Will the Twins Trade Young Arms for Young Bats? 4 Hitters They Could Target

I've been pushing for this approach in most of my comments about possible trades this off season.  If the Twins don't make a BIG off season trade to off load our most expensive contracts (Correa, Lopez, Buxton) then THIS is the approach that makes more sense to me.

I like ALL of these potential guys.  Pereira would be an excellent RH hitting OF with power potential and would be an excellent compliment to E-Rod and Walker Jenkins.  Ceddane Rafaela is a solid SS as well as a solid CF.  He would be tremendous "insurance" if Correa or Buxton missed extended time.  He's a free swinger who doesn't walk nearly enough.  But he's a potential 20 HR-20 SB guy.  He's 24 years old and just signed an 8 year $50 million dollar contract last year.  That's just $6 million per year.  He would make Willi Castro "tradeable" with his IF/OF versatility and cost certainty.

Westburg is VERY intriguing as a young corner IF with power and bat to ball skills.  Curtis Mead is much the same profile.

I think the Red Sox and Orioles are the most likely trade partners.  Both have massive holes in their starting rotation and are in desperate need of reinforcements, especially the Orioles if Corbin Burnes signs elsewhere. 

If I could trade SWR straight up for either,  I'd do it in a heartbeat.  The Twins are not served well with THREE young SP's (SWR, Festa, Matthews) looking for rotation spots.  Two would be my maximum.  One would be best case scenario (Festa) with Matthews getting more time at St. Paul to refine and starts with the Twins as needed.  SWR had the best season and his value should be at it's highest.  Sell high, add a young position player that will immediately be a starter.  My preference would be Rafaela or Westburg.  How would SWR for either stack up in a BBTV trade?  I'd add an outside our top 10 minor leaguer if need be to seal the deal.  Guys like rafaela and Westurg are 2 outstanding targets.  Baltimore already has too many prospect mouths to feed.  They are going to HAVE to deal some of them to plug their own roster holes.  The Red Sox would probably loath giving up Rafaela, but they probably loath their thin starting rotation possibilities more.   

We need to do something to strengthen our lineups offense  , every player should be considered tradeable  , find a decent player with good defense and can hit   , but they better get it right on a choice in a trade , they haven't been  all that good in getting  players back from a trade ...

I would talk to the orioles  and rays  , westburg and mead  ,  rafaela has a contract already  and I would be surprised I'd they would consider it , Yankees player I know nothing about ...

It's hard to trade away prospect pitching  but if we have a surplus ( which we haven't for many years ) , to better the team you have to be creative  as falvey would say ..

Unless blown away, which I doubt, I wouldn't trade any of these low cost young pitchers. If and that's a big if, they are going to trade away any starting pitcher I would suggest Paddack.  Over the years we have had too many injury prone starting pitchers and although Paddack has shown some upside he still looks like a 4 or 5 starter.  He would also give us a little salary relief.  I like our young starters and would love to see them get a fair shot in the Twins rotation.

Rafaela would solve the SS & CF backup the Twins need making Castro expendable. How about Festa, Morris, and Duran for Teel and Rafaela?

If we had to trade any our young SPs it wouldn't be for a hitter. IMO our greatest need is a very good young MLB-ready catcher this the only way I'd do that. 

The only hitter I'd consider would be Ceddanne Rafaela & that'd be only if we blow the whole thing up.

3 hours ago, Eris said:

I think a team can never have enough pitching. Therefore I would not be in favor of any of these trades unless a high ceiling A or AA pitcher was included. I think the trades that Twins need to explore are trading some of their hitters for players that could offer more defensive upside. 
 

From Fangraphs, the Twins have only 4 players returning next season that provided positive defensive value (These are Vasquez , Correa, Castro, and Buxton).  That is a lot of opportunity for improvement on defense. 
(not sure why, but I can’t paste the fangraphs link here)

Vazquez, Correa, Buxton & Castro are the ones who cover the prime positions. So we need them to be better but I agree that there is still room for improvement.

I would hold off on trading any young, controllable pitchers. We keep hearing about this new pitching pipeline and an abundance of depth. Until these guys actually make it to the majors AND find success, they are just prospects who have a better chance of flaming out than succeeding. I don't think our depth is as deep as some people think. Sure, we've got a good amount of guys in the high minors with good potential. Until they prove it however, I'm not counting our chickens. On the other hand, we really do need a first baseman with some pop, and with no chance of signing a free agent, they would have to acquire one in a trade. I just hope the player we get is an immediate impact bat with a few years of control if we're giving up young starting pitching which always comes at a premium cost.

8 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

I would hold off on trading any young, controllable pitchers. We keep hearing about this new pitching pipeline and an abundance of depth. Until these guys actually make it to the majors AND find success, they are just prospects who have a better chance of flaming out than succeeding. I don't think our depth is as deep as some people think. Sure, we've got a good amount of guys in the high minors with good potential. Until they prove it however, I'm not counting our chickens. On the other hand, we really do need a first baseman with some pop, and with no chance of signing a free agent, they would have to acquire one in a trade. I just hope the player we get is an immediate impact bat with a few years of control if we're giving up young starting pitching which always comes at a premium cost.

Me too.  I like our chances of producing more pitching in the next couple years but the scarcest commodity is pitching.  If it turns out we really do have so much pitching that we can trade some away, the opportunity will always be there.  The one exception I could see is a ML ready or near ready catcher.  

A successful conversion of Jax to a starter could help position the Twins to trade from pitching depth to fill the catcher hole.  I am not worried about 1B.  That's a much easier hole to fill. It's also not a hole.  It might be a slight weakness with Miranda but the incremental gain is not necessarily all the great.

The idea of trading young pitchers for young bats on the serface sounds great but we do need to understand that the teams that win have "good" pitching. 

While we really don't have an ace we do have a very solid top 3 and if we have 3 to fill the next 2 spots... That is REALLY ideal. 

Can't see it but if Westburg could be had ... Would have to consider and likley do but all the others... Nah. Not worth the risk as we are actaully very solid with our regulars at this point.. 

On 11/16/2024 at 10:21 AM, Patzky said:

Also, the fan base would be more supportive of a Matthews or Festa deal than one involving Pablo, Ober or Ryan, as have been described earlier this week. Is the window still open, that's the question.

Yeah, the windows open. They’ve got proven vets. A solid core and soon to be gushing in controllable young pitching. If the window was closed they would be shopping the vets which they are not doing. They’re not rebuilding while the Pohlads are trying to sell. Period. Castro, Lewis, Jeffers, Paddack and Vazquez. That’s your trade group.

45 minutes ago, specialiststeve said:

The idea of trading young pitchers for young bats on the serface sounds great but we do need to understand that the teams that win have "good" pitching. 

While we really don't have an ace we do have a very solid top 3 and if we have 3 to fill the next 2 spots... That is REALLY ideal. 

Can't see it but if Westburg could be had ... Would have to consider and likley do but all the others... Nah. Not worth the risk as we are actaully very solid with our regulars at this point.. 

Agreed! Even with Kansas City, Cleveland and Detroit all looking to compete there’s one thing they don’t have that Minnesota does. Pitching. It’s their strength. If the offense can muster 3-5 runs a game and the bullpen can just not blow every lead the Twins will be there at the end. Keep the pitching for now. Use it to load up at the deadline. 

20 hours ago, LambchoP said:

I would hold off on trading any young, controllable pitchers.

I agree, The Twins have been starved for pitching quality for so many years, that I hate the idea of trading away young arms. Sure, I get the idea of trying to getting better bats in the lineup, but I think we aren't so desperate that we need to trade away some of those young arms. And really, how much quality would we get in return? I don't see the benefit.