Twins Future Position Analysis: Third Base

Outside of Miranda, non of these prospects excite me.  However, if a major league player is moved, maybe Miranda starts with the Twins.  Sending him back to St. Paul seem foolish. 

Right now Donaldson is 3B and he has been good when not injured.  There are not a lot of great 3B players and teams do not seem to plan for 3B like they do SS assuming that their failures in the field at SS can slide over to 3B.  Arraez is definitely deserving of 3B time and could take over if needed.  Miranda is my hope for the future but I have to temper my expectations - a lot of players have a career year and then never get close to it again (Kepler).  

The real question about Donaldson is who else wants him?  And how badly. 

10 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

Right now Donaldson is 3B and he has been good when not injured.  There are not a lot of great 3B players and teams do not seem to plan for 3B like they do SS assuming that their failures in the field at SS can slide over to 3B.  Arraez is definitely deserving of 3B time and could take over if needed.  Miranda is my hope for the future but I have to temper my expectations - a lot of players have a career year and then never get close to it again (Kepler).  

The real question about Donaldson is who else wants him?  And how badly. 

Probably nobody without eating a lot of salary.  However, who knows, he could have a great first half and be  attractive to a contender especially with the universal DH in place.  In that scenario the Twins have probably gotten a look at Miranda or Arraez becomes the everyday 3B.  Seems like the question might be more when than where.

Based on this depth assessment, the Twins really need either Donaldson to find the fountain of youth for at least a few years or Miranda to pan out and be solid, and soon.

I'm also thinking that either Martin or Lewis may need a spot eventually other than SS.  Is 3rd base a possibility for either?

Unbeknownst to most Twins' fans, Josh Donaldson has hired a Veterinarian this current off-season.  The Veterinarian is working with Donaldson's CALVES !!

It seems to me the DH will mostly get split between Sano and Donaldson in 2022 unless the Twins bring Cruz back for one last go around which I doubt.  I mean they could make an offer to help drive up his price as a favor and end up getting him back on a low cost 1 year deal....  but regardless at this point I think planning on a Donaldson Sano platoon at DH with Sano getting 100 + games there and Donaldson in the 30-60 game range and another 80-120 games at 3rd.  Arraez is one of the Bench players and Gordon is the likely other.  I think Miranda is able to come in and fill in a utility role if someone gets hurt and Arreaz gets more time at third or Arreaz gets injured...... If Miranda does come up we want him in the lineup as much as possible so 10-20 games in the OF is a possibility.  

The Twins are way over-paying for the production by our current third baseman. The Twins will continue to way over-pay  for Donaldson as long as the Twins have to pay the inflated contract to Donaldson. I'm sure there exist statistics which show how the production received from Donaldson (both offensive and defensive) has cost way too much for this huge contract. There has been , and will continue to be, to little bang for the buck involving Donaldson. This signing was not a cost efficient signing. The money should have been spent to extend Berrios. 

I agree, the Donaldson signing has panned out as well or perhaps even better than one could reasonably have expected. He is the classic trade-off when one signs and aging, very good player: good production when he plays but several stretches a year when he simply isn't able to play. I'm hopeful that the Twins found the right way to use him last year by basically playing him about 50% of the time at 3B and about 50% of the time at DH. Hopefully will get another 130 – 145 games from him in 2022 (assuming there are that many games in 2022).

Arraez is the obvious heir apparent. He actually fielded the position pretty well and it would be helpful to have his bat in the lineup. He is a defensive liability at 2B and besides, Polanco is our best player and should stay at 2B. 

Where does that leave the Miranda? I think the Twin should try him in LF next year IF last year's offensive results were not an aberration. He did play some outfield last year at AAA and with Buxton and Kepler in the outfield, we don't need a defensive whiz in LF if that player can hit. He can also fill in at 2B and even 3B to get some playing time. Let's get him some at bats at the MLB level next year so we can see what we have. It will be a little crowded with the Miranda, Kirilloff and Sano all looking for at bats at the same 2 positions (LF and 1B), but there should be 30 to 50 games of DH duty available to make it work. 

I think its pretty obvious that long term its Miranda's job to lose.  However with all the chatter about possibly moving Martin or Lewis to CF, could one of them be in play for this role as well?

Arraez is lousy at third, period; the only position with out a negative is 2nd Base and Polanco is there.

If the Twins end up with Donaldson, Simmons and Polanco in the infield they have an excellent infiield ; unless the Twins really want to tank, they cannot crap-shoot bringing in some AAA rookie so he can prove he belongs in AAA, they did this, this year.

3 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Actually, the stats available show the Twins have gotten very good production out of Donaldson for his deal. If you're upset with the Donaldson deal you shouldn't ask for the Twins to ever sign a player to a big deal. Donaldson was #40 in all of baseball in OPS+ last year. Ahead of JD Martinez, Jose Abreu, Jorge Polanco, Kris Bryant, Bo Bichette, Justin Turner, Nolan Arenado, Michael Brantley, Tim Anderson, Javier Baez, and tied with Xander Bogaerts, and Jose Altuve. Josh Donaldson has been a tremendous signing and the Twins have gotten everything they should've expected. Even with his defense starting to drop.

And he played 135 games last year. He isn't the massive injury concern people suggest. That was more games than Tatis Jr. Only 6 less than Bryce Harper. 5 less than Kyle Tucker. 3 and 4 less than Castellanos and Stanton. 15 more than Starling Marte. 13 more than Mookie Betts. 9 and 11 less than Altuve and Bogaerts. 135 isn't a great number, but it's not like he played 75 games.

He played well and played a solid number of games. This is what you get with big extensions and FA signings. Donaldson was the 3rd best 3B in the AL in OPS last year. He had 3.2 WAR which is generally valued at $25M while he was paid $21M. So, in summary, Donaldson has been a very good signing.

I must quote Roberto Duran and say: "No mas, no mas !". Thank you for your polite and decisive rebuttal to my comments about Josh Donaldson. Your  informative rebuttal proved beyond a doubt what most TD readers already know, and that is that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.