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 will look at a team in the midst of a big rebuild in the Cincinnati Reds
Reds 2017
The Cincinnati Reds went 68-94 in 2017, their third straight season losing 90+ games. The team is in a major rebuild and they were able to really see a youth movement in their pitching staff in the 2017 season.
In their lineup, Joey Votto finished a matter of points off of winning the National League MVP award, hitting .320/.454/.578 with 36 home runs, posting an incredible 134/83 BB/K rate. He also had one of the best stories of the year in the way he connected with a young fan.
The rest of the lineup produced significant power, with many of those power sources being surprising, as Scooter Gennett hit 27 home runs and hit .295, Zack Cozart hit .297 with 24 home runs and a .933 OPS. Scott Schebler and Adam Duvall each had 30 or more home runs in the outfield with little walking, but great defense in the outfield corners from each.
While he didn’t provide big power, Tucker Barnhart hit .270/.347/.403 while establishing himself as one of the premier defenders behind the plate in the entire league.
Many of the young pitchers the Reds brought to Cincinnati struggled, which is not surprising with young arms, but fire-balling righty Luis Castillo showed his impressive ability and could step forward as the top arm in the staff as soon as 2018, as he went 3-7 over 15 starts, throwing 89 1/3 innings, with a 3.12 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and a 32/98 BB/K ratio.
The bullpen was led by Raisel Igelsias, who posted a 2.49 ERA over 63 games and 76 innings, saving 28 games, with a 1.11 WHIP, and a 27/92 BB/K ratio.
Possible Trade Interest
Reds may want: Prospects, possible shortstop
Twins may want: A power bat for the DH position, starting pitching, relief pitching
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Trade proposals
With those how could the Twins and Reds match up? Here are three ideas:
Trade proposal #1: Twins trade Nick Gordon, Felix Jorge, and Tyler Jay to Cincinnati for pitcher Raisel Iglesias. Iglesias is coming off an excellent year in a bullpen without a lot of help. Coming to the Twins bullpen where he’d be the closer among a number of young arms that were quite solid last year would be a good fit for the Twins. Gordon fits the near-future need for a shortstop in the organization as he’ll likely see some September time in 2018 and could be ready in 2019 while Jorge and Jay are both MLB-ready arms that could help right now.
Trade proposal #2: Twins trade Gordon and Kohl Stewart to the Reds for Jesse Winker. The Reds would love to find Winkler’s bat a spot, but frankly, his defense is just not adequate for the MLB level on an every day basis and there’s no DH in the NL. Winker would give the Twins a guy who does hit lefty, and they’d likely prefer a righty, but his on-base skills and gap power would allow him to slot near the top of the lineup immediately.
Trade proposal #3 Minnesota Twins trade a prospect to the Reds for international free agent money. The Cincinnati Reds were restricted to a maximum of $300K per signing this summer, and they did not have many reported signings, and outside of a deal with Atlanta, the Reds haven’t traded away a big chunk that I can find, so they should have some money available to trade.