Kubel, Morneau, Rincon Avoid Arbitration

UPDATE (1/18/07 6:19 PM): MLB.com has a nice table of figures submitted by teams and players for arbitration. Cuddyer wants $6.2M and the Twins want to pay $4.7M. Guerrier wants $1.15M, while the Twins only want to pay 750K.

UPDATE (1/18/07 3:02 PM): Juan Rincon signed a 1yr/$2.475M deal. As of now, Cuddyer and Guerrier are still headed to arbitration.

UPDATE (1/18/07 11:00 AM): The Twins signed Morneau to a 1yr/$7.4M deal. He made 4.5 million last year. The Twins did not sign Morneau to a long-term deal, which many of us were hoping that they would do. They could still open talks at any time, but the fact that there have not yet been any talks is not promising.

The Twins avoided arbitration with Jason Kubel by signing him to a 1 year deal worth 1.3 million dollars. This was Kubel's first year of being eligible for arbitration. Four other Twins (Justin Morneau, Matt Guerrier, Michael Cuddyer, and Juan Rincon) have filed for arbitration, but the Twins still could still reach agreements with them anytime before the hearings, which are from February 1st-21st. According to the article, GM Bill Smith has contacted all of their agents in an attempt to do so.

Also of note Thursday, Jose Mijares, a left-handed relief pitcher on the Twins' 40 man roster, broke his pitching elbow in a car crash. It's unclear how long exactly he'll be out for, but Joe C writes that it will be 4-6 months before he plays baseball again. Mijares spent 2007 in AA and was probably going to move up to AAA-Rochester for 2008.