Minnesota Twins: Finding a Brian Dozier trade partner
By Nate Palmer
The Minnesota Twins sit in limbo between buyer and seller. Regardless of which one they are they may benefit from trading Brian Dozier, but to who?
The Minnesota Twins will need to soon decide whether they are going to be buyers or sellers come the trade deadline. There have already been several trades that have sent some significant players around the majors. Seattle brought in Alex Colome and Denard Span. In a move that effects the topic of the article, the Milwaukee Brewers recently acquired middle infielder Brad Miller.
That brings us to the Twins and their own middle infielding free agent to be, Brian Dozier. At 29-35 and 5.0 games back of the Cleveland Indians, anything really can happen yet for the Twins this season. Regardless of the franchises goals for the rest of the season, it is time for the Twins to start gauging what they may be able to get in a Dozier trade.
It seems clear that Dozier isn’t in the Twins plans moving into 2019. With Eduardo Escobar hitting as well as he has been, and Nick Gordon tearing up Triple-A it makes parting with Dozier much easier. There is a good chance that trading Dozier doesn’t even mean waiving the white flag on 2018. It may simply mean getting value and giving Gordon a chance to play in the majors.
The hard part of trades is always finding who is willing to be the partner on the other side of the deal. That was the hard part a couple of offseasons ago when the Twins were reportedly shopping or at least listening intently on Dozier. At the time the only realistic partner was the Los Angeles Dodgers. In this space we will look to see who else might be potential trade partners for the Twins and Dozier.
The other side of considering a Dozier trade is value. Dozier is off to one of his traditionally slow starts which certainly isn’t helping his trade stock value. He is hitting .233/.313/.403 with nine home runs and currently just doesn’t seem like he is able to get square on pitches. Even with that there is still value in Dozier and the Twins do not want to simply give up the slugging second baseman for a bag of balls. Whatever the return package is for Dozier it must be of higher value than the draft pick compensation the Twins would receive if they extended Dozier a qualifying offer.
Let’s take a look at who may be looking for a slugging second baseman as they pursue postseason glory.