Deebers

In a word, yes. It certainly appears so.

Are you really suggesting that the Twins can't find somebody to pitch every 5th day if they trade Santana? For starters, calling Berrios back up is long overdue. You've also got Jason Wheeler at AAA, and he could be worth a look. There's also the waiver wire. You could even put Andrew Albers in there. Doesn't matter. The point is that they're not playing for this year anymore, and probably not next year, either, so use those starts to get a look at somebody else, or just give them to anybody at this point. Get the best return you can for Santana under the circumstances and hope you end up with a player who can help in 2-3 years when you're (hopefully) contending again. Santana is not going to be that player, so why bother? That's the whole idea of being a seller at the trade deadline. And teams likely to lose 90-100 games should definitely be sellers.

This would be funny if it weren't so frustrating. Why would you cling to Santana at this point? The team is going to lose 100 games! Trade him for a decent prospect or two and move on. You're not talking about trading Mike Trout, so don't hold out for a package that's going to overwhelm you. Good lord. This is the classic Twins mistake -- holding onto/paying people for what they've done this season or last season vs. what they're likely to two 1-2 seasons from now. Ervin Santana will be 34 next season. He's got a chance to be league-average, but he could also break down or fall apart (Phil Hughes, anybody?) Trade him now while his value is as high as it's going to get. Reload for the next contending team. Open up space for Berrios or May or whatever other young guys have a legit chance to be part of a long-term solution. Hanging onto mediocre veterans is a big part of the reason the team is in this mess in the first place. So stop doing the things that failed in the past and start doing something different. Isn't that the whole point of firing the damn GM? If Antony sits on his butt and fails to trade anybody other than Nunez and a reliever, I'm going to lose my mind.

1. Trade everybody you can get at least a C-level prospect for. Dozier, E. Santana, Nunez, Suzuki, Plouffe. Clear out the dead wood. None of these guys are part of the next good Twins team, except maybe Dozier, and it's time to sell high instead of waiting for another horrendous 3-month slump. 2. Promote Polanco, Murphy, Berrios, Chargois and anybody else from AA or AAA who could use a look. Play them along with Buxton, Sano, Rosario, Vargas, May, and the other younger guys on the 25-man roster who have some upside. Try to determine who's part of the plan and who's not. 3. This offseason, dump Ricky Nolasco in some shape or form. If you can eat some salary and trade him for a rookie ball outfielder, do it. If you have to DFA him and eat his contract, do it. Get him off the roster. Replace Molitor with somebody who's managed before and who's open to the new school way of doing things. Evaluate the entire front office and scouting organization from top to bottom and purge most of it. Replace them with younger, hungrier and more savvy baseball minds. Demand better results. 4. Make some strategic free-agent signings. Reclamation projects for the back end of the rotation. Solid bullpen arms. Platoon position players. If there's a chance to shore up a position of need (SS, C, SP) with a more expensive free agent, strongly consider it. But no mediocre half-measures. Go for broke or go for low-risk, high-reward gambles. 5. Aggressively promote the guys in the minor league system who have earned it. I'm not a prospect hound but folks like Gonsalves, Jay and Gordon come to mind. Get them on the fast track to the majors and find out what you've got. 6. No more mediocre veterans. No more Casey Fien, Kurt Suzuki, Ricky Nolasco or Blaine Boyer taking up roster spots. If you have no chance of being a legit part of a good Twins team 3 years from now, you're not getting playing time. 7. Let them play for a few years. Adjust as needed. Plug holes smartly. Keep churning through waiver-wire pickups, Rule 5 guys, minor league free agents, etc., at Rochester and at the fringes of the 25-man roster, and maybe you'll find some useful pieces. Get creative about platooning and finding places where role players can succeed. See if Park can hit his way back into the plan. When the team starts gelling and you sense that some of the younger guys are taking off, start looking for trades or FA signings that can shore up weaknesses. 8. No long-term contracts for middling players in their arbitration years. If they take off, you can lock up franchise cornerstones like Buxton or Sano, sure, but no more Dozier/Hughes/Suzuki extensions. Don't commit to these kinds of only-OK players for the long term. Let things play out a little bit more and make the hard decision to part with them if necessary. Always have backup plans for when this happens. 9. Win some freaking games. With a potentially good core of young players like Sano, Buxton, Kepler and Berrios, a strong minor league system and some smart moves to fill up the bullpen, the bench and the back of the rotation, there is no reason this team can't be back in contention by 2018. Just stop getting in your own way with bad free-agent signings, bad contract decisions, bad player evaluation and overall bad decisionmaking.