Twins win in trade with Rays

[Outdoors Junkie]

Young tilts deal in Twins' favor

posted: Wednesday, November 28, 2007  |  Feedback  |  Print Entry

It's not exactly a blockbuster. Not unless you're a Twins fan or a Rays fan. But when six players are involved -- three or four of them with legitimate shots at long major league careers -- it's big news, even if both teams finished this year with losing records.

The first thing everybody wants to know is, who won? After studying the deal for a few minutes, it's obvious that ... actually, I don't have any idea who "won," and I won't for quite a while.

Unless ...

Unless one of the two marquee players in this deal suddenly becomes a star. The most likely candidate is Delmon Young, who just became the youngest player in history to play 162 games in his rookie season. Young is now a Minnesota Twin. The second most likely is Matt Garza, who established himself as a premier prospect while zipping through the minor leagues in little more than one calendar year. Garza is now a Tampa Bay Ray.

Both players come with question marks. In his 162 games this year, Young drew 26 walks, and was unimpressive on the bases and in the outfield. Garza has pitched just adequately in his 133 innings as a major leaguer, and then there's the standard caveat that applies whenever we're talking about a young pitcher.

It's true, however, that Young obviously has the better chance to become a star, or even a superstar. On that basis alone, this looks like a lopsided deal. But of course there's more to the deal than just those two players. The transaction includes a mini-challenge trade, with the clubs swapping shortstops: Jason Bartlett to the Rays, Brendan Harris to the Twins. With just a glance at their 2007 stats, you might say that swap is in the Twins' favor, too. It's not. Bartlett is nearly Harris' equal as a hitter and he's significantly better as a fielder. What's more, in the long run Harris might not be good enough with the glove to play shortstop or good enough with the bat to play third base. This one tilts to the Rays, though not by a lot.

And finally, the teams also swapped minor leaguers: pitcher Eduardo Morlan to the Rays, outfielder Jason Pridie to the Twins. Pridie opened last season as a non-prospect, but got off to a good start in Double-A and dominated in a half-season of Triple-A. He turned 24 last month, and the improvement might be for real. Morlan, a 21-year-old reliever, spent most of last season in high Class A and struck out 99 batters in 70 innings.

In the short term, all four of the major leaguers immediately become key players for their new teams, and both of the minor leaguers are long shots to become more than bit players in the majors. So who wins? The Twins, if only because if there's a player in this deal who's playing in the 2010 All-Star Game, it's Delmon Young.