Why the Ervin Santana Signing Makes a Ton of Sense

For the second season in a row, the Minnesota Twins have signed a right-handed starting pitcher to the most expensive free agent deal in franchise history.
Last week, Terry Ryan and his crew agreed to sign Ervin Santana to a four-year deal worth at least $55 million, with options for a fourth and fifth year.

Ervin "Magic" Santana

While some Twins fans may be skeptical to dish out this kind of money while the team tries to rebuild after four seasons of 90 or more losses, here are some quick hits as to why this deal could be a great fit for both sides.

• Santana has pitched at least 195 innings in five of the last seven seasons, surpassing that mark in both of the last two years. This suggests that he is a durable innings eater who has had good health for the most part. 
• Santana had 179 strikeouts last season, more than anyone in the Twins rotation not named Phil Hughes (186). He still has an electric slider and good movement on his fastball, which should benefit the pitch-to-contact heavy Twins rotation. 
• Hughes put together an excellent season after moving from the heavy-hitting east coast to the Amarican league central division. With his excellent K/9 rate (strikeouts per nine innings) that is similar, if not better, than Hughes', Santana could see similar success this year. 
• Speaking of the AL central, Santana already made that transition when he pitched for the Kansas City Royals in 2013. That season, Santana finished with a 3.24 ERA, 211 innings pitched and 161 strikeouts. That kind of season gave him a WAR of 2.9, meaning his season-long performance led to an estimated 2.9 wins above a replacement-level player. That WAR also suggests that he was worth just under $15 million dollars that year, just above what the Twins will pay him annually for the next three to five years. 

While it is impossible to promise that Santana will live up to this new contract, his numbers suggest improvement over what the Twins would have without him.
That's the bottom line.
Sure, the Twins have finished last or near-last in the American League for the past four years, making payroll-whiners cringe when they see the team spends money on a rebuilding squad.
But if the Twins want to escape the cellar, this is exactly the kind of moves that they should be mixing in.

Smell Baseball

Minnesota, it's time to wake up and smell baseball.