Aaron Gleeman is going to be pi**ed.

The Twins are probably the one team that has the depth at pitching to cover for missing Milton for a few months. I don't know why they would pick up Rogers. But I guess the team can't complain that Pohlad doesn't shell out the money anymore.

I don't think he was ever really rumoured to come to Toronto. I think JP asked him if he'd play for 1 million. Kenny said no and that was that.

That said, I'm not really that excited about the Twins. Rivas and Mientwhatever are subpar and I think Torri Hunter and Jacque Jones played about as well as they can last year. I'm officially on the White Sox bandwagon.

It's quite possible that Rogers (the corporation) turned down Rogers (the lefty who would have put J.P. over budget). Minnesota might have outbid the Jays even if they did raise their offer.

Having earned about $7.5 million in 2002, Rogers turned down two years and $10.5 million from Texas. He eventually accepted one year and $2 million (plus $500k in incentives) from the Twins.

Ouch.

As many on Baseball Primer and elsewhere have posited, this may be a case of subtraction by addition, as potential starter Johan Santana moves back to the bullpen. Perhaps. But is Santana as starter plus a random arm in the bullpen better than Rogers as starter plus 100 innings of Santana in the bullpen? Someone with more knowledge of the Twins ought to comment.

My prediction: Rogers (if he starts 30+ games) wins 10-12 and posts a 4.30 ERA. An adequate replacement for Milton.

No complaints here. Kenny Rogers would have been a valuable addition to last year's staff, adding some stability and presence to a rotation that could have come straight from "Full Metal Jacket," but I really don't think they need him this year. The first three spots are taken, and Hendrickson looks capable of taking the fourth slot for the time being. They won't need a fifth guy for a while yet, and I'd rather put a young guy like Corey Thurman or a cheap NRI like Doug Linton in there. Rogers is a useful placeholder, but I don't think this team needs placeholders anymore. There's plenty of depth at Syracuse to handle injuries and non-performances.

I do like the depth at Syracuse but we don't know what we would have gotten from any of those guys at the big league level. We have a decent idea of what Rogers would have done...close to 200 innings of league average pitching. I'd go as far as saying a front four of Halladay, Rogers, Lidle, and Sturtze (assuming his spring improvements are for real) would give this team a shot at 90 wins with the type of offence they're capable of.

It would still have meant a third place finish though and they may yet be capable of getting 85 wins anyway. It also would have given them another capable chip to deal for something at the deadline if Rogers panned out. Of course twice the money and a division winning team has it's way of making Minnesotta a more attractive option...that's a nice deal for them.

From a fantasy perspective, owners of Santana are probably in a bit of mourning...but from a real world perspective this is just the move the Twins needed to make. Young pitchers with limited track records, no matter how well they did the year before are unpredictable. Santana has walked a lot of batters this spring and they'll benefit a lot more from having his electric arm gaining experience and not being overly taxed as a long man.