Will the twins be able to beat the recent trend of the World Series winners’ journey towards a championship? Not since 2009 the Yankees have a team that has won it all without the help of a significant addition to the trade deadline. The twins, who are improving their health with the return of three key players, will be looking to accomplish that feat this October.
Image courtesy of © Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
With Byron Buxton and Michael Pineda back in action – and now that Josh Donaldson is the proud owner of two healthy, back to the fold calves – the twins must feel like they’ve picked up some nice end-of-season additions for the low price. , low of some mid-summer discomfort. Patience, not potential customers, proved to be the reasonable price to add a couple of stars to their clubhouse when the MLB Trade expires.
Hey, Royce Lewis is definitely better off.
And while Gemini’s claims that health should help put this ship’s bow back in the right direction, I couldn’t help but compare them to teams in recent years with similar aspirations. How many recent World Series winners – Minnesota’s stated and obvious goal – have won it all without making a significant addition during the season by way of an exchange?
It depends on the definition of “significant addition” and also on the definition of “recent”, but the truth is that no team has done that trick in the last decade. We will have to return to the 2009 Super Yankees team that won the World Series without a major addition to the commercial deadline. (In fairness, they bought Chad Gaudin from the Padres that summer, and he was useful in the regular season, with an ERA of 3.43 in 42 innings for the Yankees, split between start and relief; that wasn’t a big factor in. October.)
So, this is the stage that the twins have set. If they manage to reach and win the World Series, they will counter the recent trend, with only a minor trade (Ildemaro Vargas) and the subsequent release.
2019, citizens
Mistaken for Daniel Hudson, Roenis Elias and Hunter Strickland. The most noteworthy addition, Hudson, didn’t have a great World Series overall, but it closed Race 7 and how many people on this planet can tell?
They also hired Asdrubal Cabrera as a free agent on August 6. He had six wins as a second baseman in the World Series, pushing Brian Dozier to the bench.
(The Losers of the Houston Astros World Series went there by adding Zack Greinke to the trade deadline.)
2018, Red Sox
Swapped for Steve Pearce, who was great (you will remember the June swap that produced a future World Series MVP); Nathan Eovaldi (who pitched so well in three games that he was paid a large sum of money); and Ian Kinsler.
That year the Dodgers swapped for Brian Dozier and only slightly more notable, Manny Machado, who notoriously didn’t get busy.
2017, Astros *
Their pre-expiration acquisitions included left-handed rescuer Francisco Liriano and Codebreaker. The August trades brought in Tyler Clippard and, oh yeah, Justin Verlander.
The Dodgers, who technically lost the World Series, succumbed to Yu Darvish (two World Series starts, which now only serve to make us sad – he was shaken to nine runs in just 3 innings combined and 1/3 to possibly cheating. Astros). LA also traded for Tony Cingrani (three WS games) and Tony Watson (two WS games), plus an August trade for Curtis Granderson.
2016, Puppies
Chicago, you will recall, mistook Gleyber Torres for Aroldis Chapman. They also added Mike Montgomery (five World Series games) and Joe Smith, who pitched well to help get them there but then didn’t pitch into the postseason.
Derek Falvey’s Indians traded for Andrew Miller and made an August trade for Coco Crisp.
2015, Royals
Mistaken for Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist.
The Mets traded Tyler Clippard (A’s), Yoenis Céspedes (Tigers), and a waiver trade for Addison Reed who appeared in five World Series games before pitching with the Twins, among others.
2014, Giants
Mistaken for Jake Peavy, who pitched well along the stretch (2.17 ERA in 12 starts with SF) but then turned on in his two World Series starts (four runs in five innings on his first start, Game 2; and chased in the second inning of a possible 10-0 defeat in Game 6).
2013, Red Sox
Added Jake Peavy in a three-team trade (with the Tigers and White Sox). You may not remember the ’13 Red Sox as Jake Peavy’s Red Sox, but for them the third game of the World Series began.
2012, Giants
The giants swept the tigers and Sergio Romo saved three of the four games. San Francisco traded for Marco Scutaro and Hunter Pence, and the pair combined for eight hits and six runs between them in the Fall Classic.
2011, cardinals
The cards landed an eight-player deal – which famously included ex-twin PJ Walters – which landed Octavio Dotel, Edwin Jackson, Corey Patterson, and Marc Rzepcynski. Dotel and Rzepcynski appeared in nine games between the two of them, and Jackson started Game 4.
2010, Giants
This is the first where you would argue with the term “significant trade” acquisition. Mid-current they took Chris Ray, Javier Lopez, Ramon Ramirez and, in August, Mike Fontenot and Jose Guillen. And they picked up future NLCS MVP Cody Ross by way of derogation at the end of August.
Of the pitchers, Lopez and Ramirez combined for 1 2/3 innings in the World Series, and the others did not appear. However – and I know this technically doesn’t matter here because of when it was added – Ross has been on base eight times and scored five World Series runs for the Giants. He played all three field spots along the stretch and hit .288 / .354 / .466 after joining San Francisco from the Florida Marlins.
If you liked this piece and want to read more from Derek Wetmore …
– Subscribe to the 5 thoughts newsletter
– Or listen to the 5 Thoughts podcast
MORE FROM TWINS PER DAY
– Coverage on the latest twins from our writers
– Recent twins discussions in our forums
– Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email
.
