Sonny Gray Might Have Been Front Offices’ Greatest Work

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

14 hours ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Gray was great. I have no strong opinion on the trade to share, except that the model the Twins are using to acquire pitching is unsustainable, in my opinion.

The Twins broke camp in 2023 with a starting rotation acquired wholly through trades. Would you rather have Lopez, Gray, Ryan, Mahle and Maeda, or would you rather have Graterol, Petty, Steer, CES, Hajjar, and Arraez? I think with the Lopez extension, and as long as he stays healthy, they come out ahead on that grand bargain. However, the presence of a pitching pipeline would have allowed for the Twins to keep some of those prospects and fill one more of those rotation pieces in-house.

Sonny Gray was great and the Twins advanced to the division round once in his two years, and Chase Petty would be the Twins 3rd rated prospect behind Jenkins and Lee heading into 2024. Was that a bargain you would have made two years ago? 

Graterol and Maeda deal is pretty close to completed and fairly even.  

So the question is Lopez 4 years, Gray 3-4 years/first round draft pick, Ryan and might as well throw in Julien is better than Petty Steer, CES, Hajjar and Arraez 2 years.  The answer is an emphatic yes as of now.  Yes the Mahle trade turned out badly and I thought it was an overpay from the start.  In the same context, Julien as a prospect was behind Arraez, Steer and CES.  Performance wise Julien looks to have better long term potential than Steer and CES.      

We have a glut of infielders,  trades are necessary and you won't win on all of them.  However the Twins have done pretty well on their bigger trades.  

[HerbieFan]

On 10/18/2023 at 7:09 AM, LewFordLives said:

I didn't think the Mahle trade was bad at the time. It would have been a good trade.....if he had actually pitched for the Twins. The big question is whether the front office should have been more cautious given his recent injury history. I'm not a medical expert so I can't opine on whether they missed or ignored any red flags.

Of course Lew.  I understood the trade at the time....but I didn't like it.  CES has so much much upside.  I understood it b/c we had this glut of minor league bats.  It was dealing from strength to address weakness.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  I just wish I had been wrong!  Go Twins!

[LewFordLives]

4 hours ago, HerbieFan said:

Of course Lew.  I understood the trade at the time....but I didn't like it.  CES has so much much upside.  I understood it b/c we had this glut of minor league bats.  It was dealing from strength to address weakness.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  I just wish I had been wrong!  Go Twins!

I'm curious to see how his career plays out. The opinions about him are so varied. Some think he's the second coming of Babe Ruth, while others think he'll be the 103rd overall pick in a Rob Deer league.