The Minnesota Twins made their first significant move of the year by trading All-Star shortstop Eduardo Nunez to the San Francisco Giants.
While upon first hearing about the trade, one might feel disappointment, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about the returns.
And what was the Giants’ No. 7 prospect (according to MLB.com) in Adalberto Mejia.
What the Minnesota Twins got was a power arm who may be ready to contribute as late this season, possibly beginning of next.
Mejia gives the Twins another promising young left-handed starter to go along with fellow top prospect Stephen Gonsalves.
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Together those two should fit nicely with the Minnesota Twins’ No. 1 prospect, Jose Berrios.
Those three should help create a nice, young nucleus to build their starting rotation on.
It also gives the Minnesota Twins another arm fully capable of striking hitters.
Not to mention Mejia has spent time within the Giants’ organization. The same organization to feature such pitchers as Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum.
Add to that if the Twins are truly willing to hold onto Ervin Santana, that could potentially give the club a rotation of two power lefties, a strikeout-tossing young righty and a finesse veteran to lead the way.
And as previously in the initial story written about the trade, the time to move Nunez was now as it was very unlikely his value would be as high as it was.
Sure, there is the risk the trade doesn’t work out and it becomes another Alex Meyer-esque story but that’s the risk you run when trading for prospects.
Nunez was unlikely a long-term fit at age 29 and with Nick Gordon, Jorge Polanco and even Eduardo Escobar, it became very evident someone would be moved soon.
For interim GM Rob Antony, this is a terrific first trade as he maximized the value of a trade chip without having to sacrifice the future
Gordon of course is not expected to be a part of the big league team for a few years but Polanco and Escobar both have major league experience with Polanco being the favorite to eventually take over at short.
This trade also signifies exactly what the Minnesota Twins’ mentality is and should be heading into the deadline.
Move assets to get starting pitching.
With the offense performing much better than at the beginning of the season, the Twins should feel confident about their young core moving forward.
With the future depth at starting pitching becoming a potentially bigger issue due to the lack of consistency from the current staff, the Twins needed to acquire someone who could be ready to contribute as soon as next season.
For interim GM Rob Antony, this is a terrific first trade as he maximized the value of a trade chip without having to sacrifice the future.
With a few more days left to make a move, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a trade for someone like Fernando Abad or even Ricky Nolasco.