VIDEO: What To Do About Jose Miranda?

[Tom Froemming]

Minnesota Twins third baseman Jose Miranda had a tough series in Cleveland. After multiple shaky defensive plays Saturday, Miranda had an ugly day at the plate Sunday. With Kyle Farmer on a rehab assignment and Royce Lewis starting one himself soon, is it time to look elsewhere at third base?

View full video

[JD-TWINS]

Farmer coming back & the options for him to replace:

1) Castro……not much of a bat, switch hits but still little offensive value. Speed - defensive flexibility!

2) Miranda……defense is struggling, offense is even worse. No intuition on defense and Way overly aggressive at the plate. No strike zone discipline….”pressing”!!

3) Solano……his defense is. or good at either 1B or 2B. His offense has been in steady decline for past 3-4 weeks. No future with club. Miranda can fill his role at 1B & take some reps at 3B while having some days off to help mentally reset.

Castro seems obvious because he has options - Miranda has options - Solano has most offensive upside, on paper, & has no options.

Who gets moved & when?

[GeorgiaBaller]

Hitting is one thing.  Poor defense is just not excusable.  Miranda is playing himself out of the lineup.  

I want to say this is a short term issue---that Royce Lewis comes up and plays 3rd mid season and sticks.  However, we have consistently seen the "top prospects" come up and flounder when they get the chance.   I'm not sure we have seen any "prospects" in the field in the last 4 years come up and stick  without tailing off in production or being injured constantly.   So, I do have to curb my enthusiasm until Lewis shows up and proves it that last half of the season.

Farmer is probably the short term answer, but I'm not sure he has the arm to play 3rd except as a fill-in.  This team has to shore up this Defense that is bleeding runs.  SP has been good---we don't have the bats to overcome fielding issues and sabotaging the good starts.