3 moves Twins could have made instead of optioning Edouard Julien
By Josh Hill
DFA Manuel Margot
Why It Made Sense
It's been a tough season for Manuel Margot, who has sunk almost as low as Farmer has in terms of being someone the Twins were relying on who has totally let them down. So far this year Margot is hitting .209/.279/.264 with a .542 OPS and a -0.6 WAR -- which is worse than Farmer.
Compounding his struggles is the fact that he was brought to Minnesota in order to add some power to the lineup while doubling as insurance for Byron Buxton. It was Margot's offensive prowess that seemed to be the tiebreaker between trading for him or re-signing Michael A. Taylor and running things back. The Twins ended up sending Noah Miller to the Dodgers to make the deal happen, and thankfully found a way to reduce Margot's salary to just $4 million this season.
He's slowly started to turn things around, as he was hitting under .200 last week but has found at least some footing. It's overall been a bad experience, though, from Margot bunting in a two-outs bases loaded situation earlier in the season to his general unreliability at the plate.
Why It Didn't Happen
For as much of a letdown he's been at the plate, Margot is technically doing the main thing Minnesota needed him to do. Overall he's been pretty terrible offensively, but against left-handed pitching Margot is hitting .278/.344/.370, which seems to be his lone bright spot.
It's a pretty bright spot, to be clear.
Minnesota needed help against lefties and that was the skill underlined when comparing Margot to other potential outfield options this winter. How long he's able to live on that being his saving grace it yet to be seen, but if he can start turning things around overall at the plate it will go a long way in smoothing over some of his more painful early struggles so far this season.
Much like Farmer, the Twins likely would have needed to DFA Margot which almost certainly would have ended with him wearing another uniform. Given how much upside he still has, despite the struggles, it made more sense to keep him around.