wadE shared sinker\’s latest posting with us, soliciting some hot stove opinions on this (as he aptly put it) freakin\’ cold day. howard\’s question, in a nutshell, is this: if you take as a given that the twins will move an OF this offseason to secure help for the bullpen or the left side of the infield, should carlos gomez be the one to go?
i must admit that i hadn\’t even considered the thought. gomez and denard span have always been considered the outfielders to stay; the debate has been whether to trade fragile and (potentially) overpaid michael cuddyer, or mercurial and (potential) bust delmon young. gomez? the only visible asset from the johan santana trade? would twins management even consider such a move?
the answer is \”no.\” however, that doesn\’t mean that it\’s the right answer.
the crux of an argument to trade gomez centers on:
- his assumed duplicate skillset to span\’s
- the fact that his agent is scott boras, meaning the twins will by definition have a hard time re-signing gogo post arbitration
my opinion: i\’m not opposed to trading gomez, but this offseason is not the right time. first, gomez is still a bit of an unknown. he showed a lot of rawness last year, but also a great deal of potential. he may be the next torii hunter; he may be the next alex cole. additional time at the major league level will help determine where he will ultimately land. (granted, potential trade partners will also see his progress.) it\’s too soon to know he won\’t be great. second, it\’s too soon to tell if span will be great. although he trailed off at the end of the season, span\’s teriffic 2008 was not consistent with the numbers he put up in the minor leagues. the twins should be prudent and take additional time to see if span\’s 2008 was the exception or the rule. finally, boras\’s presence should not drive the twins\’ actions, at least not at this point. if i\’m doing the math correctly, gomez won\’t be eligible for free agency until after the 2011 season– that\’s a lot of time before boras starts whispering in his ear about the millions he could make for the angels or yankees.
i may be in the minority with this opinion, but i don\’t think the twins should trade any of their outfielders this offseason.* start the season with DY in left, denard in center, and cuddy in right, with gogo relieving the starters as needed as well as serving as a bullet off the bench as a pinch runner. under this scenario, two things could happen. the more likely is that one of the team\’s starting outfielders will get injured during the course of the season, and we\’ll have a great backup ready to take his place. the less likely thing to happen is that we\’ve got a great asset on the bench that could serve as trade fodder in august if we\’re in the midst of a pennant chase. to me, trading gogo (or any of our other outfielders) is a no-go.
* this does not mean that i think the twins shouldn\’t make any deals this summer. if we could somehow swing a blackburn-for-kouzmanoff deal, or perkins-and-a-prospect-for-hardy trade, we\’d be a better team.
Leave a Reply