The Minnesota Twins have reportedly agreed to terms of a 2-year, $21 million contract with Marwin Gonzalez. Gonzalez is the four large acquisition the Twins have made this offseason including the additions of Jonathan Schoop, Blake Parker, and Martin Perez. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports broke the news of the signing first.
Utilityman Marwin Gonzalez is in agreement with the Minnesota Twins on a two-year, $21 million deal, league sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) February 22, 2019
Gonzalez has spent the last few seven years with the Houston Astros as one of the best utility men in the league. Gonzalez plays such a variety of positions and is most likely the best offensive player when it comes to versatility. In 2018, Gonzalez managed a .247/.324/.409 slash line with 16 home runs and 68 RBI’s for the Astros. It seems like Gonzalez was holding out as to guage his value compared to other available free agents.
Days after Manny Machado signed the largest contract in US professional sports history, the floodgates opened and there have been multiple signings since then. However, there are still some players who are still waiting on the signing of Bryce Harper. In the coming days, it seems like Harper will sign and the flood gates for the rest of the free agents will fully open up. Gonzalez was one of the few who used Machado as a bargaining tool and signed after Machado signed. It is not for sure that Gonzalez waited this long because of Machado but it can be expected as the reason why.
With this signing, all of the utility players available this free agency period have signed with Gonzalez being the best one available.