Josh Willingham Traded To Royals for Minor League Pitcher

Goodbye Hammer.  I am glad you got that last Home Run.

It is a good depth pickup for KC and they didn't give up anything significant to get him. Also it takes away a homerun threat when they play the Twins. Twins get yet another bullpen arm. Maybe they can help him get his mojo back to start. It is a good trade for the Twins as they free up space for others to play and get someone with potential as well. I guess it's a win, win.

Getting Adam as the trade return at first glance looks a bit like getting Gilmartin for Doumit last offseason. A pitching prospect who's fallen off the map a bit and could be tweaked or coached back closer to his upside. Since Gilmartin is doing decently this year I'm interested to see the results of this one too.

  On 8/11/2014 at 11:55 PM, jokin said:

Nope. The Twins are sending him right to New Britain and back into the starting rotation.  The kid is still very young, still a good chance to resume an SP career path.  Good trade for TR.

Cool, hope he does well. He is young so a little patience could go a long way. But I like the potential of a lot of the guys we have coming up better. Hopefully he figures it out with us.

  On 8/11/2014 at 11:54 PM, stringer bell said:

Here is a list of 2014 Twins no longer in the organization and their ages:

 

Kendrys Morales (31)

Sam Fuld (32)

Jason Kubel (32)

Darrin Mastroianni (28)

Jason Bartlett (34)

Kevin Correia (33)

Josh Willingham (35)

 

This is the right direction to go. It might be bumpy for a while, but the kids need to play. I would have appreciated such moves a year ago.

Willy is different than the rest of the players on this list.  He is actually a decent MLB player.  KC isn't bad but the Twins have a few remotely interesting players to toss into the rotation for the last month. 

Trading Willy basically guarantees that Parmelee gets every day AB's.  Outside of 13 game hot month this year he has been decidedly mediocre in every opportunity as a Twin.  I don't have a problem trading Willy but I find it rather uninspiring if they are going to replace his AB's with more of Parmelee/Nunez/AAAA players.

Adam is at least interesting but he probably ends up in the bullpen next year.  I wouldn't be surprised if he is in the rotation because the Twins want to see him throw more 5 competitive innings before the season ends.  It's hard to get a read on a guy if he throws < 100 pitches competitively.

So we have:

Millone

Pryor

Adams

PTBNL

and savings of 7-7.5 million plus opens some spots for young players. 

for

Morales

Fuld

Willingham

Corriea

With the Twins headed in a downward spiral thee moves makes sense.  If they would have been competitive and been around .500 then not necessarily. 

A nice pickup to be sure. I don't care what team you are talking about, if you can aquire what is, or recently was, a top 10 listed prospect for an aging and decling player who is out of contract and doesn't fit in with your next season, you've done really well.

Living in Omaha, I hear quite a bit about the Royals. They've actually had several pitching prospects, well regarded and rated, who have struggled to fulfill their potential. Who knows how this will turn out, but a great return. And a change of scenery could do wonders for him.

  On 8/12/2014 at 12:55 AM, stringer bell said:

It may be that Parm only gets at-bats for three weeks. It is possible that someone now in the minor leagues will get outfield at-bats. The team will need to determine whether they have to go outside the organization for next year.

Who?  Hicks?  Rosario?  Buxton?

Hicks is the only one that is even an option this year imo.

The moves TR is making is reminding me of the late 90's moves he made that helped bring a nice run of years, all be it no world series rings.  Trading away vets for young fringe prospects.  Remember trading Roberto Kelly for Mays, or Dave Hollins for Ortiz.  We are stock piling pitching prospects throughout the system, which can always be traded for position players in the future if needed, but really are needed for the depth because it seems no starter can go a year without missing at least a week here or there.

This is exactly the kind of guy to be happy about in exchange for Willingham. Great job shedding some aging players this year!

  On 8/12/2014 at 12:24 AM, John Bonnes said:

This is a better return than I would have expected at the trade deadline, let alone in August. Ryan has cleared a lot of chaff and bolstered the pitching depth too. Really nice.

This sums up my thinking as well.

Who needs a stinking trade deadline when you can get real live prospecrts like this for guys that are on their final legs here.

Wow you are all acting like this is a God send move and Ryan has done an amazing job this season. These trades have been good. Let's not get carried away with the "normal tr standards" stuff. He's still part of the reason they are in this mess.

Anyway. I'm happy for Willingham and the royals. I'll be pulling for them the rest of the season. It will be nice to have fresh blood in the playoffs. They have the pitching to do well, and Willingham will help them score runs. I thought this would be a good fit a few weeks back.