The Twins may have lost a trade chip today when they placed Josh Willingham on the disabled list. The outfielder told reporters, including MLB.com's Rhett Bollinger (Twitter link), that he expects to miss the next four to six weeks following arthroscopic knee surgery.
Playing through the knee injury, Willingham's 2013 season hasn't been nearly as productive as his 2012 was, though he's still done a good job drawing walks. After a career-best 35 homers last season, Willingham is hitting .224/.356/.398 with 10 homers. As recently as four days ago, it was reported that the Twins had begun to receive calls on Willingham. Those trade hopes are likely dashed now, and given his modest $7MM salary in 2013 and 2014 — he's midway through a three-year, $21MM contract — it's unlikely that he'd clear waivers in order to be eligible for an August trade once healthy.
