Let’s Make a Deal: What Players Could the Twins Acquire from the Chicago White Sox?

The most I'll give up for a player in the White Sox organization is a bag of waterlogged baseballs

The White Sox have some talented players who may be changing uniforms at the end of July. I'm just having a hard time seeing the Twins involved unless the deal heavily favors them. Teams trading good players usually are attempting to add a treasure trove of prospects who are likely to be solid MLB athletes. Additionally, the Twins face a bit of a crunch next season in terms of roster salaries which would likely preclude adding any significant dollars in a deal this year. If the Twins were to add anyone from the Southsiders, my aim would be Crochet. Who goes the other way? Not sure what the Sox want or the Twins are willing to check off on.

Probably not rational but I don't want the Twins giving the Sox anything that has the remotest chance of coming back to bite us in our backside.

Robert Jr is too expensive for us and we don't need another oft injured outfielder. I'd say Crochet would be the biggest get, just not sure what the Sox want in return. Twins need starting pitching more than anything. If we don't get a playoff caliber starter, we don't stand a chance even IF we make the playoffs. Crochet or Luzardo would pair great with Lopez and Ryan.

Sheets might be interesting. The Twins need to come up with 2 corner outfielders and he would fit in the budget. 

"but with the tear that Margot has been on of late, they may just prefer to stay the course with that position. "

This made me laugh, cry, and sigh in resignation.   Margot is 1 for his last 11.  But yeah, the Twins are committed to him...

How much more likely is Sheets to have a better career going forward than Larnach, Kirilloff or Wallner? 

Sheets: age 28, free agent 2028, .703 career OPS

Kirilloff: 26, 2028, .721 (about 1.5 years younger than Sheets)

Larnach: 27, 2028, .710

Wallner: 26, .813, 2029 or 2030?

1 hour ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

We are going to have need in the corner OF next year unless Kepler is re-signed. 

Or some other free agent is signed. But you don't make a deadline deal for next year's outfielder.

Interesting article!  The Sox have some nice talent.  Sheets and Crochet should be the only targets but being in the same division, the Sox would want a ton for either one - and Falvey is the last guy to wind up as top bidder.

While a corner outfielder would be nice insurance, the Twins have a decent basket of players who can fill the bill, even if Kepler is allowed to leave.  Two of Larnach, Kirillof, Wallner, Castro, or Martin are likely to be at least average performers in the corners and while not world-beaters, offer enough potential that going big for another OF seems superfluous.  Ditto with Santana/Miranda and 1B.

No, the real need is for another starter, one who at the very least can slot in ahead of Ober, SWR and Paddock.  There is one candidate - Luzardo of Miami - who has a reasonable chance of doing just that.   The fact he's having a down year could work to the Twins advantage in terms of retaining their top 5 prospects.  We can put a nice package together with one of our surplus OFs(Larnach,  Kirillof, Martin or Wallner), a young pitcher(Varland would be my choice, but we have some intriguing minor league arms not named Festa or Mathews that Miami might want, and then someone like Camargo (Miami is in desperate straits for a catcher) or Gonzales  to complete the deal.

Get Luzardo and we might even be able  to advance past the first or (gasp) even possibly the second round of the playoffs.  As the rotation stands now, we have exactly 2 starters who can provide a reasonable chance of keeping a playoff game close - and neither Ryan nor Lopez are sure bets. 

Stand pat and give the guys who are waiting a place first.  NO MORE RETrEADS

In the outfield Gavin Sheets is a career -20 DRS and -11 OOA across 1506 innings and at first base in 410 innings it is -4 and -3. Larnach is +8, +1 in 1473 innings. Kirilloff -3, -8 in 758 (-10, -7, 939 innings at 1B).

If you scale to the same number of innings I see little difference. Neither Kirilloff or Sheets has been a good fielder.

Sheets is a year and a half older and better than Kirilloff in the too small sample so far this season. I don’t think there is anything in the data to suggest that he will be better the remainder of his career.

any trade possibilities have to be looked at in the prism of the Twins' payroll.  this is not meant as an anti-Pohlad rant - but just facing reality.  Ownership cut the payroll $30-million.  Next year, odds are very good that their local TV revenue will be even less than this year.  So figure that the payroll stays the same.  

Crochet is currently at $800,000 a year but has two years of arbitration coming.  so not bad in terms of salary, but the question is how much would the Twins have to pay in terms of prospects?   Sheets is also in the $750,000 range with 3 arbitration years ahead.  again, salary is fine, so the question is what do the Twins have to give up.  I would be more willing to part with prospects for a pitcher as opposed to a position player.  

Gonna take a king's ransom to outbid serious contenders with deeper farm systems like Baltimore or LA, and that's before considering the exorbitant divisional rival tax we'd likely have to pay in addition. At that point I'd rather just pay a comparable price to go after Luzardo, a more proven number 2 starter than Crochet (albeit with fewer seasons of club control) and with a less dicey injury history than Robert. I'd even prefer higher-impact lower-cost rentals for the staff like Kikuchi or the plethora of Angels relievers to any of the Sox's club-controlled role players or bullpen arms that I don't see moving our needle much, especially if they come with the risk of potentially seeing one or more of our prospects haunt us for years on our most traditionally despised division rival. Too costly for the risk and available alternatives, at least from the armchair im playing GM in.

Hard to see the Twins even thinking about Sheets. Santana, Miranda, Kepler, Castro, Larnach, Kirilloff, Wallner, Martin, and more are already in the organization.

The one common thread in all of these “Let’s make a Deal” articles is that the authors mention the Twine tinkering with a pitcher to make him more effective. I’m not saying the Twins wouldn’t be able to take a different approach to unlock something but I doubt it’s going to take place in the half season leading up to the playoffs when they’ll need them most. I don’t think we’re close enough to be considered a contending team with the uneven season we’ve had so far. IF we are going to make a trade I think a mid rotation starter or better is really what we need right now. To get that we’re going to be looking at giving up a Jenkins, a Lee, a Rodriguez, a Lee or a combo of some of them. Unless the team has plans of increasing the payroll again in the coming seasons I see no way we can afford to trade prospects and pay big time pitchers that we haven’t developed.  If we go on a tear for the next month and it looks like we’re one player away I’d consider a big name pitcher at that point and I’d be willing to pay for that pitcher in prospect capital.

I think the only one that makes sense is Michael Kopech if the Twins see something they can tweak.  
 

Robert’s is great when healthy but Sox aren’t trading him to us.  Crochet has been awesome for 2 1/2 months but my goodness what you would have to pay to get him, I’m not sure that’s an option.

Is Sheets any better then Wallner or Larnach?  I’m not exactly sure.  
 

Kopech you might be able to get for a reasonable price and if you could tweak secondary stuff to go with 100 mph fastball he could be dominate with Jax and Duran.

19 minutes ago, High heat said:

Kopech you might be able to get for a reasonable price and if you could tweak secondary stuff to go with 100 mph fastball he could be dominate with Jax and Duran.

 

I have always liked Kopech but he has not been able to turn the corner yet. Kopech would slot in behind Duran, Jax, Stewart (hopefully he returns in August or September), Alcala, and Staumont. By September both Paddack and Varland may bolster the bullpen as well. That (potentially) makes seven right-handed relief pitchers ahead of Kopech. 

I like your idea of adding him for a nominal price but it seems like a reach between the Sox and Twins.

I'd like Kopech but I think some team will wind up overpaying for him. Relievers will be a hot commodity.

4 hours ago, mike8791 said:

No, the real need is for another starter, one who at the very least can slot in ahead of Ober, SWR and Paddock.

If they're going to bump a pitcher out of the rotation it makes sense to send them in return.

3 hours ago, short ornery norwegian said:

Ownership cut the payroll $30-million.  Next year, odds are very good that their local TV revenue will be even less than this year. 

That's depressing. The Twins have the worst local TV contract of any team in the MLB, NBA or NHL and you think they're going to negotiate a deal that's even worse going forward?