The Twins receive plenty of scrutiny for having close to 40 percent of the payroll invested in catcher Joe Mauer and first baseman Justin Morneau, limiting what the club can spend acquiring other players to field a better team. But winning games has also been minimized by salaries spent on unproductive players.
While Mauer makes $23 million this season and Morneau earns $14 million, as of last week the Twins had a total of about $25 million invested in other players who were making minimal or no contributions to the club’s effort to escape last place in the Central Division. Here’s a breakdown of the unproductive: Scott Baker, $6.5 million; Nick Blackburn, $4.75 million; Francisco Liriano, $5.5 million; Jason Marquis, $3 million; Tsuyoshi Nishioka, $3 million; Lester Oliveros, $520,000 ; Rene Tosoni, $520,00; Danny Valencia, $520,000; and Joel Zumaya, $850,000. (Compensation data referenced is from multiple online sources including Cotsbaseballcontracts.com).
Baker and Blackburn have been injured and not pitching for the Twins. Liriano pitched six shutout innings on Wednesday but has been so ineffective this season he’s flirted with a 10.0 ERA. Marquis was removed from the team roster last week. Nishioka, after being a bust as a rookie last season with the Twins, didn’t make the big league club coming out of spring training and is assigned to Class AAA Rochester.
Oliveros, acquired from the Tigers last year, is pitching for Rochester while Valencia, who started the season with the Twins, is playing third base there. Tosoni, an outfielder, was recently demoted from Rochester to Class AA New Britain. Zumaya, trying to make a comeback as a hard throwing relief pitcher, injured his arm in spring training and isn’t playing baseball.
According to About.com (using figures from the Associated Press), the Twins rank No. 13 among 30 MLB teams for highest salaries with an average of $3,484,630. While the Twins are last in the Central Division standings, the second place Indians have an average salary of $2,551,082 and rank No. 24. The Orioles, who lead the American League’s East Division standings, average $2,786,345 in salaries, ranking No. 20.
The Twins have reduced their payroll from $112.7 million in 2011 to $94.1 million in 2012, according to About.com.