Around AL Central: Tanaka spurns ChiSox, Albers headed to Korea & Santana at third

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Chicago White Sox

Windy City baseball fans are no doubt blue this afternoon after both teams missed out on signing Masahiro Tanaka. The prized Japanese star signed a seven-year, $155 million deal with the free-spending New York Yankees on Wednesday. While the Cubs were considered one of the leading candidates, along with the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, the White Sox seemed to be at least in contention.

Apparently both teams in Chicago offered Tanaka a contract.

Terms of the White Sox’s offer have not been revealed, but both the length of the contract — especially for a pitcher — and the dollar amount are nowhere near in line with White Sox contracts in the past. The team has always balked at long-term deals for pitchers, and the biggest financial commitment they have ever made in a contract was Jose Abreu‘s $68 million deal earlier this offseason. – Doug Padilla, ESPN Chicago

So this means the White Sox will reallocate the money slated for Tanaka to other sources, right? Not so fast…

There is not a high expectation that the White Sox will turn to the next tier of free agents on the market, such as Matt Garza, Ervin Santana and Ubaldo Jimenez. While Tanaka would have cost more than any of those pitchers, his appeal was that he was an extremely rare pitching talent whose prime years still figure to be ahead of him. –Padilla

As it stands today, Chicago’s rotation consists of Chris Sale, Jose Quintana and John Danks. They will be seeking a mid-range free agent for fourth starter and will pick from the trio of Erik Johnson, Andre Rienzo, and Dylan Axelrod for number five.

Follow the jump for the news on the Minnesota Twins.

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Cleveland Indians

Don’t expect to see much of Carlos Santana behind the plate this year as the catcher is in competition to be the starter at third base.

“Right now, I see myself preparing to play third base, no other position,” Santana was quoted as saying. (All Santana’s quotes were translated from the Spanish version of the ESPN story). GM Chris Antonetti doesn’t believe in handing out starting positions in January unless your last name is Masterson, Swisher or Kipnis. But he certainly didn’t act as if Santana was out of line for saying what he did after losing the starting catcher’s job to Yan Gomes in the second half of last season. – Paul Hoynes, Cleveland.com

Still, this could all be a way to motivate Lonnie Chisenhall, who has struggled to earn and keep his position at the hot corner.

Santana spent time in the Dodgers’ organization as a third base prospect, but proved error-prone. In 23 games played at third base in winter ball this off-season, Santana made 10 errors.

Follow one more jump for news on the Kansas City Royals.

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Kansas City Royals

It was a slow week in Royals’ camp, but they did come to terms with a trio of players to avoid arbitration.

The Royals announced that three arbitration-eligible players had also agreed to 2014 contracts, including first baseman Eric Hosmer, pitcher Luke Hochevar and utility man Emilio Bonifacio. Hosmer was the Royals’ Player of the Year in 2013. He went from last year’s $528,250 salary to a $3.6 million deal in 2014. Hochevar signed for $5.2 million plus performance bonuses. He earned $4.56 million last year. – Jeff Adcox, FanSided

Kansas City also agreed to a one-year contract with Justin Maxwell, leaving pitchers Aaron Crow and Greg Holland as the only two arbitration-eligible players currently unsigned.