Trading a Bat for an Arm

The 2022 Minnesota Twins team was ravaged by injuries, which ultimately led to the team's demise. One area of the team that was affected as much, if not more, than any other unit was the starting pitching rotation. Kenta Maeda, Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack, and Tyler Mahle all suffered severe injuries that led to minimal availability. Even Sonny Gray found himself banged up more often than the team would've liked.

The Twins’ rotation prior to the trade was Gray, Mahle, Joe Ryan, Maeda, Ober. On paper, this rotation looks to be reasonably solid one through five, but with the recent injury history of most of the staff, it left Twins fans, and likely the front office, holding their breath. The Twins also have a few arms close to the majors, such as Josh Winder, Louie Varland, and Simeon Woods Richardson , but they likely want to avoid pivoting to young arms as often as they did in 2022.

For depth purposes, the Twins were interested in adding one more top-of-the-rotation pitcher. The problem is, those don't typically grow on trees and can cost a pretty penny to pry one away from a team willing to deal. Luckily for the Twins, they had depth in another area they were willing to dip into to acquire a solid starting pitcher.

After signing Carlos Correa, the Twins have put together a pretty impressive list of controllable hitters who gave them leverage on the trade market. I have listed below the Twins hitters on the 40-man roster who are set to compete for limited at-bats this summer. I also included the player's value according to BaseballTradeValues.com in descending order. Baseball Trade Values uses a scale to track every player's worth based on controllability, contract, and production.

Jorge Polanco 2B ($34.8M)
Luis Arraez 1B/DH ($26.6M)
Jose Miranda 3B ($26.4M)
Royce Lewis SS/OF ($22.7M)
Trevor Larnach OF ($14.6M)
Byron Buxton CF ($13.5M)
Ryan Jeffers C ($13M)
Alex Kirilloff 1B/OF ($11.9M)
Max Kepler OF ($7.6M)
Matt Wallner OF ($7.3M)
Carlos Correa SS ($7M)
Nick Gordon UTIL ($6.7M)
Gilberto Celestino OF ($1.8M)
Joey Gallo OF ($1.2M)
Kyle Farmer UTIL ($0.4M)
Christian Vázquez C (-14.2M)

To put these numbers into perspective, Pablo López has an estimated value of $38.8M.

The list above features 16 players who have either played a significant role for the Twins or will play a role this year. As it stands, with this many quality hitters, there are not enough at-bats to go around. The depth is excellent, but the Twins could capitalize on this depth by trading it for a solid starting pitcher. The Twins could have piece together many packages by agreeing to part ways with one or two of these players.

Arraez made a lot of sense to move in a large package for a frontline starter. While Arraez brings a fire to the game that is fun to watch, he is not without his flaws. The only defensive position he has shown to be above-average at is first base, and few teams are willing to commit to a first baseman who doesn't exhibit any power. With Arraez's lengthy injury history, there's a good chance his value will never be higher, making him a reasonable trade prospect.

There are many ways the Twins could have finished off the off-season, but it was paramount that they do all they could to add to their rotation. With the depth of Major League-ready hitters at their disposal, the Twins were able to turn a somewhat expendable pieces into a frontline starter who adds tremendous value to this team the way it is constructed.  

What are your thoughts? Should the Twins have traded a bat for an arm? Who would you have parted with? Should they consider doing something similar for a reliever? Let me know! As always, Go, Twins!