Could the Brewers or Twins have traded for Lindor?
We also investigate important matters like MLB on Nickelodeon and a motionless offseason.
Happy Tuesday, fellow Rich People.
We normally like to reserve this intro section for a brief recap of the action in the world of the Brewers and/or Twins in this section. We’re all about transparency at RPC, so I’m just going to be frank with you. We’re running on like six weeks straight of me finding different ways to say “absolutely nothing happened” and, by this juncture of our timeline, I am devoid of any other method of getting this same message across.
I’m sorry. I didn’t want it to come to this. It’s not you. It’s not me, either. It’s the baseball teams.
Let’s converse.
What would it have taken to get Lindor?
~Jake
Not sure if you heard, but the AL Central’s best player no longer plays in the AL Central.
Longtime Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor and even longer time starter Carlos Carrasco are now officially New York Mets as the Cleveland Baseball Team continues to shed good players the way I shed pants after a Zoom call.
In return, Cleveland net middle infielders Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez, as well as extra young prospects Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene.
It’s not exactly the greatest return in the world for one of the game’s biggest stars and a middle-of-the-rotation arm. It’s not that the players New York sent over are bad; Rosario and Gimenez are young, cost-controlled shortstops who are probably going to stick in the league for a number of years, and Wolf and Greene are guys you can hope on. No, it’s not that the players Cleveland got are bad, it’s just that every team has them. Look around the league and a good chunk of the teams could have put together a similar package and ought to have done so without much extra thought.
Given the nature of this newsletter, let’s look at what the Twins and Brewers could have done. Could either team put together a similar package and, more importantly, would they take the risk with Lindor’s one year remaining on his contract?
Let’s start with the Twins. They have a pair of young cost-controlled middle infielders in Jorge Polanco and Luis Arraez. Trading both of them would have been devastating, but one of them? Sure, absolutely. Let’s say they dropped in Arraez, who wasn’t the same level of prospect that Rosario was but has outperformed the former Met so far in the bigs.
The Twins wouldn’t move Royce Lewis, the game’s No. 7 prospect, according to FanGraphs, but perhaps outfielder Trevor Larnach instead? Cleveland has a huge outfield need and Larnach could slot right in. Or, if the Twins were lucky, they could throw in Gilberto Celestino instead.
So far we have Arraez in the Rosario spot of the trade and Larnach or Celestino in the Gimenez spot. We’re already doing better than the Mets and it still feels reasonable.
To replace Wolf, a 20-year-old pitcher drafted in 2019, the Twins could inset Matt Canterino, a fellow 2019 draftee. He’s a couple of years older as a former college arm but is off to a killer start in his first seven professional games.
Finally, we get to the Isaiah Greene part of the trade. Greene is a raw 19-year-old outfielder/DH with some speed and a busy swing. That hasn’t been the Twins way in the draft in recent years, as they’ve piled up college bats in recent years, but they could throw in Brent Rooker, a MLB-ready first baseman or Alerick Soularie, an outfielder drafted in 2020 out of Tennessee.
So, rather than Amed Rosario, Andres Gimenez, Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene, Minnesota could have sent Arraez, Larnach/Celestino, Canterino and Rooker/Soularie. The deals are quite similar, depending on how you feel about Rosario or if you think Arraez has been flukey. If you still see Rosario as a very good prospect, then maybe Minnesota’s version feels a little light. It’s quite likely, though, the Twins version of this deal will outproduce the Mets version of this deal.
A Milwaukee version of a deal like this is a bit tougher given the state of Milwaukee’s farm system. While the Twins would likely refuse to move their top prospect in Lewis, the Brewers would almost certainly have to do so in order to make any deal work. Unless Milwaukee was planning to include Keston Hiura, which seems like a bad idea, Brice Turang would almost certainly have to be a centerpiece in a Lindor deal. For what it’s worth, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs compared Turang to Gimenez, so that seems like a pretty straightforward swap. In the Rosario spot, we look no further than Luis Urias. Urias was not good last year, but he’s not far from a time when he was a top-30 prospect in baseball. That entire last sentence could apply to Rosario, too.
From there, we could swap Hedbert Perez, a 17-year-old outfielder who could be a stud or just a future amateur baseball legend, for Greene. Max Lazar, a 21-year-old righty could also take Wolf’s place as the throw-in pitcher.
Milwaukee’s version would be Turang, Urias, Perez and Lazar. Compare that to the Mets deal or the Twins version, and it’s probably the most volatile of the bunch. A lot would ride on Turang becoming a solid everyday regular, which is likely, though not guaranteed. Nevertheless, it’s a deal that matches up quite well to what the Mets offered and features the similar benefit to New York’s version by being in the National League
The problem with this exercise is how pointless it all was. We’ve proven the Twins and Brewers could have matched New York’s deal; the truth is neither team would do it. It’s a matter of risk aversion. It’s hard to imagine either Minnesota or Milwaukee trading away some of their best young talent for a chance at signing a star. It’s simply too risky for either traditionally conservative front office.
There’s a lot to be said about making the risky move, though. It’s unlikely the Twins or Brewers sign Lindor in free agency, but they certainly would have a better chance at doing so if he’s already in the organization. Losing the prospects would be tough, but the risky move can often be the most rewarding one. Just look at Mookie Betts and the Dodgers. At the very least, it’s the most fun one.
Nickelodeon meets MLB
~Tom
If you noticed a 5000% increase of slime on your Twitter timeline Sunday afternoon, it was because the NFL had a pair of simultaneous broadcasts for the wild-card weekend matchup between the Chicago Bears and New Orleans Saints -- one on CBS, and another on Nickelodeon.
The broadcast, featuring Noah Eagle and Nate Burleson on the microphone, was aimed towards Nickelodeon’s audience -- kids, nostalgic adults and high AF teenagers.
We saw first-down markers, touchdowns and even the Jordan 11s of Saints head coach Sean Payton covered in slime. It was beautiful.
It made me think -- what would this look like if MLB was to host a Nickelodeon game? First off, I know what you’re thinking. Tom, in order for MLB to do this, it’d need to be a league that embraces fun and creativity. And to you, reader, I say this: They let players like Joe Mauer put wild and wacky nicknames like “Mauer” on the back of their jerseys for Players Weekend once per year. Ok?
Before I begin, I’d like to thank the Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers for not making any significant moves in the last month so I could put this nonsense on paper. That is mostly sarcasm. But seriously, guys, do something?
First, we need to pick a broadcast booth.
I like the NFL’s choice of hiring 24-year-old Noah Eagle, the son of Brooklyn Nets play-by-play announcer Ian Eagle, to voice the Nickelodeon game. Our play-by-play announcer needs to be an up-and-coming, young broadcaster with energy and an ability to make any situation into a Spongebob meme. Is Perch Perkins an option? No? I’ll go with Jesse Goldberg-Strassler, who was named the 2019 Minor League Broadcaster of the Year by Ballpark Digest. I’ve never listened to Goldberg-Strassler call a single inning, but I think the annual Nickelodeon MLB game should be a platform for young broadcasters to get a shot.
Next to our play-by-play announcer needs to be a former player. I know, I know, cliche. But someone has to teach these kids how to play the Base Ball. I have two great options, both pandering to our Twins and Brewers readers -- catchers Chris Giminez and Stephen Vogt. Both are hilarious. You may remember Vogt running a referee clinic at spring training a few years ago. That’s the energy we need. But we’re not finished here yet.
We need a wild card. The third member of the booth doesn’t need to know the difference between pitching from stretch and the seventh-inning stretch. He or she is in the booth for entertainment, period. If it was any other network besides Nickelodeon, I’d say Snoop Dogg, hands down. I’d listen to him announce paint dry. Or even worse, I’d listen to him watch the Bears offense, which I willingly did for three hours Sunday. But the network would probably want someone with ties to Nickelodeon, so I’ll show my millenial bias and choose Josh Peck, the unproblematic half of the hit show “Drake and Josh.”
So in the booth we’ve got the reigning Minor League Broadcaster of the Year, Stephen Vogt and Josh Peck. Let’s ball.
Now, to satisfy the Nickelodeon kid in all of us, we need a bunch of slime-filled graphics on the field.
We’ve all had enough of cardboard cutouts. They simply don’t hit the same as they did in July 2020. Remember when FOX filled the stands with virtual fans this summer? There will be an animated Patrick Star, Squidward, Susie Carmichael and Arnold Shortman in the Beautiful People Seats™ behind home plate.
A big splat of slime will replace the ball locator on the FOX tracker after every pitch. The foul poles will be lime green. Is there a rundown between third base and home plate? Bring in the Tommy Pickles Pickle Cam.
If The Show is really dedicated to growing the game, they’ll listen to me and get MLB at Nite off the ground.
ARE YOU READY, KIDS?
How long since the Brewers last did something?
~Curt
