It’s not really any secret that the Twins have owned an aching void of nothingness in their infield for the last several years. Sure, they have been all right on the corners, with Core Koskie and Danny Valencia playing third most of the time since 2000, and Justin Morneau (when healthy) and Doug Mientkiewicz manning 1st. But the middle infield? Who have been the most stable players there? Cristian Guzman? Luis Rivas? The Twins haven’t exactly been replete with quality infield prospects. Sure, there was Jason Bartlett, eventually traded, but again, that doesn’t exactly say “stability”. (Also, if you mention Nick Punto as being a quality, stable middle infielder, just leave now)
Over the end of last season and through the offseason, Brian Dozier emerged as a top prospect in the Twins organization. He hit in the .300s in AA and tore up the Arizona Fall League. For an organization that whiffed on Tsuyoshi Nishioka and let JJ Hardy and Orlando Hudson leave with now recompense, it’s about time the Twins had someone like Dozier come up. They had to spend nothing but an 8th round draft pick on him, and he seemingly came out of nowhere when the rest of baseball was down on the Twins prospect depth.
The problem is that the Twins just gave a similar player a 2 year, multi million dollar contract. And by similar, I mean “14 years older”. Jamey Carroll is likely going to block Dozier, while Alexi Casilla will continue to man his 2b spot with no more options. In a perfect world, the Twins would have been able to anticipate Dozier’s offseason carrying over into Spring Training and Carroll wouldn’t be on the roster this year, and the Twins could finally, perhaps for the first time since Chuck Knoblauch, have some stability in the middle infield.
Until then, I think we can all agree, without even playing a game, Jamey Carroll needs to go.
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