- Jose De Leon has been rumored to be a central piece of a potential Dodgers trade package for Brian Dozier, and while the Twins are justified in asking for more beyond just the young righty, Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron writes that Minnesota shouldn’t get cavalier about passing on a very talented young arm. Interestingly, Cameron suggests that if the Twins are concerned about De Leon’s long-term potential, they could still make the trade, give De Leon an extended audition in the big leagues in 2017 and then look to deal him next winter. In theory, De Leon would have even more trade value at this point as a controllable young pitcher with some MLB experience.
Twins Rumors
Latest On Dodgers’ Pursuit Of Brian Dozier
Talks between the Dodgers and Twins regarding second baseman Brian Dozier do not appear to be progressing, according to a report from Jon Heyman of Fan Rag. While the sides have (as previously suggested) agreed upon righty Jose De Leon as the centerpiece of a possible swap, they seem to be “at a standstill … if not an impasse” regarding the remaining pieces, per the report.
Ultimately, the fit still looks like a good one — at least on paper — as neither side has an obvious alternative of equal or greater appeal. While Minnesota is said to be perfectly happy to hold onto Dozier for the time being, it surely would like to boost its rebuild without taking on further risk if possible. And no other rival organization matches the Dodgers’ evident need for Dozier and ability to part with young talent.
Heyman does add that the Giants have expressed at least some interest in Dozier. But San Francisco surely doesn’t represent as clean a fit, and arguably doesn’t have a tradeable asset of De Leon’s caliber. Whether the Giants or another team will ultimately emerge with more strident interest remains to be seen, but for the time being it appears more a question of whether the Dodgers will dangle enough to force the Twins’ hand.
From L.A.’s perspective, the club’s other reported targets — Ian Kinsler and Logan Forsythe — each seem more complicated than a deal for Dozier. Kinsler’s no-trade clause and extension demands present a huge barrier, while the Rays have little apparent reason to part with Forsythe (and, if they do, might target different pieces than would the Twins).
With both sides waiting for the other to blink, says Heyman, their respective positions are fairly well-defined. The Twins would settle for a package that does not include highly valued first base prospect Cody Bellinger, but instead focuses on other young arms. But the Dodgers at this point hold “an entirely different list” of pieces they’d add to the De Leon-led deal.
Interestingly, the Twins now have a new avenue of insight into the Dodgers’ farm that might conceivably have an impact on how things turn out. As Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press notes on Twitter, just-signed coach Jeff Pickler comes straight from a stint with the Dodgers’ front office, where he functioned as a special assistant for pro scouting and player development.
Twins To Sign Matt Hague, Re-Sign Reynaldo Rodriguez To Minor League Deals
- The Twins have signed corner infielder Matt Hague to a minor league deal, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets. They also re-signed 1B/OF Reynaldo Rodriguez to a minor league deal. The 31-year-old Hague had a strong season with Triple-A Buffalo in the Blue Jays system in 2015, batting .338/.416/.468, and he’s generally hit well at the Triple-A level. In 2016, though, he struggled with Hanshin in Japan, batting .231/.339/.346 in 124 plate appearances. He’s collected a total of 91 career big-league plate appearances with the Jays and Pirates. The 29-year-old Rodriguez batted .220/.304/.329 for Triple-A Rochester in 2016, also serving an 80-game PED suspension. He has over 1,500 career plate appearances at Double-A and has established himself as a good hitter at that level, but his bat has never fully made the leap to Triple-A, and he’s never played in the Majors.
Twins Hire Jeff Pickler As Coach
- The Twins have agreed to bring Jeff Pickler aboard to join their big-league coaching staff next year, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger writes. Pickler previously served as a special assistant for pro scouting and player development with the analytically inclined Dodgers, and he’s expected to serve as a liaison between the team’s front office and its coaching staff. Pickler played eight years as an infielder in the Brewers system and has also worked in scouting with the Padres and Diamondbacks.
Jason Castro's Pitch-Framing Skills Led To Twins Deal
- Catcher Jason Castro’s pitch-framing prowess played a significant role in the Twins’ decision to sign the ex-Astro to a three-year, $24.5MM contract last month, writes Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Both StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus have ranked Castro among the game’s premier framers over the past three seasons. If that keeps up, it should help a pitching staff that previously worked with a subpar framer, Kurt Suzuki, and tied for the majors’ worst ERA last season (5.09). “The whole idea of signing Jason Castro, a lot of it was measured on the impact of catching on a staff,” manager Paul Molitor told Bollinger. “As we’ve learned more about how to quantify that, it’s probably been a little bit of an undervalued position for guys that handle some of those types of things better than others. We thought that was a big piece in trying to at least start off a way of trying to figure out a way to pitch better.” On the subject of framing, Castro commented, “It’s something over the last couple years I’ve tried to refine as much as possible. I don’t know if ’enlightenment’ is the right word, but there was a focus on this new topic of pitch framing. I tried to get a better understanding of what works, what doesn’t.”
Potential Brian Dozier Trade Not Imminent
- The Dodgers are reportedly willing to trade a Jose De Leon-led package for Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, but no deal is imminent, a Minnesota official told Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). While at least a few teams have checked in on Dozier this offseason in the wake of a 42-home run campaign, the Dodgers are seemingly the most interested. Any offer would have to be “very strong” for the Twins to move the 29-year-old, notes Wolfson. Given Dozier’s outstanding track record and appealing contract (two years, $15MM), that’s not exactly a surprise.
Twins Sign J.B. Shuck To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed outfielder J.B. Shuck to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite, MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets. SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo first noted that the two sides were in talks.
The 29-year-old Shuck collected 241 plate appearances with the White Sox in 2016 but batted a mere .205/.248/.299. He also graded out poorly on defense and finished the season with -1.7 fWAR, finishing ahead of only three other position players throughout the big leagues.
Shuck does, however, carry a lifetime .300/.375/.386 line in parts of six seasons at Triple-A, and he has logged time at all three outfield positions. He could provide good depth for an organization that currently features a mix of young outfielders that includes Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton, and Max Kepler along with Danny Santana and Robbie Grossman.
Twins Notes: Carew, Bullpen, Perkins, Hughes, Santana
Hall Of Famer Rod Carew recently had successful heart and kidney transplant surgery, the Twins have announced. Carew is expected to fully recover. “After a 13-hour procedure that started shortly after midnight Pacific time, Rod is resting in recovery,” the Twins wrote in a statement. “We ask that all of Twins Territory and the entire baseball community keep Rod, his wife Rhonda, and the entire Carew family in your thoughts and prayers as Rod recovers.” We at MLBTR wish Carew and his family the best. Here’s the latest from the Twins organization.
- The Twins are looking for experienced bullpen help, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune writes. The 2016 Twins didn’t have an especially young bullpen, but they did lean hard on less experienced players, including Taylor Rogers, J.T. Chargois, Michael Tonkin and Buddy Boshers. “It seemed as if the Twins had tremendous arms in the bullpen, but not a lot of experience. A lot of young guys coming out of the bullpen into extremely stressful situations,” said new GM Thad Levine at a fan event Wednesday. “We’ve got a lot of plus arms out there, but if you have veterans for the eighth inning, ninth inning, they can shoulder the load and take the stress off the kids.” The team hopes to improve its veteran leadership in the rotation as well, although they might get some veteran pitching help from players they already have — new chief baseball officer Derek Falvey said on Wednesday that the team was hoping for more help in 2017 from closer Glen Perkins and starter Phil Hughes, each of whom missed much of 2016 to injury. Perkins had surgery to repair a torn labrum in June, and Hughes had surgery in July for thoracic outlet syndrome; Miller says Hughes is the further along of the two.
- The Twins also have a good veteran starter in Ervin Santana, although if he winds up in the headlines this winter, it might be because he’s headed elsewhere. The Twins have received calls about Santana, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweets, noting that the Twins (who won just 59 games last season) don’t deem anyone untouchable. That doesn’t mean Santana (who’s controllable at reasonable salaries through 2019, including a team option in the final year) is a great bet to be traded — just last month, the Twins’ new front office understandably characterized Santana as the sort of player they would like to add to, not to deal. Speculatively, though, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine the Twins dealing Santana for younger talent and then adding one or two cheap veterans to replace him in the rotation. Santana would be a particularly attractive trade piece this winter due to the poor free agent market for starting pitching, and it would be easy to imagine a team like the Astros, who have lately been connected to various starting pitching trade candidates, having interest. Given Santana’s years of control remaining, though, keeping him would also be a reasonable route. Santana’s 2016 performance was one of the Twins’ best — he posted a 3.38 ERA, 7.4 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 181 1/3 innings.
Dodgers Have “Shown Willingness” To Include Jose De Leon In Brian Dozier Trade
There have been plenty of rumors connecting the Dodgers to Twins second baseman Brian Dozier over the past several weeks, and Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reports today that the Dodgers have now shown a willingness to include top pitching prospect Jose De Leon in a theoretical Dozier swap (Twitter links). Aaron Gleeman of Baseball Prospectus tweeted yesterday that discussions between the two sides are seemingly focused on what would come to Minnesota alongside De Leon. FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweeted today that multiple teams are inquiring with the Twins on Dozier. Heyman further tweets that the Twins like first base/outfield prospect Cody Bellinger as well, though it’s tougher to see the Dodgers parting with him.
De Leon, 24, would make for a high-profile headliner in a Dozier trade. The right-hander currently ranks second among Dodgers farmhands and 33rd league-wide, per MLB.com’s rankings. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen rates him fourth in the Dodgers’ system, though that’s not so much a knock on De Leon as it is a vote of confidence in other L.A. prospects. De Leon entered the 2016 season ranked as a consensus top 30 prospect in the Majors and did little to dispel the notion that he merited such praise. An ankle injury and some shoulder inflammation limited De Leon’s time on the field, but when healthy he totaled 86 1/3 innings (16 starts) in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and registered a pristine 2.61 ERA with 11.6 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9. He made his big league debut with the Dodgers as well, albeit with considerably less success; De Leon’s first four MLB starts resulted in a 6.35 ERA and a 15-to-7 K/BB ratio in a total of 17 innings. MLB.com praises him as a potential No. 2 starter, while Longenhagen feels he’s more of a mid-rotation arm with the potential for plus fastball command and a plus changeup.
In Dozier, the Dodgers would be acquiring a much-needed right-handed bat that can feast on left-handed pitching. Los Angeles was baseball’s worst team against lefties in 2016, but Dozier mashed southpaws at a .282/.352/.613 clip. Dozier’s 42 home runs last year thrust him into the national spotlight, but he’s quietly been an excellent player for the Twins in each of the past four seasons. He doesn’t hit for a high average, but Dozier draws enough walks to post solid OBP marks and has batted a collective .248/.326/.456 since 2013. His power output has increased in each of his Major League seasons, and he rates as a solid defensive second baseman that also contributes value through baserunning. Dozier has averaged 28 homers and 16 steals per season over the past four years and is controlled through the 2018 campaign at an affordable total of $15MM, giving him plenty of value from a financial standpoint as well.
New Twins execs Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have seemingly been open to listening on virtually any player in trade talks, but they’ve also indicated that they’re in no rush to move Dozier and would feel plenty comfortable heading into the 2017 season with him entrenched at second base. Given Dozier’s contract status, Minnesota could certainly extract considerable value for his services this summer or even next winter as well.
Falvey, Levine Sit Discuss Twins' Front Office
- Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine sat down with Fangraphs’ David Laurila at last week’s Winter Meetings to discuss a number of topics, including player acquisition, building out the analytics/baseball operations staff, the coaching staff and lineup construction (though the latter of that group will firmly remain manager Paul Molitor’s duty, the two stressed). While the new duo will bring a more modern and statistical approach to the Minnesota front office, Levine emphasized to Laurila that roster decisions aren’t going to be purely “formulaic,” and both execs spoke about the importance of looking beyond statistical evidence when making decisions. Falvey and Levine also spoke highly of the work that Twins director of baseball research Jack Goin has done in the analytics department prior to their arrival and said they plan on adding to that impressive base. “When you work for another team, you really don’t know what’s under the hood of another team when it comes to systems,” said Falvey. “It felt like there’s a good framework in place, in a system where we could access information. … Right now it’s a good framework to build off of.”
