Minnesota Twins: Top 3 Moves the Twins made in 2021

We are about 9 days away from the new year, and with the new year comes a new baseball season (hopefully). The 2022 Minnesota Twins will start the year undefeated, and with no moves to make until the lockout ends, I give the Twins an A+ so far.

However, with the current structure of the team, it would be naive to not look back at this past year and wonder how we got to this point. A lot had to go wrong for the Twins to go from first to worst in their division.

We rank the Top 3 moves the Minnesota Twins made this year.

Despite the year not going as well as we had hoped, there were a few bright spots to look back on. Before the year leaves us (or we leave the year at this point) let us look back at the best trades or contract moves the team made during the 2021 calendar year.

Minnesota Twins Best Move No. 3: Trading Jose Berrios at the deadline

At the 2021 trade deadline, Jose Berrios currently had a year and a half left on his current deal with the Twins. Over 6 years, Berrios appeared in 136 games, posted a 4.08 ERA, 781.1 IP with almost as many Ks (779) and an ERA+ of 107 and was in the midst of the best season of his career.

By looking at the numbers, Berrios was just a tad above average, but on the closer side to average. The Twins had a decision to make: trade the best starter they’d developed since Johan Santana or move him to avoid losing him in free agency. In my opinion, this made the deal a no brainer for the Twins.

The Twins made the executive decision to move Berrios while there was still some value in how much of his contract he had left. Hindsight is 20/20 but the extension that Berrios was offered by the Blue Jays seems like a price tag that the Twins would not (or at least should not) want to pay for a pitcher of his caliber.

Aside from saving themselves a ton of money on the extension, the Twins also received two prospects in Austin Martin and Simeon Woods-Richardson. Both are top prospects and should be seeing time in the majors within the next two years.

Minnesota Twins Best Move No. 2: Receiving Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman

There seems to be a trend here with the best moves that the Twins made in 2021. Nelson Cruz was one of the recent bright spots in recent Minnesota Twins history hitting 76 home runs, batting .304 and posting his fourth highest WAR (4.3) in 2019.

However, Nelson Cruz was face to face with the one thing that he couldn’t stop and that is old age. Cruz was 40 years old this past season and his time in the MLB is sadly coming to an end soon. The Twins decided they had to capitalize before it was too late.

They sent Nelson Cruz to the Tampa Bay Rays along with Calvin Faucher and in return received Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman. Trading less than a year’s worth of a 40 year old DH for a 25 year old who is going to be inserted into the rotation for years to come and a 25 year old who made the jump from High A to Triple A from 2019-2021 seems like a no-brainer.

Also, taking a young prospect from the Rays is always a good thing because if he was in their system at one point, odds are he’s pretty talented, and from what what both players did after the trade, the Twins have to feel quite comfortable.