Twins Do Nothing at Deadline

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Minnesota Twins made a trade for Dylan Floro a few days ago. On August 1, the Major League Baseball trade deadline, they sat on the sidelines and did nothing.

 

Image courtesy of Peter Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

Entering the day with a one game lead over the Cleveland Guardians, the Minnesota Twins had an opportunity to enrich their 26-man roster and further expand the AL Central division lead. Rather than do that, they decided to hang onto veterans and prospects alike, while hoping the answers remain in house.

It’s hard to fault Derek Falvey and Thad Levine for thinking they did enough this offseason. Carlos Correa was brought back, Byron Buxton was supposed to be healthy, and they added a slugger in Joey Gallo. Despite those things all being true, the team has underperformed to this point. Adding some help made sense, but instead, the front office is banking on those within the clubhouse turning it around.

Even with Wes Johnson jetting for the college ranks last year, Pete Maki has the pitching staff looking like one of the best in baseball. Sonny Gray publicly stated a desire to have starters pitch deeper this spring, and they have. Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez, Kenta Maeda, and Bailey Ober have all been good on the bump. More often than not though, they haven’t seen any sort of run support.

This season the Twins have been terrible against left-handed pitching, and it makes very little sense given their talented right-handed hitters. Heading into the deadline, a right-handed bat always seems to make sense, especially with the left-handed outfield logjam including Max Kepler, Gallo, Trevor Larnach, and Matt Wallner. Rather than add though, Minnesota decided to implore the guys already here to do something.

Correa is having an uncharacteristic season and has been subpar across the board. Somehow, Buxton has hit righties better than lefties, and even with his streakiness, the inability to punish southpaws has been mind-numbing. Rocco Baldelli has platooned his lineups more often than not, and even with matchup advantages, Minnesota continues to fail.

Beyond the lineup, the Twins bullpen appeared to need help. It’s been Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax, and pray for rain. Jorge Lopez was moved because he hasn’t been good, but even in getting Caleb Thielbar or Brock Stewart back, Minnesota is constantly looking for guys to simply get outs on a nightly basis.

The reliever market is always flush with options, and Minnesota not finding one to their liking is certainly interesting. They didn’t need to pay a premium for an arm like Aroldis Chapman, but doing nothing to bolster a group that has seen Cole Sands take a spot for serious time seems odd.

At this point, the Twins are in first place atop baseball’s worst division. They didn’t need to make monumental moves in order to keep Cleveland at bay, but doing nothing is curious. The Guardians traded a starting shortstop in Amed Rosario, and they capitalized on starter Aaron Civale. Another team seemingly bowing out shouldn’t have been seen as enough to stay put.

Minnesota’s front office is apparently content with where the club is, and demanding those in the clubhouse to step up. That’s a fine stance if we had seen any indication they would thus far, but to go without adding for a team that should make the postseason is quite a strategy. Maybe Derek Falvey and Thad Levine know this group isn’t a deep contender, but they could have made moves without mortgaging the future.

I have no idea if the brass got gun shy following a year where they were blown up, but either way, the 2023 trade deadline isn’t something anyone should be putting on their resume in Minnesota. There is little to no reason for a winning team to bring in reinforcements, and the Twins opted against it despite being in the driver's seat.

Now, we see how it plays out.

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[LA Vikes Fan]

Ugly stuff. 

[curt1965]

Down right embarrassing! A kick in the balls to the Twins fans. By passing on an obvious need to add a right handed bat, they choked. When are the Minnesota fans going  to demand a better product?

[CRF]

Sickening. The FO needs to go. 

[mikelink45]

The only thing positive out of this trade season is the fact that it gave TD a chance to write dozens of articles about possible trades and acquisitions. 

[BD57]

This isn't a dangerous roster, not one which "could go far in the post-season by adding the right one or two guys from the universe of 'guys available'."

Only way this group becomes dangerous is if a whole bunch of guys start performing "at their potential."

Need Correa & Buxton to step it up, big time.

Need Polanco & Lewis to get healthy & play at a high level.

Frankly, need too many "happy answers" to the questions facing this team to believe the core group here now is capable of being "post-season dangerous."

While pitching hasn't been great since All-Star break, even when they were hot, they're not enough to carry this offense ("Whether any staff could be" . . . probably not).

"Trade Deadline" is when you get the guy or two who'll push you over the top 0R you get a start on remaking your roster for next year.  

Twins were in no-man's land:

• Not good enough to think adding a couple of guys would make them dangerous in the post season.
• Lacking in commodities which would get them excellent prospects in return.

No one (or two) guys acquired in a trade was going to do that for this roster.

So . . . do you trade for rentals / short-term guys & give up your best assets when you believe doing so won't make you significantly better "right now?"

Or do you stand on what you have & put the job of making this group successful on the guys in the clubhouse?

 

[Reptevia]

Really no reason to do anything. This team isn’t good enough to compete outside the ALC. Seems wise to to hang onto prospects that are doing well and not trade those who aren’t but still may down the road. Admitting this is probably the smartest thing this FO has done. 

[LastOnePicked]

"Carlos Correa was brought back, Byron Buxton was supposed to be healthy, and they added a slugger in Joey Gallo."

Thank you, Ted. Your post helped clarify a point that I had struggled to articulate lately. Simply put, the 2023 Twins are a house of cards. Your mention of the "big 3" above speaks to the heart of this:

1) Carlos Correa was brought back only because his other free agent suitors bailed. It now appears they all knew something we didn't. And he was good last year, but certainly not elite. Not even great at this point in his career.

2) Who on earth expected Byron Buxton to be healthy? It wasn't going to happen. It's never happened. It never can happen, considering all that is wrong with his hips and knees at this point. It's tragic, but it's plain to see.

3) Every other team passed on Gallo. He's finished. That, too, is obvious now, and should have been obvious in the offseason.

If you ran a team and these were your "Big 3," then it was clearly time to rebuild. It doesn't matter how many unproven but potentially promising mid-tier rookies you toss in. That's like building a dining table with straw legs. It wasn't going to hold ... and as we can see, it hasn't.

The trade deadline was again a fiasco, but the core disappointment was the FO thinking - and trying to convince us fans - that this team was already ready to compete.

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

The only thing positive out of this trade season is the fact that it gave TD a chance to write dozens of articles about possible trades and acquisitions. 

Speculation articles ...

[twinstalker]

The obvious is still not being talked about.  I really don't think Falvey had any ammunition to work with after the 3-4 guys he probably deemed untouchable in negotiations.

Every team can see that Larnach and Severino aren't eventual helpful major leaguers.  The Twins whole system strikes out too much (age vs level) to ever make it in MLB, save a few like Lee.  Even if Falvey could trade Larnach for a bag of peanuts, doing so would be a huge admission of failure, and Falvey doesn't appear to be secure enough to admit when he makes mistakes.  Larnach, Kepler, Gallo...

 

[BD57]

On 8/3/2023 at 8:35 AM, twinstalker said:

The obvious is still not being talked about.  I really don't think Falvey had any ammunition to work with after the 3-4 guys he probably deemed untouchable in negotiations.

Every team can see that Larnach and Severino aren't eventual helpful major leaguers.  The Twins whole system strikes out too much (age vs level) to ever make it in MLB, save a few like Lee.  Even if Falvey could trade Larnach for a bag of peanuts, doing so would be a huge admission of failure, and Falvey doesn't appear to be secure enough to admit when he makes mistakes.  Larnach, Kepler, Gallo...

 

While I could be wrong, my sense is our minor league system isn't overflowing with big-time prospects right now.

All this could be part of "restocking the pond" - rather than trade away kids who might turn into something (but aren't there yet), keep them & let's see what htey become.

Again - we weren't going to make this roster dangerous in the post-season via a couple of trades.