The Minnesota Twins may be coming off a sweep of the Oakland Athletics. But at 18-32, the Twins are still the worst team in the American League, 3.5 games behind the A’s and Kansas City Royals.
Minnesota definitely has the look of a seller when the trade deadline arrives in two months. And with the expanded postseason format, there probably won’t be too many teams selling, which should help the Twins get ample return for players in such a scarce market.
Denard Span‘s name is often thrown around the rumor mill. And even though he’s on the first year of a three-year deal, some believe Josh Willingham could be traded as well. Relievers like Matt Capps and Jared Burton could also fetch a return for Twins GM Terry Ryan.
But what about Justin Morneau? The former AL MVP hasn’t been the Morneau of old, but he’s still be pretty good, with nine homers in 34 games. He’s hitting just .244, but he’s still on a 30-homer pace if he can stay relatively healthy for the rest of the season.
And therein lies the big “if” when talking about Morneau’s trade value: health. He’s already been on the disabled list once this year with a sore left wrist. And there remains the concussion concerns stemming from the head injury he suffered in a second-base collision two years ago.
I don’t think the salary – whatever would be left of his $15 million for this season and another $15 million next season – would scare teams away. That’s a pretty short-term obligation, and there won’t exactly be a lot of power-hitting former MVPs available to teams chasing playoff spots.
But I think the injuries – even the worries over future injuries – could really hamper his value to the Twins. Would a team like the Toronto Blue Jays – who just shipped DH/1B Adam Lind away from the big league club – be interested in the slugging Canadian?
Two healthy months of hitting from Morneau going forward would benefit the Twins in more ways than one.
If the Twins could get a good starting pitcher for Morneau, I say trade him. Until we get some quality 1, 2, or 3 starters, we don’t have a chance to win anyway.
I try never to get too wrapped up in all this nonsense about who’s available and who isn’t available for a trade. It’s such a joke, and I mean that generally, not just the Twins and not just baseball. Whether its Morneau being available or 39 members of the Cubs roster being available, what’s the big deal. The fact is if some other GM calls up with the right deal, any player is available.
The “news” on these stories is exactly backward from reality. The real story is “Player X isn’t available at any price.”
Their isn’t a single rvteliae that I would trust enough to leave our kids with… and the couple of forays into baby sitting have been nothing short of disastrous!!! We would rather just be with our kids and treasure them in the now… and you won’t believe this (!!!) but they are with you for such a short time, a millisecond in eternity… yesterday I blinked and my twelve year old was born tomorrow when I look he will be twenty four and gone… no I will just have ours hanging around until they are old enough to be pushed out of the proverbial nest!!!