The Winds of Change are blowing high for the Minnesota Twins
The Twins have had a rough off season as they have lost Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. The Twins used their depth in the starting rotation to acquire outfielder Delmon Young and 2B Brendan Harris from the D-Rays as they traded Matt Garza to them along with shortstop Jason Bartlett. Young will start in left field and he should off-set Hunter’s lose offensively for the Twins. But, the Twins will miss Hunter’s defense in center field big-time as newcomer Carlos Gomez has the inside track to the starting job there. Gomez was part of the haul for Johan Santana which wasn’t that impressive. Craig Monroe could also battle for the starting job in center field if the Twins need more power in the lineup. The Twins will have three new starters on the infield. Brendan Harris will start at 2B and Adam Everett was signed on to start at shortstop. They should make a fine combo on defense for the Twins. Mike Lamb will likely get to start at 3B because of his bat, but he is probably the worst defensive third baseman in all of baseball so we’ll see how long the Twins put up with that. Livan Hernandez will probably be the #1 or #2 starter for the Twins this season as he’s an innings eater who will take one for the team if needed. Philip Humber was acquired in the trade for Johan Santana and he will battle for the #5 spot in the Twins rotation in spring training.
FRONT OFFICE GRADE FOR THE OFF SEASON: C-
[…] Winds of Change are blowing high for the Minnesota Twins Dan Scotto wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe Twins have had a rough off season […]
I think that Gomez will prove to be a better defender (even this year) than Hunter would be. Hunter’s defense has gone drastically down hill and I think that his gold gloves the last 2 years have been more out of respect then him actually deserving them.
We’ll see about that one Josh. I don’t think the Los Angeles Angels agree with you on that subject. Remember, Gomez won’t be handed the center field job this season…he will have to earn it in spring training as some of the Twins Front Office believe that he will need a full season at AAA before he is ready.