Justin Morneau--Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem?

Except for his DL time (wrist), Morneau has been an everyday player and since he returned from the DL, he has mostly held down first base. The problem is productivity. He is hitting .238 with a .737 OPS, fine for a middle infielder, not so much for a first baseman. He has batted behind two guys with .400 OBPs and has driven in a grand total of 35 runs. He has been Delmon-like in his selectivity and has homered once since May 26.

Morneau has a big paycheck ($15 M) and will make the same amount next year. I give him all the props in the world for coming back after the concussion issues, but Morneau seems to me to be standing in the way of the rebuilding of the Twins. Pitching is the reason why they won't contend, but in order to rebuild I think the Twins need to rid themselves of Morneau's contract and even if Parmelee isn't ready to be a regular, try to find a replacement.

Morneau should only be used against right handed pitching. He cannot hit lefties any better than a pitcher can. He hits righties with an OPS over .900 so he's still useable in those situations.

He has certainly been struggling. I thought in May he had turned the corner and the Twins shouldn't trade him for anything less than a top 50 prospect. That has changed. It looks like Morneau just isn't comfortable right now. I'm not sure how to get him there other than letting him play through it.

Three and a half weeks until the deadline. A hot streak would do wonders for his trade value.

Morneau's .164Bave w/RISP for the first half killed him as much as the lefties.
If he can just adjust that, the runners are there for him to drive in & possibly drive up his value.

The Twins are going to end up paying the majority of his salary no matter what happens. There aren't many teams that are willing to pick up a $14m contract. Even less that would be willing to pick it up when that player is hitting like Morneau is right now. So the options seem to be try to trade him for some low end prospect AND pick up a large chunk of that salary or hold on to him and see what happens the rest of the season and first half of next year.

Justin needs time he is coming off alot of injuries, kind of like Mauer was last year.

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Originally Posted by stringer bell

Three and a half weeks until the deadline. A hot streak would do wonders for his trade value.

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With what the Astros got for Lee don't hold your breathe on a trade for any value.

You hold onto Morneau, and hope he regains value over the next year. Whether we trade him in the offseason, at the '13 deadline, he'll likely have more value than he has now, and if he doesn't let the guy play out his contract rather than paying him to play for some other team and receiving players similar to whom the Twins got for Delmon Young.

He's done...it's over.

Just ride out the next 1.5 years and thank Jebus once his contract is over.

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Originally Posted by PseudoSABR

You hold onto Morneau, and hope he regains value over the next year. Whether we trade him in the offseason, at the '13 deadline, he'll likely have more value than he has now, and if he doesn't let the guy play out his contract rather than paying him to play for some other team and receiving players similar to whom the Twins got for Delmon Young.

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Yeah, this. Morneau shouldn't be this bad against lefties so we should see improvement with more reps. The team isn't going to trade him this season so the best thing is for them to give him ABs and let him work this out.

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Originally Posted by gunnarthor

Yeah, this. Morneau shouldn't be this bad against lefties so we should see improvement with more reps. The team isn't going to trade him this season so the best thing is for them to give him ABs and let him work this out.

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I agree with this. The Twins can't afford to sell this low on Morneau just to save money, especially since they don't have a top prospect to replace him with at 1B. Keep him, let him try and work this out and see where it leads.

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Originally Posted by PseudoSABR

You hold onto Morneau, and hope he regains value over the next year. Whether we trade him in the offseason, at the '13 deadline, he'll likely have more value than he has now, and if he doesn't let the guy play out his contract rather than paying him to play for some other team and receiving players similar to whom the Twins got for Delmon Young.

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Exactly. I was hopeful he'd heat up and we'd have a huge trade chip on July 31, but we're better off now waiting that out for the best value possible down the road.

Concussion sucks. He would have been an awesome life-long Twin.

So if they platoon him, who else besides our long lost friend, Luke Hughes hits right handed and plays first base (I suppose Doumit could get more ABs there).

Morneau will have no trade value by the end of the month. He will stay a Twin through the 2012 season. I don't think he will stay this bad against lefties for long, but we have given him more than enough time to snap out of this rut. The only solution is to start a platoon.

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Originally Posted by nokomismod

So if they platoon him, who else besides our long lost friend, Luke Hughes hits right handed and plays first base (I suppose Doumit could get more ABs there).

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When we face a left handed pitcher we move Joe to first, Doumit to Catcher and rotate through the righthanded options at DH. I really believe if Justin only faces righty's he will eventually heat up and start crushing the ball. the combination of extra days off and only facing pitchers he can handle should help both his mechanics and his mind.

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Originally Posted by nokomismod

So if they platoon him, who else besides our long lost friend, Luke Hughes hits right handed and plays first base (I suppose Doumit could get more ABs there).

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He doesn't hit right handed, but Mauer does hit lefties very well anyway. When there's a tough lefty starter, Mauer should be starting at 1B with Doumit at C.