Twins, Kyle Gibson prepare for arbitration hearing

Greetings from Fort Myers! Twins pitchers and catchers report tomorrow, but several of them are working out today at the CenturyLink Sports complex. It's that time of year!

Trevor Hildenberger, Alan Busenitz and Fernando Romero were among the pitchers who threw in the bullpen. Kyle Gibson (below), Lewis Thorpe, Felix Jorge, Jake Reed and Gabe Moya played catch and ran in the outfield.

Players are working up a good sweat. It has been unseasonably WARM here the past week, and we're all wondering if the temps will hold or get even hotter as the weeks go by down here.

Gibson and the Twins will head to arbitration sometime this week, according to a source. This is an odd case, because the sides are only $355,000 apart. The Twins want to pay him $4.2 million this season, while Gibson has requested $4.55 million.

Seems like a gap that's easy to bridge, but both sides are dug in pretty good. The arbitration chamber can be a cold, unforgiving place where a player sits and hears negatives about his game.

"They are going to say some things," Gibson said during TwinsFest last month, "but I know they don't mean it personally. They are going after what I did and the body of work and not the person."

A couple of tidbits ...

I've heard the Rays like Max Kepler. Readers are automatically throwing Nick Gordon into any package, but I've heard that the Rays feel they have a few middle infield prospects who are close to major league ready. So it doesn't look like he would be a fit there. If I were the Rays, I would ask about prospects like Fernando Romero, Stephen Gonsalves or Brusdar Graterol. I would try to get three or four prospects from the Twins, with a couple off their top ten list.Tampa Bay is in no hurry to trade Archer, so they will have to be blown away. The Twins have some depth in the farm system to make this happen.

Tampa Bay could hold onto Archer until the trade deadline, where a desperate team could really overpay. Remember, Archer is signed to a team-friendly contract.

The Twins and Rays also have talked about Jake Odorizzi. The Twins wouldn't have to give up as much there.

Was told the Twins are talking to multiple teams about trades, so stay tuned....

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