The trade chatter around Brian Dozier continued to heat up on Friday as multiple sources on Twitter reported news regarding players possibly available in a potential deal.
These tweets sort of confirm what many suspected all along — that right-hander Jose De Leon is most likely the cornerstone of any potential Dozier deal. De Leon, 24, struggled a bit in his first MLB stint this season — 6.35 ERA in 17 innings, 1.53 WHIP with 15-7 K/BB ratio — but is coming off a very strong season for Oklahoma City in the PCL. De Leon had a 2.61 ERA with 111 strikeouts against just 20 walks in 86.1 innings, and would give the Twins the MLB-ready starter they so desperately covet/need at this point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j3b6i8083c
It’s unclear who else would move in a deal, but the smart money remains on the Twins further addressing their pitching. Bellinger, a first baseman/outfielder with massive power, would be an incredible get, but it sounds as though the Dodgers would prefer to keep him with Adrian Gonzalez aging. Brock Stewart makes sense. He’s 25 and like De Leon was hit around a bit in his first bit of MLB exposure — 5.79 ERA in 28 innings — but has very good stuff and posted double-digit whiff rates on three of his four pitches in that short stint with the Dodgers.
Stewart pitched across four levels, including the big leagues, in 2016, and his minor-league numbers were a sight to behold: 1.79 ERA, 9.6 K/9 and a WHIP of 0.87.
If the Twins insist on getting some position player help back in the deal, the Dodgers can definitely accommodate that as well. Outfielders Trayce Thompson and Andrew Toles make sense, or if the Twins want to take the chance, it would seem likely the Dodgers would like to move on from Yasiel Puig as well.
LISTEN: Dustin Nosler joins Brandon and Tom on Midwest Swing to break down a possible Dozier-to-the-Dodgers deal.
Recent Midwest Swing guest Dustin Nosler — a respected member of the Dodgers blogging community — put it best:
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The Twins announced on Thursday that they had signed eight players to minor-league deals with invitations to spring training. Those players included the re-signings of infielders Tommy Field and Leonardo Reginatto as well as the signing of right-handed pitcher Drew Rucinski, catcher Eddy Rodriguez and infielder Benji Gonzalez.
The Twins have also brought back catcher Dan Rohlfing, who had been in the team’s system from 2007-14 before spending the last two seasons with the New York Mets and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Additionally, the Twins re-signed Alex Wimmers to a minor-league deal — something that appeared on the Baseball America minor league transactions page about a week ago — and also inked first baseman/outfielder Ben Paulsen to a minor-league pact.
Field, who turned 30 next February, has seen big-league time with the Rockies, Angels and most recently in 2015 with the Rangers. He hit .226/.311/.387 at Triple-A last year between Toledo (Detroit) and Rochester while playing second and third base and a little outfield. Reginatto will be 27 in April and is coming off hitting .265/.318/.327 between Chattanooga and Rochester last season — his first in the Twins organization.
Gonzalez turns 27 just after the New Year, and is coming off hitting .271/.342/.386 at Double-A Jackson in the Mariners system. Gonzalez has fairly good on-base skills and has played all over the diamond, but has next to no power, as he’s hit just 13 home runs in over 3,000 minor-league plate appearances.
Rohlfing has played at Triple-A in every season since 2013, and is a career .244/.316/.338 hitter across 10 minor-league seasons. Rohlfing’s offense spiked this past season as he hit .289/.331/.474 at Triple-A Reno, but there are a couple caveats. First, he played in just 53 games and secondly, it was in the PCL — a well-known hitter’s haven. Rohlfing has dabbled in the outfield a bit, as well.
Rodriguez is a fascinating story, and is one better told by David Laurila of Fangraphs. Rodriguez offers almost nothing offensively — he has a minor-league OPS of .619 and is coming off posting just a .593 mark for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre — but is a de facto player-coach who is regarded as a really, really great clubhouse guy. How’s this for a little-known fact? His only MLB hit was a home run off Johnny Cueto.
Wimmers is returning to the only MLB organization he’s ever known since it made him a first-round pick back in 2010 out of Ohio State. Wimmers battled control and arm issues to finally make his big-league debut in 2016, and became a fairly regular option for Paul Molitor out of the bullpen down the stretch as he posted a 4.15 ERA with iffy peripherals (5.7 BB/9, 1.44 WHIP) across 17.1 innings. It doesn’t seem terribly likely, but Wimmers’ best bet to crack the roster again this season is as a long reliever, a role that is expected to be filled by Rule 5 pick Justin Haley.
The other Ohio State connection comes in the form of Rucinski, who is certainly an interesting pitcher. Rucinski and Wimmers were teammates on the Buckeyes from 2008-2010. Interestingly enough, outfielder J.B. Shuck was on the 2008 team as well. He’s reportedly on the Twins’ radar this offseason, per Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish. Rucinski was the ace of the 2011 team after Wimmers departed, posting a 2.96 ERA in 13 starts spanning 82.1 innings before he went undrafted.
Rucinski signed with the Cleveland Indians as a free agent — so there’s a Derek Falvey connection — but was released less than a year later before signing with the Angels. Rucinski pitched 14.1 innings across two seasons in the big leagues with the Angels with iffy results — 6.28 ERA, 7.5 K/9, 1.88 WHIP — before he declared free agency and signed with the Cubs for the 2016 season.
READ: A fun profile from this past season on Rucinski from the Des Moines Register.
The 2016 season was not kind to Rucinski, as he spent all of it with Triple-A Iowa, posting a 5.92 ERA with 6.7 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 1.48 WHIP. What’s interesting about Rucinski is that he’s posted fairly good peripherals at reasonably high levels before. At Double-A in 2014, Rucinski made 26 starts with a 3.16 ERA, 8.5 K/9 and a WHIP of 1.23. All of this is circling the wagon with the idea that I think the Twins would like this to be their Corey Kluber.
*record scratch* WHAT?
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying he’s going to be an AL Cy Young candidate. But the Indians, the organization from which Falvey was plucked, have a history of turning pitchers into something they didn’t appear to be in the minors. At one point not that long ago, Kluber was a 25-year-old righty with a 5.56 ERA in Triple-A. Now he’s coming off three straight years of finishing in the top-10 of the AL Cy Young.
Rucinski is at least interesting. He’s a bit older than Kluber, but in his minimal MLB time, he showed a fairly strong penchant for inducing grounders (44.7 percent), fairly good velocity (91-92 mph average fastball) and double-digit whiff rates on his changeup and slider. It wouldn’t be the craziest thing in the world if the Twins turned him into a decent starter.
Finally there’s Paulsen, who has a fair amount of big-league time for someone signing a minor-league deal. He’s coming off hitting just .217/.258/.304 across 39 games for the Rockies last season, but he hit a respectable .277/.326/.462 in 2015 for Colorado in a not-insignificant number of games (116) and plate appearances (354). With that said, taking into consideration the Coors Effect, that was still just good enough for a wRC+ of 97.
In other words, he’s some low-cost insurance at first base and in the corner outfield spots.
