State Of The Central

Things have been interesting this offseason in the American League Central. Let’s check out where the four teams are and what more they might want to do.

Might as well start with the defending AL Central and American League champions.

CLEVELAND

Signing Edwin Encarnacion is a big deal. Mike Napoli is a nice player and continues to show great power but Encarnacion is one of the best hitters in baseball. He has a tremendous eye. He puts the ball in play, and he can hit the ball a mile. You have to wonder if Chris Colabello knew about this signing when he agreed to a minor league deal with the team earlier in the week.

Cleveland had been pretty quiet this offseason to this point, but they should have been. They have terrific starting pitching. Their bullpen is stacked. They have a terrific lineup that will now only be enhanced in the middle.

Not only is Cleveland trying to defend their AL Central crown, but this is the kind of move that makes them a legit World Series contender again.

DETROIT

The Tigers are that team that could go in either direction. In the last couple of offseasons they have lost the two 2016 Cy Young Award winners (Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello). Justin Verlander may have deserved the American League Cy Young Award in 2016, and Jordan Zimmerman missed a lot of time in the first season of his huge contract.

But Miguel Cabrera is still there. Ian Kinsler and Victor Martinez aren’t getting younger. They did trade Cameron Maybin right after the conclusion of the season, but they have been quiet. There were rumors of them dealing JD Martinez, but at least to this point it hasn’t happened.

Unless they are surprisingly able to keep all of their pitching healthy, it’s hard to think they can compete with Cleveland. Are they good enough right now to be a Wild Card contender? Maybe.

KANSAS CITY

The Royals added outfielder Jorge Soler from the Cubs, but to do so, they traded Wade Davis, one of baseball’s best closers.

The Royals, after representing the American League in the World Series the two previous years, went backwards in 2016, finishing 81-81. During the Winter Meetings, there were a lot of rumors about the Royals looking to make some trades involving some of their talented players that are about to get expensive.To this point, Davis is the only player they have traded.

They haven’t done much in free agency either. They brought back Drew Butera.

Rumors have seemed to quiet in Kansas City. Maybe they are going to spend to keep their talent. I doubt it. They’re going to have to make some tough decisions on players such as Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakus, Lorenzo Cain and others. They do still have a strong bullpen, even with the loss of Davis.

CHICAGO

The White Sox were one of the biggest winners at the Winter Meetings. They were able to trade Chris Sale to Boston in exchange for baseball’s top prospect Yoan Moncada, a triple-digit throwing phenom in Michael Kopech, and two more solid prospects.

The next day they traded outfielder Adam Eaton to the Nationals in exchange for their three top pitching prospects (Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning).

There continue to be rumors that they are making every attempt to trade Jose Quintana (for another king’s ransom, and understandably so). Could they also trade third baseman Todd Frazier? And I’m a little surprised that they haven’t already traded closer David Robertson.

Clearly they are not looking to compete for division titles the next couple of years, so there really is no reason for a top closer. With the closer market as it has been this offseason, Robertson should be able to bring back another nice prospect haul.

The White Sox are punting the next couple of seasons to take a run with a new core in a couple of years. They went from one of baseball’s worst minor league systems to having one of the top ten systems in baseball.

They also signed lefty Derek Holland to take Sale’s spot in the rotation (no, he’s obviously not replacing the production of Sale, but he can be a solid contributor.

MINNESOTA

So, what have the Twins done, coming off of their 103-loss season in 2016?

Well, first they hired Cleveland’s assistant GM Derek Falvey to change the direction and lead the organization. Then he hired Thad Levine - previously the long-time assistant GM in Texas - to be the team’s new General Manager.

The new regime went into the offseason aggressively. They targeted Jason Castro and were able to sign him. It was a clear sign that things will be different in the Twins front office. Castro hasn’t hit well the last three years, but he’s consistently been a top pitch-framer. The thought is that what he does with the bat is a bonus. However, if he can convince the home plate ump that borderline pitches are strikes instead of balls, he will help his pitching staff.

There have been Brian Dozier trade rumors since the season came to a merciful ending, maybe even earlier. Things are pretty quiet right now. It could mean that talks have backed off. It could be that the Twins and Dodgers are giving each other the Christmas weekend to collect their thoughts. Who knows? It could be the calm before the sto… trade.

The Twins are a few years ahead of where the White Sox are trying to get. Their high-level prospects are here. They took their lumps in 2016. You’ve heard it before, but the Twins have the talent to win ten more games in 2017 than they did in 2016 just by the progression of the likes of Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Jose Berrios, Ryan Pressly, JT Chargois. Over the next couple of seasons, the Twins will likely also get contributions from several of the following: Mitch Garver, Stephen Gonsalves, Tyler Jay, Nick Gordon, Fernando Romero, Felix Jorge, Kohl Stewart, Jake Reed, Nick Burdi, Trevor Hildenberger and more.

Will they all pan out? Of course not. That’s not how it works.

Surprisingly, there has been little talk about Ervin Santana this offseason. Teams know what they are getting in him, and the fact that Jason Hammel is currently the best free agent starting pitcher on the market, you would think there would be more interest in a quality pitcher at a reasonable rate for just two years.

Do the Twins need to trade Brian Dozier this offseason? Absolutely not. If they don’t get a package that Falvey/Levine are thrilled with, they should hold on to him. As much as it might be fun to see a 2018 rotation including Berrios, De Leon, Romero and Gonsalves, the Twins should absolutely expect to get more than just one pitcher with four MLB games under his belt for a guy like Dozier.

The Twins won’t compete with Cleveland in 2017, but they should be greatly improved. Short-term, it’d be far better to keep Dozier and Santana. Long-term, which is clearly the more wise, logical view that the front office should be looking at, most would say that adding a couple of top prospects to help them in 2019 and beyond is the more important goal.

The other thing to remember for Twins fans (and for the other teams), there is still a lot of offseason to go. The White Sox are likely to trade at least one more start (Quintana, Roberton, Frazier). The Twins are still quite likely to make a trade involving established veterans for near-MLB ready talent. Detroit? They probably should start selling off ,but maybe they won’t. Kansas City could also trade some of their stars. Cleveland might be done, but they are also in the catbird seat. The Encarnacion signing certainly indicates to their fans that they’re looking to be even better than they were in 2016.

It just feels like there is still a lot more to happen, transaction-wise, in the American League Central following the holidays. Who knows, maybe even during the holidays!