Why You Shouldn't Lump Anthony DeSclafani In With Other Injured Twins Pitching Acquisitions

[Cody Christie]

Anthony DeSclafani will probably never throw a pitch in a Minnesota Twins uniform, but his acquisition was different from other cases in which the team traded for pitchers who had major subsequent injury problems.

Image courtesy of Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

On Saturday, the Twins announced that Anthony DeSclafani will miss all of the 2024 season (and some of 2025) after undergoing a flexor tendon surgery. It’s the latest setback for DeSclafani, in a career marred by injuries. He missed the 2017 season while dealing with a UCL strain. In 2022, he was limited to fewer than 19 innings because of an ankle injury. A right flexor strain also ended his 2023 season last July. The Twins knew there was a good chance of this outcome when trading for him, which makes this situation distinct from other recent trades.

Minnesota acquired DeSclafani as part of the trade with Seattle for Jorge Polanco. The Twins also received reliever Justin Topa and prospects Gabriel Gonzalez and Darren Bowen. The Mariners added $4 million to the $4 million they had been paid by the Giants, reducing DeSclafani’s salary from $12 million to $4 million. González is considered a borderline top-100 prospect, Topa was a quality setup man last season, and Bowen is a recent late-round pick who is more of a flyer. The value in the trade was always likely to come from those players, and not from DeSclafani. Seattle needed the payroll flexibility to add Polanco’s contract, which required the Twins to take on a less desirable contract. It was the cost of doing business in this trade, and not a result of the front office targeting an injured player.

Some fans and local media members are pointing fingers at the front office for acquiring another injured pitcher. While that was true, the Twins’ front office was making this trade for the other players involved and not for the starting pitcher who became injured. There are multiple reasons the team continues to trade for injured pitchers, and the Twins aren’t the only club dealing with this issue. Minnesota has made some bad trades under the current regime, but there is still time for the Polanco trade to work out in their favor.

Derek Falvey has attempted to add depth to the roster in recent seasons. Last season, the club traded Luis Arráez for Pablo López to add starting depth, pushing Bailey Ober to Triple-A. The Twins wanted DeSclafani’s addition to push Louie Varland to St. Paul to begin the year, but that won’t happen. Minnesota’s pitching depth is already being tested, and the club hopes the current rotation will stay healthy to begin the year. 

The problem here is that the front office was forced by ownership to cut $30 million from the payroll. Minnesota needed to find payroll savings, and one way to do that was by trading a veteran like Polanco. It was also frustrating for fans to watch the top free-agent starting pitchers sign below-market deals. Blake Snell, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, signed with the Giants for two years and $62 million. Jordan Montgomery, who helped Texas win the World Series, signed a one-year, $25 million contract with the Diamondbacks. The Twins could have fit either player into their payroll if they were at last year's $160 million total. Ownership forced this type of trade, which led to adding a starter with a high injury risk. 

Falvey and Thad Levine have shown they are not afraid to take risks, and sometimes, that comes with a chance to be burned. For every bad Tyler Mahle trade, the team can hope for a franchise-altering López-type deal. DeSclafani doesn’t fit into any of these categories, because the front office didn't proactively target him. The Mariners forced a salary dump to get the other pieces in the trade, and that makes him different.

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Should DeSclafani be included among the other pitchers who were injured for the Twins? Leave a comment to start the discussion.

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[Jocko87]

Any NBA fans out there will instantly recognize the mechanism.  Taking on the $4m probably gets a borderline top 100 instead of a borderline top 250 prospect. 

I'm sure they wanted some meaningful minutes for Desclafani but for $4m they couldn't have been expecting much.  Lottery ticket.

[USAFChief]

Twins desperately need to add starting pitching. Everyone, EVERYone knows this. 

Twins make crappy trade for dubious starter. BTW, the only starter added, all winter. 

Twins apologists: "This wasn't a trade for a starter."

C'mon. Seriously?

 

[Bamboo Bat]

I don't buy this line of reasoning. At all. 

It was well known from the day after the World Series ended that the Twins were going to have to attempt to replace innings tossed by Gray & Maeda in 2023. Desclafani was 100% not anybody's first choice - including the front office, I'm sure - but to say "the front office didn't proactively target him" is splitting fine, fine, fine hairs. The front office was looking for a starter that wasn't going to cost much & that target ended up being Desclafani. 

I add this to the pile of injured pitchers the Twins took a bad chance on. But water under the bridge. Hopefully Varland & some of our young arms stockpiled in AAA can hold down the fort in '24. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

Well said. The trade ws basically Polanco for Topa and Gonzalez. Seattle forced DeSclafani and $4m of his salary on the Twins, for which we received Bowen. If one looks at BTV, Topa is 7, Gonzalez 11, Bowen .4 (DeSclafani was 2.8 but he is effectively a negative number for the Twins this year), and Polanco is a 9.4. Throw in $4m effectively being paid by the Twins to take DeSclafani  and the Twins are a little ahead. I know some of you don't like BTV but it is objective and fairly authoritative, certainly more than any of our own at best semi-informed analyses.  

Basically, Polanco for Gonzalez would have been a fair straight up trade and we got Topa and a flyer on top of that in return for taking on a $4m obligation. Not a bad deal at all., some might even call it good. There are a lot of moves the FO has made that one can criticize, but this isn't one of them.   

[TwinsDr2021]

So the Twins traded Polanco for a relief pitcher, a prospect and payroll deduction and the guy they thought would be a throw in 5th starter that cost 4 million shouldn't shouldn't be looked at as trading for another hurt pitcher?

The trade makes zero sense if they aren't getting a guy they think can be the 5th starter and taking on half the salary they traded away.

Wouldn't the been better off trading Polanco for 3 minor league players (regardless of their rankings) and signing a Hudson, Ross, Flexen, Turnbull for what they are paying Topa and not pay the 4 million for DeSclafani?

[Maybebaby]

Sounds a little ( a lot?) like a colonoscopy!

[TwinsDr2021]

6 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Well said. The trade ws basically Polanco for Topa and Gonzalez. Seattle forced DeSclafani and $4m of his salary on the Twins, for which we received Bowen. If one looks at BTV, Topa is 7, Gonzalez 11, Bowen .4 (DeSclafani was 2.8 but he is effectively a negative number for the Twins this year), and Polanco is a 9.4. Throw in $4m effectively being paid by the Twins to take DeSclafani  and the Twins are a little ahead. I know some of you don't like BTV but it is objective and fairly authoritative, certainly more than any of our own at best semi-informed analyses.  

Basically, Polanco for Gonzalez would have been a fair straight up trade and we got Topa and a flyer on top of that in return for taking on a $4m obligation. Not a bad deal at all., some might even call it good. There are a lot of moves the FO has made that one can criticize, but this isn't one of them.   

Not buying it, then they should have traded Polanco straight up for Gonzalez, and used the 5.25 million they are paying for Topa and DeSclafani for a cheaper starter.

[Joe A. Preusser]

46 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Twins desperately need to add starting pitching. Everyone, EVERYone knows this. 

Twins make crappy trade for dubious starter. BTW, the only starter added, all winter. 

Twins apologists: "This wasn't a trade for a starter."

C'mon. Seriously?

 

I don't feel desperate at all.  Twins have a good staff, ok depth, and a farm system with the ability to add whatever levelmof talent is deemed necessary at the trade deadline.  

Not saying you're one of them Chief, but it's crazy how the clear concensus was that everyone wanted nothing to do with Scalafini pitching in our rotation,  yet when we all get what we want it's such a negative?  

[Fire Dan Gladden]

5 minutes ago, Joe A. Preusser said:

I don't feel desperate at all.  Twins have a good staff, ok depth, and a farm system with the ability to add whatever levelmof talent is deemed necessary at the trade deadline.  

Not saying you're one of them Chief, but it's crazy how the clear concensus was that everyone wanted nothing to do with Scalafini pitching in our rotation,  yet when we all get what we want it's such a negative?  

Good staff, not great.
Highly suspect depth, not ok
Farm system depth that will not be traded if it brings more payroll

The issue is not so much Scalafani blowing up, but the initial trade itself and the subsequent spin.  Polanco for a AAAA SP, a RP, a mid-top prospect and a flier was not a good deal.  Make no mistake, Scalafani was penciled in as SP5 the moment this trade was made.  Injury or not, a team with WS aspirations does not have this pitcher on their staff.  The injury just makes the optics of this trade look even worse. 

[DJL44]

25 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Not buying it, then they should have traded Polanco straight up for Gonzalez, and used the 5.25 million they are paying for Topa and DeSclafani for a cheaper starter.

The trade probably would have been Polanco for Topa and Bowen if you leave DeSclafani out of it. The Twins essentially bought Gonzalez for $4M because the Mariners needed to clear payroll to fit Polanco's salary in their budget.

Quote

The trade makes zero sense if they aren't getting a guy they think can be the 5th starter

I am going to guess DeSclafani was the best 5th starter candidate they were offered for Polanco. Nobody is trading a good starting pitcher for an expensive second baseman. I don't think anyone except the Mariners really wanted Polanco.

[DJL44]

3 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Polanco for a AAAA SP, a RP, a mid-top prospect and a flier was not a good deal.

For a salary dump trade with one bidder that's actually a pretty impressive deal.

[bjorks]

I would blame Falvine for how they presented all of this in the media. Pitching depth was important and they sold us on having LV waiting in St. Paul if someone stumbled. As many mentioned, Topa essentially cost $4M + actual salary and Darren Bowen (throw in) is a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG way from helping the big club let alone St. Paul. But you don't get Topa/Gonzalez without taking back a bag of poop. 

If the message was "We're taking a flyer with DeSclafani and his injury history and we have Varland ready and we're signing someone else..." is a better message than "we're excited about DeSclafani and hope he regains his form". One additional pitcher signing would've made this all much easier to stomach. Michael Lorenzen, Jordan Hicks, or Blake Snell would've been better than trying to sell the public on another reclamation project with a high probability of this result. 

 

[jorgenswest]

This was far worse than being in first place at the deadline and trading for Mahle. I absolutely want them to take risks then for one of the more talented starters moved at that deadline.

They made two moves this year volunteering to take on contracts for players that were not wanted by their organizations. The Mariners had to take on DeSclafani to make their Giants trade work. The Dodgers had to take on an Margot to make the Rays trade work. Neither was going to make those rosters and they found someone to take them off their hands.

Once they traded for DeSclafani they stopped looking for alternatives. They have so little confidence in Margot that they started Martin instead when Buxton moved to DH.

Falvey didn’t set the budget but he did set the roster. It started with needing to cut 30 million. You don’t payed a short side platoon infielder beyond market and then follow up by taking on the DeSclafani and Margot dollars. When the money is good take a chance on an injured pitcher and solidify the short side platoon. When the money isn’t good they really needed to prioritize the everyday line up and reliable depth.

They leave themselves with a real need for an everyday hitter to add to an obviously weak lineup against right handed pitching and no depth in starting pitching.

[DJL44]

8 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Once they traded for DeSclafani they stopped looking for alternatives. 

Did they ever really start looking for alternatives?

[Fire Dan Gladden]

13 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

For a salary dump trade with one bidder that's actually a pretty impressive deal.

Another part of the issue... Even with his injuries, Polanco outplayed his salary basically every year.  He wasn't overpriced, if anything he was under-valued.  This trade never should have happened.  It looks even worse now that Lewis is out.

[Dman]

8 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

For a salary dump trade with one bidder that's actually a pretty impressive deal.

I had the Brewers as possible buyers until they made other moves.  I can't think of any other teams all that interested in Polanco other than the Mariners.  Both teams got some addition by subtraction accomplished.  The Mariners freed up a roster spot and some money to accommodate Polanco by moving DeSclafani and Topa.  The Twins were in need and had room for a starter and reliever and the extra money from moving Polanco allowed them to buy another bat or two (Santana, Margot). 

I agree with you.  It was the M's or bust and to get a couple of solid future pieces along with Topa and taking on DeSclafani seemed a pretty good deal to me.  Most experts had the Twins on top in that trade with or without DeSclafani.

 

[TwinsDr2021]

8 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

For a salary dump trade with one bidder that's actually a pretty impressive deal.

is this a true statement or you assuming? If so it makes it even worse they picked up his 10.5 million club option. It really means they paid 9 million for two prospects, one good and the other just a flyer.

They could have not picked it up and paid Paxton 7 million (not much more than then they are paying now) or signed Chris Flexen or Dakota Hudson for under 2 million.

Looking at the whole picture it is a terrible deal!

[Rosterman]

Instead of money coming back, the Twins basically paid $4m for the Mariners to take Polanco, but got a possible TOP prospect in return. The trade will pay off if Topa ends up pitching well. 

But also goes to show that you can't have too many players, sometimes. Polanco playing third now for the Twins, although the question remains who wouldn't have made the 40-man out of spring training if Polanco was still around, so that alone was a reason to trade Jorge. 

But  the Twins better start looking long and hard at pitchers they get in trade, or jsut stick to small deals with minor league free agents with potential. Happily this guy isn't eating up a 40-man roster spot in-the-end. But, still.....

[Dman]

10 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Another part of the issue... Even with his injuries, Polanco outplayed his salary basically every year.  He wasn't overpriced, if anything he was under-valued.  This trade never should have happened.  It looks even worse now that Lewis is out.

They needed to recalibrate the roster to accommodate Lee at some point.  Unfortunately he is injured right now, but as this spring showed they were always most likely going to need to make room for Lee and unless there was an injury it was always going to be hard to work Lee in anyway. Jullien has 2nd base filled already with production likely equal or greater than Polanco.

SSS but Polanco isn't lighting it up right now as he 1 for 14 or something like that. I like Polanco, but he needed to be moved.

[bean5302]

Seattle didn't want Desclafani. In fact, it's a matter of record they were expecting to use him in the bullpen. They took Desclafani (and cash) because the Giants didn't want him. The Mariners then traded Desclafani to the Twins (who also didn't want him) to balance out the cash from Seattle taking on Polanco's contract. Nobody wanted Desclafani, he was just a pawn in a cash game.

All that aside, the offseason was largely a failure for Falvey.
Address CF backup for Buxton - Fail
Address lack of front line starters - Fail
Address lack of RH 1B/DH power bat - Fail
Drop payroll - Pass

Margot has no upside and extremely limited floor over Castro and Martin. 
Santana is weak from the right side of the plate.
Desclafani was a 50/50 shot at MLB caliber rotation arm.

Like so many times in years past, Falvey wasted money, IMHO. 

[weneedneshek]

3 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

All that aside, the offseason was largely a failure for Falvey.
Address CF backup for Buxton - Fail
Address lack of front line starters - Fail
Address lack of RH 1B/DH power bat - Fail
Drop payroll - Pass

Well he passed the only one the guy who signs his paychecks actually cares about so I'm sure he'll still get a glowing performance review

[DJL44]

19 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

is this a true statement or you assuming? If so it makes it even worse they picked up his 10.5 million club option. It really means they paid 9 million for two prospects, one good and the other just a flyer.

They paid $5.25M for a reliever and two prospects.

[bean5302]

5 minutes ago, weneedneshek said:

Well he passed the only one the guy who signs his paychecks actually cares about so I'm sure he'll still get a glowing performance review

Oh really? Seems to be Joe Pohlad hinted at Falvey's tenure with the Twins as being pretty dicey last year. Personally, I think the payroll constraint was more of a "show me what you can do if we're not bailing your decision making out with record setting payrolls"

[TwinsDr2021]

2 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

They paid $5.25M for a reliever and two prospects.

yes, I forgot the 4 they go back, still IMO would have been better not to even pick up Polanco's option, seemed like they gambled he would be worth more than they got and hey lost that gamble. Maybe in the long run it was worth it to pay 5.25 million for Gonzalez, but don't tell me you have to cut payroll when you are paying a premium price for a prospect after coming off of last year.

[DJL44]

19 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

The Twins better start looking long and hard at pitchers they get in trade, or just stick to small deals with minor league free agents with potential.

If that's the case then Falvey needs to be fired. If you can't trust your baseball operations to sign free agents or make trades then what is the point?

[DJL44]

Just now, TwinsDr2021 said:

yes, I forgot the 4 they go back, still IMO would have been better not to even pick up Polanco's option, seemed like they gambled he would be worth more than they got and hey lost that gamble. Maybe in the long run it was worth it to pay 5.25 million for Gonzalez, but don't tell me you have to cut payroll when you are paying a premium price for a prospect after coming off of last year.

They still need Topa for the bullpen. If Topa performs as expected they still win the trade. He was worth more than $5.25M last year.

[TwinsDr2021]

20 minutes ago, Dman said:

SSS but Polanco isn't lighting it up right now as he 1 for 14 or something like that. I like Polanco, but he needed to be moved.

He didn't need to be moved, the Twins had a 10.5 club option, they could have let him go and saved 10.5 million. Instead got a relief pitcher and a prospect and flyer for 5.25 million.

[Schmoeman5]

So when I purchase my next new car. I'm going to look for 1 that has all the bells and whistles. BUT I want one with a blown motor and I can negotiate with the sales person how much they'd be willing to knock off the purchase price

[TwinsDr2021]

3 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

They still need Topa for the bullpen. If Topa performs as expected they still win the trade. He was worth more than $5.25M last year.

They didn't need Topa at that time (now would be nice, but he is on the DL), and with a healthy Duran, Jax, Stewart, Thielbar and Okert he wasn't going to get the chances like he did in Seattle. Plus the 40 man is loaded with relief pitchers, Sands, Jackson, Funderburk, Duarte, Alcala, Staumont, Weiss, Winder.

So maybe yes the could win the trade much further down the line, but again it goes back further than this trade it goes back to the decision to pick up Polanco's 10.5 option.