Twins Trade Phil Hughes, Draft Pick to San Diego

Very disappointing basically selling 74th pick for 6 million

Weird. Unlike this regime to give up draft capital for cash capital. Maybe they intend on being big spenders this coming off-season? Or they really, really like Villalobos.

In my mind, the question is: Who has more value on June 15, 2018, Villalobos or whomever the Twins would have drafted? Villalobos is comparable to a college-age catcher being selected except he already has two years of professional experience. Getting rid of the Hughes salary for just $6M (assuming that money is spent on contract extensions for young Twins or free agents) is an added bonus. But the value of this trade won't be known for several years and that is frustrating.

Didn't they give up a pick for Lynn as well? 

I don't mind adding a college aged catcher, as was mentioned. Only the Twins really know what potential he has. I like saving the additional $6M and getting out from under the contract to a degree. I don't like losing the draft pick.

A year or two from now, player vs pick could be a wash. Really shocked someone traded for Hughes. Not a fan of the deal, but pretty "meh" on the deal.

What doth thou mean by "saving"? There is no salary cap in baseball. $6.8 mill for the Pohlads doesn't do much for me.

Isnt a WAR around 8 million? So as long as the 74th pick and Hughes dont combine to have a net present value of a WAR its a good deal for the Twins. Remember the Pads wont get any value from that pick for 3-5 or even 6 years.

Next years payroll now has very little dead weight and lots of flexibility to make maneuvers next offseason.

The savings is 7.5 million plus .812 milliin for the pick they arent getting. I bet the Twins have a pretty good idea of about 10-20 potential picks who are likely to be available then and decided the savings was better. Remember the draft is what a week or so out. Not much scouting left to do here.

Also i like how its next seasons money we free up and not this seasons.

It gives the Twins more flexibility with Payroll, since Hughes will be coming off the books next season now.

Looking at the catching depth, the Twins probably should be looking at drafting a catcher, but what would be available comparable in the 74th round.

The Twins seem to be in a win-win in a couple of recent drafts, as well as some solid pickups for international monies, so, in hindsight, the farm system has to be sitting pretty good. If you start looking closely at the system, they have too many players right now in the upper ranks (Fort Myers and above) as well as some real promising prospects below. Yes, they all don't pan out...but decisions have to be made on advancement and protection.

Right now, catching is a black hole. If the guy is halfway decent, it can be a win for the Twins.

This trade is about the next moves and not this one. I think the dislike is you need to see the next moves to better judge this one. Is another low level prospect beeter or having 8 million more now while we are in our competetive window?

Yes its an uncapped league but at some point the money does matter, if it didn't you'd have big clubs going around throwing down tens of millions of dollars for all the comp picks. Don't forget, cash can also be converted back into prospects.

8.3 million is savings on this trade

With santana off the books too that now clears over 70 million off of payroll. And buxton and sano are not doing much to deserve big pay raises, keeping payroll low again...

I wish my phone let me quote. Mike, with all the players who will be free agents, i imagine we will dip into free agency to resign a few, and to sign a few others, and make trades where we may take on some money.

Good luck Phil - I hope you do well, but not so well that we have to second guess our coaching staff again.

It's nice they are selling their draft picks for cash now.  You can try to argue this will free up cash for next season, but they won't spend that money, everybody knows it.  They were already sitting pretty next season for payroll. Disgust is my only reaction to this trade.  

Manny Machedo sure would be a dream.  Could play SS or 3B