What Can The Twins Do With Marwin Gonzalez?

[Vanimal46]

People on Twitter are charting out every single trash can bang during the 2017 Astros season. According to this source, Marwin Gonzalez benefitted the most from this cheating scandal.

 

 

I assume the Twins thought they were signing a player who improved his offensive approach to go with his Swiss Army knife defensive flexibility... I mean, I did! And advocated to sign him that entire winter.

 

Can the Twins void the contract? Will he be suspended? What do you think the Twins should do?

[howieramone2]

They should do nothing.

[scottz]

I think they can keep signing his paychecks, and appreciate the veteran presence and versatility he provides. They could also go sign Tony Kemp, and be assured that he's a stand up guy.

[mikelink45]

Since the Twins don't participate in this I would suggest that they just continue to go forward unless MLB steps in.  

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Other than Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Marisnick (Mets), the rest of those players are still with the Astros or out of baseball (or not of much consequence).

 

Three of them on that list wound up with the Mets.

 

So yeah, developing story, and there might be something yet that needs to happen. Too soon to tell.  

[howieramone2]

It will make it harder to get into the HOF.

[Doctor Gast]

He has proven that he can play, unless he has some scoop on the `17 & `19 Yankees it doesn`t involve us but I see where you`re coming from

[SomeGuy]

There isn't much the league can do to the players now.  Punishing them with suspensions would punish teams that were not part of it. If anything fine them but I think the GM and coach fell on that sword and it is over. They couldn't perfectly assess who was guilty or to what degree players were involved and now the collateral damage to innocent teams is a factor. Did Marwin Gonzalez have control over the guy banging on the trashcan or did they do that at their own discretion? Don't know.

 

Why would the Twins want to void the contract? He is a major part of the team, I think we are happy with what he did last year. His line was almost identical to his career line.  The Twins weren't expecting anything more than he did last year. The Twins should do nothing and enjoy another season.

 

2019  .264/.322/.414

Career .264/.319/.418

 

 

Separate thought.  Had the Astros just accepted the punishment and kept both manager and GM on board for 2021, I think the Red Sox and Mets would have done the same thing.  Their owner wanted so badly to disassociate himself from it that he set the precedent for punishment.  The League did a thorough investigation and thinks just 1 year fits the crime.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

 

It will make it harder to get into the HOF.

True, it has probably hurt Beltran, but I think Altuve can recover. 

[diehardtwinsfan]

I would argue that they should keep him.. he might have benefited from the trash can, but he wasn't able to replicate that season in 2018 for what that's worth... so I'm not sure just how much he benefited...

 

Either way, he's paid appropriately for his 2019 value and I'd keep him in 2020. 

[twins_89]

The main thing the data on sign stealing does is highlight how out of place Gonzalez's 2017 was with the rest of his career. Gonzalez is a solid and useful player, but the 144 wRC+ and 4.0 fWAR from 2017 are ridiculously out of line with everything else he's done.

 

At this point there is nothing for the Twins to do, he will play out his contract and move on.

[bird]

I wouldn't be at all opposed to seeing him moved at the deadline for a low minors prospect if they have a versatile replacement (Blankenhorn?) to take his place.

[bighat]

 

Why would the Twins want to void the contract? He is a major part of the team, I think we are happy with what he did last year. His line was almost identical to his career line.  The Twins weren't expecting anything more than he did last year. The Twins should do nothing and enjoy another season.

 

2019  .264/.322/.414

Career .264/.319/.418

 

 

 

Agreed. And if you recall, he had a horrendous March/April batting just .169 those months.

 

From May 1st on, he batted .285 - while playing all over the IF and OF. He also had some clutch hits, I recall a huge HR against Josh Hader in mid-August. Not only did his 3-run HR give the Twins the lead in the 8th inning, but it also launched the Twins into 1st place.

 

If the Twins get the same production they did last year, it's money well spent. He's a really nice player to have on this team.

[Shaitan]

Well, if people on Twitter say so...

[KirbyDome89]

The Twins shouldn't do anything. They're not in any position to take a moral stand after signing Pineda and Cruz to contracts post suspension. 

 

Marwin is still a valuable utility option off the bench, there's no reason to even consider voiding his contract. Good luck to MLB with handing out individual punishments. A strong players union on top of the near impossibility of discerning which players benefitted and to what extent all but ensures punishment at an individual level isn't going to happen.

 

[nicksaviking]

At best he’s only the best bench player, at worst, Adrianza and Cave have surpassed him. I doubt the team could shed any of his salary now, but even from a PR or appeasing the clubhouse standpoint, I don’t see the team being impacted terribly if he was dumped.

 

In fact, maybe the team wants to get a feel for how Berrios feels about it considering he was a directly impacted party.

[chinmusic]

 

Well, if people on Twitter say so...

My sentiment exactly. Thanks, Shaitan. Agree!

[Old Twins Cap]

Come on, Marwin conspired and cheated the game of baseball.

 

Stop with the excuses, the double-talk and the "we don't knows".

 

Marvin is the trash can king.

 

Trade the hell out of him. We don't need someone whose duplicitous conduct has stained the game forever.

 

You do what Marwin and the rest of the Astros did and you should be punished.

 

He knew. He knew he was cheating. They all did. Nothing happens to them? Really?

[Lasorda_This_Out]

Nothing.....

[jkcarew]

Come on, Marwin conspired and cheated the game of baseball.

 

Stop with the excuses, the double-talk and the "we don't knows".

 

Marvin is the trash can king.

 

Trade the hell out of him. We don't need someone whose duplicitous conduct has stained the game forever.

 

You do what Marwin and the rest of the Astros did and you should be punished.

J

He knew. He knew he was cheating. They all did. Nothing happens to them? Really?

Yeah...and dump Pineda and Cruz as well. Oh...and Polanco.

 

The league may (or may not) do something. The Twins should do nothing.

[h2oface]

I can't see how this will be good for the clubhouse. Marwin needs to really perform well with no advantage to change that.

[Jham]

Yeah...and dump Pineda and Cruz as well. Oh...and Polanco.

The league may (or may not) do something. The Twins should do nothing.

Uhh, those guys were punished. Big time. like 80 games. How many millions did that cost them?

[Mr. Brooks]

Yeah...and dump Pineda and Cruz as well. Oh...and Polanco.

 

The league may (or may not) do something. The Twins should do nothing.

The league can't do anything.

They gave the players full immunity.

[lukeduke1980]

It's probably mentioned or described better in the study...but weren't the 'bangs' typically representing an offspeed pitch?  Does this bang study maybe indicate that Marwin saw the least fastballs?

[strumdatjaguar]

The Twins clearly over-paid for Marwin at the time he was signed (based on the inflated trashcan statistics).  Maybe there could be a re-negotiatiion of his contract, adjusting downward for the fraud perpetrated on the Twins..

[Number3]

As Bill S. said, "Much ado about nothing". Play ball.

Save the tweets for the Cardinals, Orioles and Blue Jays.

[nicksaviking]

 

I can't see how this will be good for the clubhouse. Marwin needs to really perform well with no advantage to change that.

 

Yeah, I'm more worried about the clubhouse angle. Based on that Phil Hughes tweet not every pitcher is taking this well, and Jose Berrios got taken advantage of in that same game that Hughes was stewing about.

 

I haven't seen if Odorizzi, Pineda, Bailey, Hill or any of the bullpen guys had outings significantly hurt by Houston's cheating, but at this point, if I want to push for an extension with Berrios, I hand him the rope to the guillotine and let him know that it's his decision should he want to make it.

[JD Green]

So, if its not a good thing to bang on a trash can while your team is up to bat, then how about the drum banger in Cleveland?

[SpicyGarvSauce]

Reading this thread made me think I somehow got routed to The Onion or something.

[Puckett34]

Did he really benefit more than others? Or did he just see a higher volume of breaking pitches, thus getting him more trash can bangs? I think all the Astros regulars benefited equally.

 

I agree that there should be some sort of discipline for all the offending players, but I'm not sure what that is