I've been thinking about this for awhile, prior to King Felix's perfect game a couple weeks ago. Perhaps I should have posted it then, as it wouldnt sound so pipe dreamish now. However, the Minnesota Twins are perfect trade partners for the Seattle Mariners if they look to deal Hernandez this offseason. And I am hoping that deal begins tonight with a strong Liam Hendriks start.

My proposed deal would include Oswaldo Arcia, Eddie Rosario, Liam Hendriks, and a lower level pitching prospect (Jason Wheeler perhaps) for King Felix. I would have Arcia and Rosario as the third and fourth ranked Twins prospects going into next season.

Why would Seattle do it? Well their top three prospects are all starting pitchers, and very highly rated at that in Walker, Hultzen, and Paxton. Also, their young hitters they are still hoping to produce in the future are all infielders in Smoak, Ackley, Seager, and Montero. And their other top hitting prospects are a SS and 3B. Saunders can play a bit, but other than that, they are thin in the OF (I am not a Trayvon Robinson guy). Therefore, Arcia and Rosario fit in very nicely in Seattle with their current pieces, and should be highly viewed after their current seasons. Hendriks has done all he can do at AAA, and needs to put it together with a major league club. His fly ball tendencies should play well in MN, but should play even better in the marine air of Safeco Field. With the other pitchers they have, he would be a solid 4 or 5 with the younger guys coming up and Vargas.

This may have been more realistic at the end of June before Hernandez went 8-0 in his last 12 starts, however this is the type of move they should be looking to make as Hernandez will not be 27 until after next season starts, and is the type of pitcher any team needs, but the Twins DESPERATELY need.

Id be willing to give up more, but those players make the most sense to me. If they want Hicks instead or perhaps in addition, Id still listen, as long as Buxton/Sano are not part of the deal. Would love to hear some thoughts on this.

HAHAHA...are you serious?

I'll say this....I think the Mariners would at least consider that trade. The big problem is that King Felix is only under control for two more years, so the Twins would need to add his $20M salary AND find pitchers for the other three spots in the lineup.

Would you like your drug test now or later? There would almost be a better chance of Joe Mauer coming forward and saying that he is only worth $13M a season and would like to return $10M to the team to put towards a SP. Sano would have to included along with the other players along with a pitcher alot better than Laim Liam Hendriks...

MN could never add another huge contract to the payroll. So the rotation would be King Felix, Diamond, and 3 flunkies? 1 pitcher no matter how great will never turn a team around by himself.

No. Putting aside the blatantly obvious fact that Seattle is building AROUND King Felix and would absolutely not trade him anytime soon...

This magical trade would be a "win now" trade. Hernandez has 2 years left on his contract, due about 20 million for each year of it. There is no way the Twins could possibly extend this, because he would command even more per year, so we'd essentially be buying him for two years. The only way this is even remotely justifiable is if the Twins have a decent chance of making a playoff run (which requires making the playoffs, which requires playing .500 baseball...)

So I guess my question for you is, do you honestly believe the Twins are Felix Hernandez away from playing winning baseball right now? Because that idea seems completely ridiculous to me.

I don't think the twins are a Felix Hernandez away from contending and giving away all of your top prospects besides Sano would be completely foolish in my opinion. One ace will not make the Twins much better. They would be MAYBE a .500 team.

OK, just to add a log to the hot stove....

The primary objection seems to be that the Twins aren't a King Felix away from contention. So what about this...

1. Trade away Morneau for a mediocre starter, maybe even one that isn't especially cheap but not especially expensive either.

2. Trade for Felix. You can argue what prospects it costs, but I gotta think it can be done for some high upside guys. Come the next prospect rankings, I think you're going to have a couple of 5 stars (Sano, Hicks, Buxton) and a couple of 4 stars (Rosario, Arcia, Berrios at least) to offer.

Now the rotation looks like Felix, Diamond, Morneau trade guy, and some combination of Gibson, Hendriks, Deduno, De Vries, Vasquez and Blackburn as the fourth and fifth guys.

Is that team really far from contention?

They may be on the fringes of contention, but that is not a true rebuild. They would still be trading their best prospects in an already thin farm system, so in two years when Felix moves on to another team it will be more 100 loss seasons. The Twins need to restock their farm system will young talent. To me, two years of Felix is not worth putting off this rebuild for 2 years. I would much rather they just trade their veteran players for what they can get, and start to build around their younger players.

I think that Diamond, Gibson, and Hendriks could be something to build around pitching wise. Hopefully Berrios can move through the system fairly quickly and be ready about the same time as Sano. The twins have some light at the end of the tunnel, I don't think we should trade that for two years of Felix.