The Twins are holding their Winter Caravan. They fly players in from warmer climes, stick them in a van and drive them to Your Town to sign autographs with whichever fingers are not yet frostbitten.
Front office members make the trips, too, purportedly to promote the team but more likely to search every high school gym in Minnesota for lefthanded relievers.
The Twins are right to not pretend they can buy sustained success in free agency. This winter, though, they are making a mistake by sitting on their wallet.
They are right to trust their farm system to fill most of their needs. They are wrong to stand pat on relief pitching.
Here's how their winter pursuits have gone: They didn't re-sign Brian Duensing because they wanted to improve their bullpen. Soon, they will probably be forced to re-sign Brian Duensing to improve their bullpen.
In fact, the Twins have waited so long to pursue bullpen help that a lot of the most recognizable names among remaining free agent relievers are all too familiar.
The Twins could re-sign Joe Nathan, who at his best was on par with Mariano Rivera. Nathan's most ignominious moment as a Twin came when he was asked to pitch three innings in one game. Now it might not be sensible to ask him to pitch three innings in a season.
The Twins could re-sign Joe Beimel, who pitched for them in 2004. You could say he was with them for a cup of coffee, but given his tattoo-ology, it was more like a dab of ink.