Minnesota Twins Offseason Trade Partner Profile: Chicago White Sox
The 2017-2018 offseason is here for the Minnesota Twins. Who could be their trade partners this offseason?
Now that the Minnesota Twins have entered the offseason, they are looking to improve the roster through trades and through free agent signings. In this series, we’ll look at how the Twins match up with teams in trade scenarios.
We will first cover the team’s 2017 and what they may be looking for this offseason and then look at whether the Twins could be a good fit for a possible trade this offseason. If there’s a fit, we’ll try to put together a feasible trade that would work for both sides. We will go alphabetically through the league, and today we have worked our way to our first American League Central divisional rival, the Chicago White Sox.
White Sox 2017
The Chicago White Sox plunged headlong into a rebuilding effort in the offseason before the 2017 season with the big trades of ace Chris Sale and outfielder Adam Eaton. Those deals brought back huge returns for the White Sox in terms of prospects. Midseason deals of Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Tommy Kahnle, David Robertson, Anthony Swarzak, Dan Jennings, Melky Cabrera, and Miguel Gonzalez brought in a host of new prospects to the system as well.
While eyes are toward the future, the White Sox got another excellent season from slugger Jose Abreu, who hit .304/.354/.552 with 33 home runs. Avisail Garcia had an excellent season, hitting .330/.380/.506 with 18 home runs and 5 stolen bases. Both players are going to be heavily sought-after in trade this winter.
The White Sox were led on the pitching side by Carlos Rodon, but he was only healthy enough to make 12 starts, posting a 4.15 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, and striking out 76 over 69 1/3 IP.
Multiple young players came up to the big league club and showed well. Carson Fulmer had a 3.86 ERA in 23 1/3 innings, Lucas Giolito threw 45 1/3 innings with a 2.38 ERA, and Reynaldo Lopez threw 47 2/3 innings with a 4.72 ERA.
Young shortstop Tim Anderson put up surprising power, but struggled to produce with his plus speed, and his 13/162 BB/K ratio at the plate over 606 plate appearances were part of worry that was already there. Yoan Moncada hit .231/.338/.412 with 8 home runs and 3 steals in 54 games, but he did show much more comfort on the field at the pro level than in his debut in 2016. Being at second base seemed to help that significantly. “Older” prospects Matt Davidson and Nick Delmonico both showed surprising power in the majors, with Davidson hitting 26 home runs in 118 games and Delmonico hitting for an .856 OPS in 43 games.
Possible Trade Interest
White Sox may want: Prospects in return for Abreu/Garcia, major league ready arms to fill out a bullpen
Twins may want: A power bat for the DH position, starting pitching, relief pitching
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Trade proposals
With those similar needs, how could the Twins and Cubs match up. Here are three ideas:
Trade proposal #1: Twins send Ryan Pressly, Stephen Gonsalves, Nick Gordon, and Kohl Stewart for Jose Abreu. Abreu is under arbitration for two more seasons, having made $10.825 million last season. He is projected to make nearly $18 million this year, but the Twins could negotiate with Abreu to lessen that impact (though the price is not off from what would be expected from similar production in the free agent market this offseason). Trading in division will likely mean a heavier trade cost, so even this price could be not enough.
Trade proposal #2: Twins send Ryan Pressly, Stephen Gonsalves, Travis Blankenhorn, and J.T. Chargois for Avisail Garcia. As a defensively-limited right-handed hitting outfielder, Garcia would work well as a DH that could fill in to give Max Kepler a day off against a tough lefty in the outfield, but not play too much outfield so as to not expose the team defensively. He’s projected to make $6.5-7 million in arbitration this season and he has two more seasons of control that should be reasonable in price. He could cost more as an in-division trade.
Next: Potential FA pitching targets
Trade proposal #3: Twins send a prospect for White Sox international bonus pool money. The White Sox sent $500K to the Mariners this week for a promising upper minors reliever, and they are limited in their ability to spend in the international market, but I cannot find any details on the amount they have left.