Around 3:30 pm on July 30, the Minnesota Twins became the last team in the league to execute a pre-deadline trade, acquiring right-handed reliever Trevor Richards from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for minor league infielder Jay Harry.
An hour and a half later, the trade deadline concluded at 5:00 pm, with the organization acquiring only one player. The 31-year-old righty is an intriguing arm who will likely slot fifth on the team’s bullpen hierarchy behind high-leverage arms Jhoan Durán, Griffin Jax, Jorge Alcalá, and Cole Sands.
However, the team only acquired a medium-leverage reliever when frontline starting pitchers were theoretically available. As a result, the fanbase felt Minnesota’s parsimonious ownership group had let them down again.
Admittedly, I felt a wave of discontent after MLB.com reporter Do Hyoung-Park officially confirmed that the Twins didn’t make another move beyond trading for Richards. Yet, the details that have slowly trickled out over the past few days have alleviated much of that angst. On the evening of July 30, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reported that the Twins were “in serious discussions with the Toronto Blue Jays about (Yusei) Kikuchi when Houston blew their offer out of the water late Monday.”
“Another issue facing the Twins, team sources said, was the lofty asks of in-division foes,” Hayes continued. “The Twins engaged the Tigers for (Jack) Flaherty and the White Sox for (Erick) Fedde. But both rival clubs centered their demands on packages with one of prospects Brooks Lee, Walker Jenkins, and Emmanuel Rodriguez, a price point that the Twins considered a non-starter.”
Hayes pushed this sentiment further days later in an appearance on the Foul Territory podcast.
In the video above, Hayes reacknowledges the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox’s steep asking price. He said that if a trade were to happen, it would have been centered around utility prospect Luke Keaschall (Minnesota’s fifth-ranked prospect at FanGraphs) instead of the untouchable Jenkins, Lee, and Rodriguez trio.
As the clip nears its end, Hayes states that Detroit and Chicago didn’t want to see the Twins win, a mode of operation driven by ego. The Tigers and White Sox created unnecessary boundaries by implementing an “intra-division tax,” making it impossible for Minnesota to trade for Flaherty or Fedde, respectively, unless they parted ways with one of their three consensus top 50 prospects.
Taking this stance as an organization is absurd and one of the many contributing factors to why Detroit and Chicago have largely been incompetent baseball franchises over the past decade. The Tigers acquired prospects Thayron Liranzo and Trey Sweeney from the Los Angeles Dodgers for Flaherty. On the other hand, the White Sox acquired post-hype position player Miguel Vargas and 19-year-old prospects Jeral Perez and Alexander Albertus in the three-team trade that sent Fedde to the St. Louis Cardinals. None of Liranzo, Sweeney, Perez, or Albertus appear on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospect list. Keaschall ranks 54th.
Again, it is frustrating that Twins decision-makers elected not to make any substantial moves at the trade deadline. Could they have pursued Kikuchi more aggressively? Perhaps. But if Hayes’s reporting is to be trusted, which it should be, it appears the organization’s front office wanted to engage in meaningful trade discussions with the Tigers and White Sox, respectively. For those franchises to seemingly shut them down for residing in the same division isn’t Minnesota’s fault. Instead, it tells which organization is serious about winning and which can’t break the cycle of needing to rebuild.
With the market not working in the front office’s favor at the trade deadline, the club faces uncertainty surrounding their fourth and fifth rotation spot. Simeon Woods Richardson has performed well this season, owning a 3.74 ERA and 3.75 FIP over 91 1/3 innings pitched. However, during that stretch, he has underwhelming peripheral numbers (3.95 xERA and 4.32 xFIP). His most recent start against the New York Mets, where he gave up six earned runs over 3 1/3 innings pitched, has made those who follow the team concerned that his underwhelming peripheral numbers indicate negative regression.
However, fifth starter David Festa performed well in his past two outings against the Philadelphia Phillies and the Mets, respectively. He only allowed three earned runs while striking out a combined 13 batters over 9 1/3 innings pitched. The team will rely on two rookies in Woods Richardson and Festa to push them as they try to catch the Cleveland Guardians for the AL Central crown while fending off the Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, and Seattle Mariners for one of two final Wild Card spots.
The Twins are spread thin in their starting rotation, and electing to stay idle at the trade deadline places a cruel spotlight on their most prominent deficiency. However, given the asking prices, the team was wise to stand pat.
