A couple of hours before the Twins were to take on the Los Angeles Angels at Target Field yesterday afternoon the Twins front office announced that they had struck a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Twins were sending arguably their best hitter 41-year-old DH Nelson Cruz to Tampa Bay along with minor league right-handed relief pitcher Calvin Faucher and in return Tampa sends Minnesota two minor league right-handed pitchers, Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman.
Cruz has spent the last two and a half seasons with the Twins after signing with them as a free agent in January of 2019. During that time he has appeared in 258 games hitting 79 home runs with 191 RBI along with a nice .386/.598/.984 slash line. In addition to being a professional hitter Cruz has mentored the younger players and was like having an extra coach on the staff.
Cruz seems to have been liked by everyone, a pro’s pro as they say. He will be missed but the deal had to be made, if you have a player like Cruz that is in demand and will become a free agent and your team is shuffling along at 41-56 and you are 17 games behind the division leader you would not be doing your job if you passed up the opportunity to make deals like this.
Faucher was a Twins tenth round selection in 2017 from the University of California, Irvine and has been used exclusively as a relief pitcher by Minnesota and has spent this season at Double-A Wichita.
Joe Ryan was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 7th round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from California State University, Stanislaus (Turlock, CA and was pitching at AAA Durham before joining the USA Olympic baseball team in Tokyo. In Durham, Ryan had 75 strikeouts in 57 innings and a snazzy 0.789 WHIP. I should also mention he has given up just 35 hits. MLB Pipeline had Ryan as the tenth best prospect at Tampa Bay but they have slotted Ryan in as the Twins sixth best prospect.
Drew Strotman was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 4th round of the 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft from Saint Mary’s College of California (Moraga, CA). Strotman too is pitching for AAA Durham this season and in 58.1 inning has struck out 62 batters and given up 50 hits. Strotman seems to have some control issues as his 5.1 BB9 attests. MLB Pipeline had Strotman as the 17th best prospect at Tampa Bay but they have slotted Strotman in as the Twins 13th best prospect.