Minnesota Twins offseason trade profile: Los Angeles Angels

The 2017-2018 offseason is here for the Minnesota Twins. Could the Los Angeles Angels be their trade partner 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 made it to the Los Angeles Angels.

2017 Angels

The Angels were one of the teams that were battling with the Twins down the stretch of the season for Wild Card positioning. The Angels fell short with a record of 80-82 finishing second in the American League West behind the World Series Champion Houston Astros.

Year in and year out the Angels have the luxury of employing one of baseball’s superhumans, Mike Trout. Trout slashed .306/.442/.629 with 33 home runs and 22 stolen bases. That is the type of prime production from an up the middle defensive position that every team searches for.

Andrelton Simmons topped many defensive leaderboards as he continued to show that he is an elite defensive shortstop. Simmons’ first half put us on alert that he is also able to hit. That first half included a slash of .290/.341/.438 and 9 home runs. Included in that an impressive July when Simmons hit .378/.409/.598. Unfortunately, Simmons cooled off as the calendar turned August leaving him with numbers close to his career average at .278/.331/.421, 14 home runs, and 19 stolen bases.

Offensively the next storyline of the Angels lineup has to be how Albert Pujols has battled age and injury. It just didn’t look like his body was ready to play baseball this season. No fault of his own, and amazingly he still turned in some OK numbers, just not Pujols like numbers. He was still able to hit 23 home runs and drive in 101 RBIs. What seemed to hurt are his strikeouts, 93, tied his career high from his rookie season and a dropped slash line to .241/.286/.386.

Two former Twins arms played big roles in the Angels rotation. Ricky Nolasco led the team in innings pitched with 181 innings but with less than stellar results as he had a 4.92 ERA. Alex Meyer was pitching well before injury ended his season. Meyer pitched 67.1 innings with a 3.74 ERA and 10 SO/9.

Parker Bridwell provided solid innings for the Angels rotation as he went 10-3 with a 3.64 ERA over 121 innings. After a partially torn UCL slowed Garrett Richards early in the season, Richards came back to pitch well with a 2.28 ERA, over 27 innings with 27 strikeouts.

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Bud Norris took over as the Angels closer and had a solid season even if some of his overall numbers don’t tell that story. Norris’s SO/9 was 10.7 with a 4.21 ERA and 19 saves. Yusmeiro Petit and Blake Parker were solid set-up men in the bullpen with ERAs and FIPs under 3 and good strikeout numbers.

Possible Trade Interest

Angels may want: The Angels are looking to improve their output from second base, first base, and third base. The Angels could use better arms in their starting rotation as well.

Twins may want: The Twins need starting pitching, relief pitching, and a right-handed power bat.

Trade Proposals

The Twins can meet the Angels needs in several ways. With the Angels weak farm system, the question is what can get a deal done.

Trade Proposal #1: 2B Brian Dozier for OF Jo Adell or OF Jahmai Jones and Keynan Middleton

The Angels have been searching for a second baseman and Brian Dozier fits that. It may seem crazy to ask for a #1 or #2 prospect within a system for a year of Dozier, but that is simply the state of the Angels system.

Adell was selected in 2017 and is a speedy outfielder who has been compared to an outfielder Twins fans know well, Byron Buxton. Jones is also a plus speed defender who is developing good pop in his bat. Middleton is a bit of a wildcard to this point yet, but he can hit triple digits on the radar gun and pitched 58.1 innings at the age of 23 with a 3.86 ERA and a 9.7 SO/9.

Next: Twins trade partner profile White Sox

Trade Proposal #2: 2B/3B Eduardo Escobar for OF Jahmai Jones

Escobar really meets the Angels positional needs with flexibility. If the Angels did end up landing someone else to man second and third base, Twins fans have seen first hand how valuable Escobar can be as a utility infielder.

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