Almost exactly one week ago I wrote about what a possible Liriano extension would look like saying,
"I've mentioned more than once that the Twins are likely working on an extension with Francisco Liriano as we speak..."
Well, according to Seth Stohs, that's absolutely not the case. The prolific Twins blogger and a friend met up with Twins GM Bill Smith at Twins Fest and the subject of a Liriano extension came up, to which Smith said,
"No, we are going to go year-to-year with Liriano, at least for one more year. We definitely recognize the risk in doing that and if he has another big year, it will cost us some money."
It's a risk indeed and Seth does a great job explaining and breaking down precisely how much money the Twins stand to lose because of it. The team is a taking a fairly serious financial risk for some certainty. They're also taking a risk that Liriano won't even entertain signing an extension after the 2011 season, instead opting to try free agency where he is likely to make huge money.
The truth is, Liriano is the only pitcher who is anywhere near ace-caliber on the team, or for that matter, the franchise. The team has no way of replacing him internally and they certainly can't afford a pitche of his caliber via free agency. Should Liriano decide to test free agency he'll be leaving the team in a really, really difficult position.
Bill Smith is rolling the dice, and I don't like the odds of him coming up a winner.
Corey Ettinger is a proud contributor to both 612Sports.net and 312Sports.com. He also provides extensive analysis of the American League Central Division at his own blog, AL Central In Focus.
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