The Twins' New Guys, Part 3: Craig Monroe

This is part three of an on-going series of posts looking at the newest members of the Minnesota Twins. As I said in the last post, I am first looking at the free agent acquisitions. Today we'll look at the 3rd of the 4 free agent pickups. Technically, he was not acquired as a free agent, but I will treat him as if he was. Enjoy.


Craig Monroe

Craig Monroe is a veteran of 8 major league seasons, primarily spent with the Detroit Tigers. After his rookie season in 2001 with the Texas Rangers, Monroe was claimed off of waivers by the Tigers. He became a regular part of the Tigers' lineup in starting in 2002, averaging almost 500 at-bats between 2002 and 2006. However, Monroe struggled mightily in 2006 and 2007, eventually being traded to the Cubs at the trade-dealine in 2007, where he continued to struggle. The Cubs were unwilling to pay anywhere near the $4.8 million Monroe made in 2007, considering his poor production. The Cubs were ready to release Monroe, making him a free agent, until the Twins came along.

The Cubs agreed to trade the rights to Monroe to the Twins for a marginal minor league player (Doug Deeds). This gave Minnesota exclusive rights to bargain with Monroe, instead of having to fight the competition for Monroe in the free agent market. The Twins hoped to get Monroe to agree to a lower salary, considering the likelihood that he would make anywhere near $4.8 million in the free agent market was unlikely. Monroe agreed to a $3.82 million, one year contract. So, although the Twins technically traded for Monroe, he was going to be released anyway and thus would have been a free agent, who the Twins would likely have signed anyway.
Reason for signing: At the time Monroe was acquired, the question of who would be starting in center field had still not been answered. The Monroe signing gave the Twins another option for center field, as a fourth outfielder, or even as a designated hitter. Monroe has historically hit left-handed pitchers very well, therefore, the Twins planned to use Monroe against left-handers in place of Jason Kubel, who figured to get most of the at-bats as DH versus right-handed pitchers. Regardless of his position in the field, the Twins certainly hoped that Monroe would provide some power for a fairly light-hitting lineup. Monroe's 28 HRs in 2006 intrigued the Twins enough that they felt it was worth the risk of a one-year deal for under $4 million for someone who has the potential for big power numbers, despite his struggles in recent years.

So far this season: Craig Monroe hasn't had the finest year so far. He hit a memorable pinch-hit 3-run homerun against the Royals on May 28th to cap off a 5-run 9th inning rally. But that is pretty much the high point of his season. Jason Kubel has spent a lot of time in the DH spot against right-handed pitching and even some days against left-handed pitching. And with the play of Carlos Gomez so far this season, Monroe has found it difficult to find at-bats. When he has been in the lineup, Monroe has been the player he's been the last two season, swinging at everything, striking out a lot (currently, he's struck out in an astoundingly high 38% of this at-bats), and hitting for a low average. Monroe has shown some power, hitting seven doubles and five homeruns, which comprise just under half of his hits. So, I guess if you want a bright side, that might be it. In the rare cases where he's gotten hits, they've been for multiple bases.

Outlook for the rest of the season: Barring any sort of injury that necessitates otherwise, Monroe will pretty much keep the role he has today. He'll start at DH against lefties, make an occassional spot-start to give one of the regular outfielders a day off and he'll pinch hit at the end of games when the Twins are behind, hoping he'll repeat his performance in KC a few weeks ago. Ultimately though, his numbers will remain poor overall. His average will be sub-par (to the tune of about .220), he'll hit for some power, but strike out so often that the power is pretty much negated.

Synopsis: Another swing-and-a-miss by the Twins. I won't say that signing Monroe is quite on par with the signings of Tony Batista and Sidney Ponson, but its not far off. I don't understand the logic of trying to rekindle the career of someone who had success for a couple of years, but has been absolutely horrendous for the last couple of seasons. I mean really, what are the chances that he's going to put up the numbers that he did between 2004 and 2006? His minor league track record also indicates that those years were statistical anomalies, meaning that there is really no chance that he will return to the form the Twins were hoping for. Paying somebody almost $4 million to play in less than 60% of the teams games and strike out nearly 40% of the time seems like a bad investment to me. Honestly, they could pay me $200,000 a year and I could strike out 38% of the time (maybe less). I'm not saying that the options in the minor league system are great, but at least they're inexpensive and in most cases they're younger, so there's the chance of improvement. Seriously, at some point the Twins need to realize that spending millions of dollars on washed up veterans who weren't ever that good anyway is a bad idea. Trust your minor league system and give some youngsters a chance and save a few dollars. Or just get it over and call me up.