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Minnesota Twins: 4 potential trade fits for OF Max Kepler

By Nate Palmer

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 9: Minnesota Twins' Max Kepler hits a double against the Kansas City Royals in the ninth inning during their baseball game on September 9, 2018, at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twins defeated the Royals 3-1. (Photo by Andy King/Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 9: Minnesota Twins' Max Kepler hits a double against the Kansas City Royals in the ninth inning during their baseball game on September 9, 2018, at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twins defeated the Royals 3-1. (Photo by Andy King/Getty Images) /
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Minnesota Twins
SAN DIEGO, CA – SEPTEMBER 17: Franmil Reyes #32 of the San Diego Padres is tagged out at second base by Brandon Crawford #35 of the San Francisco Giants as he tries to stretch a single during the sixth inning of a baseball game at PETCO Park on September 17, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images) /

San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants have been linked to outfielders, especially corner outfielders, all offseason. Now while there have been no links of a Giants-Twins trade pairing if the Twins do shop Kepler it would make sense for him to land with the Giants.

The Giants don’t necessarily have the frontline type starter that the Twins would ideally need if they were to deal Kepler. Madison Bumgarner seems very much available this offseason. The fact that Bumgarner only has one year left on his deal makes that a hard deal to advocate for. Especially because it would be very hard to see the Giants adding an additional controllable piece into a deal for the starter.

A player that at the beginning of the offseason certainly made sense for the Twins is Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford. He is signed through 2021 and will be paid $15 million in each of those seasons. The signing of Jonathan Schoop does now make this fit a little awkward.

With the bar as low as it is to qualify as a good offensive shortstop Crawford’s .254/.325/.394 and .719 OPS would give the Twins a good offensive shortstop. Defensively he has always seemed like a solid defender. Defensive metrics to have a bit of a mixed story on him with DRS being friendly to him at +6. Traditionally UZR measures have liked him to but this past season was a down year as he went negative in UZR (-0.9) AND UZR/150 (-0.8).

So while the fit isn’t fully there, it could be an instance of a acquire a good player and figure out the playing time later.

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