NASHVILLE - There's one day to go in Major League Baseball's annual winter meetings, and the Twins still haven't made a deal to add starting pitching for 2013. But that could change.
The Twins have made offers to several of their targets, and the market for starting pitching began to move Wednesday evening when lefthander Jeff Francis re-signed with the Rockies and righthander Joe Blanton signed with the Angels. Blanton was one of the pitchers the Twins considered to try to improve their rotation following a 66-96 season.
According to sources, the Twins have made offers to lefthanders Joe Saunders and Francisco Liriano. It was believed that they also made an offer to Blanton and lefthander John Lannan. And they have shown interest in free-agent righthanders Brett Myers, Jair Jurrjens, Ryan Dempster and Brandon McCarthy. Other reports have them linked to free-agent righthander Kevin Correia and Rangers lefthander Derek Holland.
Twins General Manager Terry Ryan on Wednesday would not confirm whether he had made any contract offers.
"We've had more discussions," Ryan said. "We've had more dialogue. We have had more exchanges, whatever you want to call it, with various guys.
"Whether or not that comes to finality of bringing a guy in, we will have to see."
The Twins have burned the midnight oil in talking to agents and clubs about pitching help. Ryan said the team met with a steady stream of agents on Monday, followed by a mix of agents and clubs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ryan said, in most cases, once the upper-tier pitchers begin to move, the rest of the pitching market takes shape. In this case, Blanton's signing signals the Angels' removal from the Zach Greinke sweepstakes. Greinke and Annibal Sanchez are the top free agents on the market.
