It’s time to face the facts. The Twins are actually competing this year, much to pretty much everyone’s surprise. As I or any other number of sportsy types may have mentioned, the Twins have their problems with offense and are only mediocre in the starting rotation. In fact, the Baseball Prospectus’ playoff predictor has the Twins with the same chance of reaching the post season as the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles, despite the Twins recent 6 game winning streak because of that paltry offense. Their run differential is -2, which is absolutely insane with a winning record.
I’m pretty much one of the itchiest guys out there when it comes to making trades and what not. If I would be GM, I would probably annoy the fan base as I made 43 trades a season. That being said, take my following trade proposals for the Twins with a grain of salt, even though there are apparent needs with this team.
If I were GM, I would make no deadline deals. That’s right, none. The team as a whole is young at every position. Even at positions where the squad is struggling, such as third base or shortstop, there are players ready to step into the role, if not this year, then next year. The wins this team is producing is only going to serve to give the players confidence, but I hesitate to believe that this is the squad that we should push really hard to reach the postseason.
Looking at the position players, the Twins have Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Branden Harris, Alexi Casilla, Brian Buscher, Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez and Michael Cuddyer all ready to come back next year and take over one of the positions. Sure, there is a need for a designated hitter, but with so much of the team built with young players in mind, do you really want to sacrifice a prospect in order to get a rental slugger? Better to sign someone this offseason, I say.
The pitching rotation, too, is of concern, however, what should we do? Who do you want to remove from the rotation? Nick Blackburn? Kevin Slowey? Scott Baker? Again, next year the Twins should have a full compliment of pitchers with another year under their belt. Livan Hernandez will be gone, sure, but next year Baker or Slowey or even Blackburn will step into the ace role, and perhaps Glenn Perkins will be the fourth starter. There’s even hope that Francisco Liriano recovers and becomes next years 5th starter.
Frankly, if there was a time to make overtures to improve the team, it was last year, when two key players were seeing their time with the Twins end, with Torii Hunter and Johan Santana departing. Terry Ryan was notoriously cautious at the trade deadline, however, and the moves weren’t made. Hopefully Bill Smith is patient enough to wait out the transactions he executed this most recent offseason.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
