394 and even that was inflated by Mauer's 123 ABs at a

The announcements of players offered arbitration made Twins fans happy last weekend as three names being bandied about Placido Polanco, Orlando Hudson, and Felipe Lopez were all set free by their respective teams. This was particularly important for Hudson and Polanco, since due to their Type-A status they would have cost a first-round pick to sign. In the past, the Twins have been reticent to sign players and give up their pick, so this was indeed a prime development. However, as soon as that pool open, it got significantly shallower. Scutaro, Figgins, and Polanco lasted less than a week before Boston, Seattle, and Philly snapped them up. While this may be seen as a bad thing for the Twins, it's actually quite good.

Of the three players signed, only Polanco was a serious target for the Twins, and, as many people have noted, his three-year deal will take him into his age-37 season. Not only were the players signed not Twins targets, the teams that signed them were those notorious for disrupting the market for the other players. Had the Red Sox decided to pursue Orlando Hudson, for example, they could have offered more in terms of both money and years than the Twins were likely to offer, making signing him extremely difficult. With a level playing field, the Twins now have a chance to go after the player they think will best help their team, which makes correctly identifying their weaknesses that much more critical.

As I noted previously, the Twins were a poor defensive team and a pretty adept offensive one. While the addition of JJ Hardy will help, they could use another sure glove. Orlando Cabrera's .314 OBP ahead of Joe Mauer was a great improvement over what the Twins had gotten before his arrival, but still brought the team line up to just .262/.306/.394, and even that was inflated by Mauer's 123 ABs at a .398/.451/.707 clip.While J.J. Hardy could be slotted into the second spot, which would leave the Twins looking for someone to hit 6th or 7th, his .218/.281/.323 line last year would have been part of the problem, not a solution.