The Twins announced that they’ve traded utility player Michael Helman to the Cardinals for cash. He’ll occupy a 40-man roster spot with St. Louis. The Cardinals had a vacancy, so no additional move was necessary.
Minnesota had a full 40-man roster and needed to create two openings. They have agreed to free agent deals with Harrison Bader and Danny Coulombe this week. Neither contract has been finalized. Helman is the first of two players whom the Twins will squeeze off the roster.
An 11th-round pick in 2018, Helman reached the majors last year. He appeared in nine games and went 3-10 with a pair of doubles. The 28-year-old spent most of the season at Triple-A St. Paul. He had a nice year, hitting .271/.350/.487 across 314 plate appearances. Helman hit 14 home runs and went 12-13 on stolen base attempts.
Helman is a right-handed batter who provides multi-positional versatility. He has played more than 1400 innings at second base in his minor league career. He has logged more than 1000 innings in the outfield — much of that in center — with some action at both positions on the left side of the infield. Helman still has a full slate of minor league options and can be kept at Triple-A Memphis for the foreseeable future.
This is the Cardinals’ first trade acquisition of the offseason. St. Louis is also the only team that has yet to sign a free agent to a major league deal. Helman is the third player they’ve added to their 40-man roster since the end of the season. Waiver pickups Roddery Muñoz and Bailey Horn are depth additions on the pitching side. Ownership has seemingly left the front office with minimal spending room in the absence of a payroll-clearing trade.
Katie Woo of The Athletic reported the Helman trade just before the official announcement.
Mayo de noche
If he makes the opening day roster it would be a Miracle Whip
Interesting move with Donovan already with a gold glove for utility man.
With Mozeliak still in charge of the Cardinals the only moves you will see until the end of the season will be interesting moves!!
However —- none of Mozeliak’s moves will be beneficial in making the Cardinals a contender this season or in the future.
@Lets – Twins needed to open two 40 man spots after signing Bader & Coloumbe.
Taking up a spot on the 40 man.
You can’t have 40 players in the major league roster. So there are already players in the minors taking up spots.
BITA
Agree. Even if they trade Arenado before Opening Day – which eems unlikely – I think Saggese or Gorman joins Donovan in infield, not Helman.
Cards’ outfield is pretty left-handed. Burleson, Nootbarr, Siani, and Scott swing from the left side. Assuming Arenado gets moved, Gorman will attempt to handle 3rd. Walker, a righty is also a question mark. Saggese should get first try, but I can see how Helman could play occasionally, plus his speed an defensive capability offers a number of options.
Top 100 – I agree with that for starting roles.
If Helman looks decent in spring training, I could see him being a preferable MLB bench option over putting Saggese (for example) on the MLB bench to get ~200 PA’s this season.
Saggese is a legit prospect who ideally ought to be getting everyday playing time somewhere, either MLB or AAA.
I agree. I think it makes way more sense to have Saggesse in AAA getting regular at bats, too much potential to let him stagnate on the bench in the majors. Give that spot to a guy that doesn’t have much of a ceiling, it’s not like they will be competing for much in 25.
Donovan can only play one position at a time, he bats left-handed, and doesn’t play SS or CF. This guy bats right-handed and plays both SS and CF. Not surprising at all.
Someone is injured I bet.
Too bad trade wasn’t Hellman for Coby Mayo.
For those from the West Coast, Best Foods mayonnaise is called Hellmann’s mayonnaise on the East Coast. Both owned by the Unilever company.
Hellmann’s in the Midwest too.
Ok ok.. how much money did the Cardinals defer and how much are the Twin eating?
Since it’s the Twins, they are eating twice as much. As for the Cards I don’t have a clue what they are doing deferently.
Twins aren’t eating anything I’d imagine? Helman makes rookie minimum.
“Helman is the first of two players whom the Twins will squeeze off the roster.”
I see what you did there.
Yay, finally signed the poor man’s Tommy Edman
Such a Cardinals player.
How much cash was necessary to acquire Helman? His AAA work looks good and he appears to be versatile. I hope this is not the necessary move to trade Donovan.
Donovan gets extended not traded. He’s the team leader now.
He looked overmatched at the MLB level last year (stats aide) and feels like a AAAA player but it was a tiny sample size and even though he’s 28, he could become a decent utility guy.
Just a backup SS, their roster needs one.
Bring out the best
I want to have faith but 28 yr old utility players don’t scream talent evaluation and development opportunities. Depth is good but even at AAA they should be letting the young guys play if that’s their new philosophy.
It’s Best Foods out here on the west coast
More Helman’s here in México!
That’s a tangy move by the Birds. Hopefully they don’t spread him too thin in the field. Either way, it’s too early to approve it or condiment.
Finally the move we have all been waiting for. Mo still has his gift of snapping up that low hanging fruit. Nice to go out with a bang in his final season.
Mo likely didn’t have a clue about this guy. Bloom probably spotted him
Was this a trade? Was Helman DFA’d?
How about some substance and background on the specifics.
Try reading the article.
It states: Traded for Cash.
Was he DFA’d FIRST, then traded to prevent another organization from claiming him and beating the Cardinals from getting him?
It DOES HAPPEN !!
So, is that what happened?
Or did the Cards open up their coin purse and find some loose change, call up the Twinkies and make a CASH offer to take Helman off of the Twins Hands? BEFORE he may have been DFA’d?
Per the article:
Minnesota had a full 40-man roster and needed to create two openings. They have agreed to free agent deals with Harrison Bader and Danny Coulombe this week. Neither contract has been finalized. Helman is the first of two players whom the Twins will squeeze off the roster.
No, he had not yet been DFAd, as neither contract was final.
The guy bats right-handed and can play SS and CF. That’s worth more than a lot of the bench contenders already. Good pickup.
Can play SS more than should play SS. CF was a little interesting too. He’s fine as a 13th guy utility guy but anything more will stretch him too far.
That’s fine. The Cardinals didn’t have anyone who plays centerfield and bats right-handed. They have seven or eight left-handed hitting centerfielders (and masquerading centerfielders).
As for backup shortstop, he’ll join the fray of several others who “can but probably shouldn’t.”
We realize he’s probably just a backup to the backup at a few positions.
BTW, Cardinals fans are (relatively) excited about a minor league depth trade because that’s all we have seen! A couple of waiver wire claims and this dude for a little cash. This BS is our biggest transaction to date! 😀 lol
Guy hit .300 last year with .800 OPS! A steal for the Cardinals.
Look for him to get a lot of forced playing time. Mo has to prove he can still make trades, and his players are better than anyone else. See Jose Fermin. Everything he does takes away from the drafted talent waiting to come up. He signed all the old pitchers last year just to lose when the kids could have done the same. Now they are a year behind. Flores and his team are the only people keeping the Cardinals relevant.
a depth piece who can play any position with 3 options left? Helman has a lot of flights between Memphis and STL in his furutre