Written by Tom Schreier
We aren’t gonna [make a trade] just to make a trade.
— Twins GM Terry Ryan the day before the trade deadline
Kevin Jepsen walked the first two players he faced as a member of the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, sparking an outcry from Twins fans who were impatient with general manager Terry Ryan, who waited until the last day to make a deal at this year’s trade deadline. “We’re gonna try to improve the bullpen, and Jepsen’s got experience, he’s been in the postseason, he’s pitched in the back part of the bullpen for contending teams, and he’ll help us, no question,” said Ryan in explaining the move that sent minor league pitchers Chih-Wei Hu and Alexis Tapia to the Tampa Bay Rays for the veteran reliever who was originally drafted in the second round of the 2002 draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. “He’s a hard-thrower, he’s a big, durable guy. He’s got good depth on his breaking ball. I would say he’s more of an effectively wild guy: He’s doesn’t pinpoint, he’s not a Casey Fien who throws strike after strike.”
Effectively wild become a buzzword as Jepsen walked Ketel Marte and Kyle Seager of the Seattle Mariners in the 11th inning, putting two men on base in front of Nelson Cruz, who had previously homered off of closer Glen Perkins in the ninth. “I mean, that’s the way baseball is, isn’t it? You walk the first two to get the guy that’s seeing a beach ball up there, and that’s the guy you get out,” he said after the game while dismissing the notion that he had nerves or was amped up. “No, I don’t think it was that, it was just struggling to find the strike zone to start off with. Any time you walk the leadoff hitter, you’re putting yourself in a bad situation — especially top of the lineup with Seager and Cruz coming up.”
Jepsen was wild for sure, but hardly effective. It is even more alarming given that, at 31, his walk rate this year is 4.3 per nine innings, almost a run higher than the 3.6 career average in eight seasons, seven of which he spent in Anaheim. Hu, a 21 year old who signed out of Taiwan for $220,000 in 2012, was the best prospect in the deal, but is not projected to be a top-of-the-line rotation pitcher, and there is a decent chance a Single-A pitching prospect won’t make the majors due to injury. In short, this deal is unlikely to backfire unless Jepsen really has trouble finding the zone. “I walked more guys this year than I’d like to, obviously,” he said. “We’ll get back to getting them in the zone.”
It’s too early to judge him, and to be fair he did strike out Cruz — one of the most dangerous hitters the game. It’s also unfair to him that the Twins have holes at shortstop and catcher, and Troy Tulowitzki — the best shortstop available at the deadline — homered in his first at-bat with Toronto. First impressions probably matter more than they should, but Minnesota hardly has time on their side after going 2-4 on their California road trip following the All-Star Break and 3-6 in their most recent homestand after going 49-40 in the first half of their season. In many ways, Jepsen seemed to be happy to get his first appearance in the Twins uniform over with before the team headed on the road to face Toronto, even if it didn’t go exactly as planned. “I mean as much as you want your first impression to be a good one,” he said, “[but] it’s nice to get out there and get it out of the way.”
Jepsen is under team control next year but does not factor into the team’s long-term plans, meaning that even if this trade goes awry, it will never reach the infamy of the Wilson Ramos for Matt Capps trade or when the Twins dumped J.J. Hardy. Ryan, on the other hand, is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of this team as a whole — meaning he needs to shore up the bullpen and get a major league catcher and shortstop in short order.
All three spots could potentially be filled internally. The Twins have players like Nick Burdi and Zach Jones, younger relievers with elite stuff, in their minor league system, as well as mid-20-year-old relievers like Lester Oliveros and Michael Tonkin. Ryan Pressly, who is currently on the 60-day disabled list, and J.R. Graham arrived via Rule 5 pick, and some combination of those players could ultimately replace the team’s 30-plus-year-old bullpen arms: Casey Fien, Brian Duensing, Blaine Boyer, etc.
They also have Alex Meyer, who arrived in the Denard Span trade back in 2012, who was an elite, hard-throwing right-handed starting prospect that was projected to be a top-of-the-rotation starter and now has been placed in the bullpen. And Trevor May, who likely will start next year, has been used as a reliever this season due to the depth in the starting rotation and lack of it in the bullpen.
When it comes to shortstop and catcher, however, Minnesota will likely have to look outside the organization. Jorge Polanco has played nine games at the major league level, making a total of 20 plate appearances, but it not a sure thing to stay at shortstop once he reaches the majors. “His offense is ahead of his defense, but I think he’s getting better,” says Ryan, saying he must improve defensively at shortstop to remain there in the major leagues. “That will be up to him. A done deal? Well, we thought Plouffe was a done deal once, and we thought Cuddyer was a done deal once. You know it’s up to the player: Can you handle it or can you not?”
The Twins drafted a shortstop, Nick Gordon, at No. 5 overall last year, but he came out of high school and is currently in Single-A. Eduardo Nunez and Eduardo Escobar are currently being used to plug the shortstop spot, but unless one of them takes hold of the position in the near future, the Twins will have to look to the outside for help at that position in the offseason.
They will also have to address the catcher position. Kurt Suzuki earned his first All-Star appearance last year when he hit .288/.345/.383 in 131 games and played good defense, establishing himself as a red ass (in former manager Ron Gardenhire’s parlance) who was willing to endure incredible physical pain in the name of run prevention.
He is currently hitting .234/.290/.305 in 282 at-bats this season, below his career average, but similar to the numbers in his recent years with the Oakland Athletics and Washington Nationals. He has also struggled defensively, showing an inability to throw out runners attempting to steal a base and block inaccurate pitches. Behind him is Eric Fryer, a 29 year old with a .241/.322/.331 average career average in 149 plate appearances, and Chris Herrmann, 25, who owns a career .188/.259/.283 average in 348 plate appearances.
So why didn’t the Twins shore up these positions at the deadline? Part of it is they want to give Nunez and Escobar, as well as Danny Santana, a fair shot to win the shortstop spot while also giving Polanco valuable major league experience. They also just signed Suzuki to a two-year, $12 million extension in the offseason and appear satisfied with what Fryer is giving them right now in a backup role.
The other aspect of this is that there are a lot of moving parts at the trade deadline, as well as some puzzling inaction from losing teams. While the Colorado Rockies dealt Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays, the Kansas City Royals got Johnny Cueto from the Cincinnati Reds and the Houston Astros traded for Scott Kazmir, the Mariners kept 34-year-old Hisashi Iwakuma and the San Diego Padres kept their team together despite not living up to expectations following a blockbuster offseason. “It was one of those situations where there’s a lot of talk, and there’s a lot of action going around,” Ryan said when it was all said and done. “There wasn’t as much finality to some of these talks — today especially. There certainly was a lot of dialogue going on, and not a whole lot happening today.”
Teams were also moving up and down in the standings, making it difficult to determine who was a buyer and who was a seller given that almost two-thirds of the league has a shot at either winning their division or getting into a Wild Card game this year. “There are teams that have surged in the last week: White Sox, Orioles, Toronto,” Ryan said on July 30. “And there have been people available — the high profile players’ availability has probably been at it’s height — so with all that said, maybe that is the reason. But I suspect the biggest reason probably would be the 20-some clubs that are still in the hunt.”
Ryan said that he was willing to move players from the 25-man roster but appeared to shy away from the notion as the deadline approached. He was understandably coy about his intentions at times, shielding his ambitions from other teams he was looking to deal with, but basically he sounded like he was looking to deal prospects for major league talent — be it a long-term solution or a rental. “I would,” he said when asked point-blank about dealing major league talent. “But usually when you have a team that’s in contention, you’re probably not gonna subtract from that club, unless it’s a piece that you feel real good about moving on.”
He also said that money was not a major factor in his decisions at the deadline, unless it was a long-term contract with large annual salary. “This isn’t a money thing, now,” he said. “[but] I’m not gonna just be able to pull the trigger on a deal for a Tulowitzki (without consulting ownership) — that was $100 million.”
It was probably wise to get a bullpen piece now, given that most of the team’s best relief prospects are in Double-A or lower (Zach Jones, Nick Burdi), and the major league options with the most upside are injured (Ryan Pressly) or inexperienced (J.R. Graham). He made a move that was a low-risk, short-term fix, and then will likely address catcher and shortstop in the offseason. Suzuki looks like a good backup at this point and isn’t paid so much he has to start to make the contract worth it. Maybe Nunez or Escobar takes over at short, but odds are that’s going to be a need as well. If the team is willing to spend, however, they have a lot of the other pieces in place to make a run for the division title — something that was virtually unfathomable a year ago.
As far as Jepsen goes, if he has a few control issues, we know it runs in the family. At least the Twins didn’t give up a catching prospect to get him.
Tom Schreier writes for 105 The Ticket’s Cold Omaha. Tune in to The Wake Up Call every Sunday at 8:00 am to hear the crew break down the week in Minnesota sports.