Minnesota Twins fans might not recognize their team this season when they go out to Target Field. The Twins have so many new players you will need to spend a few bucks and buy a scorecard just so you know who is playing where. Twins fans are already wondering who secretly snuck in during the dark of night this off-season and bought this Twins team from the Pohlad’s and has told Derek Falvey and Thad Levine to get off their butts and start putting together a winning team, money is no object. How else do you explain the Twins signing Carlos Correa to a three-year deal at $35.1 million per year? And the trades? What the heck is going here in fly over land?
The rumors were running wild last night as I went to bed that the Minnesota Twins and the San Diego Padres were talking let’s make a deal. The Padres have an excess of starting pitchers and the Twins are in need of starters so it looks like a match made in heaven. When I got up this morning I found out that a deal had indeed been consummated with the Twins getting starting right-handed pitcher Chris Paddack and right-handed reliever Emilio Pagan from San Diego in return for closer Taylor Rogers and first baseman/outfielder Brent Rooker. The Twins will also receive a player to be named later and will send cash to San Diego in the deal. That cash amount apparently covers all of Rogers salary but $700,000 in 2022. Rogers can become a free agent after the 2022 season.
Lots of Twins fans are not happy to see Rogers, the Twins closer traded. Rogers was the Twins 11th round pick in the 2012 draft, the same year the Twins drafted Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios and Tyler Duffey. Rogers made his big league debut in April of 2016. Rogers has been a solid reliever ever since and he took over the closing chores in 2019. Rogers was named to his first All-Star team last season but suffered a finger injury in late July and he missed the rest of the 2021 season. Rogers has a twin-brother Tyler who pitches for the San Francisco Giants.
The Twins also traded Brent Rooker their first round pick (35 overall) in 2017. Rooker debuted in the majors on September 4, 2020 but to this point has not won a big league job on a full-time basis and has just 65 MLB games on his resume. Rooker can play a corner outfield position and first base but his defense is below average.
Chris Paddack is the key cog in the trade from the Twins perspective. Paddack, who is earning $2.25MM in 2021 is only in his first season of arbitration eligibility and is team controlled through the 2024 campaign. Paddack was drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 8th round of the 2015 amateur draft and then traded to the San Diego Padres on June 30, 2016 for Fernando Rodney who too wore a Minnesota Twins uniform at one time (2018). Paddack, who at 6’5″ fits the Twins mold for pitchers, as they like them big. He debuted on March 31, 2019 and had a breakout season but has struggled the last two seasons and had had some elbow issues. Reports have Paddack in need of a third pitch that the Twins pitching guru’s will hope to add to Paddack’s arsenal.
The Twins also acquired 31 year-old reliever Emilio Pagan who has five years and 244 games of big league experience with Seattle, Oakland, Tampa and San Diego. Pagan had a breakout year in 2019 when he had 20 saves and 96 strikeouts in 70 innings. Pagan who like Paddack has great control suffered from gopherballitis in 2021. Hopefully that is just a one-year thing. Pagan is earning $2.3MM this season and is controlled through 2023 via arbitration.
It is an interesting trade since reports have the Twins wanting Paddack for a long time and the Padres wanting Rogers for a number of years. Both come with risk issues but nothing is life is guaranteed. I think the Twins made a sweet deal here. They were going to trade Rogers this summer anyway or let him walk and get nothing. An even worse scenario would have had Rogers finger issues resurface similar to what happened to Randy Dobnak. Rooker was not going to be around for long either, his defense was poor and he wasn’t hitting enough to make up for it. If Paddack pans out, the Twins are huge winners and anything Pagan provides is gravy.
I understand that it leaves the Twins with no obvious closer but look at it this way. The Twins with Rocco Baldelli managing for Falvey and Levine means that analytics rule, you use the pitcher that has the best numbers going for him against the current opponents at bat. Just like the shifts they employ, they go with what the numbers show as giving them best odds. With that kind of thinking, why would you have a designated closer?
You can also make the case that every team has a pitcher in their bullpen that can close, you just have to work through it and find out who that pitcher is. I don’t believe that closers are born, they are made. I believe Billy Beane was of the belief that once you got a closer that other teams liked, you traded him for something you needed and you started all over again.
Some fans are already concerned where Paddack fits in the rotation, who has to lose his spot? The solution is simple, you go with a rotation of Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Sonny Gray, Dylan Bundy, Chris Archer and Chris Paddack. Sooner or later it will be obvious who the odd man out should be, no need to worry unnecessarily. The Twins have lots of new players to watch and to enjoy, make sure you get yourself a scorecard so you know who is who.
UPDATE on April 8 –
UPDATE on April 8 – The Twins open the 2022 season with 19 players on their 28-man roster who were not on the 2021 Opening Day roster: pitchers (13) – Chris Archer, Dylan Bundy, Jharel Cotton, Danny Coulombe, Jhoan Duran, Sonny Gray, Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack, Emilio Pagán, Jhon Romero, Joe Ryan, Joe Smith and Josh Winder; catchers (1) – Gary Sánchez; infielders (3) – Carlos Correa, Nick Gordon and Gio Urshela; and outfielders (2) – Gilberto Celestino and Alex Kirilloff. Of the 28 players on the Twins’ active roster, 11 began their professional careers in the Twins organization. Duran, Romero and Winder are the only three players looking to make their major league debuts. The oldest on the club is Joe Smith (38 years, 0 months, 17 days) and the youngest is Gilberto Celestino (23 years, 1 month, 26 days). The only nine players on last year’s Opening Day roster were Jorge Alcala, Tyler Duffey, Caleb Thielbar, Ryan Jeffers, Luis Arraez, Jorge Polanco, Miguel Sanó, Byron Buxton and Max Kepler.
Go Twins!