Will the Twins sign Roy Oswalt? What we know.

Originally I was going to post this tomorrow, so please change the "today" to "tomorrow" and the "yesterday" to "today". I am rushing it for one day, because I have a feeling that dominoes will start falling in place sooner than later.

So here is what we know about the interest of MLB teams on Roy Oswalt, pretty much as of now:

The Boston Red Sox are still talking to him, as of Monday. On the other hand, a couple of weeks ago Nick Cafardo reported that Oswalt was out of the Red Sox' price range, but listed the New York Yankees (unlikely after the Kuroda signing and their recent trade with the Mariners acquiring Pineda) and the St. Louis Cardinals as potentially interested parties. The news that the Red Sox do not have enough money to sign Roy Oswalt without shedding salary was confirmed by the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday as well (based on a report by the Boston radio station WEEI.) Speaking of the Cardinals interest a couple weeks ago, things have been fairly quiet and there have been no other reports of interest the last couple weeks. (I am not counting opinions and hopes and shoulds as "reports".)

The Texas Rangers have been reported to "eye" Oswalt last week, but whether they will continue to be interested, if they sign Yu Darvish, it has yet to be determined, but they are looking to offer only an one-year deal. Yesterday it was reported at the mlb.com site, that Oswalt is a back up plan for the Rangers in case they do not sign Darvish. The deadline for signing Darvish is today at 5 PM EDT.

Tom Singer (national reporter for MLB.com) yesterday wrote that Oswalt is being evaluated as possible bullpen depth by some suitors. Also, it was reported by Buster Olney that Oswalt is looking for an one year deal around $8M. If a team offers him to start and a two-year deal, it will probably have the upper hand, I suspect. This is how the Twins come to play:

A couple weeks ago (January 5th) it was mentioned, by you know who that the Twins were talking to Roy Oswalt. On January 13th Lindsay Guentzel confirmed that the Twins are talking to Oswalt and a couple days later she suggested that the Twins are discussing a 2-year, $17M contract. I think that if all of that is true, the Twins have good possibility to "steal" Oswalt from contenders, in the same manner they "stole" Zumaya (they were the only team to offer him a an MLB deal.) So if they give Oswald a starting role, a 2-year (vs 1-year) contract with higher annual value that he is allegedly asking, he could be a Twin by the end of the week.

I do expect the dominoes to fall after today's 5PM EDT time that the Darvish signing is due, of when a Darvish decision happens (which ever comes first.) Also, with the Zumaya signing, the Twins' 40-man roster is full, so expect a corresponing move.