Minnesota Twins 2018-2019 Offseason Trade Partner Profile: St. Louis Cardinals
The Minnesota Twins 2018-2019 offseason is here. Here we explore who could be their trade partners as they look to return to the playoffs.
The Minnesota Twins need to make some moves with the offseason now upon us. Free agents will attract a lot of the attention over the next several weeks as there are several big name free agents potentially looking for a new team and new big and shiny deal.
The Twins should very much be able to be in the conversation with many free agent names, but what will be just as if not more important for the Twins is the trade market. The Twins front office has pointed to the Twins minor league assets as a strength to help them acquire some additions to their roster. We will attempt to work through each team in baseball and find some trades that work for both sides.
We have already explored possibilities with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, PIttsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and the San Francisco Giants. Next up is the St. Louis Cardinals.
Cardinals 2018
The Cardinals put together a respectable season as they went 88-74 and finished 3rd place in the NL Central. It just wasn’t enough with the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers in their same division to make it into the playoffs in 2018.
Jose Martinez raked in 2018 as he hit .305/.364/.457 with a .821 OPS, 17 home runs and 30 doubles. Marcell Ozuna proved to be a good addition via trade as he hit .280/.325/.433 with 23 home runs of his own. Jedd Gyorko added to the Cardinals lineup his hitting line of .262/.346/.416 with a .762 OPS.
Miles Mikolas made his return from Japan and led the Cardinals with 200.2 innings pitched and turned in a 2.83 ERA. Jack Flaherty at only 22-years-old logged 151.0 innings, a 10.8 K/9, and a 3.34 ERA.
Possible Trade Interest
Cardinals may want: The Cardinals recently added Andrew Miller to their bullpen but could be interested in continuing to add to their reliever mix. A lefty-bat is also reportedly coveted by the Cardinals as well.
Twins may want: Twins are continually looking for pitching themselves. In trying to make trades they may need to be content with acquiring prospects when comes to a match with the Cardinals. As the offseason moves on these trades are getting harder and harder to find fits but we will give it another shot!
Trade Proposals
Trade Proposal #1: OF Jake Cave for LHP Austin Gomber and another low-level prospect
As the Cardinals look to stay competitive with the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers they could be not only looking for a left-handed bat for their bench but also an upgrade over Dexter Fowler in the outfield. Jake Cave (even though I don’t want to see him leave the Twins) could certainly be a solid bench bat for the Cardinals not possibly even supplant Fowler as the Cardinals starting outfielder.
While Cave likely feels very valuable to us as Twins fans he wouldn’t require a huge haul to acquire if the front office became willing to deal him. The presence of LaMonte Wade waiting his time at Triple-A makes him somewhat expendable for the Twins. Austin Gomber seems like a good target in a trade for Cave. The left-hander received a little bit of time in the MLB last season and has worked as both a reliever and starter.
Maybe the Twins could push for someone a little bit higher up the prospect ladder but I think that would be hard to do for Cave. A second Single-A level player could certainly round out this type of deal.
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Trade Proposal #2: RHP Addison Reed for RHP Daniel Poncedeleon and C Ivan Herrera/C Carlos Soto
The Cardinals have added Andrew Miller who could very well become their closer but may look to continue to add bullpen help. While Reed certainly looks to figure into the Twins bullpen plans for the right price the front office may be willing to part ways with him.
In return here the Twins receive Poncedeleon who could be close to stepping into the bullpen himself and is best known for his return to baseball after being hit in the head with a line drive. The second piece in this trade is one of two Single-A catchers in Herrera or Soto. While the Twins catching prospects are beginning to look better in quality it never hurts to add some more depth.