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The optimist's view of Monday night's trade (which sent Jorge Polanco to the Mariners) is that, for a somewhat expensive, potentially redundant, oft-injured but talented veteran infielder, the Twins are getting:
- A top 100 High-A prospect,
- An effective, high-to-medium-leverage reliever,
- A banged-up but formerly solid starting pitcher, and
- An intriguing throw-in prospect arm.
That is solid value. That is the kind of value levelheaded front offices get for a player one or two years away from becoming a free agent. It is the move a smart front office makes.
It is also the move a front office makes when "Plan A" goes out the window.
There are numerous positive impacts. It allows them to ensure that Edouard Julien will play every day. The Twins will gain payroll room to spend on other players. If Byron Buxton can play in center field, it opens up a spot at designated hitter for a further signing. These are all positive effects, which is why the deal was made.
The problem was that "Plan A" was to "make the 2024 team better." Finding a deal that made next year's team better has been Derek Falvey's repeatedly stated goal this offseason. It was the correct goal, given that this team showed they are already the cream of the AL Central, winning the division by nine games last year. After snapping an 0-18 postseason loss streak, the next step was to become a team favored in an ALDS matchup.
That wasn't going to be easy. Losing Sonny Gray and Kenta Maeda to free agency would be tough enough. Losing another $30-40 million in payroll due to a TV-and-streaming clusterfunderburk made things considerably harder.
A slow-moving free agent market hasn't helped. Nor has the fact that some of the better trade candidates belong to other AL Central teams, who are cautious about making deals within the division. Finally, there have also been some unforced errors, like offering Kyle Farmer about $6 million via arbitration in the hopes he would still be in demand on the trade market after being tendered. Given all that, it isn't surprising that the Twins have fallen short of their stated goal this offseason.
Still, given the objective of improving the team, this deal is a detour--a circumbendibus. It may be a deal a rebuilding team makes. It may be a deal that a re-shuffling team makes. It may be a deal that gives an organization the flexibility it needs in a tough situation to find deals that do make the team better.
Maybe this is the one step backward before the two steps forward. I'm assured by Twins' sources that is the plan. Given this management team's knack for making big moves late in the offseason, they deserve that benefit of the doubt.
But we can heap praise on those moves when they happen; there's no need to pre-celebrate any more than we need to pre-commiserate. This trade just made the 2024 Twins worse.
What's your temperature about the deal this morning? What next step could make you feel better or worse about it?
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