huhguy

It would not be a terrible mistake too start Hicks in Rochester. The terrible mistake should refer to the Twins secret little plan that they started cooking once they got Target Field and have slowly slashed payroll every year and want you to believe they care about winning more than making extra money... Teams should not be clearing near $100M after expenses and put out a crappy team that is expected to be the 3rd worst team in MLB in 2013.

Or are you saying since he hit 3 HR's today he is a lock to be the next Mike Trout. One last thing anybody remember that great spring training Nick Blackburn had? hmmmnn

Or Luke Hughes, or Danny Valencia... the list goes on and on to illustrate to us that spring training stats have no correlation to success in the major leagues. Also, two of the three homers hit today were just fly balls that the wind took over the fence.

That all said, it's appeared pretty clear since Twins Fest that they want Aaron Hicks to win this job. As much as we, and especially I, talk about how much it makes sense for them to send him to Rochester for one month (not to save money, but to gain an extra year of him under team control), the Twins traditionally don't think like that and bring guys up right away.

Expectations for Hicks need to be managed, especially after what he has done the last three days. He'll be a solid big leaguer, but let's not put him into the Mike Trout, Bryce Harper category quite yet. Let's see what he does over the next three weeks as things start becoming pretty real. How will he handle it?! Knowing the guy, I think he'll handle it well.

Arrgg! I'm so confused by this "year of control" issue! I keep seeing conflicting theories. Is it a year extra before free-agency, or an extra minimum wage year? I can't believe the Players Union would give up a year of free agency in exchange for a good player being kept down. That is a lose lose.

Here are the scenarios for Hicks, Gibson, others with zero big league service time coming into the season:

If they come up (and obviously stay up):

1.) Opening Day - the pre-arbitration years will be 2013, 2014, 2015. Arbitration years will be 2016, 2017, 2018. Free agent after the 2018 season.

2.) Call up May 1 (sometime in late April) - the pre-arbitration years will be 2013, 2014, 2015. Arbitration years will be 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. Free agent after the 2019 season.

3.) Call up June 1 (or sometime around there) - the pre-arbitration years will be 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016. Arbitration years will be 2017, 2018, 2019. Free agent after the 2019 season.

Hope that clarifies everything?

Yes. Thank you Seth.

I just think Hicks needs some time at Rochester and to also to delay the arbitration clock. It kind of reminds me how the Twins screwed up Carlos Gomez by bringing him up to early instead of helping his development. Also, when Santana was traded the Twins seemed like they needed to have a piece of the trade in the majors to make them look like they got a good trade. So by dealing Span & Revere they probably feel forced to start Hicks to show fans they knew what they were doing by making both trades.