The Minnesota Twins traded catching prospect Wilson Ramos and minor league pitcher Joe Testa for All Star closer Matt Capps from the Washington Nationals.
I’ll be honest, I’m a little torn with my opinion on this one.
On one had it seems that it’s a good trade for the next couple of months. Jon Rauch has been doing a decent job as a closer, but most people agree that Matt Capps is a step up from Rauch. That will give the Twins the freedom to move Rauch to a setup role, which might be helpful since Matt Guerrier has had some less-than-stellar outings lately. It also gives the Twins an extra bullpen option since they recently had to move Brian Duensing into a starting role, and no one is sure how stable Nick Blackburn will be when it comes to relief pitching.
On the other hand, what about next year? The Twins will have control of Capps’ contract through 2011, but assuming Joe Nathan comes back healthy and effective next season, the Twins will find themselves with two All Star closers. I suppose it would work to put one of them into a setup role, but are either of them going to be happy in that position? Would the Twins end up trading one of them? If so, that puts them in a rough spot… do they keep Joe Nathan, who has been valuable for years to the Twins, a regular in the All Star game, is closing in on the Twins all time saves record, and probably at this point plans to close out his career in Minnesota? Or do they keep Capps, who is also an All Star, and is quite a bit younger than Nathan, but will become a free agent after 2011 (which means if he’s good, the Twins will have to worry about the bigger market teams swooping in)?
Wilson Ramos might not have as much value to the Twins as he could since they just locked up Joe Mauer for the next 8 years, but if he’s really as promising as many people around the web seem to think he is, was it really worth trading him for a pitcher (that will fill a role that was already filled fairly well) for a couple months of baseball? It just seems that they could’ve went after someone to fill a bigger need.. like making more of a push for Lee or Oswalt when they were available.
I really don’t know which way I lean.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.
Other Posts You Might Like:
