The Minnesota Twins have finally found someone to lead their pitching staff for the foreseeable future.
Despite the fact that the team had another down year in 2014, the organization was quite happy with the progress of Phil Hughes and they have rewarded the right-hander with a $42 million extension that will keep him with the club for the next five seasons.
Hughes had a good year in 2014 with the Twins. He went 16-10 with a 3.52 ERA and he also recorded a career-high 186 strikeouts. He did all this after a poor year in 2013 with the New York Yankees where he, at times, looked simply unable to retire batters off the plate.
Hughes' year in 2014 was very successful so keeping him around will undoubtedly be a great addition for a Twins staff that also features the likes of Ervin Santana, Kyle Gibson and Ricky Nolasco. The offense added Torii Hunter to the mix and if they can get a rebound season from Joe Mauer, they should have enough pieces to be an interesting team in what's expected to be a competitive AL Central in 2015.