Twins Trading Dilemma

There aren’t enough players traded, promoted or fired. This is a broad generalization but basically it applies to most major league baseball franchises. Too often General Managers will fail to upgrade their teams due to personal loyalty or flawed organizational philosophies. Team chemistry is one such concept of near-non-existence I’ve heard used as an excuse to avoid making roster changes.

Another excuse is the tired “don’t fix what ain’t broke” maxim. While I would be the first to admit my car “ain’t broke,” it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try to upgrade my vehicle if given a chance (like something with better gas mileage). Teams which actively seek to improve their team’s weaknesses by trading franchise surpluses put themselves into a stronger position late in the year.

It’s not about making monumental changes; lots of small upgrades over existing personnel can make a huge impact. It’s not important to steal a star in a blockbuster trade. Baseball is a zero-sum game and improving a team’s performance marginally can give a team the edge to make the playoffs.

But trading is often a tough game for GMs to play. Every time a trade is made, the GM is under the gun. They’re forced to make decisions, take responsibility. A GM who avoids a lot of trading can blame his team’s poor performance on injuries or the failures of the players. It’s classic CYA corporate philosophy.

The Minnesota Twins have a team which so far has been holding its own and is within striking distance of the AL Central Title. The team also has some deep flaws which will make its playoff run an uphill battle.

The Twins bullpen lacks a good set-up man and Ron Gardenhire doesn’t have the managerial flexibility to change the way he uses his closer. He continues to use Joe Nathan only in save situations rather than use him whenever the game is on the line. This was an acceptable attitude when Ron Gardenhire had great firemen like Pat Neshek or Juan Rincon in his arsenal. Unfortunately, without a good set-up man Gardy has let a few games slip away for his stubborn adherence to outdated baseball thinking.

Outside of fixing Gardenhire, there are two answers to this problem: find a good set-up guy or create one. Gardenhire has tried using Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain as set-up men but neither has shown the lights out ability of Neshek (who went down with an injury earlier this season). GM Bill Smith could bring up the AAA closer Bobby Korecky to try to fill the set-up role or he could go shopping.

Another issue the Twins have with their bullpen is the fact they have two mop-up guys, Brian Bass and Boof Bonser. One has to go and it should be Brian Bass, who has less upside than Boof.

The final issue with the Twins pitching staff is Livan Hernandez, who despite having a winning record is not that good. His ERA is now the worst one on the team, aside from one of the mop-up guys. His replacements are waiting in AAA, and whether it’s Francisco Liriano or someone else, it’s time for Livan to go.

The Twins have plenty of deficiencies among the position players. While Carlos Gomez has electrified Twins fans with his speed, his offense has been anything but. The Twins corner outfielders are underperforming while at third base and shortstop the Twins have average to below average players. While I wouldn’t want to part with Delmon Young or Carlos Gomez, the young outfielders for the Twins, GMs should never be too attached to any player.

A GM should be open to trading any player for the right price. Not only can you not become attached to any player you have, you can’t go shopping for something specific either. You need to be flexible as each year the market offers something different.

As for the Twins, just getting rid of some players like Craig Monroe, Mike Lamb, Brian Bass or Livan Hernandez would be addition by subtraction.

As you can tell by reading this column, the permutations are almost limitless when it comes to potential moves the Twins could make before the trading deadline. Hopefully for Twins fans, GM Bill Smith is aggressive in making deals and offers to help fix some of the problems this Twins team has this year.

But my prediction would be otherwise.