We have some house cleaning to do before the 2020 auction and free agent draft begins. With that in mind, we made a pair of trades: one to remove a log jam, the other to fill a couple of holes. First, the logjam.
Trade #1: Justin Turner to the Cleveland Rocks for Nick Senzel.
Listen, JT was the man in the OLCS, and we thank him for it. We also acknowledge that he was one of the best hitters in baseball in MLB '19, and would be a great asset to us in 2020. However, Rafael Devers is now our Third Baseman of the Future. There is simply no room for Turner.
Granted, there is no room for Jose Ramirez, either. We were hoping he would get at least an inning or two at second base this season, but the Cleveland Indians front office apparently doesn't care about the needs of the Salem Cowtippers. So, for now, Ramirez splits time at third and serves as a kick-ass pinch hitter/pinch runner off the bench.
Senzel was ranked as the eighth-best prospect in baseball in this year's BDBL Farm Report. He is a "five-tool" player who we believe will eventually become an all-star. For now, we'll use him as a platoon outfielder in center field against lefties (.316/.371/.526). If he can avoid injuries (which seems to be an issue with him), we hope he can be a full-time player next year. An outfield of Senzel, Laureano, and Benintendi sounds pretty good.
Trade #2: Brandon Nimmo and Danny Jansen to Myrtle Beach for Christian Walker and Sam Dyson.
This trade could bite us in the ass. It wouldn't be the first time. Any time we trade future value for present needs, it bites us in the ass. We are high on both Nimmo and Jansen to have bounce-back seasons in MLB '20. But the opportunity to acquire a cheap first baseman and another cheap bullpen arm was too tempting to let pass.
Walker came out of nowhere this past MLB season and hit .259/.348/.476 in full-time play at the ripe old age of 29. You never know. Sometimes those late-bloomers surprise you and maintain that pace. Other times...not so much. We'll take our chances and hope we get more than one productive season out of him. At only $100,000 in salary, it's worth the gamble.
Dyson (62+ IP, 53 H, 6 HR, 13 BB, 55 K) completes our collection of Minnesota Twins relievers. He gives us enough decent innings that we could head into the 2020 season right now with a full bullpen. Or, even better, we could pick up a really quality arm for the top of the bullpen and allow Dyson to become a mid-game inning-eater.
As it stands, we have a hole at second base against both lefties and righties. We have a hole behind the plate against righties. We could use another corner outfielder unless we go with Shohei Ohtani out of position all year. (We still haven't decided what to do with him, frankly.) And we could always use another starting arm.
Other than that, if the season began today, we'd have a pretty decent team in place. Right now, we're looking at a budget of $17.1 million with 9 open roster spots. This probably means we're out of the running for the big-budget arms and bats, but we should be able to spread it around where we need it.
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