Twins

The Twins Added to their Farm System without Undergoing Full Rebuild at the Deadline

Photo credit: Harrison Barden, USA TODAY Sports

When Trevor May returned to the Minnesota Twins clubhouse after spending nearly 700 days returning from injury, the Tom Kelly quotes were still on the wall above the entrance and Joe Mauer still was in the left corner stall, but otherwise, it was nearly unrecognizable.

“It’s actually been a really long time, so it’s a lot different than where it was last time I was up here,” he said, noting it was about 40 minutes past the 3:00 p.m. deadline. “But yeah, it’s a weird day to get the call, for sure. Being the new guy coming in, there’s a lot of other things going on.”

Eduardo Escobar was in the lineup in Boston on Friday before he was dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ryan Pressly was traded to the Houston Astros in the fourth inning of that game. Zach Duke was traded to the Seattle Mariners around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, and Lance Lynn became a New York Yankee about an hour before that game.

Finally, Brian Dozier was on a plane to Los Angeles to join the Dodgers about an hour before May discussed his lengthy rehab for the first time.

“A lot of the moves that happened, I had some foreshadowing that they were close,” said Paul Molitor, downplaying the difficulty of managing during the deadline. “Without making it a big deal, the timing of the day (Escobar was traded) was awkward, in that if you don’t post a lineup, it creates questions. And at some point, I felt like I had to post one that included him, even though I was fully aware that by game time, something could be finalized.

“You just try to make those decisions the best way that you could. I mean, the reality is that I wasn’t caught off-guard when that one came on that day.”

Still, it was disruptive.

Escobar was a beloved member of the clubhouse and a versatile player who was leading the league in doubles. Trading him indicated the front office was going to sell following a three-game sweep in Kansas City following the All-Star Break, even though they had won four straight after that. Pressly is a Rule 5 pick that turned into one of Molitor’s most trusted relievers. He may have pitched the 10th inning, when Mookie Betts hit a walk-off home run off of Matt Belisle, had he not been traded during the game.

“[It’s] the same way with Pressly during the game,” said Molitor. “These things have been,” he paused to gather his thoughts, “the framework and groundwork has been laid.” It was just a matter of if and when they were completed.

Photo credit: Dan Hamilton, USA TODAY Sports

Dozier, an eighth-round pick in 2009, had turned himself into an All-Star second baseman and a clubhouse leader. Even as he struggled this season, he was often the voice of the team and maintained a positive attitude through the team’s ups and downs. Like each transaction before he was dealt, his departure was a reminder that this team — one that had high hopes in Spring Training coming off a Wild Card appearance last year — had not met expectations.

It’s been a lot of fun to watch him,” said Mauer, who was drafted in 2001 and is in the final year of his contract. “I watched him right when he got here and signed, and then watched him grow as a player and as a man.”

“At the deadline, you have two choices to make: You’re either in and pushing and grabbing players to push toward the finish or you’re aren’t. I don’t think we wanted to get caught in the middle,” said Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey, who was criticized for being indecisive last year after he acquired Jaime Garcia, then traded him away after one start.

“We had to make a difficult decision, we knew it would be unpopular with some players. After talking with a number of guys, a lot of them get the challenge around it but ultimately we felt it was the best decision for the organization going forward.”

“Obviously, Spring Training is a totally different feel than what it is right now,” said Mauer. “We had high expectations for this team and a lot of those guys aren’t here. But we’ve got a lot of games left and with the guys that we do have in here we’re still pretty talented in this room.”

The Twins have been sellers in every year of the eight-year, $184 million deal he signed before the 2011 season. He was visibly distraught while discussing the state of the team.

However, should he return next year, he could be part of a winning team.

It all depends on the future of Byron Buxton, who is in Triple-A right now and has battled injuries all season long, and Miguel Sano, who just returned to the majors after being sent down to Low-A Fort Myers, of course. While their future looks as questionable as ever, Buxton’s defense in center field is nearly unparalleled, and Sano hit 60 home runs in the past three seasons and was an All-Star last season.

But if Buxton and Sano become impact players next season, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have built an infrastructure around them. Jose Berrios is emerging as the staff ace and was named to his first All-Star Game this year, Mitch Garver is hitting .306/.424/.551 over his last 30 games and Jorge Polanco is hitting .275/.365/.374 since returning from his suspension.

Great teams have strength up the middle, meaning that they have a good pitching staff, center fielder (Buxton), catcher (Garver) and shortstop (Polanco). Logan Forsythe, 31, can hold down second base while Nick Gordon learns to hit Triple-A pitching — he has a .219/.247/.309 line in Rochester after hitting .333/.381/.525 in Triple-A this year.

Eddie Rosario was a borderline All-Star this year, and Max Kepler has often stepped in at center field in Buxton’s absence. Falvey and Levine could have dealt away Kyle Gibson, who is having his best season since 2015, or Fernando Rodney, the closer, if they wanted to completely rebuild. Addison Reed will likely remain the setup man, and Jake Odorizzi will probably still be in the rotation.

The only player Minnesota dealt that had any term beyond this season was Pressly, who became a hot commodity at the deadline. They filled in players at all levels of the game.

Many of them — Jhoan Duran, Luis Rijo, Ryan Costello, Ernie De La Trinidad, Gabriel Maciel and Gilberto Celestino — are in A-ball. Jorge Alcala, Devin Smeltzer and Luke Raley are Double-A caliber players. Chase De Jong and Tyler Austin have been in the major leagues, and Forsythe joined the team after a redeye on Wednesday.

When we look at deadline returns and we’re investing in prospect acquisition, we’re taking a portfolio approach, a blended approach,” said Falvey. “We felt like in different trades we acquired maybe lower ceiling, higher floor types that fit the upper levels and have a chance to help us along the way.

“That’s not to say those guys couldn’t exceed our expectations. But I think in some cases we probably did invest in a little higher risk, higher reward, guys with real elite premium stuff. Sometimes those things don’t go exactly the way you expect. But to get a good 25-man and to build the kind of depth you need, as some of the other clubs that have been really successful right now have done, you had to invest in a blended approach.”

Leaving the deadline empty-handed would have been unwise.

Dozier and Escobar are fan-favorites, but there’s no guarantee they would return to the team next season. The Twins have opened up opportunities for younger players to reach the majors, while using veterans as stopgaps in the interim. And as top prospects like Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff climb the ranks, A-ball teams like Cedar Rapids needed to be replenished.

The disappointment with the Twins isn’t what they did at the deadline, but that they had to be sellers in the first place.

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