What the Minnesota Twins Should Do
Overview
Despite losing seven of their last ten, the Minnesota Twins are still in first place in the American League Central. The Tigers and Chicago White Sox have cut the Twins’ lead in the division to 0.5 and 1.5 games, respectively. As Joe Pawlikowski wrote earlier today, the Twins should not panic. They remain the most talented team in the division. However, the Twins have real competition at the moment, and should be looking to make improvements where they can at a reasonable cost.
Buy or Sell
The Twins should be looking to buy, but carefully. They do not have many obvious needs among their position players. The biggest “hole” is probably another middle infielder who can play third base. Nick Punto’s glove largely makes up for his helplessness at the plate, but this is one place the Twins could use a real upgrade. Brendan Harris will return to his replacement-level self soon enough and Danny Valencia, at least at this point, doesn’t have the bat/glove combination to be a real improvement over Punto. While the Twins can probably get by with Punto at third, both shortstop J.J. Hardy and second baseman Orlando Hudson having injury problems already this seasons. If Minnesota can obtain a decent third baseman it would allow Punto to fill in at third, second, and short when needed rather than having to resort to replacement-level scrubs like Harris and Matt Tolbert if another rash of injuries hits.
Another good idea might be trying to obtain a decent fourth outfielder, since Denard Span is Minnesota’s only competent defender out there — one shudders to think what might happen if he gets hurt. To be fair, a Michael Cuddyer–Delmon Young–Jason Kubel outfield (in whatever positional combination) might finally beat out the Matt Garza-and-Jason Bartlett-for-Delmon Young,*-Brendan Harris-and-Jason Pridie trade in terms of Twins-related Unintentional Comedy value.
* No, Delmon Young being about league average so far this season does not come close to making up for it. The fact that he’s being praised for an average performance only accentuates the hilarity of that trade. It is a credit to the Twins front office that they’ve been able to work around it.
To the surprise of no one who understands the value of relievers, the Twins have weathered the loss of Joe Nathan quite nicely. Jon Rauch and Matt Guerrier are good if unspectacular, and while the Twins could use another decent bullpen arm, they don’t have to make a desperation move.
The starting pitching has been strong, with a FIP under 4. Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker and Carl Pavano head up a rotation good enough to compete with any other in the Central, but a) things are really close, and b) they could improve it. If they could replace Nick Blackburn’s innings with a league average starter, or perhaps even (given the right trade circumstances) Cliff Lee or Roy Oswalt, Minnesota could really widen the gap between themselves and their divisional competitors, not to mention set themselves up with a strong playoff rotation.
On the Farm
According to Beyond the Box Score’s pre-season aggregate farm system rankings, the Twins have the 12th best farm system in the major leagues. They have some very high upside position players like Aaron Hicks, Ben Revere, and Miguel Sano in various levels of the system, as well as their usual bevy of potential middle-of-the-rotation strike throwers. Danny Valencia has a chance to be an adequate starting third baseman down the road. Their most obvious prospect trading chip is catcher Wilson Ramos, who is probably a league average catcher at worst, and maybe much more than that. More importantly, he might be the most “blocked” player around baseball at the moment. The Twins shouldn’t give him up for just anything, but they should be shopping him for the right deal. If they crave an impact pitcher, Minnesota will have to give up more than just Ramos. It’s tough to imagine them trading Hicks or Sano, but if the right offer is on the table, flags fly forever…
Budget
At about $98 million dollars, the Twins are hardly the small payroll team of the past, thanks to the taxpayer generosity. They don’t have much money coming off the books in 2011, and Joe Mauer is getting a big raise. There are also decisions about options and/or arbitration raises to be made for players like Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, and J.J. Hardy, among others. Moroever, unless Hudson (free agency) and Hardy (arbitration) are retained, the Twins will probably have to replace them with free agents. So unless they plan on raising their payroll significantly in 2011 (and they may very well, I don’t know), any pieces they acquire in trade this season probably shouldn’t require them to commit to much more money in 2011.
Matt Klaassen reads and writes obituaries in the Greater Toronto Area. If you can't get enough of him, follow him on Twitter.
This is hardly the first year Cuddy’s WAR has been bad. It’s not like he’s super consistent. And, he’s getting worse on D (which is hard to believe). Young is better this year, and should get some credit for that. I’m not his biggest supporter by any means, but he’s been better since late last year. Span does not look like the same player at all. His baserunning (outside the steals) has been atrocious. I’d have to dive into his numbers, but I’m not sure this is a streak of bad luck or not.
As I said in the earlier post, this team spent decent money on SS, 2B, PH and starting pitching (mistakenly in Blackie’s case, but they did) in the offseason. They are going to make more money this year than any year in their history. 87 wins should not be the measure of success this year.
I disagree that they should be patient. Mauer and Morneau are healthy. Liriano and Pavano are good. Their bullpen is good. Why keep waiting for the future (as Hunter and Santana claimed)? Why not try to close the deal? The present is much more predictable than 3 years from now. Make a deal. Ace, 3B, SS (of course, they’ve needed a 3B for coming up on a decade, and the only SS they’ve developed in at least that long was traded with no one to replace him in the system). It would be great if they filled one or two of those holes, but does anyone think they will trade prospects for rentals? Is there even a legit 3B or SS candidate out there?
Wigginton for 3B? It’s the O’s (Believe in the process!) and they want to get rid of his salary so you can probably get him for a bag of baseballs.
Jhonny Peralta makes a good deal of sense. He could fill in at 3B instead of Punto, and 2B if Hudson goes down again as well.
As for SS… well, sorry, not much for rentals, per se. Unless you want Miguel Tejada. Hehe, I’m hilarious. But there are really no rental SS options. If you want anything more than a glove with a nerf bat, you’re gonna have to do something drastic like shell out a huge package for Stephen Drew.
The ironic thing is that Jason Bartlett might make a lot of sense in a trade.
Ah, No. The O’s have, in the recent past, gotten top dollar in trades. The bag of balls they received for Sherill last year is now one of their top infield prospects. MacPhail has made some questionable free agent signings, but it’s very difficult to question his trades. The O’s will get, at least, fair market value for Wiggy.
Cliff Lee for Ace. Jose Lopez for 3b (2b once in a while if needed). Aardsma for RP. And Langerhans for defensive 4th OF. Now give the M’s all your good prospects (though Ramos’s BB rate scares me).
Pass.
If the Twins were interested in completely depleting their farm system, then maybe this would make sense. Lee is already going to cost quite a bit, don’t start throwing other Mariners into the deal.
Why would they trade for a SS? That’s why they got Hardy and there’s no reason to think he won’t be back playing in a week or two.
I think the only move to make is for a starting pitcher and maybe a bullpen arm, but they have good candidates for a callup sitting in Rochester (Slama, Waldrop, Neshek)…
I’m pretty sure I didn’t say they should trade for an SS. I didn’t mean to, anyway. They should see if they can get a decent 3B to push Punto into a backup role just in vase Hardy or Hudson get hurt again.
I’m sorry, I was replying to the first commenter but I forgot to hit the reply button.
Hardy can’t hit. He’s showing that last year was no fluke. But, you are right, among the priorities, that’s low. And, his defense has been as stellar as we were led to belive. That comment was probably more about the long term. Feel free to ignore it.
No way they should deal for an arm. You named three guys that are probably good RP in the majors some day.
Uh, no way they should deal for a bullpen arm….
I think it’s premature to say he can’t hit, he was doing OK before he got hurt. His value mainly lies in his excellent defense and above average pop for a SS. There’s no way there is a better shortstop option out in the trade market right now.
Agreed with zerg, Hardy was hitting around .250 with a .400 SLG or so before his wrist injury. It hasn’t completely healed yet, which is why his numbers look so much worse.
In case you missed it, Harris has gone to the minors and is now likely behind several other replacement-level utility infielders on the org depth chart. Oh, and Michael Cuddyer might actually be the team’s 3rd baseman.
Yeah, I did see that, I just brought him up because he played a “streaked” a bit recently. The effect is the same — the lack of infield depth.
If Cuddyer moving to 3B is a long-term plan, it will be… interesting. His defense there is awful, and it just exacerbates the OF problem with both Kubel AND Delmon out there. Poor Span.
Would Jose Lopez do the trick? He’s playing a good thirdbase so far and has hit pretty poorly, but had a decent season last year. Plus, the Twins don’t seem to have a desire for plate discipline. Maybe throw Lopez in with David Aardsma, and Cliff Lee, then the Mariners may be able to squeeze out a little more of a return.
Well… this is about what the Twins _should_ do, and I’m not sure Jose Lopez is much of an answer. Lopez might help them, but the Twins shouldn’t give up much trying to get him.
The Twins don’t have a desire for discipline? Walking at almost a 10% clip, wit ha BB/K of 0.64 (tied with Yankees and Braves for 1st) doesn’t carry much weight, apparently. How about a 26.4% O-Swing, 5th best? Lopez is not a legitimate answer at 3B for a contender, not the way he’s swinging the bat.
I don’t believe the Twins will move on any hitter in particular, I think they hope Repko is the answer for a defensive replacement/4th OF. If they make a move, expect to see a pitcher, probably a starter. Lee or Oswalt would make sense, but don’t be surprised if they go after Sheets, Guthrie, or another middle-of-the-rotation guy. Lee actually makes the most sense, if they package a SP with him. That would free 2 SP spots for 2011 (3 if Pavano doesn’t come back), with Gibson possibly being ready, Wimmers possibly, and young guys like Swarzak, Manship, and potentially moving Duensing back to the rotation. Lee for Ramos/SP/B level prospect/C level prospect could get it done without sacrificing important players for the future (Hicks, Gibson, Sano, etc).
Lopez is always a slow starter. Look at his first half splits from the last couple of years, don’t just look at 60 games worth of data for a slow starter who’s pull happy in a stadium that kills pull hitters.
Next year’s option for Cuddyer has already been picked up.
$10M on Cuddyer when the team will have trouble digging up the money to pay Pavano, Hudson, and Hardy. Cuddyer could have been replaced cheaply or signed for 2 yrs at that price. He does do magic, though.
For all the accolades that the Twins front office got for their offseason, let’s not forget they still committed $10M to Cuddyer in 2011, offered Washburn $5M for one year, locked in to Brendan Harris for 2011 when they didn’t need to, and decided to extend Blackburn out for not much less than he would have gotten in arbitration even if he had maintained the low-4.00s ERA.
For Harris and Blackburn, it sounded like those contracts were just providing cost-certainty for the Twins before they extended Mauer. As for Cuddyer….he’s a fan favorite and to the casual fan, appears to be a valuable player. The Twins decided to build the team around him, Mauer, and Morneau.
His month to month wOBA numbers don’t indicate a slow starter, it looks pretty scattershot throughout his career. Plus, 60 games is not an insignificant samples, considering it is approximately 3/8 a season. He looks like, both statistically and visually, a streaky hitter without a pattern, at least looking at a timeline.