Twins Could Be Prime Suitors as James Paxton Trade Rumors Swirl

[PatG]

Yes to Paxton, he should take the place of Paddock in the rotation.  Paddock to the bullpen when his arm is rested/better (ie see last season).

 

[Linus]

I’m on the fence on this one. I think enough other teams are going to be interested that some team will give a decent prospect for him. Think Tanner Schobel level. 
I don’t like the walks and the injury history but if we get another injury to a starter it might mean missing the playoffs. And no I don’t think Varland or Festa are the answer now. 
So if I’m Falvey and I know I’m going after a better starter then I pass. If not I’m calling the Dodgers. 

[LambchoP]

I don't like it. If he's not going to be trusted to start a playoff game for us, then it's not worth it. Really the only positive for Paxton is that he's a lefty. Walks way too many, gives up too many homers. I'd much rather they get Kikuchi, Fedde or Tyler Anderson. We seriously need bullpen help too, particularly a good lefty.

[USAFChief]

Red Sox "in the mix" per a Boston radio station. 

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/07/red-sox-trade-rumors-dodgers-james-paxton.html

[Blyleven2011]

5 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

That stat scares me more than a little. 

I could think of better pitchers to get , might be better than kuechel was but for depth it would be a cheap acquisition  and worth a try to harness his control , he was once a very good pitcher when healthy  ... 

Hill , happ , keuchel and Paxton fit the  mo of the aging pitchers ...

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

Whether we like it or not, Paxton is near the bar that the Twins' front office is going to set. If a pitcher is added, this is the 'type' of pitcher the Twins will get. Insurance if Paddack is out for an extended period of time, or in the alternative if he does return healthy, Paddack can be shifted to the bullpen where his stuff will play in 1-2 inning stints down the stretch and into October.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

I'll add this - while I'm not a Paxton fan - I'd sure as hell would prefer him to Louie or Festa as the 5th starter. While Festa might be the future and while Varland is an in-house option that doesn't cost you prospect capital, they're way more likely to completely implode in a big spot than Paxton is.

[arby58]

17 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Can piece 10 starts together over next 70 days between Varland - Festa - Matthews …..I think?

Combined, Varland and Festa have a 1-5 record, an ERA of 7.75, and a WHIP of 1.67.  In a combined 36 innings pitched, they've given up 10 home runs and 11 walks with 33 strikeouts. So, no, they aren't likely to piece together anything remotely effective over 10 starts. Matthews started the year a high-A, then 9 starts at AA and was just promoted and made 1 5-inning start at AAA. If this is all the Twins have got, they're going to have to work hard to make the play-offs.

[arby58]

18 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Paxton is likely to pitch worse at Target Field than he did in Dodger Stadium. He's not anything special but he's better than putting Festa or Varland out there again.

He's also a veteran who knows his way around a hit (or in his case lots of walks). Festa may eventually get there, but once a runner or two was on base, you could pretty well bank on them scoring - he hasn't yet 'figured it out' at the MLB level.

Meanwhile, Varland is still having trouble getting batters out at the AAA level. He has a 3-7 record, 5.91 ERA, and a 1.562 WHIP. Not much better than in MLB this year. Yuck.

[Dantes929]

Seems like Woods Richardson is the forgotten man when talking about a game 3 playoff starter.    He might be the best starter right now and I would feel very comfortable with him in the 3 spot.

[dxpavelka]

23 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

I say no to Paxton as I don't think he adds much to the current staff.

if only depth

[dxpavelka]

Old enough to remember this team adding Jaimie Garcia AND trading him away at the deadline.  Little remembered fact is that he had more wins for us that year than he did for the Yankees after we traded him away.  Another fun fact is that the guy they traded away to get Garcia has lost twice as many games as he has won at both the minor and major league levels.

[darin617]

On 7/22/2024 at 10:11 PM, Rod Carews Birthday said:

He is likely a better version of Dallas Keuchel.  Not likely to start a game in the playoffs, but could provide you with 50 innings down the stretch of reasonable pitching which would save/rest some other better arms.  For the price, which should be a prospect in the 30 to 40 range, he would be a useful get. 

With all the days off in the playoffs a team really only needs 3 starters until like the ALCS if they make it that far.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

10 minutes ago, darin617 said:

With all the days off in the playoffs a team really only needs 3 starters until like the ALCS if they make it that far.

That would be a really bad time to figure out you don’t have something you need!

[darin617]

On 7/24/2024 at 6:01 PM, Rod Carews Birthday said:

That would be a really bad time to figure out you don’t have something you need!

Do any Twins fans view this as a World Series contender? I'm sadly happy that they make the playoffs and get out of the first round.

Take all the injuries and the Twins need more than a starting pitcher to be any kind of threat. So are you ready to trade away all your top prospects for a few players? Not me.

[Rod Carews Birthday]

22 minutes ago, darin617 said:

Do any Twins fans view this as a World Series contender? I'm sadly happy that they make the playoffs and get out of the first round.

Take all the injuries and the Twins need more than a starting pitcher to be any kind of threat. So are you ready to trade away all your top prospects for a few players? Not me.

No.  Just some if we can make our team better.  

[darin617]

2 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

No.  Just some if we can make our team better.  

Exactly, you don't trade away top prospects for rentals. If they can find another Pablo Lopez type of deal I would be fine with that. Any player they trade for and give up top prospects for better be under contract for at least 2 years after this season.

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

No.  Just some if we can make our team better.  

Okay, but the dropoff of what you get in return is pretty sharp, once you place the Untouchable tag on about 5 players we all can name.  I'm happy to cash Tanner Schobel in for something, but to get a real difference maker is going to take more than even a package of 5 Tanner Schobels or his equivalent.

I hope our FO surprises me.

[jorgenswest]

Two wild card teams made it to the World Series last year. 

The Rangers made several changes and gave up some very good prospects. The Mets did keep a lot of the contract in the Scherzer deal in exchange for a Rodriguez level prospect. They won the series and should have no regrets on losing Cole Ragans but he was a heavy price to pay for Chapman. They also sent three players for Montgomery.

The DBacks added two relievers and a right handed batting outfielder without significantly impacting their prospect pool or budget.

The door to the World Series should not be considered closed to the Twins.

 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

12 hours ago, ashbury said:

Okay, but the dropoff of what you get in return is pretty sharp, once you place the Untouchable tag on about 5 players we all can name.  I'm happy to cash Tanner Schobel in for something, but to get a real difference maker is going to take more than even a package of 5 Tanner Schobels or his equivalent.

I hope our FO surprises me.

Sorry.  My reply wasn’t as clear as I had hoped.  I was responding to whether I wanted to trade away all of our top prospects for a few players at the deadline.  No.  I do not want that.  However, I am totally supportive of making a trade or two that will better our team.  We’re not trading for Tarik Skubel, but picking up a rental piece like Kakuchi or Flaherty or a solid lefty reliever would be great.  If that takes trading Jenkins, I’m out, but if a package of other prospects (and maybe a MLB player) would get it done, I’m in.  We have more than enough prospects to get this done.  

What people sometimes forget is that prospects can and do fizzle.  Even 1st round draft picks sometimes don’t make it to the majors.  That means that in our top ten or twenty prospects, there are plenty that even though they look great now (against lesser competition), may not even make it to the show, or certainly not become stars.  The challenge is trying to figure out who to keep and who to trade so that you get the player you want in trade and still hold on to the guys who will do well on your MLB team in the future — i.e. trade them before they fizzle.  We can’t get hung up on individual prospects (without more information, and the teams have more information), because many will wind up doing nothing in the majors.  

[USAFChief]

Paxton to the Red Sox.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/07/dodgers-trade-james-paxton-red-sox.html

 

[Linus]

16 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Paxton to the Red Sox.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/07/dodgers-trade-james-paxton-red-sox.html

 

Wow for literally nothing. Twins obviously had no interest.