Twins Acquire RHP Sam Dyson from Giants

I would’ve like to see another decent middle reliever, but I’m thrilled with this move. I think it puts the Twins bullpen in a decent spot without losing a high-end prospect (although Teng could be).

I think if anyone a week ago would’ve said we’d get Dyson and Romo without losing a single top 10 prospect (hardly even a top 20), people would’ve been thrilled.

I like that the Twins capitalized on Lewin Diaz and Jaylin Davis, two marginal prospects prior to this year, having breakout seasons. Both trades are very solid and improve the bullpen without a doubt.

Was this a pun? Well played, if so. Unlike the vacuums, let's hope that this Dyson doesn't suck. 

Not gonna lie, totally unintentional! Hoping for plenty of clean innings from him, though...

I think this is a really solid trade. Dyson isn't the biggest name out there, but he has a track record as a reliable bullpen arm. There's something to be said about that, given that relievers tend to be volatile.

Houston's rotation was already extremely good, and it just got better. They're the AL favorites. On the flip side, the Yankees did nothing to improve.

MLBTR says Dyson had a top-ten ground ball rate last year.  I wish our infield was as good as our outfield.  But he sounds like a good guy to have when you need a double play.

Twins did enough to be a credible playoff team.

 

They won't win the World Series this year but at least they might win one playoff series and get their young guys some good experience.

 

Look at Houston and realize what a team needs to compete with the Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees: great starting pitching, long lineup, quality defense at every position and a knock-out bullpen.

 

We ain't got that.

They’ve got more of it than you’re giving them credit for.

Just so I can see this on paper, our bullpen is now:

Rogers

Dyson

Romo

Harper

May

Duffy

rotating minor leaguers like Littell, Thorpe, Smeltzer, Stashak, or Poppen or Romero

So the big variable will be if Graterol or Acala can come up out of the pen for September to show they can be an extra power arm in the pen for a playoff run.  

I feel like this is the floor of what I would want to see our team do so I'm not furious but not thrilled either.  I am borderline content but not quite is probably a better way to state that.  

And I do feel like we kept our most important prospects in all of this.  So there's that.

Houston also plays in a market roughly twice the population of the Twins.

Are you just talking the metro areas? Because the Twins draw fans from 3 other states (the dakotas and Iowa). The Astros have another MLB team down the road in the same state. I don’t think the size of the market has anything to do with it. They’ve just been a much better team and have marketable players (Verlander, Cole, Springer, Altuve, Correa, etc).

So optimistically: We play the Yankees in the ALDS. Berrios pitches us to two wins and we bash our way to a 3rd. The Indians take out the Astros somehow. We beat the Indians in the ALCS. We play someone other than the Dodgers in the WS.

A bit underwhelmed with the moves made.  They made the bullpen better but these moves were made to try and make the playoffs vs what some other teams did to try and win the world series.

Here's hoping that the Astros and Yankees beat up on each other in the LDS and then we beat the Yankees in the LCS. 

To me winning the World Series wouldn't feel as great if it doesn't go through the Yankees. If I had a choice between knocking the Yankees out of the playoffs and losing the next round, or winning it all but not ending that curse, it would be a tough call. 

I mean, I know you have to go with the championship. But honestly, if we beat the Yankees in a one-game wild card game and then got swept in the divisional round, I would be deliriously happy. I am so tired of being their stupid stepping stone. This time I want to be the one to end their season, forever.

Good deal for the Giants.  They acquired Dyson in 2017 for Hunter Cole who is a 26 year old OF in AAA.  THey got some solid bullpen play from Dyson then converted him into Davis, Teng, and Berroa, whom I would guess are all 3 better prospects than Cole.

Short relievers are such wild cards you can never tell what you are going to get, but if he statistically continues his performance it should help down the stretch.  

AS others have put it, better than nothing.

AND they're paying $50 million of the $75 owed Greinke the remainder of his contract. 

Who is "they"?

The thing I'll give Houston credit for...they've been way better at executing the tank strategy than any other MLB team to date. They were at the vanguard of the tanking movement and executed that strategy in a big way...accumulating draft picks and selling high on what talent stumbled their way. Then drafted and developed well, amassing a tone of capital. Then aggressively spent capital when the window came. It will be interesting to see how long they can sustain it, as they accumulate pennants/rings, but go through a ton of their capital while doing so. 

It's a great opportunity for Jaylin Davis. The Giants have one of the worst OF in baseball. They've been getting better play since Yastrzemski and Dickerson took over, but they still need depth. He might get a chance to play in the majors this year.

Good get for the Twins! Probably one of the better controllable arms available.

Are you just talking the metro areas? Because the Twins draw fans from 3 other states (the dakotas and Iowa). The Astros have another MLB team down the road in the same state. I don’t think the size of the market has anything to do with it. They’ve just been a much better team and have marketable players (Verlander, Cole, Springer, Altuve, Correa, etc).

They share Texas with only one other team, Texas has the 2nd highest population in the US. Over 29 million people.  MN has 5.6M, IA has 3.1M SD and ND both have under 1M. Houston is in a whole different league of market. They get a ton of fans from Louisiana too, maybe Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Mexico as well.

Dyson is a good pick up and he was one of the guys I was hoping the Twins would target.

AND they're paying $50 million of the $75 owed Greinke the remainder of his contract. 

Due to deferments and other bonuses, there's much more than $75M owed to Greinke.

David Adler, MLB.com...

"Greinke is owed the prorated portion of his $21 million salary for 2019, as well as what’s left of the final two years of the deal, which comes out to $112.5 million (including deferred payments) when you also include two $3 million bonus payments he is still owed, as well as a $2 million trade bonus."

I'm just going to go ahead and call BS on this one, but it is great PR for them.

Twins did enough to be a credible playoff team.

 

They won't win the World Series this year but at least they might win one playoff series and get their young guys some good experience.

 

Look at Houston and realize what a team needs to compete with the Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees: great starting pitching, long lineup, quality defense at every position and a knock-out bullpen.

 

We ain't got that.

Throwing in the towel already?   Underdogs win often enough and they are more fun to watch when they do.   For example, in the last 25 years wild card teams have gone to the world series 12 times and won 6 times.    1987 Twins and 1991 Twins were something like 130-1 against winning it all.    I am guessing adding a couple bullpen arms gets the Twins from 15-1 against down to 13-1 against.   In other words these Twins are 10 times more likely to win the World Series than the other two Twins teams that actually did win it.  Ok, I am playing a little loose with the numbers and we are getting way ahead of ourselves.   Make the playoffs first.   I am fine with our chances once we get there.   Afraid of Greinke?   The guy is great but he is 3-4 in the playoffs and has a 4.04 ERA.    Well, that's against great teams right?   Against the Twins he is 5-9 with a 4.64 ERA.