm who has worked his way up through the ranks after being a fifth-round selection in 2010.

MiLB.com has the official stat lines of Adam’s journey to this point:

For his part, Adam says his time in the minors has allowed him to refine his game.

“A lot of the mental side of pitching as far as how to read batters, throwing the right pitches in the right situations, taking all that into account and then just refining my pitches,” Adam said, per Dick Kaegel of MLB.com. “I’m constantly doing that, obviously.”

Adam has more work to do, but the pieces of a rotational starter or even a reliever are certainly in place should he continue on his current trajectory.

For a team that resides in the cellar of the AL Central and wants to get younger in order to build for the future, Adam is a huge get in exchange for what would have been nothing of merit had Willingham left via free agency.

In time, Adam might just make this transaction look like a major steal.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

While things haven’t exactly gone as anyone associated with the Minnesota Twins would have liked in 2014, things aren’t all doom and gloom.

The club has a farm system full of impressive young talent, including the currently injured Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, and some young players on the major league roster—second baseman Brian Dozier, starting pitchers Kyle Gibson and Phil Hughes and catcher Josmil Pinto—that look like long-term building blocks.

Along with one of the best bullpens in baseball, the once-proud franchise may not be as far away from returning to the land of contenders as some believe.

Not expected to be buyers at the deadline, Minnesota has a handful of veteran pieces that could be attractive to contending clubs, though how much of a return it’ll be able to extract remains to be seen.

Keep it here for the most up-to-the-minute rumblings about the Twins, along with analysis and everything else that comes with it. While the post date will always show as July 1, simply click to the next slide to see the latest from the rumor mill as Minnesota tries to add additional pieces for the future.

Begin Slideshow

The Minnesota Twins are a halfway decent team in 2014. After three straight 90-loss seasons, that’ll do nicely for progress.

But who knows? Maybe halfway decent isn’t Minnesota’s ceiling in 2014. Perhaps the Twins can be better than that. Perhaps they can even be good enough to make some noise in an AL Central division that’s widely viewed as the playground of the Detroit Tigers.

Perhaps indeed. But the Twins are going to need a few things. What they have now doesn’t look like enough.

MLB Lead Writer Zachary D. Rymer is here with some thoughts on that. In his mind, the Twins’ list of needs starts with more power from their most expensive player, continues with more production from their outfield and ends with their perpetually struggling starting rotation.

Leave your comments and questions below if you have any, and you’re also welcome to follow Zachary on Twitter.

Follow Zachary: @zachrymer

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Every season features players who take nontraditional, roundabout paths to unexpected success in the major leagues.

Last year it was the Atlanta Braves’ Evan Gattis. This year, it’s Chris Colabello of the Minnesota Twins.

Through the first month of the season, the 30-year-old Colabello is batting .308/.351/.505 with nine doubles, three home runs and 27 RBI.

Colabello went undrafted out of Massachusetts’ Assumption College and signed a contract in 2005 with the Worcester Tornadoes of the Can-Am Independent League. Other than a half-season stint with Nashua (another team in the league), Colabello spent the next seven years with Worcester and batted .317/.390/.514 with 166 doubles, 86 home runs and 420 RBI in 583 games.

In 2011, his final season playing in the Can-Am league, Colabello set career highs with a .348 batting average, 1.010 OPS and 20 home runs in 412 plate appearances. The then-27-year-old’s performance earned him Independent League Player of the Year honors by Baseball America, as well as a contract with the Minnesota Twins.

Colabello was assigned directly to Double-A New Britain in 2012, where he feasted on Eastern League pitching for the duration of the season. In addition to batting .284 with a .358 on-base percentage in 561 plate appearances, Colabello led the league with 37 doubles, ranked second in RBI (98), fourth in runs scored (78) and was tied for fourth in home runs (19). He also amassed 40 multi-hit games and 21 multi-RBI games and was the runner-up for the Eastern League MVP award.

However, it wasn’t until the 2013 World Baseball Classic that Colabello made himself known to a more national audience. Serving as the cleanup hitter for upstart Team Italy, he batted .333 with a pair of home runs and seven RBI in five WBC games.

Colabello’s strong showing against international competition ultimately earned him an invitation to major league camp the following spring. But despite posting an .873 OPS with four RBI in 10 games, he was reassigned to Triple-A Rochester to begin the 2013 season.

He didn’t stay there long, though; on May 22, 2013, the Twins purchased the contract of Colabello, 29 at the time, from Rochester after placing Trevor Plouffe on the seven-day disabled list with a concussion.

Unfortunately, Colabello’s long-awaited debut in the major leagues wasn’t pretty, as he collected just one hit and struck out six times in 11 at-bats. On May 29, the Twins optioned Colabello back to Rochester, but he returned the following day when Plouffe was placed back on the disabled list, this time with a calf injury.

Colabello shuffled between Rochester and Minnesota a few more times before joining the Twins for good on July 19. From that point forward, Colabello batted .201 with seven home runs and 17 RBI in 48 games. Overall, the rookie posted a disappointing .631 OPS and 58/20 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 55 games.

Though he struggled during his time with the Twins, Colabello’s .352/.427/.639 batting line, 24 home runs and 76 RBI in 391 plate appearances at Rochester earned him recognition as the International League MVP and Baseball America’s Triple-A Player of the Year.

With the Twins anticipating a lack of 40-man roster flexibility in 2014, and Colabello without a guaranteed spot on the team’s Opening Day roster, they presented him with an opportunity to play for the LG Lions in the Korean league for a guaranteed $1 million contract.

However, Colabello declined the offer, deciding that he wasn’t ready to give up his major-league aspirations.

“I don’t think it was that hard [of a decision],” he said, via Phil Rogers of MLB.com. “My heart never went that way. I’ve followed my heart my whole life. I use my head too, but I follow my heart. … It has never steered me wrong.”

Well, it now goes without saying that Colabello made the right choice.

The 30-year-old was arguably the Twins’ top hitter this spring, as he locked up a spot on the active roster by batting .349/.462/.512 with five extra-base hits and eight RBI in 23 games.

Colabello continued to rake through the first week of the regular season, collecting a hit in each of the Twins’ first seven games while batting .370/.414/.630 with four doubles, one home run and 11 RBI. His impressive start resulted in AL Player of the Week honors.

Through 23 games this season, Colabello is batting .308/.351/.505 with nine doubles and three home runs. He already broke the team’s two-decade record for RBI in the season’s first month with 27, overtaking Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett’s 26 in 1994.

“It’s quite an honor,” Colabello said, via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “You start getting mixed in with names like that and you realize how special this game is and how special this opportunity to be here is. It’s certainly something I’ll remember for a long time.”

More importantly, he’s a major reason the Twins are one game above .500 (12-11) with an offense that ranks best in the AL in on-base percentage (.353), third in runs scored (127) and fifth in OPS (.742).

But can Colabello sustain his terrific opening-month production over the course of a full season? In looking at a few comparable, offensively oriented players from previous years, we see that hot starts never last; however, it doesn’t mean the player will necessarily have a poor season.

Shelton and LaHair both became small-sample-size legends with their torrid Aprils, but their high strikeout-to-walk ratios and BABIPs made it impossible for either player to sustain that level of production for a full season. If we compare their numbers with Colabello’s, we see the same glaring trends: poor strikeout-to-walk ratio and BABIP-driven batting average.

In terms of each player’s respective career trajectory following that season, LaHair—he actually made the 2012 NL All-Star team—spent the 2013 season playing overseas, and the 30-year-old now plays for the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate. Shelton, on the other hand, has been out of baseball since 2010.

Unfortunately, it’s easy to see Colabello’s career going down the same dreaded path given his lack of a defensive home. His natural position is first base, but it’s not as though he’ll ever play there over Joe Mauer. Therefore, the Twins have worked Colabello’s bat into the lineup elsewhere this season, giving him eight games at designated hitter and 12 in right field. The only problem is that Colabello is not an outfielder; in fact, his defense at the position has already cost the Twins six runs, according to FanGraphs.

Dan Cook of CBS Minnesota seems to agree with this assessment, though I’m sure neither of us is rooting to be correct:

There’s no question that he’s limited by the lack of a natural defensive position. His best spot, first base, is currently occupied by $23 million. And his BABIP is a sky-high .397. So even if the Twins are able to stay creative and get him at-bats, his hitting numbers should normalize a bit.

Even if the Twins continue to find him regular at-bats, Colabello’s production is going to even out. That being said, the 30-year-old should still put up similar numbers as some of the other second-tier corner players in the American League, batting in the .250 range with roughly 20 home runs. However, if Colabello cools off dramatically and the Twins need a roster spot, don’t be surprised if he suddenly becomes the odd man out.

Colabello is a great story, but definitely not a late-blooming star.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com