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WARNE: August Waiver Trade Candidates for the Minnesota Twins


Brandon Warne

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We’ve established the rules for post-July 31 trades. Now we should take a look at who the Twins might target, right?

 

It’s pretty easy to isolate three areas where the Twins can use some help:

  • Starting pitching
  • Relief pitching
  • Batters who can hit left-handed pitching

 

The pitching woes are hard to miss. Only the Rangers (6.4) have gotten fewer strikeouts per nine innings from starting pitchers than the Twins (6.9), and just four teams have posted higher ERA from their rotations than the Twins (4.89). Similarly, only five teams have a higher bullpen ERA than the Twins (4.53), and no team has a bullpen fanning fewer batters per nine than Minnesota (7.6).

 

With that said, the Twins bullpen has been quite a bit better of late. Only seven teams have a lower ERA over the past 30 days than the Twins (3.53) out of the bullpen, and that comes with 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings, 2.0 walks per nine and a groundball rate of 47.4 percent.

 

When it comes to making bullpen additions, it’s not just adding that player to a bullpen, though. It’s also swapping out the worst player on the other side of the bullpen. And while that’s a bit tougher to do now than it was a couple months ago, subtracting a Buddy Boshers or an Alan Busenitz now is a bit tougher of a decision than Matt Belisle or Craig Breslow would have been two months ago. Still, there’s room to improve.

 

As an offense, the Twins aren’t far from the middle of the pack. They have a collected wRC+ of 97 — tied for 13th with the Cubs and Reds — and have been around there most of the season. Against righties, they have a 99 wRC+, which is 13th in MLB. Against lefties though, it’s just 89 — 21st in MLB. So the Twins could use some help against lefties, and that’s easy to see with the struggles of Max Kepler, Joe Mauer and others against southpaws this season.

 

So let’s take a look at some pieces that might be made available over the next couple weeks to see who might be a good fit for the Twins:

 

SP Marco Estrada – Toronto Blue Jays

 

Estrada is probably atop every general manager’s list this month as far as teams seeking starting pitching help. His ERA is unsightly (4.85), but it’s backed by a 4.35 FIP, more than a strikeout per inning and a strong recent run. He’s got a 2.08 ERA over his last four starts, which includes pitching the Jays to wins over the Yankees and Astros — the AL’s two best offenses. This deal might take time to get done, as the Jays are just four games out of the second Wild Card and maybe haven’t quite packed it in yet.

 

Please click through to Zone Coverage here to see the rest of this story.

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It's so tough, because of the Twins position in the standings, to have any idea of who might be available, unless they want to absorb some big contract, which could happen when a player is sent thru a second time and doesn't need compensation. I think the twins may be looking at that venue more and then deciding what to do with the player after-the-fact.

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  On 8/15/2017 at 3:12 AM, darin617 said:

Is this some click bait?

 

It's OK to post something in your blog (or in the forums) that continues back to your site or blog. The only caveat is that we won't promote those to the front page.

 

For stories, we just don't want to "trick" our readers to clicking through to a different site. But on blogs or forums, we want people to be able to promote their own endeavors by bringing news of them back to our community.

 

 

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