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Looks like there will be plenty of competition for the long relief role, luckily, there will be plenty of long relief situations for the "competitors" to fill.

I can understand this trade for these reasons: 1). They are not really all that worried about winning games right now (which is probably so obvious it doesn't even need to be said). So, the sudden lack of depth at 3b doesn't really matter. Plouffe will be coming back soon and even if his rookie season is just a Plouffe fluke the FO can probably try to turn Sano into a 3rd baseman. 2). Nishi is one very rich minor leaguer, and if they can get anything out of him, in a season where they can afford to loose a few games, they gotta do it. Does he help this club win? Mostly likely not, but if you can at least make him seem like a credible major league baseball player, instead of a payroll cap killer, you gotta do it. 3.) Valencia is probably not as bad as his .198 average this year would indicate, but he is also probably not going to reduplicate his break-out season - his learning curve just seems slightly underveloped. 4.) The fact remains that Plouffe has really figured out his postion over in the hot corner - the fact (and I am sure this point is arguable) that Plouffe already plays better defense than Valencia, and is apparently also well-liked by Gardy, (not so much, Danny) and at least seems to have figured out how to hit, all this makes Valencia expendable. I think he (Valencia) adds depth to this club right now, and if we were in contention I don't think we could afford to loose that type of depth, but, thank God, we are nowhere near contending for anything except the number one draft pick. 5.) So, even if all we get out of Pineda is a decent pinch runner and a credible defenisive subsitution, we still are not risking that much in trading Valencia.

I can't help but think this move is a little risky. It is not like Danny was horrible when he was sent back down to AAA, and the Twins seems to have a plethora of outfielders like this Pineda fellow. At the very least, in the short term it certainly hurts the Twins depth. But, y'ah know, maybe it will be worth it in the long term, we shall see.