TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
It didn’t take long for the Minnesota Twins to make their first post lockout deal when they traded 31-year old catcher Mitch Garver to the Texas Rangers for soon to be 27-year old shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and minor league right-handed pitcher Ronny Henriquez who pitched in AA ball after starting at High A.
Mitch Garver – Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY
Garver was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 9th round of the 2013 amateur draft and for all practical purposes was the best player the Twins selected in that draft. In addition, Garver was the best catcher drafted that year if you rank them by WAR and they got him for a measly $40K signing bonus.
Garver made his big league debut on August 19, 2017 at Target Field against the Arizona Diamondbacks as a pinch-hitter for Miguel Sano and struck out in his lone appearance in that game. Garver had a breakout season in 2019 as part of the Bomba Squad when he hit 31 home runs and was awarded the Silver Slugger award as the best hitting AL catcher. 2020 and 2021 were seasons that Garver would just as soon forget as injuries limited him to 23 and 68 games respectively.
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.
Late on February 4th rumors started swirling that the Boston Red Sox had finally moved Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The deal supposedly also involved the Twins and in the deal Minnesota traded arguably their top pitching prospect Brusdar Graterol to the Dodgers who then flipped him to the Red Sox.
The Minnesota Twins announced late yesterday that they acquired right-handed pitchers Sergio Romo and Chris Vallimont, along with a player to be named later from the Miami Marlins, in exchange for first baseman Lewin Diaz.
Some time ago I saw that Derek Falvey was quoted as saying and I translate loosely here that-
At the trade deadline you are required to make some moves. If you are out of the race you should make some trades to improve your team by acquiring young talent. If you are in the race you need to make some moves to make your team better for the push to the play-offs and beyond. Standing-pat is not an option.
To me that makes perfect sense and I don’t know why every team does not do this. Now in the next handful of days we will see if Falvey and his partner-in-crime Thad Levine will walk their talk. The Twins are surely in the race and since no team is perfect, there is always room for improvement. Pitching is always in demand and the Twins bullpen has been purged lately of relievers Adalberto Mejia, Mike Morin, Matt Magill and Blake Parker. The starting rotation is starting to wobble as of late and the Twins could use an ace to lead their rotation and take some pressure off Jose Berrios.
Luis Arraez
But as the old saying goes, you have to give up something to get something and that is always tough. Personally I have no issue with trading prospects for a proven commodity that will stay in your organization. I am not a fan of trading for a short-term rental player. Having said that, I would not consider trading a number one overall pick like Royce Lewis. Keep in mind though that there are always new and better prospects. Prospects don’t always come to fruition and players you did not see as a prospect develop over-night and become big leaguers.
There are also certain players like Luis Arraez that I wouldn’t trade unless the deal was a real steal. Arraez is the kind of player that the Twins need in the long run, a young guy that can get on base, the Twins don’t have many of these kinds of players and they don’t come around often.
The next week or so will be interesting for sure, bring it on Mr. Falvey and Mr. Levine.
Pressly’s Tear: RHP Ryan Pressly has been scoreless in his last 32 games (30.1IP), the longest scoreless appearance streak in club history and the longest scoreless innings streak by a reliever in club history. Overall, Pressly’s streak of 30.1 consecutive scoreless innings is the fourth-longest in club history, behind a 32.1 IP streak by RHP Roy Oswalt in 2008
and two separate 31.0-inning streaks put together by RHP J.R. Richard (1979-80 and in 1980).
At the trading deadline last season, Houston acquired RHP Ryan Pressly from Minnesota
in exchange for RHP Jorge Alcala and OF Gilberto Celestino…since the trade, Pressly has posted a 0.50 ERA (2 ER/35.2IP) in 37 games as the Astros setup man. Source: Astros GameNotes
Jorge Alcala
Gilberto Celestino
We will have to wait and see if Alcala or Celestino can save Derek Falvey’s and/or Thad Levine’s bacon.
The Twins announced today that they have traded first baseman Tyler Austin to the San Francisco Giants and received 22-year old minor league outfielder Malique Ziegler in return.
Malique Ziegler
Ziegler was a Giants 22nd round pick in the June 2016 amateur draft and started his pro career that same year in the Arizona Rookie League. Ziegler a right-handed outfielder started this season with the Advanced A league San Jose Giants but the Twins have not announced as yet where he will play. Speed seems to be Ziegler’s game but you can’t steal first base and his career .245 average needs to improve.
Tyler Austin smacks 2 home runs versus the A’s on August 26, 2018
Austin who is 27, was acquired from the New York Yankees along with pitcher Luis Rijo at the trade deadline last season in the Lance Lynn trade. Austin appeared in 35 games in 2018 and in 2 games this season for the Twins and hit for a .236 average with 9 home runs while striking out 45 times in 127 AB’s.
The Twins made a very nice addition to their starting rotation when they acquired pitcher Jake Odorizzi from the Tampa Rays for minor league shortstop Jermaine Palacios yesterday. Odorizzi, 27, has a career 3.83 ERA in 129 appearances (126 starts) since 2012 and he has struck out 643, walked 232 and allowed 101 homers in 705 1/3 innings. The 21-year-old Palacios played shortstop for A ball Cedar Rapids and High A Ft. Myers in 2017. Most of the experts had Palacios ranked somewhere between the 20th and 30th best Twins prospect. Palacios is known more for his hitting than he is his fielding
Jermaine Palacios
This will be the fourth big league organization for Odorizzi who was a first round pick by the Brewers in 2008 but was traded to the Royals in 2010. The Royals traded Odorizzi to the Rays in 2012. Odorizzi will make $6.3 million this year and can become a free agent in 2020.
I am not one to usually comment about trade rumors but this one peaked my interests because it involves one of the Twins starting outfielders, Max Kepler. Rumor has it that the Tampa Rays have stated they are interested in Kepler in any trades for Rays pitchers like Chris Archer or Jake Odorizzi, both right-handed.
I have been a Kepler fan since the Twins signed him back in 2009. Kepler made his big league debut as a September call-up in 2015 and appeared in just three games but became a regular in 2016. Kepler, who will turn 25 in a few days has appeared in 263 games, mostly in right field and hit 36 home runs and posted a .239 average but has sometimes struggled against lefties. Defensively Kepler is above average and plays in center now and then. I am a bit baffled so far by Kepler’s average because this guy should be hitting closer to .300 but he has changed his swing working to get more elevation, I am not sure this is the right approach for Kepler who has a great level swing and will hit around 20 home runs just because he is that strong. Kepler has a history of needing a bit of time to adapt to new leagues and he could have a break-out year in 2018, then again he might not and his value will tank.
The Twins tasted the playoffs in 2018, maybe a little earlier than they should have and now everyone thinks they are well on their way but the Twins have serious starting pitching deficiencies and so far have done nothing to fix that problem and just yesterday they announced that Ervin Santana had surgery on his pitching hand and will be out 10-12 weeks. That means that by the time he comes back and gets in pitching shape the season will be 1/3 over.
Odorizzi
So what do you do? Possibly mortgage the future by trading Kepler for Chris Archer or Jake Odorizzi? Odorizzi who will turn 28 in late March has pitched in the big leagues for the last six seasons and was originally a Brewers first round selection in 2008 but was traded to the Royals in the Zack Greinke trade and then traded to Tampa in the Wil Myers trade. Odorizzi made $4,1 million last year and will not be a free agent until 2020. Odorizzi strikes out 8.2 batters per nine innings and would be a great fit in the Twins rotation.
Archer
Archer is 29 and also has pitched in the big leagues for six seasons, all for Tampa and his history is similar to Odorizzi but he was a fifth round pick by the Indians and traded to the Cubs who then traded him to Tampa in the Matt Garza deal in 2011. Archer is a two-time All-Star who strikes out batter at a clip of 9.7 per nine innings. He is signed through 2020 for about $14 million with team options for 2021 and 2022 for $20 million.
If I am going to trade for one of these guys and I have a choice, I take Chris Archer but I would love to see either one of these guys in the Twins rotation and as much as I like Kepler I would trade him for either one of these pitchers straight up. Why? Because the Twins have a history of finding and developing hitters, pitchers not so much. It is about time the Twins pushed some of their chips to the middle of the table and take some calculated risks. You have a known weakness, you at least have to try to fix it. Sitting back and waiting is not the answer. It is time for Derek Falvey and Thad Levine to show us their hand.
The MLB non-waiver trade deadline of July 31 is coming up fast, just slightly over a month away. I am an old-timer, I admit it, I miss the good old days when baseball trades were made based on the skills of the players and the needs of your ball club. Today it is about the money, how long you can control the player, no trade clauses, free agency and who knows what else. Today’s star players are often traded for minor league players with potential for the future. I hate those kind of trades because you are giving up a known commodity for a player or players that might be a star in the future, you are giving up a sure thing for a maybe. But that is baseball today so we need to accept it and move on.
What about our Minnesota Twins, what will they do? I think the Twins find themselves in a very difficult position. The team is winning just enough to stay in the weak AL Central Division race but yet I think management realizes that this is not a playoff team. On the other hand, their attendance and fan interest has been falling since 2010 and they can ill afford to send up the white flag and signal the start of another rebuild process. So what do you do, buy, sell, or do nothing? So what are the odds that the team will make some moves prior to the trade deadline?
Ervin Santana
This will be the first trade deadline for the Twins under the Derek Falvey and Thad Levine regime so there is no real track record to go on. The Twins have players that would interest other teams and they also have players like Miguel Sano, Max Kepler and Jose Berrios that they won’t trade. The team listened to offers for second baseman Brian Dozier all winter and when all was said and done and decided to keep him. The ace of the starting staff Ervin Santana, 34, would be a nice pick-up for a contender but can a team as pitching starved as the Twins afford to give him up? Some would argue that the Twins can’t afford not to trade him because he is having a great season, maybe a career season and he is signed at a very team friendly deal through 2018 with a team option in 2019.
No matter who the team trades they need to get pitching in return and acquiring pitching is such a risky proposition. It is almost a damned if you do and damned if you don’t scenario.
So what is my best guess? I would say that the team will move Ervin Santana, Robbie Grossman and probably some minor league players for pitching. If you go by what Falvey and Levine did this past winter, they will do nothing and wait for their young players to get better.
