Offseason deal with the Twins

[bill hAll Star]

Hypothetical trade that probably would never happen, but would make some sense:

 

The Twins' window should be opening next year. The Brewers hope theirs will be opening in ~3 years.

 

The Twins have a wonderful collection of players that probably will combine for 3 WAR total in Suzuki, Hughes, Santana, Nolasco, and Mauer that will make $64 million next year (and some annoying numbers after that). The Pohlads aren't broke, but it's going to be hard to add impact to a roster ready to win (even with all of their good players coming cheap) with that short-term window.

 

Brewers trade:

-Lucroy

-Braun

 

Twins trade:

-Mauer

-2 or 3 top prospects not named Buxton/Sano. I'd try to get Berrios but I'd even take a few lower-tier guys if they had potential to be elite.

 

Optional additions to the trade:

Garza for Nolasco

Lind for more value

 

Why for the Twins?

I stated it above. Their window is opening now. They have some annoying money on the books near-term so they won't be able to add much for heavy impact. A few years out, they have to start paying their young guys and Dozier/Plouffe/Perkins. So, why not add some talent short-term at a similar annual cost?

 

Why for the Brewers?

Mauer is majorly overpaid at $23 million/year for the next 3 years. Lighten the load of $15+ million dollar, washed up players in 2019/2020 by clearing Braun as well as the urge to give Luc a mega-contract.

 

Now you're talking about having the books completely clear of major contracts going into 2019 when all of your hopeful studs reach the majors.

 

I'd consider throwing Mauer back at catcher, knowing that he could deteriorate if I was in a winning mode and just "get what I can." Since the Brewers are rebuilding, I guess I'd let him keep playing 1B assuming Lind is gone and see if you can't ship him off for some modest value if he finds a way to hit it over the shorter RF porch at Miller Park in 2016 or 2017.

 

Why it probably won't happen:

-Even though Mauer has fallen out of favor, he's the prodigal son in MN and they will probably try to find a way to keep him in there to somewhat earn his contract.

-Braun comes with baggage.

-Mark doesn't seem like one to do a partial salary dump like this.

[jerichoholicninja]

This is beyond hypothetical. This is unicorns giving birth to leprechauns fantasy land.

 

The deal ends at Mauer because the Twins will never trade him. If you get past that I'd want more back than a bunch of a teams 2nd tier prospects for Lucroy and Braun who blows Mauer's number out of the water.

[trwi7]

If we're trading Braun and Lucroy and offsetting a ton of the cost of Braun by taking back Mauer, we should be getting at least one of Sano, Buxton or Berrios.

[bill hAll Star]

This is beyond hypothetical. This is unicorns giving birth to leprechauns fantasy land.

 

The deal ends at Mauer because the Twins will never trade him. If you get past that I'd want more back than a bunch of a teams 2nd tier prospects for Lucroy and Braun who blows Mauer's number out of the water.

 

The fans are getting impatient. People are pissed that they didn't make a splash at this last deadline to fight for the last WC spot with an overachieving team. They can tell themselves that they aren't going to move Mauer, but they're going to start sabotaging their chances the next few years unless he really turns it around.

[Outlander]

You are basically shedding 30 million in salary for fringe prospects, a useless Mauer and giving Lucroy away. The Brewers can easily trade Braun for very good prospects if they agree to pay $70 million in salary. They would be able to keep Lucroy as well.

[MNBrew]

Twins fans surely are frustrated but aren't necessarily that impatient. I'm up here in the same neighborhood, Bill Hall Star.

 

The Twins are just off 4 straight 90-plus-loss seasons and are in the wild card chase for the first time since the 1st year of Target Field (5 years ago) and their young studs are just getting to the majors. Plus they have lots more talent coming up. Fans are frustrated with the post-break swoon, but this is only the first year of an upward climb and most fans are still smart enough to realize that. You don't go all-in at the very start of the window unless you're the Yankees, Dodgers, or Red Sox, and Terry Ryan's smart enough to know that. . . . He knows the Twins needed help but he's always been one careful not to overpay when the timing's not right.

 

All that said, Ryan Braun's contract isn't ideal but he still is an upper-tier player. Joe Mauer, post-concussion has a worse contract and is much less of a player than Braun is even with the effects of his thumb/nerve issue. From a Brewers standpoint, I'll gladly keep Braun and the remainder of his contract vs. Mauer and the remainder of his without a moment's hesitation.

[bill hAll Star]

I was just banging the drum of Braun getting back pretty good value in a trade earlier this year, but what do you guys really think they could get for him?

 

This was a special situation where one team is constrained by a bunch of garbage contracts in their contention window and would like to shed Mauer and another team has a contract with back payments going into the mid 2020s.

 

What do you guys honestly think the Brewers could get for Braun? I'd absolutely take him on his 5-year deal over Mauer on his 3-year deal. Totally agree. The issue is that the Brewers are rebuilding and he's going to rot here for 2-3 years and then be beyond his prime. I'd trade him somewhere else, of course in the meantime. Maybe I'm a bit impatient, but I feel as though there will always be a reason that he won't be traded and suddenly it's going to be 2017 and his value will be mostly gone.

 

What if the package was Berrios, Stewart, Arcia, and Rosario? Throw in Walker isntead of Rosario if you want to get younger with the deal.

 

I'd love to just ship off Lucroy and Braun for prospects. Luc should net 2-3 decent to really good ones and Braun maybe 1 prospect depending on the $ changing hands.

[bill hAll Star]

Feels odd to be on the other side of the tomatoes being thrown at a trade offer, I will say that. I guess I shouldn't have thrown such a ridiculous one at the wall for my first foray into it.

[NYChez]

I disagree that the Twins wouldn't trade Mauer. They'd give him away if someone offered to pay half his salary. Lucroy (and his contract) and to a lesser extent Braun (and his contract) are assets. This trade for the biggest liability in baseball would be horrible for the Brewers.

[superfly]

Fairies and unicorns are flying plentiful I see.

[TURBO]

I'm trying to come up with one reason, just one reason, why we'd want Mauer.

 

We would be giving up our two best tradeable players for Mauer and 2 or 3 prospects, but those prospects would not / could not include Sano or Buxton?

 

A giant HELL NO please...

[MrTPlush]

Maybe if Lucroy, Braun, and Garza were all traded together for just prospects(no Mauer) it would make at least some sense.

[MNBrew]

After 5-ish years of total suckitude, there's no way the Twins are trading their top prospects, let alone for bats. Their far greater need is pitching.

[MrTPlush]

After 5-ish years of total suckitude, there's no way the Twins are trading their top prospects, let alone for bats. Their far greater need is pitching.

 

 

"Did someone say my name?"

 

http://www.rantsports.com/mlb/files/2014/04/garza.jpg

[bill hAll Star]

After 5-ish years of total suckitude, there's no way the Twins are trading their top prospects, let alone for bats. Their far greater need is pitching.

 

I noted that they won't be trading their top prospects in this and, yeah, they do need pitching. I agree that they've compiled a set of garbage #4 starter-ish vets, but they are going to have a 70 million dollar pile of junk this coming year and they want to compete.

 

I knew this thing wasn't completely realistic when posting due to the players being dealt, but at least I have some of the reasoning rooted in reality. The Twins are going to have to be creative if they want to be top-level competitive this coming year or maybe the next. I think they had a mirage first half to still be in it, but now are "pretty good" just due to having Sano on their roster.

 

The prudent thing for them to do would be just to not make any huge $ moves this coming offseason, but I think they are even more anxious after several years of suckitude, which would cause them to be a bit creative unless they are going to raise the payroll a bit more.

[JohnBriggs12]

I laugh at all the proposals involving the Twins, knowing full well that many on this site are close to the Twins situation so naturally want to pair up the two teams in deals. I'm somewhat the same way with finding matches between the White Sox, who my brother follows, and the Brewers. That being said I did call the Podsednik for Carlos Lee trade in advance (my last such prediction that came true), so I'll keep trying such as with my suggestion for Segura to the Sox.

 

I frankly don't see a match between the Brewers and Twins, and contrived proposals involving big money players such as this one will go nowhere.

[jerichoholicninja]

I think the Twins could have some interest in Garza. SP seems to be where they are the most lacking, although I'm not sure how much of an upgrade Garza could be over what they already have. I was looking at their roster for a bad contract they could swap for Garza and really all I see is Mauer who I want no part of and Ricky Nolasco who is a worse version of Garza.

[bill hAll Star]

If they had interest in Garza, it probably would mean Nolasco coming back. At this point, Nolasco has surged ahead in "might his 2018 option be a player option?" so that would be the risk. I would imagine given that I'd rather have Garza than Nolasco right now that it would be Garza for Nolasco and a decent reliever prospect or something like that.

 

Of course, this is another one that might work out in a video game value machine but probably wouldn't ever happen.

[Devinep]

The Twins to me line up great as trading partners. I've thought of 2 trades to line up; 1 bigger and 1 smaller

 

Trade 1: Lind and Krod for Plouffe- 3b fix with 3 years of control and Lind would improve Dh production whole Krod would help their bad bullpen.

 

Trade 2: Brewers get: Max Kepler (OF), Trevor Plouffe, Oswaldo Arcia (OF-placeholder for better young OFs) and Cameron Booster LHP prospect)

 

Twins get: Lind, Krod, Davis, Lucroy

[jerichoholicninja]

I can't see the Twins doing either of those trades and I wouldn't want the Brewers to do the first one.

[logan82]

3 years of control just barely gets us to the next time we are competitive. The one thing we 100% do not want to trade for is an OF. We already have enough.

[MNBrew]

The Twins to me line up great as trading partners. I've thought of 2 trades to line up; 1 bigger and 1 smaller

 

Trade 1: Lind and Krod for Plouffe- 3b fix with 3 years of control and Lind would improve Dh production whole Krod would help their bad bullpen.

 

Trade 2: Brewers get: Max Kepler (OF), Trevor Plouffe, Oswaldo Arcia (OF-placeholder for better young OFs) and Cameron Booster LHP prospect)

 

Twins get: Lind, Krod, Davis, Lucroy

I've thought of things along similar lines (principal ingredients in potential Twins trades), but I think both of these amount to overpays on the Brewers' part. . . . That said, Plouffe is someone that could net the Twins a decent return in a trade given that 3B is Sano's position and he's got a much higher ceiling than Plouffe, and the Brewers would seem to have an asset or two that could make an exchange of vets a possibility.

[Devinep]

There may need to be some leveling there, but binding have a problem with targeting Kepler because yes he's an OF but trading Davis opens up LF and trading Lind opens 1B where Kepler plays some-although personally is move Braun there.

 

While Plouffe may not be an ideal target, giving up 3 total years between Lind and Krod wouldn't be hard to do. I just hope they trade their older players like them. If it's in another trade I'd be good with that too, as long as they get something equal or better. I also think a year of someone like Herrera (they clearly don't trust Rogers there) is worthless even in a rebuilding year since he has no future anyway

[MrTPlush]

Great a 3B fix when we aren't contending. Just the trade we need to make so we don't contend ever.

[Devinep]

Keeping Lind and Krod without getting anything-that's what would hurt the rebuild the most- it's better than most options of "let's get a 3b prospect" generically without saying who for what. Plouffe could also be traded again later if the Brewers still aren't contending in 2017.

 

Personally I wouldn't mind seeing Rogers play 3b next year. Even if he is awful defensively we can all see if his bat plays as an everyday player.