Category: Trades

Twins trade Valencia and acquire Jeremias Pineda

Danny Valencia

The Twins announced today that they have traded 3B Danny Valencia to the Boston Red Sox for 21-year-old GCL outfielder Jeremias Pineda.  Valencia, 27, was taken by the Twins in the 19th round of the 2006 amateur draft and he made his big league debut with the Twins on June 3, 2010 at Safeco Field. Valencia hit .311 with 7 home runs in 299 at bats in 2010 and made the Topps All-Star Rookie team he but slumped in his first full season with the Twins in 2011 hitting just .246. In Valencia’s defense, he did hit 15 home runs and knocked in 72 runs for a team that won just 63 games. This season Valencia was hitting .253 at the end of April but the Twins were playing poorly and when Valencia went 0 for 25 in May, the Twins had seen enough and sent him back to AAA Rochester. The Twins recalled Valencia late in July when Trevor Plouffe went on the DL but since was recalled, Valencia has played in 7 games and has gone 6 for 25 with 9 strikeouts.

I think a number of things played a part in Valencia being sent packing. It wasn’t just his hitting that had tailed off but his play in the field had suffered as well. Valencia was considered the leader of the so-called Twins “fun bunch” in 2011 and the perception from the fans and from some members of the Twins organization was that Valencia did not take the game as seriously as he could. Couple that with the fact that Valencia had an air about him that seemed to send a message that he was entitled to be a big league player and that “humility” was a word that Valencia had never learned the meaning of and it was easy to dislike Danny Valencia, even here in Minnesota where Twins players are treated like royalty. To make matters worse, Valencia became a semi-permanent resident of manager Gardenhire’s dog house and once that happens, you might as well have your bags packed cause your address will be changing, it is just a matter of time. The Red Sox have assigned Danny Valencia to AAA Pawtucket.

Jeremias Pineda

In return for Valencia, the Twins received 21 year-old switch-hitting outfielder Jeremias Pineda. Pineda was signed by the Red Sox late in the 2010 international signing period for a reported $10,000 bonus. Pineda only hit .224 in the Dominican Summer League and .140 in the GCL last season. But this season Pineda is one of the older players in the GCL and is hitting a league leading .421 in 133 at bats with 20 runs scored, 22 RBI’s and 14 stolen bases in 21 attempts. Pineda is slight of build at 5’11” and 175 pounds and is known for his speed and his plus throwing arm.

No one knows what the future holds for Valencia or Pineda but sometimes a change of scenery is benefical for all parties.

History of the MLB Trading Deadline

According to MLB, “The non-waiver Major League trading deadline has been July 31st since the 1986 season. Prior to that season, the non-waiver deadline for trades within each League was June 15th and there were also distinctions between when intraleague and interleague trades could be made. Waivers were necessary at all times for interleague trades, with the exception of two non-waiver interleague trading periods: February 15 – April 1 and 5 days after conclusion of World Series – the day before the last scheduled day of the Winter Meetings.

The first appearance of a trade deadline in the Major Leagues came when the National League established a deadline of August 20th in 1917. After that date, a player had to clear NL waivers before being traded. The American League followed suit in 1920, but with a deadline of July 1st. The following year, both the AL and NL agreed on a deadline of August 1st. On December 14, 1922, the deadline was changed to June 15th after gaining approval at the Joint Major League meetings held at the Hotel Commodore in New York. It would stay June 15th until after the 1985 season. In 1953, the interleague trading rules were amended as to require waivers between June 15th and the conclusion of the championship season. The first non-waiver interleague trading period was created for the 1959 off-season and it was from November 21–December 15. In 1970, the start of the period was moved to begin 5 days after the World Series instead of November 21. Seven years later, a second non-waiver interleague trading period was created, February 15–March 15. In 1981, that period was extended through April 1 and was in effect until all distinctions between interleague and intraleague trading were abolished prior to the 1986 season.”

Players may be traded between Major League Clubs until 4:00 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday, July 31st without Major League waivers in effect.

In July between 2000 and July 25 of 2012, the San Diego Padres have made the most trades, a total of 38 and on the other end of the spectrum, the Angels have made the fewest deals, just 11. The Minnesota Twins have made the second fewest number of trades in that time frame, just 13 but the Francisco Liriano trade the other day would add one to the total. Looking at the rest of the AL Central, the Tigers have made 15 deals, the White Sox have made 25 not counting the recent Liriano deal, the Royals have swung 26 deals and the Indians lead the division with 27 trades. It appears that the addition of two wild card spots this season has deceased the amount of deals but we still have time to bring that number up.

The following table tracks the number of trades that have occurred between June 1-July 31. Three-way trades are counted as one trade.

YEAR Trades between June 1 and July 31
2012 36
2011 33
2010 40
2009 36
2008 25
2007 33
2006 42
2005 30
2004 41
2003 34
2002 32
2001 41
2000 42
1999 28
1998 40
1997 23

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Liriano now a Chicago White Sox

Francisco Liriano

Who would have thunk it? The Twins have traded Francisco Liriano within the AL Central Division to the Chicago White Sox for minor league pitcher Pedro Hernandez and infielder Eduardo Escobar. I have not seen any previous reports of the Mighty Whities interest in Liriano but that is how these trades often happen, all the rumors of interested teams are just that, rumors. At first blush it does not appear like the Twins received much in return but time will tell, we will just have to wait and see. Then again it is not like the Twins traded a superstar, Liriano had to be traded and obviously the Twins don’t think that moving him to Chicago will hurt them long-term.

Pedro Hernandez

So what did the Twins get for Liriano? They received 23-year-old lefty Pedro Hernandez. Hernandez is just 5’10” and goes about 200 and was signed by the San Diego Padres as an amateur free agent in 2006 and was traded to the White Sox this past winter in the Carlos Quentin deal. Hernandez has one big league game under his belt when the White Sox called him up for one start just 10 days ago against the Red Sox but it was not a pleasant experience for Hernandez who lasted just 4 innings giving up 12 hits, 3 home runs and 8 earned runs. In his 6 minor league seasons, Hernandez has 33-13 record with a 3.42 ERA and 1.24 WHIP. Hernandez is not a strikeout pitcher and has given up 453 hits in 428.1 innings. Not exactly what I was hoping to get in return for Liriano but he is left-handed and is only 23 years old.

The other player that the Twins received for Liriano was 23-year-old switch hitting 2B/SS/3B Eduardo Escobar. Escobar was signed by the White Sox as an amateur free agent in 2006. Escobar appeared in 9 games with the White Sox in 2011 and in 35 games this season. In the minors, Escobar played mainly at SS and 2B but with the White Sox this season he played primarily at 3B although he also played a few games at SS and 2B and even appeared in the outfield for a game. In his 89 big league at bats over two seasons, Escobar hit for a .202 average with no home runs and 2 stolen bases.

Slowey sent packing

The Twins have traded right-handed pitcher Kevin Slowey to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later. The 27-year-old Slowey was a Twins second round pick in 2005 and made his major league debut in Oakland against the A’s on June 1, 2007 in a no decision start.

Slowey has been with the Twins for 5 years and has appeared in 100 games, 90 of them starts and he has a career mark of 39-29 with a 4.66 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP. Slowey has had good control as shown by his 84 bases on ball in 532 innings but he has also given up 84 long balls. Durability however; is not Slowey’s long suit as evidenced by his five trips to the DL in five years and he has never thrown as many as 161 innings in any big league season.

In the spring of 2011 Slowey lost out in the battle for the starting rotation and the Twins moved him to the bullpen. Between April 1st and May 20th Slowey appeared in relief 6 times and had a 4.91 ERA. Slowey complained publicly that he was not suited for the bullpen and that his arm hurt and the Twins sent him out to rehab and then farmed him out to Rochester. Slowey was recalled later in the season and made 8 starts for the Twins and was the losing pitcher each time, giving up 36 runs in 45.2 innings.

But is wasn’t his poor pitching that sent Slowey packing, it was his attitude. The word was that Slowey had a reputation as a “club house lawyer” and that he was convinced that he knew the best way to pitch which did not endear him either to pitching coach Rick Anderson or manager Gardenhire. I don’t know if these reports are true or not but I can tell you that Kevin Slowey was very standoffish whenever I saw him during the past few years during spring training visits and he certainly did not go out of his way to interact with Twins fans.

I think that Terry Ryan was smart this month in saying publicly that Slowey was in his starting rotation plans for 2012 regardless if that was true or not. Personally I think that Slowey had burned too many bridges and Ryan was just trying to get as much as he could for Slowey. I sure would have liked the Twins to do better than a PTBNL for trading Slowey to the Rockies who had also expressed interest in Slowey last summer at the trade deadline. At least the Twins will get something versus just non-tendering him. The rumor has it that the Rockies are looking to move 3B/2B Ian Stewart who has been a disappointment in Colorado and that they were looking to get a couple of minor league pitchers in return. You would think the Twins would have very little to lose to have swung a deal that included Slowey for the 26-year-old left-handed hitting Stewart with good pop in his bat even if the Twins had to kick in something to sweeten the pot. It will be interesting to see what Slowey can do in the National league in Colorado.

UPDATE December 9 – The Twins announced yesterday that they have acquired right-handed pitcher Daniel Turpen from the Rockies as the player to be named later in the Kevin Slowey trade.

Jim Thome sent to Cleveland

Jim Thome

August 25, 2011 – According to numerous reports, DH Jim Thome has been claimed on waivers by Cleveland and traded to them for the proverbial “player to be named later”. These same reports state that the Indians and the Twins have until October 15 to agree on the PTBNL. Jim Thome came up with the Cleveland Indians and played there from 1991 through the 2002 season before moving on to the Phillies as a free agent in December of 2002. Thome played for the Phillies through 2005 before he was traded to the Chicago White Sox where he played in 2006 through August of 2009 when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Thome then signed as a free agent with the Twins in January of 2010 and re-upped with Minnesota in 2011. During his stay in Minnesota, Thome was a very popular player both with the team as well as the Twins fan base. In his short stay in Minnesota, Thome played in 178 games, had 578 plate appearances while hitting .268 with 37 home runs and 99 RBI’s. Thome never played in the field for the Twins, always serving as the DH or coming in as a pinch-hitter. Thome leaves Minnesota with 601 career home runs, one of just 8 players in history to reach the 600 circle. Jim Thome is a sure Hall of Famer and his stay in Minnesota was in reality for a short period of time but fans and players alike will miss “Gentleman Jim”. But the trade to Cleveland is a good move on the Twins part and hopefully Jim Thome can help Cleveland catch the Detroit Tigers and move on to the playoffs and give Jim the shot at a World Series that he wants badly. I know the odds are stacked against Thome but he deserved that shot. Good luck Mr. Thome!

Twins have a busy day

Tsuyoshi Nishioka

December 16, 2010 – It has been reported that the Twins have reached an agreement with the switch-hitting 2B/SS Tsuyoshi Nishioka on a 3 year deal plus an option for a fourth year for about $10 million. According to http://www.fangraphs.com/ , Nishioka, who will be 27 in July, has had an injury plagued career so far and 2010 was his first season where he stayed healthy and played a full schedule of games. This past year Nishioka led his league in hitting with a .346 average (.387 from the right side and .329 from the left) and had a league leading 206 hits making him only the second player in the Pacific League to have over 200 hits in a season, Ichiro was the only other player to accomplish this feat. Prior to hitting .346 this past year, Nishioka had never hit over .300. Nishioka has little power but has some speed but still, he only swiped 22 bases in 33 attempts so I have to wonder if the Twins are really getting the speed that Gardy is craving.

Nishioka is a two time Gold Glove winner, winning once at 2B (2005) and once at shortstop in 2007. The word seems to be that he has good range but just an average arm so he may be better suited at 2B for Minnesota. In 2010 Nishioka led his Pacific League shortstops with 19 errors and had the lowest fielding average but he did have more put-outs and assists than any other SS, albeit on artificial turf. It will be interesting to see how Nishioka’s skills transfer to MLB and the Minnesota Twins.

Paul Bargas

The Twins also traded catcher Jose Morales to the Colorado Rockies for minor league left handed pitcher Paul Bargas. Bargas is 6’1” and goes about 205 pounds. Bargas was drafted by the Rockies in the 13th round of the 2009 draft and has pitched in organized ball in 2009 and 2010. This past year he pitched for Asheville in “A” ball and put up some very nice numbers, all of them in relief. Paul compiled a 5-4 won/loss record and had 5 saves in 58 games. Bargas pitched 67+ innings this year and struck out 64 while walking only 19 and held batters to a .227 average and only gave up 3 home runs and put up a 3.59 ERA to go along with a WHIP of 1.12, not too shabby at all. This was “A” ball but still not too bad a return for Morales.

The Twins were out of options on the left handed hitting Jose Morales and really had no spot for him on the big league roster with Drew Butera appearing to have a solid hold on the back-up catching job due to his catching and throwing skills. I think the Twins did Morales a favor by trading him and getting a young pitcher in return, a trade that might work out well for both the Rockies and the Twins. I am glad to see the Minnesota Twins organization take a chance and move some players that the organization feels have no future in Minnesota while they still have some potential versus letting them “rot on the vine” and then get nothing in return. I think this is also good for the players involved; sometimes a change of scenery is best for all concerned.

The JJ Hardy Dilemma

JJ Hardy

December 1, 2010 – Let’s talk a little about the JJ Hardy dilemma. I just can’t see any way that the Twins will not tender shortstop JJ Hardy a contract for 2011. Here is my reasoning, first of all there is no guarantee the Twins will sign Tsuyoshi Nishioka and if that scenario should occur, they need Hardy to play short and unless they sign a free agent second baseman to replace Orlando Hudson they need Alexi Casilla to play second. But let’s assume that the Twins do sign Nishioka, so where do they play him? Shortstop is a key position; I just can’t see the Twins going into 2011 with such a huge unknown both in the field and with the stick as Nishioka without some insurance. So leave Hardy at short for at last another season and play Nishioka at 2B where he is probably better suited anyway. Casilla can be the main utility guy and he can play as needed, plus he is a switch hitter who can run, there are many ways to get playing time for Casilla. That buys you time and we can see what kind of a player Nishioka really is and what Casilla can do with more playing time then he had in 2010.

What I don’t understand is why the Twins seem to be so down on Hardy? Hardy is the same player today as he was a year ago when they traded Carlos Gomez their crown jewel from the Johan Santana trade to the Brewers to acquire him. Sure the man was hurt in 2010 but he played great in the field when he was healthy and he has always been a streaky hitter so that should be no surprise. Plus the man has some pop in his bat and they can always use that.

The Twins are a contending team, not an also-ran that can take huge risks and just hope that Nishioka, if he signs, is the player they think he is. Casilla is no sure thing either; he has been given numerous chances in the past and let them slip through his fingers. The safe way to go here is to keep Hardy at short and play Nishioka at 2B. You can always trade Hardy after 2011 and his trade value may be even higher if he can stay healthy and show more power than he did in 2010. It is all about risk here and why take unnecessary risk when you don’t need to. The logical bet here is to play it safe.

Twins bring in another closer

Brian Fuentes

August 27, 2010 – The Twins announced today that they have acquired 35 year old left-handed closer Brian Fuentes from the Los Angeles Angels for a player to be named later (to be named by October 15). Fuentes had 23 saves in 27 opportunities with the Angels this season after leading the AL in saves in 2009 with 48. Fuentes, nicknamed T-Rex, had a 4-1 record in 39 games with an ERA of 3.52 and a WHIP of 1.20 to go along with 39 strikeouts and 5 home runs allowed. Gardenhire has stated that Capps will retain the closer role and Fuentes will be primarily a set-up guy but he will get some closing opportunities if Capps is used too many days in a row. This is Fuentes’s tenth big league season and he does have 186 lifetime saves pitching for the Mariners, Rockies, and the Angels. So now the Twins have ties to 4 closers if you count Nathan who is out for the year in Rauch, Capps, and Fuentes. Fuentes will be available for Saturday’s game so a roster move will be required, probably after today’s game against the Mariners. Fuentes has about $1.89 million due him this year but he will probably not meet the required 55 games finished to trigger his $9 million vesting option for next season. Sure looks like the Twins are “going all in” this year.

Twins trade for All-Star closer Matt Capps

Matt Capps as a National

July 29, 2010 – The Twins have announced that they have acquired right handed closer Matt Capps (6’2” and 245) from the Washington Nationals in return for one of their top prospects, catcher Willie Ramos and LHP Joe Testa. Some reports also have the Twins getting $500K in the transaction.

The Twins have also announced that Jon Rauch will be moved to a set-up role and that Capps will take over closing duties. In 47 appearances with the Nationals this season, Capps was 3-3, 2.74 (46.0 IP, 14 ER), allowing 51 hits with nine walks and 38 strikeouts. His 26 saves (30 opportunities) were the fourth most in the National League and seventh most in all of baseball. Capps was also selected to the 2010 National League All-Star team.

Ramos, arguably the Twins best prospect has spent most of the 2010 season at Triple-A Rochester. In 71 games with the Red Wings, he batted .241 (67-for-278) with 14 doubles, five home runs and 30 RBI. Ramos did spend a few games with the Twins earlier this year. This is probably a good deal as Ramos will get a chance to take over as the Nats catcher versus being stuck in the minors behind Twins all-world catcher Joe Mauer who is going nowhere in the near future.

GO GO is gone

November 6, 2009 – The Twins announced today that they have traded outfielder Carlos Gomez to the Milwaukee Brewers for shortstop JJ Hardy. Carlos Gomez was the center piece in the Johan Santana trade with the New York Mets several years ago and came to Minnesota along with Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra. Gomez is the second player of that group that has now been traded as Mulvey was sent to Arizona in the trade for reliever Jon Rauch earlier this year. Humber and Guerra remain in the Twins minor league system. The fleet footed Gomez never hit enough to win the center field job outright and often looked like he had no clue with the bat but the Twins will miss his speed, his ability to play center field and his unique character.

The Twins outfield was crowded in 2009 with Cuddyer, Span, Young, Kubel, and Gomez all fighting for playing time and almost always Gomez turned out to be the one sitting on the bench. Now it appears that GM Bill Smith and the Twins are finally admitting that they had too many outfielders which I have been saying for over a year on this site. These guys need to come to the ballpark knowing where they will be playing and where they will be hitting and only Cuddyer knew that he would be in right field game in and game out, at least until Justin Morneau got hurt.

James Jerry Hardy better known as JJ is 27 years old, about 6’2” and 180 pounds and has been with the Brewers since 2005 but he sat out most of 2006 with an injury. Hardy was drafted by the Brewers in the second round of the 2001 draft and won the starting shortstop job with the Brew Crew in 2005. Hardy has been inconsistent during his career and late in 2009 appeared to have lost his starting shortstop job to Alcides Escobar and was actually sent to the minors by the Brewers this past season for 18 games. The 2007 season was arguably Hardy’s best season when he made the NL All-Star team and hit .277 with 26 home runs and 80 RBI’s. Although Hardy has a .262 career average, he has bounced around hitting .247, .242, .277, .283 and .229 last year. His rate of strikeouts has also increased the last 3 years and in 2009 he struck out once every 4.87 at bats. Hardy is not a base stealing threat as his career numbers are 5 steals in 11 attempts, maybe Gardy can get him running. Hardy has a career .323 OBP and yet most of his Brewer at bats have been in the number 2 spot in the batting order. Actually Hardy’s OBP compares very favorably to Orlando Cabrera and Nick Punto who have an OBP of .322. Nothing to jump up and down about there but Hardy does have some pop as he has shown in 2007 when he hit 26 out of the park and 24 in 2008 but in 2009 he fell to 11 home runs. In the field, Hardy is about average from a fielding percentage perspective.

On the salary front, Hardy made 4.65 million in 2009 and will be under team control in 2010 and 2011. It will be interesting to see what number will be assigned to Hardy as the Twins number 7 is currently being used by someone who I think will not be parting with it in the near future. When I first heard about the trade I was really excited and now that I have had the time to look at the numbers that Hardy has put up, I am still excited but I have to admit I am a bit apprehensive about his average and lack of speed.

Bottom line though, I go down on the positive side of this trade and think it is a very good move because the Twins have plugged a hole at short and traded an outfielder so now the line-up can be more consistent and each player knows his role in the line-up. If Hardy can play up to his ability, then I can live with Punto at 2B if need be but acquiring a 2B would still be nice. Mr. Smith still has work to do, but this is a nice start to the off season.