Stove Heating Up in the Midwest

The Twins made me look prescient by acquiring J. J. Hardy from the Brewers for CF Carlos Gomez today.  Also, the Royals traded Mark Teahen to the White Sox for two warm bodies.

The Twins’ acquisition of Hardy makes sense to me.  Carlos Gomez is a terrific defensive centerfielder, much better in that regard than Denard Span, now the Twins’ likely 2010 centerfielder.  However, Gomez is not yet a major league hitter, and Span is.

Gomez will be only 24 next year, so there’s still time for him to learn how to hit.  I’m sure that’s what the Brewers are hoping.  The Twins, however, are trying to win now, what with moving into their new Stadium in 2010, and I think Hardy gives them a better chance of doing that.

Also, the Twins had a glut of outfielders, and I think I like Delmon Young, who will also be 24 next year, more than Gomez going forward.  Young can hit, but the one thing that concerns me about his ever becoming a big star is his lack of plate discipline (74 walks drawn after 1,741 career major league at-bats).  He hasn’t gotten any better in this regard after three seasons, walking only 12 times in 395 ABs in 2009.

The Twins’ decision to trade Gomez probably means they intend to exercise Michael Cuddyer’s $10.5 million 2010 option.  Cuddyer had a fine year in ‘09, and now the Twins don’t have a lot of other good options to play right field.

The Royals’ decision to trade Mark Teahen to the White Sox for Chris Getz and Josh Fields doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  Teahen is no great shakes, but he’s an adequate major league starting 3Bman who can play a lot of different positions.  Meanwhile, neither Getz nor Fields impresses me much.

Getz is a 2Bman who is already 26 years old and has only 382 career major league at-bats (with a feeble .669 OPS) to date.  With the Royals having found diamond-in-the-rough Alberto Callaspo to play second and just trading for Yuniesky Betancourt to play short, I don’t really see why they’d trade for Getz.  In fairness to Getz, however, he would probably be every bit as good a bet for the Royals at shortstop in 2010 as Betancourt, who really shouldn’t be starting anywhere at the major league level.

Josh Fields was once (exactly two years ago) a real prospect, but his career has gone straight down since then.  He was the 18th player selected in the 2004 Draft, and he hit 23 HRs for the White Sox in 373 ABs in 2007 at age 24, good for a .480 slugging percentage that year.

However, he hit poorly at AAA in 2008 and poorly for the White Sox in 239 ABs this year (.648 OPS).  At age 27 in 2010, he’s just not much of a prospect any more.

I don’t see how a bad team like the Royals gets better trading for players like Chris Getz and Josh Fields unless they get very, very lucky.