twins/mlb
La Velle E. Neal III has covered baseball for the Star Tribune since 1998 (the post-Knoblauch era). Born and raised in Chicago, he grew up following the White Sox and hating the Cubs. He attended both the University of Illinois and Illinois-Chicago and began his baseball writing career at the Kansas City Star. He can be heard occasionally on KFAN radio, lending his great baseball mind to Paul Allen and other hosts. Mark Rosen borrows him occasionally for WCCO-TV.
Winter meetings wrap-up: The Twins actually made a trade
Posted by: La Velle E. Neal III under Vikings, Bears Updated: December 6, 2012 - 11:29 PM
First of all, the Opryland Hotel is far from affordable family fun. I hit a breakfast buffet on Monday, and found out it was $21.00. Lunch on Tuesday consisted of two sushi rolls, miso soup and iced tea. That was $40.00 (and they weren't exotic rolls). I spent the rest of the meetings buying sandwiches at coffee shops. Geez...
And the complex is just enormous. Too many places for teams to hide. Too spread out. Instead of saying 'hello' as we crossed paths with other scribes during the week, we would say. 'I hate this hotel,' for a greeting.
Still, it's a baseball convention. There are still debates that go on into the early morning at the bars. The wild rumors still spread around the lobby, and it gets you looking forward to spring training. I love this stuff.
I'm trying to figure out what kind of Twins team will report to Fort Myers, Fla. in February. GM Terry Ryan stunned me and made a trade today - the first time he's swung a deal during the winter meetings in my 15 years on the beat. All you folks who predicted the Twins would do nothing were wrong - for the first time, ha!
I'm totally behind the concept of adding the pitchers the Twins have added. They traded Ben Revere, who has speed and a good glove but doesn't have power or a strong arm, and turned him into two pitchers. One, Vance Worley, was described by a scout as a, 'Twins type pitcher.' He doesn't miss bats and needs good control to win. He's young and he said he has his cut fastball back that he didn't have last season because of bone chips in his elbow.
The other pitcher, Trevor May, has upside. He could turn out to be a No. 2 starter because he hits 94 and has good secondary pitches. His control needs to improve, but coming to the Twins and Rick Anderson could be just what he needs.
So YOU MAKE THAT TRADE. You get two starters - one for now, one for two years down the road - for a speedy contact hitter.
It's time to re-do my top ten prospects rankings, again. May doesn't have Alex Myers' upside but he could land anywhere from 4-6 in the rankings. A potential rotation of Meyer, Gibson and May - the MGM boys - looks promising.
I expect Terry Ryan to sign at least one more starting pitcher this offseason, so the 2013 can resemble more of a makeover. If they re-sign Francisco Liriano, I hope there's a second signing. They still have several offers out there, waiting for the pitching market to loosen up.
I'm going to miss Revere, one of the most positive people in that clubhouse. I'm going to miss Denard, one of high-quality guys I've met during my career. But the Twins have to address this starting pitching problem, and had to make these deals.
Not sure who will start in center. At 1 a.m. this morning, when I was chasing down the Revere rumor, one official said he heard that the Twins are ready to give Hicks a chance to start in center. Wow. We'll see if they stick to that.
All I know is this: If the season started today, Joe Mauer might have to be the leadoff hitter.
It was a productive week for the Twins. In addition to Worley and May, the Twins picked up righthander Ryan Pressly and third baseman Mark Sobolewski in the Rule 5 draft and signed reliever Jared Burton to a two-year contract, plus an option.
They have two spots open on their 40-man roster, by the way.
Watch the Strib this weekend for more coverage of the remodeling of the Twins' rotation. An online chat has been scheduled for Monday, too. And I'll join KFAN's Paul Allen on Friday (actually about 12 hours from now) at Buffalo Wild Wings in Coon Rapids to talk Twins and argue about the Bears-Vikings game this weekend.
Twins trade Ben Revere to the Phillies for two pitchers
Posted by: La Velle E. Neal III Updated: December 6, 2012 - 1:58 PMThe Twins have traded outfielder Ben Revere to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for starting pitchers Vance Worley and Trevor May, the club announced this morning..
In 23 starts last season, Worley, 25, was 6-9 with a 4.20 ERA, but he has been considered one of the Phillies top pitching prospects in recent years. In 2011, Worley was 11-3, 3.01 with 119 strikeouts in 131 innings. He was a third-round pick by the Phillies in 2008.
May, 23, was 10-13, 4.87 in 28 starts at Class AA Reading last season. He was the Phillies minor league pitcher of the year in 2011 and was ranked as the Phillies' second best prospect by MLB.com.
The Twins have traded their top two center fielders in Revere and Denard Span in a span of eight days. There were rumblings late last night at the Opryland Hotel that the Twins are willing to give prospect Aaron Hicks a chance to play in center field in 2013 but they might just go with Darin Mastroianni.
May clearly has more upside than Worley, with nice strikeout totals in the minors. In May and Alex Meyer, the Twins have two pitching prospects who could debut during the season or challenge for a spot in the rotation in 2014.
Twins GM Terry Ryan said that Darin Mastroianni, Joe Benson and Aaron Hicks could will get a shot to play center next season. Benson is coming off of a lost season in which he struggled at the plate and had two surgeries. Hicks made strides last season but hasn't played above Class AA. Draw your conclusions there.
And Ryan still claims the club hasn't punted on 2013 - although there is a gaping hole at the top two spots in the batting order and in center field.
Once again, the Twins made a move that makes you want to fast forward to 2015.
Twins take pitcher (big surprise) in the Rule 5 draft
Posted by: La Velle E. Neal III under The draft Updated: December 6, 2012 - 9:24 AMThe Twins have selected righthander Ryan Pressly with the fourth overall pick in the Rule 5 draft.
Pressly, from the Red Sox organization, went 7-5 with a 5.38 ERA between Class A and Class AA last season. He's supposed to have a big arm, with a mid-90's fastball and power curve. He started and relieved last season.
Here's Pressly's bio.
Here's more stuff on him.
He must remain on the Twins' 25-man roster all season. The Rule 5 draft fee is $50,000. If the Twins don't keep him, he has to be offered back to the Red Sox for half the drafting fee.
In the Triple-A phase of the draft, the Twins selected third baseman Mark Sobolewski from the Blue Jays organization. Check him out here.
Winter meetings update: What do the Twins have cooking?
Posted by: La Velle E. Neal III Updated: December 6, 2012 - 7:34 AMIt was a rather interesting night at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel.
The Twins were locked down in the suite, and indications were that they were working on something really juicy. I don't have it confirmed with anyone with the club, but the speculation around the hotel lobby was that the Twins were listening to offers involving Ben Revere.
There are teams still looking for center field help, namely the Phillies, and Revere might be even more attractive given the prices teams have to pay on the free agent market (Shane Victorino, three years and $39 million to Boston).
The Twins appear to be so desperate to find good pitching that they are willing to talk about almost anyone on the roster. Revere, who's not eligible for arbitration for at least another year, might be a chip they have to consider to play.
I have not heard who the Twins are after. But that was the rumor flying around the lobby in the early morning. There was so much stuff flying around the lobby last night that one person even speculated that the Twins would be willing to give Aaron Hicks his shot in center if they could get the right deal involving Revere (that made Hicks' representatives excited). Again, the usual verification policies are being ignored here. I just wanted to give you a taste of some of the stuff we have decode at the winter meetings.
The Twins didn't help matters much by staying in the suite until around midnight, working on deals. Their PR maven was supposed to fly home Wednesday night and was at the airport when he was summoned back to the hotel, which raised my antennas.
So let's see what the Twins have for us today. Even if they were unable to made the deal they wanted, hopefully GM Terry Ryan can provide some idea of how hard they tried to get something done.
Twins evening update: A look into the future
Posted by: La Velle E. Neal III Updated: December 5, 2012 - 8:42 PM
The Twins are working hard to land starting pitching before the winter meetings end tomorrow. They were in on Joe Blanton (sorry for calling him Jeff earlier) before Blanton agreed to a two year, $15 million deal with the Angels. They have some other irons in the fire as the winter meetings wind down. Let's see what they come up with.
For now, I want to address the future and get your thoughts.
I ran into the Baseball America staff on Tuesday night and had a nice little session with them. They are very impressed with the Twins farm system, now that Alex Meyer is in the fold.
I quickly revised my top ten prospects list. It's not official (especially picks No. 2 and 3) but it does look impressive.
1. Miguel Sano, 3B
2. Alex Meyer, RHP
3. Byron Buxton, OF
4. Oswaldo Arcia, OF
5. Kyle Gibson, RHP
6. Aaron Hicks, OF
7. Eddie Rosario, 2B
8. Jose Berrios, RHP
9. B.J. Hermsen, RHP
10. Mason Melotakis, LHP
I might flip flop Meyer and Buxton, then Gibson and Hicks, then Hermsen and Melo and find a new No. 10. But even that unfinished product looks pretty good from 1-8. The BA staff are very impressed with Buxton. He apparently played against Bubba Starling during the Appalachian League playoffs that they attended and it wasn't even close who was the better prospect.
My thing is this: If the Twins don't find suitable starting pitching this offseason, or they do but the team flounders the first half of the season, will they seriously consider backing off, trading veterans, giving Gibson, Arcia and Hicks a shot and start building for 2015?
By 2015, Hicks and Arcia should be on the path to being established. Gibson should be up to 200 innings. Meyer will be knocking on the door. Melotakis might be knocking on the door. Sano and Rosario might be kicking the door in. They will join Ben Revere, Chris Parmelee and Brian Dozier, all three who benefitting from major league experience.
And old man Mauer should still be around, heh.
That's a youth movement. Is that a movement you could get behind?
What say you?
A brief afternoon update from the winter meetings
Posted by: La Velle E. Neal III Updated: December 5, 2012 - 2:45 PM
Here's an update from the winter meetings.
We're waiting to see if the Twins will land starting pitching over the next couple of days. Sources have confirmed that the team has made offers to lefthanders Joe Saunders and Francisco Liriano.
I've been told that the Twins remain very interested in righthander Joe Blanton and lefty John Lannan. No one has told me directly but I'm fairly sure the Twins have offers out to those two as well. Heard there's a chance Lannan will a accept a one-year deal while Blanton could land either a one-year deal or more.
They also have been interested in Brett Myers, Ryan Dempster and Brandon McCarthy this week, with indications that they are most interested in Myers among that three. Dempster reportedly is trying to get a team to offer a three-year deal.
A FoxSports report has the Twins among several teams interested in Rangers lefthander Derek Holland.
Two Twins officials said that they have offers out all over the place. So we'll see what comes up.
There was a report last night that the Twins could trade Ben Revere. The Twins have been willing to explore deals and be creative, but I was told not to believe everything I read on this one.
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