Kendrys Morales Signs with Minnesota Twins, Not Seattle Mariners
By Todd Pheifer
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports is reporting that Kendrys Morales has signed with the Minnesota Twins. In other words, Morales will not be signing with the Seattle Mariners, as if anyone thought such a possibility could materialize at this point.
Dan Shearer of SoDo Mojo was right when he wrote yesterday that we would soon be able to finally end all the rumors and speculation. Right up to the end, writers like Heyman were suggesting that the Mariners remained “interested” in signing Morales.
Interested. Love that word. So intriguing, and so unhelpful. I’m sure the team is “interested” in a lot of things.
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Were the Mariners really in the hunt for Morales up until the end? We will probably never know the answer to that question, but it seems reasonable to assume that Jack Zduriencik wasn’t exactly chasing Scott Boras with a lucrative contract offer.
At this point terms of the contract have not been announced. I could be wrong, but something tells me that Morales signed for less than the $14.1 million qualifying offer that the Mariners presented last fall.
Oops.
Morales remained interesting because of his bat. The Mariners aren’t exactly desperate for offense, though Justin Smoak is hitting .208 at first base. An upgrade there might have been nice.
Regardless, Morales has finally signed a deal and Scott Boras can go back to whining about the unfairness of the draft-pick compensation system, and holding clubs hostage with his other clients. Meanwhile, fans of the Mariners can now move on to other rumors.
Enjoy Minnesota, Mr. Morales. We have assume that you will not stay there long.