Twins President Dave St. Peter said that fans are responding to heightened expectations this season and are "increasing ticket sales." He said, "We have a ways to go to ultimately get where we want to be, but we feel good about our chances of building on last year's attendance (of 2,220,054) and going back north of 2.3 million, hopefully approaching 2.5 million in total attendance. Our season-ticket base, we expect to see a nice increase there, the first time we have seen that in five years, which is a good thing" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 1/29). Meanwhile, the Twins have unveiled new "red-colored alternate home jerseys" that include a "red cap and red jersey top, both with simple 'TC' logos on them" (STARTRIBUNE.com, 1/28).
GREEN ACRES: Nationals partner Ed Cohen earlier this week said that the ongoing MASN rights dispute has hurt the team's attempts to improve their team personnel-wise, but MLB Network’s Chris Russo said the club is "going to have a tough time convincing anybody in the world that somehow not getting an extra $10, $15, $20 million a year from MASN is inhibiting what they want to do from a payroll standpoint." He noted the Nats last year signed P Max Scherzer to a $210M deal and this offseason were "in the mix" for RF Jason Heyward. Russo said of the Nats believeing they are a mid-market team: "Nobody in America believes that” (“High Heat,” MLB Network, 1/27).
RAREFIED AIR: In Michigan, Chris Lott noted the Tigers will have an opening-day payroll pushing $200M and a number "higher than that when it comes to luxury tax calculations," which account for the "average annual salary for players with multi-year contracts as well as performance bonuses." It includes the salaries for the "entire 40-man roster and not just the active roster." It also "includes the team's portion of player benefits, which amounts" to around $14M. That means the Tigers luxury tax number is "somewhere north" of $210M (MLIVE.com, 1/27).
TAKING ADVANTAGE: In L.A., Steve Dilbeck wrote the Dodgers are "what you might call heavily invested in Cuba," as they have "sent more money to Cubans than the entire country of Venezuela." The market on Cuban free agents "remains comparatively unregulated and the Dodgers have taken advantage like a teenager out with a parent’s credit card." In the 3 1/2 years since the Dodgers signed RF Yasiel Puig, they have spent more than $230M to "sign players from Cuba" (L.A. TIMES, 1/26).
