Looking ahead to the 2019 Major League Baseball season, it’s
relatively apparent that this is a year that looms large for the Minnesota
Twins front office. Embarking on year three, and with their hand-picked
managerial candidate soon to be announced, the impact of change must be felt at
the major league level. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have done a good job
revamping the organization, but the fruits of their labor must start to show
promise. In an offseason of massive proportions, some aggressive moves could be
on the table.
I’m not sure how to categorize each of these scenarios other
than to catalog them as realistic possibilities. Without attempting to venture
down a hot take hole, each of the following situations could play out, but shouldn’t
necessarily be banked on either. Minnesota has a significant amount of money to
spend, and new talent should flood onto the 25 man roster this year. Noting
both of those things as definitive truths, we could certainly see some
interesting avenues explored when blueprinting how things look in March.
Eddie Rosario Doesn’t Play for Minnesota in 2019
If the Twins want to make a big move on the trade market,
dealing from the outfield could be the option they explore. Max Kepler could be
had by an opposing team, but obviously brings back a significantly muted
return. Byron Buxton combines a low value and high ceiling to find himself in a
relatively untouchable form. In Rosario Minnesota would be capitalizing on a
player at his peak. Eddie would bring back the most talent and would be of
benefit to another organization for the next few seasons.
At this point we’ve seen Rosario establish himself as a near
All-Star caliber type of player. I don’t think the ceiling is much higher, but
he’s also helped to cement the floor as being respectable as well. It would
hurt the Twins to lose him, but there’s other avenues to make up the loss in
outfield ability. Should the Twins pull off a big swap, I’d much prefer to see
it include this name as opposed to some of the top prospects.
Nick Gordon Gets Dealt This Winter
Thinking along similar lines to any Rosario deal, Gordon is
the prospect I’d try and entice another organization with. He’s still entrenched
among Top 100 lists, and he’s just 23 years old. To be frank, that’s where the
good news ends. Gordon has played 556 minor league games and owns just a .704
OPS. His only solid offensive output came over the course of 42 Double-A games
while repeating the level to begin 2018.
At this stage of his career it doesn’t seem like Gordon will
stick at shortstop either. Destined for second base, light hitting, and lacking
ideal on-base skills, he seems like a decent type of prospect to include in a
trade to sweeten the deal. Should the Twins sign a middle infielder this winter
(and they need to) Gordon falls further down the depth chart as well.
Miguel Sano Is Done at Third Base
There’s a lot of assumptions built into this one, but I don’t
think any of them are a relative leap. Joe Mauer appears to have player his
last game in the major leagues, and that leaves the Twins with an opening at
first. The free agent market for the position is beyond ugly and dealing for
some thump could prove to be an unwise endeavor. Reports on Brent Rooker in the
outfield aren’t good, and they aren’t much better at first.
Miguel has looked passable at times when it comes to his
defensive ability, but it almost solely falls on his drive to be great. There’s
a lot riding on how he prepares this offseason, and a move to first could allow
him to slack further. That said, Minnesota can upgrade at the hot corner and
grab the best bopper for first base from their own team. Both Mauer and Justin
Morneau could help Miguel (if he’s willing) take to his new role this spring.
Addison Reed Rebounds in Year 2
Going the one-year contract route on a few relievers, it was
Reed who grabbed $16.75MM from Minnesota on a two-year deal prior to 2017. The
numbers looked good for the home team, and Reed was expected to be every bit
worth of that contract. Fast forward to today, and we saw a guy be both bad and
hurt most of the season.
Reed’s average velocity dipped to 91.3mph last year, which
represented a career low and third straight season of decline. He’ll be just 30
years old however, and a clean bill of
health should help significantly when it comes to righting the ship. Missing
bats was the biggest problem for Reed last year, and that was evidenced by a
career worst 7.1 K/9. Ticking the velocity back up and staying in front of
hitters, he should see an ERA more in line with the 2.66 mark put up between
2015-17.
Once the offseason gets started the Minnesota Twins are
going to be a team with plenty of intrigue. The front office knows what is
expected of them, and there’s more than one way they can execute upon vast
improvement for the year ahead. After a winter where baseball mostly froze out
free agents, I’d expect a significantly different couple of months this time
around.
