He was in the midst of a strong season with Triple-A Durham, pitching to a 3.63 ERA with a 34.9% strikeout rate against a 4.7% walk rate. The other half of the Twins’ return is another story entirely.Īt the time of the trade, Ryan had only just begun to sneak onto the back-end of top-100 prospect rankings around the industry. Strotman was an upper-level pitching prospect who had a chance to debut in the Majors in relatively short order, but his half of the trade (quite clearly) hasn’t panned out. He currently has a 6.54 ERA in Triple-A Sacramento. He’s since bounced to the Rangers and Giants via waivers, the latter of whom was able to pass him through waivers unclaimed. He was hit hard in Minnesota’s Triple-A rotation following the trade and moved to the bullpen the following year, which did little to quell his long-running command issues. The now-26-year-old Strotman’s time with the Twins lasted barely a year. Cruz hit free agency following the season and went on to sign a one-year deal with the Nationals. One of those hits was a solo home run, but Cruz’s well below-average OBP and dramatic rise in strikeouts (from 18.2% in Minnesota to 26.5% in Tampa Bay) fell shy of expectations. 226/.283/.442 slash, plus a 3-for-17 showing in an ALDS loss to the Red Sox. Cruz kept hitting for power (13 homers, 238 plate appearances), but his strikeout rate spiked as his walk rate plummeted. 294/.370/.537 with 19 homers in 346 plate appearances at the time of the trade, and Tampa Bay hoped they were acquiring a heart-of-the-order slugger who could deepen their lineup and provide some needed thump in the postseason. Regardless of how things play out with Faucher, there’s no getting around the fact that the trade didn’t work out as the Rays hoped. The Twins also sent minor league righty Calvin Faucher to the Rays as part of the deal - he’s since made his debut but hasn’t pitched particularly well - so it can be argued that this wasn’t a pure rental, but the heart of the trade was a half season of Cruz for the aforementioned prospects. That distinction goes to the first trade they made, jumping the market to send designated hitter Nelson Cruz to the Rays in a trade that brought back a pair of pitching prospects: the since-DFA’ed Drew Strotman and a near-MLB-ready right-hander by the name of Joe Ryan. That trade was one of the headline moves of the entire 2021 trade deadline, but it wasn’t the defining move of the summer for the Twins. After years of failed extension efforts, he was traded to the Blue Jays in exchange for prospects Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson. Jose Berrios was the only pitcher who even reached 110 innings on an injury-ravaged Twins staff.īerrios was also one of several veterans the Twins wound up trading once they waved the white flag on their 2021 season. Kenta Maeda followed up his Cy Young runner-up season with an injury-shortened year that ended with him undergoing Tommy John surgery. Top prospect Alex Kirilloff, expected to be a key contributor, was limited to 59 games thanks to a torn ligament in his wrist. Happ, Alex Colome and Matt Shoemaker all flopped. Offseason signings of Andrelton Simmons, J.A. Fresh off a division title in the shortened 2020 season, they entered the year as the team to beat in the American League Central but faceplanted with a 9-15 showing in the season’s first month and never recovered. The 2021 season was a disaster for the Twins. If you disagree with our rankings, let us know! It’s all part of the subjective fun! Now for the top spot in our series… We’ve already published some honorable mentions as well as entries No. With an arbitrary cutoff point of 2017-21, we’re counting down the top 10 returns that a team got when selling a rental player. With the trade deadline now less than two months away, we at MLBTR are setting our sights backwards for a bit to highlight past trades of rental players to provide a loose guideline of what sort of returns fans can expect with their teams’ current rental players.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |