BREAKING: Twins Trade Rodney To A's

It also glosses over that they went low risk, low reward, by not signing the best FAs (though they certainly tried to sign Darvish).

Who did you want them to go get last winter? Who were the guys they should have been in on?

In my mind, the Twins made some strong moves in relief (and spycake is right that not trusting the young arms is the issue, not the free agents signed as aside from Belisle, the vets were as good as you could expect collectively) and decent moves for starting pitching (went for Darvish, didn’t go too far and then got a solid 1 year guy). After that, I can’t see where they should have been more active. The position players were set and you’d be upset to bring someone in to take a spot from a young guy. Sure Buxton, Sano and to a lesser extent Kepler have had bad seasons but you wanted to roll with those guys because they’re the future. I look at opening day and aside from Polanco being suspended, that’s who I wanted the Twins to have at that position.

I don’t see where the Twins should have been more active last offseason in Free Agency.

If there were no other options, was it really brilliant strategy, or just what was available? I think they did a lot right last off season, it just didn't work. But I also think they did little to nothing to fix the medium term, either by signing longer term FAs or trading for player(s). 

 

But, if there are no real options for long term deals, is it really genius to not do what you can't do? That was the point of the post.......maybe they signed a bunch of ST deals because there wasn't another option, not because that's what they wanted to do.

 

I hope they are dealing from this super deep farm system for 1 MLB player with 3+ years of control this off season. No idea who, but a C, 3B, OF, 1B or SP would be nice. If not, it looks like another year of 1 year deals and hoping someone from the farm steps up.

To finish my thoughts for 2018 free agents, the big contracts were Arrieta, Darvish, JD Martinez, Hosmer, Cain, and Upton. The Twins were in on Darvish and it never felt like Arrieta was a match so no issues on the pitching choices. The OF contracts to Cain and Upton look good through a year but I would have reacted negatively if the Twins were not going with Rosario, Kepler and Buxton in the OF this year. I was (and am) excited about all three. I think you can certainly say the Twins would look awesome with JD Martinez at DH (though that contract could be tough by the end) so that’s a place they could have been active. He’d have fit well with the Twins. It would’ve taken knowing the OF was going to suck or being very confident about JD Martinez. Not a lot to blame the FO for - not a ton of great fits and they were likely right to trust internal youth.

They should be in decent shape this offseason. 3B is relatively strong (Machado, Moose, Donaldson, Escobar) and that seems a place of need. Though Sano finishing strong might change that (and might move them back towards Escobar at 2B since he could move to 3B regularly once Gordon/Arraez is ready).

1B/DH is a lot harder. With Mauer, Austin and Sano they have some options but Sano off of 3B creates a hole there. The free agent market is pitiful. This is a place that the Twins could use trade pieces or perhaps take another shot on a Logan Morrison type. Might work better the second time?

I’m less inclined to move at catcher. Castro should be back and Garver is looking like a nice backup/1B/OF. Next year is a big year for Rortvedt – if he’s doing well in AA next year that may impact the Twins decision making. Same thing with Jeffers at the lower levels. Overall, catcher seems like a place for the Twins to wait another year for more information.

You can always use starting pitching. I expect the Twins will be in on that market. Kershaw seems likely to go back to the Dodgers but Dallas Keuchel, David Price, JA Happ, Garret Richards, Charlie Morton, Eovaldi, Ervin Santana, and of course, Bartolo Colon make for an interesting (if not exactly top-heavy) market.

I hope the Twins take a similar path to pitching this offseason as last. In on big starters but not getting desperate since they have nice young internal options (Berrios, Gibson, Romero, Pineda, Odorizzi, Mejia, Gonsalves, Thorpe is not a bad crew – though I wouldn’t mind one solid veteran signing). Making some smart free agent reliever moves.

And then I’d like to see them go get someone in the infield. Machado seems unlikely but they should be in on him to a point. As a fall back, getting an Escobar or a Donaldson on a shorter deal would be a nice bridge to the next generation.

Since you are going down this road again (in a Rodney thread), I will say, again, that I disagree completely with just about everything above

The key with Darvish/Arrieta/Cobb/Lynn was signing them in the normal period. The front office used Twins Fest (mid-late-January) as a target for trading Dozier the year before, so that would have worked as a good deadline for signing a free agent starter. I would have signed Cobb but during the normal signing period.

And no, I would not have signed Rodney. What about closer, then? Dunno. These guys are supposed to have "the data." Maybe Reed or Pressley. Reed was a good signing. I would have hung on to Burdi and Chaggy, too.

It’s nice to have that arbitrary deadline but that wasn’t the way the market was working. Other teams were stalling and the market was very slow developing because the top players weren’t signing. Guys don’t just sign with someone during that period, they wait and see what the market will be. You’re not going to get movement unless someone thinks “Yeah, this is the best I’m going to get.” So you have to overpay (like the Rockies with Holland, a bad contract no matter what he did this year).

You would have paid exceptionally more for Cobb had you signed him early because you’d be paying against what people thought the market would be, not what it was. His contract looks rough now at four years and $57 million. Think what you would’ve had to pay if you’d moved quickly. Another year? Another $20 million?

Agreed.  It doesn't work like that.

 

I will say the Rodney signing seems more and more strange in retrospect.  If you liked him going into 2018, what don't you like about him going into 2019?  Did they actually expect him to be better than he was?  They shouldn't have.  Seemed like a hedge signing at the time.  "We'll get someone better at the deadline if we look to be serious contenders."    To me, this trade is changing their mind...admitting mistakes.   It's not like anyone else in the bullpen has stepped up to make Rodney redundant (at least yet).  Although...I agree with the changing of the mind.  Never like the signing in the first place.

Maybe they're looking at internal development and the free agent pool this year and think that Rodney isn't going to be a great value? They also might realy like Chalmers/

No more FRE^®.

Sad.  

I guess closer tryouts for May (my choice), Moya, Busenitz, Mcgill, Duffey, Rogers.....

But most of those reasons (to go somewhere other than Rodney) all existed when they originally signed him, IMO.  Doesn't matter.  We agree that there are many legitimate reasons to trade Rodney at this point.

Not really. They didn't know the 2019 reliever FA market (especially since reliever performance is so variable). They also don't know that internal guys will develop (though they certainly haven't rewarded any of those guys with MLB time so hard to see how they're so sure there).

Maybe they just didn't like Rodney as much once they had him for a year. He is 40+. It'll be fascinating to see what happens with Rodney this offseason. Is his option picked up by the A's? If he hits the FA market, what does he get? it will tell a lot about this decision I imagine.

Whose closing?  Who cares?  We're all used to late inning heartbreak at this point.