MLB free agency: Twins still monitoring starting market

The Twins are still looking at the possibility of signing a starter to upgrade their rotation, according to Mike Berardino of The St. Paul Pioneer Press.

A source told Bernardino that Minnesota recently offered Lance Lynn, one of the top starters on the free-agent market, a two-year, $20 million deal. However, the 30-year-old Lynn did not take the deal.

Along with Lynn, starters Jake Arrieta and Alex Cobb have yet to sign with any club. Cobb is a former teammate of Logan Morrison and Jake Odorizzi, who both came to the Twins this offseason after Minnesota signed Morrison to a one-year, $6.5 million deal with a vesting option and acquired Odorizzi in a trade with the Rays for infielder Jermaine Palacios. But, one “rival scout of the Twins” told Berardino that they are “still looking for another starter” and don’t appear to be going after Cobb.

Berardino says the Twins “ideally” want to sign a starter to a short-term deal, even though they made an offer for Yu Darvish that was around four or five years before he signed a six-year, $126 million contract with the Cubs. Berardino suggested that the Twins can look into low-cost players such as “Jeremy Hellickson, Ubaldo Jimenez, John Lackey, Clay Buchholz, Scott Feldman, Trevor Cahill, Jeff Locke and ex-Twins Ricky Nolasco, Matt Garza and R.A. Dickey.”