It’s the Final Countdown! The trade deadline looms and the Minnesota Twins are right in the middle of numerous rumors involving various assets they could be shipping away.
Among them are Ervin Santana, Ricky Nolasco, Tommy Milone, Eduardo Nunez, Fernando Abad, Kurt Suzuki and even Kyle Gibson.
Looking at the potential trading of Santana, Nolasco, Milone or Gibson, the Minnesota Twins would need to remain cautious about this as trading away most if not all of those guys away would leave a very limited staff.
Aside from Tyler Duffey, the Twins could look into bringing Jose Berrios back up, Stephen Gonsalves or any one of the team’s pitching prospects.
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Personally, I don’t see there being an overly attractive market for Milone or Gibson or even Nolasco due to his contract.
It’s more likely we would see Santana being the only starter to be moved and rightfully so, his numbers have been solid and that is definitely an attraction to teams competing for a playoff berth.
Nunez has recently been linked to a few teams and moving him, while as a fan I would not be excited to see him leave, makes sense because the Twins are pretty deep at shortstop with Eduardo Escobar and the trade value for Nunez may never be higher.
Despite his average slipping, he’s put together an All-Star season with career highs in numerous offensive categories including home runs (12), RBI’s (46) and stolen bases (24).
It would be painful to say goodbye to his all-out playing style as he is a scrappy player who is a perfect fit for the Minnesota Twins with a style similar to the piranhas from the mid-to-late 2000’s.
It’s more likely we would see Santana being the only starter to be moved
But he’s clearly not the long-term answer and at 29, he’s not getting any younger, so why not send him to a contender now.
That brings us to Suzuki who has only been briefly mentioned as a trade candidate. From a fan’s point of view it may be easy to say to get rid of him but I argue he should stay in a Minnesota Twins uniform not only this season but moving forward.
Think about it, there are no clear-cut answers at catcher for the Twins. John Ryan Murphy has struggled mightily since joining and Juan Centeno, while playing very well since his call up, is still just a rookie.
So why not hold onto the veteran until the Twins know for certain Centeno is the future catcher. Josmil Pinto was supposed to be the next Minnesota Twins catcher but he quickly faded.
I say the Twins keep Suzuki until it’s abundantly clear Centeno is the answer. Otherwise, they may find themselves stuck with yet another cursed, Post-Mauer catcher.
Talk of Trevor Plouffe being sent away has calmed mightily, especially given the third baseman’s struggles staying healthy.
After now fired General Manager Terry Ryan said the Minnesota Twins would hold onto Plouffe this past offseason that decision has proven to be a disaster.
And possibly one that got him fired.
At this point it seems more likely Plouffe will be moved during the offseason.
And that might be for the best if he can return healthy and put up some decent numbers, maybe his value will increase.
But as always around this time, we’ll just have to wait and see and hope we’ll get a clear indication of what the future may look like for the Minnesota Twins.