Minnesota Twins GM Thad Levine 'very happy' 2B Brian Dozier is still with the club

CEDAR RAPIDS — The biggest newsy item surrounding the Minnesota Twins this winter has been the status of Brian Dozier.

The all-star second baseman hit 42 home runs for a moribund Twins team in 2016 and has two seasons left on his contract at reasonable, at least by major-league standards, money.

With the Twins in rebuild mode and a new front-office regime in charge, speculation has been for a long time that Dozier would be traded for prospects, particularly of the pitching variety. The Los Angeles Dodgers seemed a perfect trade fit.

But, according to numerous national reports, the teams could never agree on a deal. The Twins reportedly wanted more than just top pitching prospect Jose DeLeon, but the Dodgers wouldn't budge.

L.A. made a trade earlier this week for Tampa Bay second baseman Logan Forsythe, with DeLeon heading to the American League. That apparently means Dozier will head to spring training still a Minnesota Twin.

'I won't necessarily get into any type of specifics on trades,' Twins General Manager Thad Levine said Wednesday at the Twins Winter Caravan/Kernels Hot Stove Banquet at NewBo City Market. 'But I will say one thing that is lost sometimes when there is this much speculation surrounding a player is how that impacts the human being, separate from the player. I will say the way Brian has handled this is exceptional.'

Dozier was asked by Twin Cities media Thursday night about his situation.

'I've talked to most guys throughout the course of this whole offseason, throughout everything, whatever you want to call it, and there's one thing it all boils down to: I'm here right now and all I've got in my mind-set is trying to win games this coming year,' Dozier told Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press.

'He has been a headline for major league trade rumors for, it feels like now, four or five weeks,' Levine said. 'I think that is a reflection of two things. One, how good of a player he is and how well regarded he is throughout the industry. And, two, how relatively slow an offseason it has been otherwise.'

'Either way, it impacts him as a human being. We try to be cognizant of that throughout the process. The longer he stays out there, the more he's going to have to keep answering the question from loved ones: 'Where are you going to be next year?' In this case, there was so much surrounding one specific team. It was going to be that team or our team. We're very happy he is still a member of the Minnesota Twins.'

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