3 Right-Handed Batters the Twins Should Target This Week

[Matthew Trueblood]

With Mitch Garver, Josh Donaldson, and Byron Buxton injured, the Twins could use both punch and depth from the right side. Fortunately, there are a handful of solid players who might be available in trades before the deadline next Monday.This trade deadline will be much quieter than most, and it’s hard to guess or gauge what kinds of deals will happen. Certainly, teams will approach the possibility of trading for players on expiring contracts differently than they would in other years, since this truncated season and the expanded playoffs change the payoff for a successful short-term upgrade. Clubs also figure to be a bit more wary to take on big contracts, because of the widespread uncertainty about the medium-term future of free agency and team finances. Still, moves will happen, and the Twins are a surefire playoff team with clear, low-grade needs. That could position them well to make a deal or two.

 

It’s not just the fact that Garver, Buxton, and Donaldson are sidelined right now that puts the Twins in a position of needing some extra right-handed hitting help. Ehire Adrianza, who was a pleasant surprise as a versatile bench option in 2018 and 2019, has faded, and now looks more like the poor hitter who first made his way to Minnesota. Adrianza is also aging, with his defensive prowess fading and his speed gone, so he offers little for the Twins at this point. Luis Arraez continues to play on a sore knee, and it’s affecting his game. Marwin Gonzalez has a .673 OPS.

 

The team should try to hedge their bets, in case some significant subset of this sextet remains unable to help the club much come October. Here are the three best guys who should be available and could fill key needs. We’ll discuss three more tomorrow.

 

Donovan Solano, IF, San Francisco Giants: Though some teammates have nicknamed him Donny Barrels, Solano doesn’t actually generate much power. That’s almost where the bad news ends, though, because Solano has become a genuinely interesting right-handed hitter, capable of squaring the ball up as consistently as anyone in baseball and of playing all over the infield.

 

Solano uses a toe tap/leg kick hybrid, so his swing sometimes looks a bit arrhythmic, but he makes contact within the zone and uses the whole field. He’s also one of the best players in baseball at clustering his batted balls within the launch-angle band that leads to the best outcomes. Among players with 100 or more batted balls in 2019, the Twins had the seventh-, ninth-, and 10th-best hitters at that, in Arraez, Jorge Polanco, and Jason Castro. Solano, however, was first, in a group that included 406 total players. He’s among the leaders thus far in 2020, too, which is part of the reason for his .340 batting average since the start of 2019.

 

At either second or third base, Solano is a roughly average fielder. He’s played shortstop for 150 innings over the last two seasons, too. He’s not a good baserunner, but Solano would be a massive upgrade over Adrianza and Gonzalez, pushing the former off the roster and letting the latter play more outfield as needed. He would even make a fine platoon partner for Arraez, and failing that, he would provide insurance against Arraez needing to sit for a prolonged period with that nagging knee problem. With the ability to use the whole field but a tendency to pull the ball, and with his emphasis on getting on plane with the incoming pitch so frequently, Solano’s a perfect fit for this team and its philosophy.

 

The only real drawback in dealing for Solano is that the Giants are in a position to ask for something meaningful in return. That doesn’t mean the Twins would need to part with any of their name-brand prospects, but Solano has a year of team control remaining beyond this year, so Minnesota would have to offer enough not only to outbid other interested teams, but to make Giants general manager Scott Harris and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi decide to pull the trigger now, rather than wait and see what offers they get over the winter.

 

Erik González, SS, Pittsburgh Pirates: Twins fans are familiar with González, who was an Indians farmhand and Francisco Lindor understudy until he was traded to Pittsburgh in November 2018. He’s long been considered a good-glove, no-hit shortstop, and fairly so. He’s not a match for the physical stereotype of such players, though: he’s tall and strong. That’s why what’s happening this year is pretty exciting.

 

Here’s the quicksheet box atop González’s player page at Baseball Savant:

Download attachment: EG 2020.PNG

 

That’s shocking. González, who has just one home run in 2020 and seven in 497 career plate appearances, is among the league leaders in average exit velocity and in hard-hit rate this year. He’s even elevating the ball more. Nor is all of that happening by accident. He’s genuinely hammering the baseball, and it’s thanks to a new swing path.

 

González hits with a high, early leg kick, and in the past, that led to a somewhat lunging swing in which he swung down through the point of contact. Watching his swing, especially over the last two seasons, was oddly jarring: it’s a very familiar swing path to anyone who grew up watching baseball even in the 1990s or early 2000s, but there are few players left in the game who swing that way.

 

This year, the leg kick is the same, though he’s doing some different things with his back leg as he drives forward. He’s also creating more torque, by keeping his front shoulder closed and starting his bat barrel with a rearward movement to get his swing going. For the most part, though, he’s just changed that swing plane. He’s still not a fly-ball hitter, but he’s getting his hands down and creating a path up into the strike zone.

 

Plate discipline is far from a strength for González; he has 14 strikeouts and no walks this year. That’s not a bad strikeout rate, though, for a hitter who is generating plenty of potential power. González’s swing is fairly grooved, at this point, with a high in-zone contact rate but a lot of whiffs when he expands the zone. The Twins have taught precisely that style of hitting recently, though, so he’d be a good fit for them, philosophically.

 

More than Solano, González would be an option at shortstop even if Polanco were to get hurt, requiring a longer-term stopgap. He’s also a superior defender at second base. The Pirates have control over González through 2022, but they’re already trying to find playing time for Kevin Newman, Cole Tucker, and Adam Frazier, and infield prospects Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz are knocking on the door. That his surface-level production doesn’t yet match the change in the batted-ball data could help keep his price tag down. Pittsburgh desperately needs pitching help, and the Twins have enough depth in that area to get a deal done without feeling a major pang.

 

Howie Kendrick, 1B/2B, Washington Nationals: No serious baseball fan needs an introduction to Kendrick at this point. If his 15-year career hadn’t previously exposed you to him, his game-winning homer in Game 7 of last year’s World Series ought to have done so. Kendrick is the prototypical “professional hitter,” with far more pure hit tool than power, but enough of the latter to come through when that’s what the team needs.

 

At 37 years old, Kendrick is painfully slow afoot, and he hasn’t played a meaningful amount anywhere but first or second base in over half a decade. His lack of versatility would make him an imperfect replacement for Adrianza, and would limit his ability to help the team cope with Donaldson’s continued absence, but his bat is valuable all by itself. He’s exceptionally good at avoiding strikeouts. He uses the big part of the field, especially when he has an opportunity to move a runner over. He has good enough plate discipline to draw walks, especially because he’ll foul off good pitches on the edges of the zone if necessary.

 

When the Twins face a tough left-handed pitcher in a playoff setting, either as a starter or in a key late-game situation, it’d be awfully nice to have Kendrick available. He has a mutual option for 2021, which the bizarre market might actually bring into play, but the price tag to acquire him would be lower than those on either Solano or González.

 

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[PDX Twin]

I think I like St. Paul better than any of these options. (And he could dash off some epistles between at-bats!)

[Twodogs]

I don't think it's worth wasting resources on this. They should have enough hitting. Playoff baseball to me is centered around top of the rotation pitching. Look at the teams that have been winning there is one constant, stud starting pitching that can go 7 - 8 innings. Scherzer, Stasburg. Cole, Verlander, Greinke etc..... Twins starters are only lasting 4 - 5 innings each. They don't stand a chance, about the only guy who has proven he can pitch beyond 6 innings is Berrios and he is more of a solid #2 or #3 starter which is something, but if they want to be relevant in October they need to get someone who can drop 7 innings and 110 - 115 pitches whenever it's needed. The Twins rotation is great for the long haul of a season as they have depth and they have quality that can go out there every day and perform well enough to keep the Twins in it, but Maeda and Odorizzi and such tossing 4 - 5 innings in the playoffs isn't going to cut it. Especially when a team like Cleveland throws a Bieber out there and we can't hit those guys, hell no one can, that's why the Twins need to counter with their own Bieber, but they don't really have him. You can't expect guys like Odorizzi and Maeda to throw 7 innings in the playoffs if they never do it during the season so unless they find someone really good then the twins are stuck with 4 - 5 innings out of the bullpen in every game that typically doesn't work well for 4 straight playoff series. It can work fine for a game or two, but you need 2 - 3 horses who can go 7 - 8 innings so your not relying on your bullpen every game. Pineda was doing well last year before being suspended of going deep into games, but I doubt he will be ready to accomplish that once he is back. Hopefully?

[jrod23]

None of these guys do anything for a typical fan, or even many on this site.  You have to be a complete numbers guy within the organization to appreciate what these guys COULD do.

I'm just truly disappointed, yet not at all surprised to see Buxton and Donaldson sidelined.

[kenbuddha]

 

... Maeda and Odorizzi and such tossing 4 - 5 innings in the playoffs isn't going to cut it. ...

So far I wouldn't lump Maeda into the 4-5 inning group. He's has thrown fewer than 6 innings twice this season (one predictably being his first start). The other 4 starts were 6+ with one of those being 8 (after which he predictably threw 5). At this point I'd expect a solid 6.

[Old Twins Cap]

How about we acquire Donaldson, Buxton and Garver by doing nothing but let them heal?

[Twodogs]

So far I wouldn't lump Maeda into the 4-5 inning group. He's has thrown fewer than 6 innings twice this season (one predictably being his first start). The other 4 starts were 6+ with one of those being 8 (after which he predictably threw 5). At this point I'd expect a solid 6.

Yeah so far he has done more than he has done in the past. That is for sure. This however is the first time in his career and like you said, we can hope for a solid 6, but when teams throw Cole, or Scherzer, or guys like Bieber they aren't looking for 6. They might get 6 on a not so great night, but when those guys take the mound teams are looking for 7+. Right now most would look at Maeda as the Twins #1, he's really a #3 just based on past performance and lack of going deep into games.

 

I was watching the Astros and the Angels on Monday and a relatively young guy Valdez was on the mound. The Astros were up 5 - 1 and in the 4th inning Valdez gave up a bomb to Upton. Then in the 5th he got knocked around again a little and gave up 2 runs to make the score 5 - 4. You know if Valdez was pitching for the Twins he wouldn't have even finished the 5th in that situation, after he gave up the 4th run he would have been outta there. But the Stros left him in and he ended up pitching 7 innings and 113 pitches and some of those pitches were under duress in the 4th and 5th innings. But now Houston knows that this dude can get out of his own jams. They know he can be effective late into games and not just games he's dominating in, he can be effective in games where he's been touched up a little. How many Twins starters do you know who can be touched up a little and still minimize the damage and came back out and pitch 2 or 3 more innings going over 100 pitches if need be. I don't know of too many. Hopefully they come through.

[lukeduke1980]

I had wondered about Kevin Pillar during the offseason, for CF depth. He's playing pretty well for Boston and on a 1 year deal.

[Richard Swerdlick]

Of the options discussed in the article, I like the SF player first, and Howie K next. Louis A could play 3rd base if need be. Have the Twins given up on having Sano play some 3rd base in a pinch?  If he did that then Rooker could play 1st base, getting another right handed bat in the lineup. Rooker could also play the outfield. 

[jkcarew]

Right handed hitting outfielders, not infielders. Specifically a right handed guy that can also play center field because counting on Buxton at this point amounts basically to negligence.

 

Does Kendrick push Cruz to the bench...or Sano? He’s not playing any 2nd base or outfield at this point in his career. Not for the Nationals or any team seriously trying to compete.

[Channing1964]

Of the three mentioned....Kendrick is a Ball player. If you want to win, he's a guy to go get. Unfortunately we have guys just like him already. I would never be interested in an Indians cast off. And Solano with the Giants can just stay with the Giants. He's not too special no matter what the spread sheet says

[bighat]

Twins already made their trade this year - Ildemaro Vargas for cash. We're not going to see any more deals and I'm happy about it. In a season that could still collapse at any moment, I see zero reason to part with a prospect in 2020. I think the Twins feel the same.