Joe Crede, Twins Finally Reach Deal

After what seemed like an entire winter of speculation, Joe Crede has finally agreed to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins today. La Velle Neal is reporting that it's worth about $2.5 million with a ton of incentives that could push the deal as high as $7 million for Crede.

If you're keeping track at home, that means that Crede's base salary is about half of what he made last year and it's even less than what Ty Wigginton, who's a pretty good comp for Crede, is pulling in in Baltimore, though the incentives can push him higher than both numbers. That makes this a pretty solid deal for both Minnesota, who needs a third baseman, and and Crede, who was surely hoping for a bigger base salary but at least has a chance to make it on the field.

Actually, this is a really nice deal for the Twins. They started the winter out with their sights set on Casey Blake, but missed out on him when he re-signed with LA for 3 years and $17.5 million. Blake's four years older than Crede and while he has been a better hitter than Crede in the past two years, he hasn't been that much better. I'd much rather have Crede for one year with this deal than Blake for three.

The question, of course, is whether or not Crede will be better than Brian Buscher, the Twins' existing option at third base. He certainly brings some more power; he hit 17 homers in 335 ABs last year while Buscher hit four in 218. The Twins could use the pop as only two of their regulars (Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel) hit 20 homers last year and as a team they only went deep 111 times, good for last in the American League.

But is more power necessary? Buscher's OPS+ was higher than Crede's and only two teams in the AL scored more runs than the Twins last year. It seems like they could be fixing something that's not broken.