This trade peaked (at least as far as the Twins are concerned) on July 28, 2006. On that date, Liriano pitched eight strong innings against the Tigers, with whom the Twins were locked in a struggle for the AL Central title. He did not receive a decision in the 3-2 loss, but he did fan 12 Tiger batters. After the game, Liriano’s ERA stood at 1.96, and his record was a dazzling 12-2. He seemed the prohibitive favorite for he AL Rookie of the Year award, if not the Cy Young. Bonser had a 5.30 ERA through five starts, but he had shown plenty of promise in his rookie season, notably including a start against the Cubs in late June in which he held Chicago scorless into the seventh inning. And Nathan was well into his reign as one of the AL’s preeminent closers. Pierzynski, meanwhile, had bolted to Chicago after one unimpressive season with the Giants.

Francisco Liriano was the centerpiece of a great trade. But was it the greatest ever? Photo by John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

That July 28, the Pierzynski trade looked like one of baseball’s all-time trade coups, right on par with the Reds’ trading Frank Robinson to the Orioles or the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth for a Broadway musical.

The results since have been a little more of a mixed bag. Liriano missed his next start, lost a game, and then underwent a bout of Tommy John Surgery. Bonser was the AL Rookie of the month that September, going 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA, but he never fulfilled his potential after that. He hung around with the Twins for two lackluster seasons, then spent a little time with Boston and Oakland before re-signing with San Francisco on a minor league deal this year. Nathan is the only one who stayed at the top of his game after the 2006 season. He remained an excellent closer through 2009 before his own Tommy John experience. He is now the closer for the AL West-leading Texas Rangers.

As for Liriano, he led Twins fans on a six year journey of thrills and disappointments. Sadly, he averaged about three disappointments for each thrill. There were just enough positive moments to make us hope that he’d turn a corner, but more than enough negatives to have us pulling out our hair in frustration. Liriano’s final line with the Twins was a 50-52 record in 156 games, 783.1 innings pitched, a 4.33 ERA, 788 strikeouts (9.1 K/9), 3.7 BB/9, and one complete game. Great strikeout numbers, but everything else looks like the line of a league-average pitcher. Since the end of 2006, though, his numbers are far worse than league average: 37-47, 4.69 ERA, 1.4W2 HIP, 8.6 K/9, 4.0 BB/9.

If you just look at the numbers, using Wins Above Replacement as a guide, the Twins came out way ahead in this one. Pierzyski’s one season in San Fran netted 1.3 WAR for Barry Bonds‘s team. In Minnesota, Liriano earned 15.4 WAR, Nathan added 15.1, and Bonser contributed 4.1 for a total of 34.6 WAR. That’s a net gain of 33.3 WAR for the Twins. Not too shabby!

How does that compare to some other notable Twins trades? The Chuck Knoblauch trade brought in Eric Milton, Brian Buchanan, and Christian Guzman for a net gain of 14.0 WAR over the 7.7 Knoblauch gave the Yankees. The Frank Viola deal in 1989 netted about 27.5 WAR, thanks mostly to Kevin Tapani and Rick Aguilera. Numbers aside, that deal also was crucial in bringing the Twins their second World Series title two years later.  But the most lopsided of all is the trade on Rule 5 draft day in 2000 that sent Jared Camp to the Astros in exchange for Johan Santana, a move that brought 37.3 WAR to the Twins. So on paper, this looks like one of the best trades the Twins ever made, but not #1.

But then we have to consider some intangibles. First, at the time of the trade, Pierzynski seemed a completely expendable player, because the Twins planned to install super-prospect Joe Mauer in the catcher position. In the long term, Mauer obviously did a great job filling that role. But he suffered a knee injury in 2004 that robbed the Twins of most of his season. As a result, Minnesotans had to endure 353 plate appearances by Henry Blanco, whose .206/.260/.308 batting line did not help the team much. Could the Twins have fared better in 2004 if they had Pierzynski’s bat? Could he have provided a timely hit or two to help get the team past the Yankees in the ALDS? Probably not, but it’s possible.

Another intangible is the stress and anxiety we felt every time Liriano took the mound. I can’t speak for every Twins fan, but I know there was a part of me that was hoping Liriano would strike out 12 batters and throw a shutout every time he took the mound. He had just enough moments of glory – like the no-hitter at Chicago or his 15 K performance against he Athletics this summer – to keep that hope from dying. But almost every start he crushed that hope a little bit by walking batters and giving up line drives at the worst possible moment. It’s quite a relief that we’ll never have to deal with that particular frustration again!

And what does this trade say about Terry Ryan, the man who pulled it off? I’m afraid that it might have built some Liriano-like expectations into all of our minds. After Ryan executed this trade, it built him up in the minds of fans as some sort of General Manager superstar. We started to expect blockbuster moves like this on a regular basis. Perhaps those high-expectations are part of the reason everyone is so disappointed Ryan only got two meh-level prospects in return for Liriano last week,.

So when you add it all up, this was a very good trade, but not the all-time great swindle that it once appeared to be. The Twins got some real, tangible benefits in exchange for Pierzynski, but the trade also might have done a little more harm than we thought.

Cuddyer looks like he's stumbling in this picture, but he is flying high with his bat this season. Photo byChris Humphreys-US PRESSWIRE

The most notable departure this offseason was probably Cuddyer, who was the longest-tenured Twin until he left for the Rockies. Cuddyer seems to be thriving in Colorado’s ultra-hitter-friendly environment. He hit a massive home run last night, his second on the season, and he owns a .370/.396/.696 line. Entering last night’s game, he also led the NL in doubles with seven. That stellar production might make Twins fans jealous, except that the man Minnesota brought in to replace Cuddyer, Josh Willingham, has been on a tear of his own with five homers and a 1.187 OPS. So far in this young season, it looks like all parties are benefiting from these free agency moves.

Jason Kubel is not hitting quite as well as Cuddyer up to this point. In 33 at bats, he owns a .242 average and just two extra base hits, both doubles, for the Diamondbacks. He has also struck out 10 times already, though we might be able to blame that on the Diamondbacks, for whom strikeouts seem to be contagious. Arizona hitters struck out over 1,200 times last season, and they whiffed an MLB record 1,529 times in 2010. The Twins did not bring in a player specifically to replace Kubel’s left-handed bat, but Ryan Doumit does fill a similar role in the outfield and as a DH in addition to his catching. Doumit has gotten off to a slow start as well, hitting .219 with no homers.

The biggest pitching departure was that of Joe Nathan, who left town when the Rangers offered him a surprisingly large contract. We’ve already seen Nathan pitch this year, as he pitched in two games and recorded a save against the Twins last weekend. Other than that, Nathan has had mixed results. He already has two losses and a 5.14 ERA through seven innings pitched. On the other hand, he has struck out eight and walked only one. The Twins only signed one Major League free agent in the bullpen, and that was Joel Zumaya. Zumaya will miss the entire season recovering from Tommy John Surgery.

Those were the key departures from last offseason, but how about some of the Twins who left in previous years?

Jason Bartlett is hitting .196 for Baltimore, but he does have three homers. After winning a World Series ring with the Cards last year, Nick Punto is 4-13 with a double and three RBI for Boston in 2012. Former Minnesota middle infielders Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson are both with the Padres now, and both are struggling at the plate. Bartlett is batting a wimpy .189 through 37 at bats, while Hudson has fared even worse at .139 in 39 at bats. On the mound, Dodger reliever Matt Guerrier yielded a game winning sac fly to Ryan Braun after walking the bases loaded in extra innings last night. Overall, he has a respectable 2.70 ERA through 6.2 innings and four strikeouts.

The Twins claimed Detroit outfielder Clete Thomas off waivers Saturday. That in itself was not a mistake, but whoever assigns jersey numbers to the players callously decided to award Thomas number 36. Most Twins fans know that number as the one that was on Joe Nathan‘s back for the last eight seasons, but regular readers of Puckett’s Pond will probably recognize a deeper significance to 36.

Left-hander Jim Kaat wore that number for Minnesota from 1961 through 1973. He won a Twins record 189 games and 12 Gold Gloves while wearing that number. He also appeared in two All Star games and went toe to toe with Sandy Koufax three times in the 1965 World Series with a 36 on his shirt. But even though Kaat came within two votes of being elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame this winter, the Twins have not retired his number. This has become a cause celebre for a certain Puckett’s Pond writer with a lot of time on his hands, and that writer will keep complaining about this until the Twins do something about it.

Clete Thomas wore 36 with the Detroit Tigers. He should not wear that number with the Twins. Photo by Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

No disrespect is meant to Thomas, of course. Thomas has a respectable line of .256/.336/.391 in parts of three seasons with Detroit. He can more than adequately play all three outfield positions, and he can fill in as a left-handed pinch hitter with moderate power or a speedy pinch runner. Basically, Thomas offers the Twins everything that Ben Revere offers, with the added bonus that the team can now afford to send Revere down to AAA for some regular playing time.

The Twins have had their eye on Thomas for a long time. They drafted him in the fifth round back in 2003, but he chose to attend college instead. After a couple years at Auburn, Thomas’s draft position actually dropped a bit, as the Tigers nabbed him in round six. He showed some versatility in the minors, putting up a line of .267/.348/.399 with 148 stolen bases in parts of seven minor league seasons. He also knocked out 30 doubles in two different seasons and hit 12 homers last year at AAA.

But Clete Thomas is no Jim Kaat.

Kaat started his MLB career at age 20 and stayed in the Majors until he was 44. He was one of the original Minnesota Twins back in 1961, and he suffered through those first few losing seasons along with Minnesota’s fans. He was still there when the team started to contend for pennants, and he was a crucial part of the 1965 team that actually won one. That season he won 18 games and posted a 2.83 ERA. In 1966, he was even better, winning an AL Best 25 games. Kaat was never the best pitcher in baseball, but he was among the top tier starters in the game for a very long time. Much like his teammate Bert Blyleven, Kaat carved out his place in team history by being a dependable workhorse year in and year out. Also like Blyleven, Kaat transitioned to the broadcast booth when his playing days were done, winning over more fans with his likeable on-air personality.

The Twins have given away number six over a dozen times since Kaat left, most notably to Nathan and Kevin Tapani. They need to stop doing so. Jim Kaat is one of the titans of team history, and he deserves the same honor the Twins have given to Blyleven, Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett, and Tom Kelly.

Retire number 36, Twins. It’s the right thing to do.