Aaron Hicks to Yankees for Catcher...

[pikestabber]

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/new-york-yankees-trade-minnesota-twins-aaron-hicks-john-ryan-murphy-hot-stove-111115

Not sure how I feel about that deal yet as Hick finally appeared to turn a corner last year... We do need catching depth, but now with Hunter and Hicks gone, we are looking at needing some OF depth, too. We are in good shape with Rosario, and if Buxton can jump into form we are looking better, but who else is in the mix? Arcia? Keppler? They also talked about a possible move for Sano to the OF...

Sounds like Plouffe to the Angels is possible if we complete a deal for Byung Ho Park. I am guessing Sano to the OF would only happen if we kept Plouffe though?

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/los-angeles-angels-minnesota-twins-trevor-plouffe-third-base-interest-report-111115

Some small rumblings of a Morneau reunion...might be an okay move for some left handed power off the bench. If we were to sign Ho Park as our everyday 1B, do we move Mauer to 3rd if Plouffe is traded? Maybe Joe just becomes a full time DH? Lots of moving pieces already, and it sounds like we might loosen the purse strings a bit this year. Now get some pitching depth PLEASE!

Edited November 11, 2015 by pikestabber

[nofishfisherman]

Could mean Sano gets a spot in the OF but he's untested in that role so thats a risky play. Could mean they are going to give one of the young guys the open OF job.  Either way its a risky play but they do have options.

I think the Morneau reunion is very unlikely.  He's going to get a job as a full time DH at the very least so not sure he'd come here just to be a left handed bat off the bench.  Mauer will stay at first and Byung Ho Park will probably get the DH job and spell Mauer at first.  

If they do trade Plouffe they need to get something good in return or I'd keep him.  

[O.T.C.]

IDK, should be an interesting off season for the twins. We like to dump fast centerfielders Span and Revere could've handled it at least it's a little easier to trust Terry Ryan vs. Billy not a goalie Smith. Might as well unload Hicks who's best years are likely just ahead. Wilson Ramos I like how now we're catcher searching, need a leadoff hitter etc. all pieces we had but oh well.

[nofishfisherman]

Wilson Ramos is actually a good player to think back about.  Most people hated that trade myself included as we were giving up what people thought was a young player with top tier talent.  Turns out we traded away a young player that turned into a slightly below average catcher.  He batted .229 this season (.250 for his career) and for only the 2nd time in his career he played in over 100 games.  In comparison Suzuki batted .240 and has played 100+ games in 7 out of 9 seasons.   If you look at the stats Ramos and Suzuki have very similar career stats. Turns out we didn't really need Ramos. 

Who knows what HIcks will turn into, we've seen both sides of him.  It has yet to be seen which version of him is the real Hicks.

[O.T.C.]

You still ok with the we really don't need Ramos ? I looked at it more so from how old a catchers legs get and keeping a younger Ramos vs. a journeyman catcher past or close to past his prime is shaky at best. We have the worst catching corp now in MLB. Watching Arcia and Sano out there reminds me of kubel and delmon young. Regardless the twins are a mess of all messes.

[O.T.C.]

If they have similar stats then we do have the wrong catcher, we should have kept Ramos, nearly 5 years younger and if stats are truly similar, Kurt Suzuki has had 2,153 more at bats then Ramos so another twins blunder.

[nofishfisherman]

I'm still ok with trading Ramos.

You can't look at just 2 months out of the last 6+ years and use that small sample to determine the success or failure of a trade. Sure Ramos is having a nice start to his season but I don't see him sustaining his current .330 average since its 80 pts higher than his career average was at the start of the season.   If you wanted to look at just small portions of the last 6 years you could compare Suzuki's .288 season in 2014 with Ramos's .267 during that same year.  We also got an extra 43 games out of Suzuki that year.  However, 2 months or even 1 year don't really mean anything compared to the 6-7 seasons you can look at.

in those 6-7 seasons Ramos and the Twins catchers have all been average at best with no significant difference between them. Ramos has had complete seasons where he's hitting .220.  Ramos is also missed A LOT of time over his career.  He only averages 69 games a year which means on average he misses almost 100 games a season over his career.  

Given all of that I could hardly say it was a blunder to trade Ramos.  The only thing that might be a blunder is that perhaps they could have duped a team into giving up more than Matt Capps for him at the time since Ramos was a pretty well thought of prospect at the time. 

The jury is still out on the Hicks trade.  The guy we got for him has done absolutely nothing but Hicks is also only hitting .209 in NY so its not like he's lighting the world on fire.  At this point I'd call the trade a non factor for both teams although Hicks has at least provided a little defense. 

[blue_healer_guy]

Nofish, when you were listing the games played and stats I had to double check who you were talking about.  I swear those were mauer numbers.