Spencer Steer keeps making the Twins look like fools for trading him

Even though the Minnesota Twins didn't play on Monday night, they still found a way to lose.

The Twins are licking their wounds after the Kansas City Royals hung 11 runs on them to close out a series that otherwise seemed to go pretty well. It was textbook Twins, finding a way to chase some mild promise in an utterly crushing way.

It's a long season and chances are the 11-0 loss will be a distant memory we can hardly recall by the time October rolls around, but it's a less than ideal way to experience especially given how poorly the team plays in day games.

A scar that won't fade anytime soon is trading Spencer Steer.

It's a trade that Twins fans wince when thinking about; Minnesota dealt Steer as well as Christian Encarnacion-Strand and left-handed pitcher Steven Hajjar to the Reds for Tyler Mahle and were left holding the bag.

Mahle posted 4.41 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 16.1 innings before needing Tommy John surgery, while Steer has become one of the leaders in Cincinnati's youth movement. Monday was another painful reminder of what the Twins gave up, as we were forced to watch Steer hit an extra innings grand slam against the Phillies.

Spencer Steer keeps making the Twins look like fools for trading him

On Monday Steer powered the Reds to a huge win on the road in Philadelphia with a grand slam in extra innings that ended up being the game winner.

At a certain point we need to let go of the guilt over trading Steer, but things like this don't make it very easy. This is happening in the background of the Twins struggling mightily with depth amid a barrage of injuries to key players, and also a youth movement that Steer would have fit right into.

It's hard to not imagine a lineup with Steer, Royce Lewis, Brooks Lee, and Matt Wallner and not feel some regret over cashing that in before it had a chance to show value. Perhaps hit wouldn't have worked out as smoothly as it has for the Reds, but Steer is flourishing with Cincinnati and it certainly feels like a missed opportunity made even worse in the light of how the return for him turned out.

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