The Twins have faced the Milwaukee Brewers this week in their rivalry series. The Brewers this season has been woeful but they have had one very bright spot: Carlos Gomez is finally having his long awaited breakout.
Gomez is in the first year of a new three year contract and is hitting .330 with 10 home runs, in addition to his blazing speed and quality defense, he has been the best player on the Brewers this year, and one of the best in baseball so far this year. If you look simply at FanGraph’s WAR, then indeed, Gomez HAS been the best in baseball.
Of course, the Twins can look at Gomez and wonder what might have been. Is this another “David Ortiz” situation, where the Twins let go of an elite prospect too early, before they had a chance to break out? What might have been?
Take heart, Twins fans. There was a lot that went wrong in the past several years, and Bill Smith made a lot of mistakes in his tenure, but this whole Carlos Gomez situation wasn’t among the most egregious. There are a few reasons for this.
1) As I said, Carlos Gomez is in the first year of a new contract. His rookie/arbitration salary would have expired after last year. It was arguably his best year, too. He hit .260 and only ended up on base 30% of the time. That’s not exactly the stuff extensions are made of, especially for the Twins, and especially because…
2) The Twins had Denard Span and Ben Revere in the system already. After his ugly 2 years in Minnesota, and his ugly first 2 years in Minnesota, Revere and Span likely would have taken the two outfield spots as they did this year anyway. Not only would Gomez not have re-signed here, he likely wouldn’t have brought back any more trade value than the Twins received when they moved him.
3) As it worked out, the Twins likely maximized value on all three of their system center fielders. Gomez likely would have seen his value plummet, so acquiring a starting shortstop was a good move. This also let Span and Revere see the field regularly, which allowed their respective profile and value increase to the point that both Span and Revere meant 2 top pitching prospects and a major league starter came back to Minnesota.
Now, if you really want to be upset about the Carlos Gomez situation, be upset that the Twins traded JJ Hardy for virtually nothing and turned their middle infield into a white hot mess.
Congratulations to the likable Gomez finally figuring it out.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
