It’s a Done Deal for the Minnesota Twins and 2nd Baseman Brian Dozier.
Minnesota Twins fans who are up on major league baseball’s rules on team and player control probably wonder why this deal was ever negotiated. As a player with only 3 years of major league service, Brian Dozier was under team control through 2018 anyways so why give him more money when it wasn’t necessary?
Drafted in 2009 after his senior season at the University of Southern Mississippi, Mr. Dozier would start his professional career in the Rookie Gulf Coast League and, being from college, he’d old for that level and every level he’d play in until he reached AA New Britain in 2011. As an older player, he would advance quickly and be called up by the Twins in May of 2012 only to be sent back to AAA in the middle of August after struggling offensively and defensively while playing shortstop.
The Twins may have been desperate calling Brian Dozier up so early but Pedro Florimon consistently showed he wasn’t going to hit so it’s hard to blame them for giving Dozier a look. It was disappointing he struggled as he was thought of as a player that could be a quality starting middle infielder for the Minnesota Twins and hold on to one of those spots for awhile, something they have lacked for a long time.
Calling up and throwing a prospect into the fire too early can sometimes ruin them. It looked like that may have been the case with Brian Dozier because he continued to struggle at AAA Rochester and wasn’t even part of the call-ups in September when the rosters increase to 40.
It can take time for any player to adapt to a new league, especially if it’s the Major Leagues but failure can be a good thing because it can humble a person and you then get to see what kind of makeup they have. Are they going to pout and wonder why they aren’t doing well or are they going to get to work with the people that can help them improve so when they get a second chance, they’re ready for it. This is what kind of player the Twins have:
“…the experience stung Dozier enough that he went right to work when the season ended. He played winter ball in Venezuela to get experience at second base, spent time with left fielder Josh Willingham at his ranch in Alabama and worked with Paul Molitor on second-base fundamentals at the University of Minnesota.”
He would end up beating out an aging Jamey Carroll in Spring Training to earn the starting second base job in 2013 and even though he wasn’t putting up great numbers for a leadoff hitter, he was starting to show the reason why he moved up the system quickly, getting on base more, playing good defense and showing more power than he showed in the minors, becoming the Twins franchise leader in Home Runs in a single season by a second baseman.
Then Mr. Dozier took that up another notch in 2014 raising his OBP (on-base percentage), scoring the 2nd most runs in the league* and becoming a better base stealer.
*The one and only Mike Trout lead the league in runs scored in 2014.
Brian Dozier has solidified himself as the Minnesota Twins 2nd Baseman with solid play for two seasons and room for more improvement. Doesn’t that deserve a raise?
The Twins could’ve saved money by just paying Dozier the most he could get as a player under team control before being an arbitration eligible player or they could do what they did and reward a player for a great season who is peaking at the right time in his career.
Of course, even if they tried to just keep paying Brian Dozier the league minimum for a player under team control, eventually he would be eligible for arbitration and then you never know how much a player could receive if it goes to a hearing.
Now, they’ve signed him to a 4-year deal worth $20 million total, $2 million in 2015, $3 million in 2016, $6 million in 2017 and $9 million in 2018. Fangraphs.com has a great feature on their site that shows the value of a player’s season and they show Brian Dozier’s 2014 season having a value of $26.2 million. So you could look at it like the Twins just paid him for what he did last season and the next four are just a bonus.
Another thing about this contract is that it doesn’t buy out any of Brian Dozier’s free agent years. He’ll be 31 years old at the time the contract ends and that’s right about where a player’s career starts to trend downward. It’s four years too. By the time 2018 comes around, who knows who the Twins will have to put at second base. It’ll be interesting but it’s good to know the Twins have a player at second base that they should be able to count on for awhile.
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