Minnesota Sports Forum

The Twins aren't paying all his salary so that's good. They traded a pick for a catching prospect. I hope Jester has some info for us on this guy.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23624469/san-diego-padres-get-rhp-phil-hughes-minnesota-twins-young-catcher

This is a poor, confusing trade. Smells like a cheap move unless the FO plans to make a subsequent move that required an extr $6M or so.

Camden wrote:This is a poor, confusing trade. Smells like a cheap move unless the FO plans to make a subsequent move that required an extr $6M or so.

Agreed

Yeah, doesn't look like a very good deal at first glance. I have no problem with severing ties with Hughes...he has proven time and again over the past three years that he is no longer a big league pitcher. But I don't like that we also gave up the 74th pick in next month's draft...not good.

But ultimately this deal will be evaluated on what happens to Janigson Villalobos, the 21 year old catcher we got in the deal. He hasn't hit for average or power in his two minor league seasons, but he did have a combined .408 OBP and threw out 11 of 36 runners. The Twins need catchers in their system, and if Villalobos continues to develop, this could turn out to be a good trade.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

Camden wrote:This is a poor, confusing trade. Smells like a cheap move unless the FO plans to make a subsequent move that required an extr $6M or so.

Agreed

If we knew more about the catcher prospect they got back that would help but we probably know more about the pick they gave up. Still they are saving a reported 7.5 million bucks. That's not a small amount of money.

I heard a take on this on KFAN and think it is accurate. We basically traded our pick for $7M payable next year. Since the pick is worth typically 800k that is a pretty good deal for us. It would be nice to see us try and buy another pick back. (The thought is Hughes and the catcher we got have no value)

Losing record and a salary dump, what's next if we continue to lose? Trade Dozier? Trade Rodney & Reed? Need to turn this around before the front office starts moving players.

I would be surprised if the front office was considering moving players. Despite a poor start, we are only 2 1/2 games out of first, and Polanco and Santana will be back relatively soon. We will have 6 starting pitchers who give us a chance to win (now that Lynn looks to be back to normal), and not many teams can say that.

I get that the local media is labeling this a salary dump involving two irrelevant players, but it's way too early to write off a 21-year-old catcher who gets on base over 40% of the time and throws out 1/3 of baserunners.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I heard a take on this on KFAN and think it is accurate. We basically traded our pick for $7M payable next year. Since the pick is worth typically 800k that is a pretty good deal for us. It would be nice to see us try and buy another pick back. (The thought is Hughes and the catcher we got have no value)

I was reading a pretty in depth take about this idea on another board. Basically the idea was the likeliness that in x amount of years that pick brings you a player that is a Wins Above Replacement (WAR) value guy is pretty low and even if he does make it he is unlikely to be a player that is as good as a player or 2 you could get with that 7 million. To me if it's simply a pick for 7 million that I can see. That's a bunch of money. If it was 2-3 million that would not be good. Remember last year the Twins basically spent some money to get a prospect in at least one deal. In theory you can spend as much as you want on this team but 7 million is still 7 million.

longstrangetrip wrote:I would be surprised if the front office was considering moving players. Despite a poor start, we are only 2 1/2 games out of first, and Polanco and Santana will be back relatively soon. We will have 6 starting pitchers who give us a chance to win (now that Lynn looks to be back to normal), and not many teams can say that.

I get that the local media is labeling this a salary dump involving two irrelevant players, but it's way too early to write off a 21-year-old catcher who gets on base over 40% of the time and throws out 1/3 of baserunners.

One point someone made in another board or on comments after an article is that the catching depth of this draft is considered not the best. I have no idea. The draft is right around the corner. What if the Twins thought this guy was someone they would take say in even the 5th round this year or something? There isn't much known about this guy probably because he isn't a bigtime prospect and there probably isn't a ton of people that have scouting reports from him as an international FA. He is basically like a draft pick at this point it's just how much chance do you give him of being a worthwhile player? 5th round talent? 10th? 20th? Non-zero? Shrug. They clearly value him somewhat or they wouldn't have brought him back in a deal.