Originally posted at

http://troystwinsdugout.wordpress.com/2014/03/27/given-recent-trade-history-trevor-may-has-to-pan-out-for-the-twins/

When the Twins traded Ben Revere to the Philadelphia Phillies during the 2012-2013 offseason, it looked like the Twins were winners in that trade, having received a couple of pitchers. Vance Worley had previous pitching experience in the majors with the Phillies. Trevor May was one of the Phillies better pitching prospects.

Since then, Worley has turned into a batting practice pitcher this spring for the Twins to trot out against their opponents. That’s a far cry from Worley being the Twins opening day starter last season. In fact, he only lasted for a couple of months with the big club before his 1-5 record and 7.21 ERA had the cleaning lady emptying his locker and packing his bags to send along with Worley to AAA Rochester where he eventually suffered an elbow injury.

Because Worley wasn’t performing in spring training like the Twins were hoping, they sent him through waivers last week. Since he wasn’t claimed, he was sent to Rochester. Last Tuesday, Worley was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for cash.

Meanwhile, May had an okay season at AA New Britain last season. With the Rock Cats, he pitched in 27 games where he had a record of 9-9 and an ERA of 4.51. He struck out 159 batters and walked 67.

While with the Phillies, Revere batted .305/.338/.352. He scored 37 runs while playing in 88 games. Despite not having as good of runs scored and RBI totals compared with the previous two seasons while with the Twins, Revere certainly sounds like a better player to have in centerfield than Aaron Hicks right now.

The Twins are counting on Hicks to start the season in center with Byron Buxton waiting in the wings. The eventual plan is to move Hicks to left once Buxton is called up. They won’t bring back Josh Willingham next season unless he performs significantly better than last season.

There’s also the trades the Twins have made in the past decade. Most of those trades haven’t worked out in the Twins favor. Proably the best trade was trading outfielder Bobby Kielty to the Torronto Blue Jays for outfielder Shannon Stewart who helped lead the Twins to the second of three consecutive central division titles.

During the offseason, the Twins traded catcher A.J. Pierzynski to the San Fransisco Giants for pitchers Joe Nathan, Fransisco Liriano and Boof Bonser. Not only that, they traded pitcher Eric Milton to the Phillies for utility player Nick Punto and pitcher Carlos Silva. Most of these players would help the Twins win the Central Division in four out of the next six seasons at one time or another.

Since then, a more recent history of trades has help send the Twins in to three consecutive losing seasons. One such trade was trading pitcher Matt Garza and shortstop Jason Bartlett to the Tampa Bay Rays for outfielder Delmon Young and infielder Brendan Harris after the 2007 season. Garza and Bartlett would help the Rays to the 2008 World Series. Meanwhile. Young had one solid season for the Twins in over three and a half seasons before being traded to the Detroit Tigers.

That same offseason, the Twins traded pitcher Johan Santana to the New York Mets for outfielder Carlos Gomez and three other pitching prospects. Gomez didn’t seem to quite put it together in two seasons for the Twins and was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for shortstop J.J. Hardy.

After the 2010 season, Hardy was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for pitchers Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson. Hoey was inconsistent for the Twins that season and Jacobson never pitched with the big club and was eventually let go.

Shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka was brought in from Japan to replace Hardy. That turned into a disaster thanks to a broken leg early in the season and was not able to adjust to playing baseball here in the U.S. He just looked overmatched at the plate and was eventually let go.

And of course, you could mention the Wilson Ramez trade for Matt Capps during the 2010 season. If it wasn’t for that trade, there would have been someone to replace Joe Mauer as catcher although Josmil Pinto looks like he could be a solid catcher for the Twins in future years.

Given the recent trade history, the Twins should hope that Trevor May can contribute to their team’s success in the future. it might be harder for him to be in the starting rotation given who the Twins have for starting pitching, but May could be someone to help contribute in the bullpen in the future. If May isn’t successful, it looks like the Ben Revere trade will go down as another bad trade for the Twins.