The mud remains to be settling within the aftermath of the Twins’ large four-player commerce with the Marlins this previous week, as Luis Arraez was despatched to Miami in change for right-hander Pablo Lopez and prospects Jose Salas and Byron Chourio. The transfer shook up Minnesota’s lineup and added one more exterior arm to the Twins’ rotation.
As famous by Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, all 5 members of the projected beginning 5 (Lopez, Tyler Mahle, Sonny Grey, Joe Ryan, and Kenta Maeda) have been all acquired in trades over the past three years. Chris Paddack is at the moment recovering from Tommy John surgical procedure however was additionally acquired in a commerce with the Padres previous to final season, whereas Simeon Woods Richardson is one other arm on the depth arm that got here to the Twins as a part of the deal that despatched Jose Berrios to the Blue Jays on the 2021 commerce deadline.
Whereas it’s considerably uncommon for a group to constructed its rotation fully through the commerce market, Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey was blunt in telling reporters (together with Miller and Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press) that, “I don’t care the place [the starters] come from. We’d like actually good starters and we want actually good pitchers. A few of these are going to be free-agent signings, a few of these are going to be trades, and a few of these may also hopefully be from growth. However the purpose right here is to proceed to deepen the beginning rotation and pitching workers nevertheless we will do it.”
Bailey Ober is a homegrown product, chosen by the Twins within the twelfth spherical of the 2017 draft. The correct-hander has pitched properly in 148 1/3 innings and 31 begins over the past two seasons, although Lopez’s addition seemingly pushes Ober out of the rotation combine for now. In fact, rotations hardly ever keep wholesome for a whole season, leaving alternative for Ober or different pitchers like Woods Richardson, Josh Winder, Louie Varland, and so forth. to make some begins if one of many high 5 wants to go to the injured listing.
There’s additionally an opportunity that the beginning 5 turns into a beginning six, as adopting a six-man rotation is “one thing we speak about quite a bit,” Falvey admitted. Minnesota’s depth offers the group the flexibleness to shift to a six-man rotation if crucial, and “I’ll let you know that our hope proper now could be that we are going to go along with 5 starters, and we really feel like we now have 5 good ones…however in the end [we] have some depth behind it to guarantee that we’re in a great place.” If everybody stays wholesome and the Twins do find yourself with a surplus of beginning candidates, Falvey described that potential situation as “an amazing downside to have.”
The Lopez commerce closes the guide on Arraez’s tenure with the Twins, because the infielder went from being a reasonably unknown prospect to being an All-Star, Silver Slugger winner, and AL batting champion in 2022. Arraez was already a powerful performer within the three years previous to his large 2022 marketing campaign, however his efficiency did dip a bit in an injury-shortened 2021 season. Within the wake of that relative down yr, Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes that the Twins had some talks with Arraez a couple of long-term extension, however Arraez turned the membership down.
As a Tremendous Two participant, Arraez is eligible for 4 journeys via the arbitration course of, and he and the Twins averted a listening to in Arraez’s first yr of arb-eligibility by agreeing to a $2.125MM wage for the 2022 season. Whereas the phrases of Minnesota’s extension provide aren’t recognized, it’s honest to guess that the Twins have been searching for a deal that may’ve lined all 4 of these arbitration years, in addition to at the least one in every of Arraez’s free agent years. Signing such a contract would’ve locked in a pleasant assure for Arraez, and the primary main payday of a profession that started with a modest $40K bonus as a world signing.
However, Arraez opted to as a substitute guess on himself to rebound from his 2021 season, and that self-confidence paid off properly. Previous to the commerce, Arraez and the Twins have been headed to an arbitration listening to after not having the ability to attain a wage settlement earlier than the arbitration figure-exchange deadline — Arraez is searching for a $6.1MM wage, whereas the Twins countered with $5MM. It appears potential that the Marlins may nonetheless go to a listening to with Arraez as a result of normal entrance workplace precept, even when an arbitration listening to can be one thing of a clumsy begin to the connection between the infielder and his new group.
