Last year at this time, there was much gnashing of teeth in the Minnesota Twins camp, as the squad knew that Johan Santana had to be traded, but we didn’t really know to who or for what. Adding to the intrigue, Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett had just been sent to Tampa for Delmon Young, Jason Pridie and Brendan Harris. At the time, I thought that trade was a good one. We moved one of our pitching prospects for a hitting prospect, need for need. Additionally, many of the trade offers for Santana involved a top pitching prospect, so it looked like things would sort of work themselves out.
In the end, I still like the trade the Twins made just before the meeting. I don’t think Garza would have developed in Minnesota as he did in Tampa. And like it or not, Delmon Young put up eerily similar numbers in 08 as he did in 07, and this after a poor start. He’s coming around, and I would hate to see him go now, especially for some crappy third baseman.
But thats the thing. The Twins acknowledge the need for someone to play the hot corner, and that’s great. But then, there are rumors swirling around Delmon as well, which isn’t great. I understand that Ron Gardenhire said his preferred outfield doesn’t include Young, however, Young wasn’t brought in to play the field. Jason Kubel, if anyone wants a young bat in a trade, should be a much more worthy trade candidate from the Twins perspective. Moving one of the redundant lefthanded sluggers in a trade for relief or left infield help seems like a better idea to me.
With the rumors as they are, the Twins looking for a third baseman (as I mentioned in the links earlier, they were connected to Mark DeRosa earlier today) rather aggressively, I can’t help but be a little excited. I’m just worried about the deals being floated, that they may actually serve to weaken the Twins over the long and short term. I’m not sure, overall, whether or not I should be concerned that the Twins haven’t made a splash yet at the winter meetings.
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