The only way the Twins get close to a world series is have multiple pitchers come up and be very good to great in their 1-4 seasons. After that they get to expensive for the Twins. How likely is that to happen?
Living in Des Moines, (AAA Cubs) I've been to a bunch of games with the pitch clock. Trust me, it's a good thing, and the pitchers seemed to adapt quickly to where I have only seen it come into play once.
No. There are plenty of players to give DH at bats to. The odds of him continuing to to defy father time are less every day. Spend the money on Buxton/pitching.
This won't go over well with most here, because the majority are into all the analytics stuff, Launch angles, spin rates blah blah blah. I love Eddie because he isn't some perfect robot that a lot seem to want players to be. I love Eddie because he's not F'n boring.
How do you know this is a down year for him? Maybe his first 400 or so at bats were the outlier and not the norm. His stats are on pace to decline again from last year. The power that some thought might materialize hasn't happened. He has no speed so he has to hit a lot to be valuable.
If Cruz is "mentoring" all these players, why aren't the results there? Polanco, Kepler, and especially Sano haven't shown any improvement...Frankly, I think the "mentoring" thing is way overrated...
Why would Tampa replace a younger player OPSing .872 that actually has a little positional flexibility with an almost 41 year old player OPSing .858? We will get very little for Cruz...and I highly doubt it will be from Tampa Bay. They have shown over the years that they are probably the smartest front office in baseball....