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  • Twins Trade Candidate: Austin Martin

    Cody Christie

    By Cody Christie

    The Minnesota Twins traded away multiple prospects at the trade deadline. Will Austin Martin be the next prospect dealt?

     

    Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

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    Minnesota's roster has depth at multiple big-league positions, allowing the front office to exercise creativity this offseason. The current regime hasn't been afraid of making trades to solidify the roster and keep the team's winning window open as long as possible. As the offseason begins, it's essential to identify some of the team's possible trade candidates. 

    What Did He Do in 2022? 
    Austin Martin entered his first full season in the Twins organization as a consensus top-55 prospect. His season started slowly as he hit .250/.379/.315 (.694) through his first 62 games. He sustained a wrist injury while diving for a ball at the beginning of July. Martin didn't need surgery, but he was sidelined for six weeks. He finally broke out at the plate in September by hitting .268/.405/.423 (.827) with five doubles and two home runs in 19 games. 

    Minnesota looked for Martin to continue his strong September by sending him to the Arizona Fall League. He won AFL Player of the Week honors (October 10-15) after going 11-for-18 (.611 BA) with two doubles, a home run, a walk, and two stolen bases. In 16 AFL games, he has a .908 OPS, and he has gone 8-for-9 in stolen base attempts.

    Why is He a Trade Candidate?
    One of the Twins' most significant needs this winter is at shortstop, so it might seem counterproductive to trade away a shortstop prospect. However, there are no guarantees that Martin will be a shortstop at the big-league level. Evaluators have questioned Martin's future defensive position since he was drafted, but the Twins continue to use him almost exclusively at shortstop. Minnesota's farm system has dropped in national rankings especially following this year's trade deadline. If the Twins want to make a trade this winter, Martin may need to be included as part of any package for a big-time talent. 

    What is His Trade Value?
    Martin has dropped on national prospect lists, but his recent performance highlights his value as a future big leaguer. When the Twins acquired Martin, he was packaged with Simeon Woods Richardson for Jose Berrios. The Twins would need to package Martin with at least one other prospect to acquire a big-league player that can impact the 2023 roster. He might provide more value as depth to the Twins farm system than as a trade piece this winter. 

    Minnesota has multiple top prospects that currently play shortstop, like Brooks Lee, Royce Lewis, and Noah Miller. If the organization has faith in those players, Martin might not fit into the team's long-term plans, which makes him a potential trade candidate. His value dropped this season, so the team might be more likely to keep him until the trade deadline when the 2023 Twins have shown whether or not they are contenders. 

    Do you think the Twins will trade Martin? What kind of value do you think he has? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

    OTHER POSTS IN THE SERIES
    Gio Urshela
    Emilio Pagan
    Max Kepler
    Jorge Polanco

    Cody Christie is a Twins writer and content contributor. His writing can be found exclusively at Twins Daily and his voice can be heard on radio stations throughout the Upper Midwest. Outside of the Twins, he is a father, high school teacher, and avid runner.
    Follow Cody Christie on Twitter: nodaktwinsfan

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    Featured Comments

    TwinsDr2021

    TwinsDr2021 1,828

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    2 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

    You are bending the point.  I am pointing out that Jeter struggled with errors at one point and we know many stories of players who overcame being error prone and became great defenders.  There is a tendency here to just ignore hard fact and numerous examples throughout history if it fits a negative narrative someone wants to promote. 

    Perhaps the more salient point is that it's also not necessary for him to be a gold glove SS to be valuable.  His skill set screams high on base super utility with the added bonus of being a pinch runner.  A guy that can adequately back-up SS and CF with that skill set has great value but people want to be negative because he is not Carlos Correa at SS. 

    I have no problem pointing out the negative as long as the positive is not ignored for the sake of simply being negative.

    My point was you were comparing a high school kid (drafted) who was a teenager (or 20) to a college kid that was 23 all of last year. There may be examples of a 24 year old prospect that turned it around defensively and became valuable SS but using Jeter as an example is a huge leap. When talking about prospects age matters and ignoring that ignores the history of baseball. What some call negative others call being a realist, it is no different than Winder, Ober, Varland and even Joe Ryan becoming what some call an Ace. It is not that they can't but man they are fighting the odds. (We all hope 1 or more of them do, but some of us are setting are expectations a bit more realistically. )

    With that said Martin can and hopefully becomes a viable major league player or better.

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    PatPfund

    PatPfund 561

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    The OP (and the series) is doing good work in assessing trade values, because if you ARE going to do trades for real talent, you can't send back people you might be dumping from the 40 man in a couple weeks (other teams are at least as informed as Twins Daily readers).

    That being said, I agree with the many who say don't trade him now. His trade value is not great, and he as a pretty clear path to the majors in the outfield, and potentially at 2b. Someone mentioned Kepler, Kirilloff, Wallner, and Celestino earlier; Max is glove-only (aka a reserve) at this point, Kirilloff had pieces of bone cut out of his arm to shorten it (aka, he may NEVER play an MLB game again), Wallner has promise (but few at-bats above AA), and Celestino... (maybe the lowest baseball IQ I've seen in a Twins uni in decades).

    The Twins outfield has been a mess the past two years, and the team can only dream right now of somebody being good enough to block Martin's path.

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