The Rangers made an aggressive move in bringing up top prospect Joey Gallo, even if it promises to be short-lived, and Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News discusses what it means. It could be that the club truly believes that Gallo is ready, in spite of the fact that his huge power has been accompanied by a sizable strikeout rate. More likely, as GM Jon Daniels suggested, is that the big league club can not only use Gallo for the interim, but provides a good current environment for him to get his first taste of the bigs. “The deciding factor was that we are really confident in the environment, the culture and the clubhouse,” Daniels explained. “It’s a good spot for a young player. We have a lot of confidence in our staff and in the value sitting next to Adrian Beltre and Prince Fielder and learning.”
- Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe is off to a nice start, sporting a 135 wRC+ at the plate and continuing to look like at least an average defender at third after struggling earlier in his career. While Miguel Sano is waiting in the wings, he could still end up moving off of the hot corner. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN wonders (Twitter link) whether there is an extension format that would make sense for both Minnesota and Plouffe. He should be in line for a hefty raise over his $4.8MM salary, and can be controlled for the 2017 season as well, meaning that the club would likely need to plunk some really money down to get a deal done.
- Righty Bruce Rondon is finally nearing activation for the Tigers, which presents some welcome roster complications, as James Schmehl of MLive.com reports. Detroit will certainly hope that Rondon and his big-time stuff can help anchor the club’s pen at some point this year, but Schmehl says it’s possible he won’t head straight to the big leagues even when he’s ready physically. The three candidates for demotion — Angel Nesbitt, Alex Wilson, and Al Alburquerque — all have options, so there’s plenty of flexibility.
- While it’s not clear how much urgency there is at this point on the calendar, the Mariners are “trying” to add an arm, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune tweets in response to a reader. Seattle’s staff has produced middle-of-the-road results on the whole, but some notable struggles (Taijuan Walker and Fernando Rodney both have allowed over six earned runs per nine) and injuries (Hisashi Iwakuma and James Paxton) have opened some space for an addition.
Unless the Twins can get something really, really good for Plouffe I want them to extend him. Yes, Sano is in the wings but no prospect is a guarantee to be good/great.
Plouffe has clearly improved a lot on defense. He is probably playing over his head offensively right now, but I believe he’s above average offensively.
There’s always that possibility that Sano can’t make it as a 3B. I think he can for a few years, but what if he can’t immediately and they have already traded Plouffe? Then they’d have no 3B at all. I don’t think it would be a smart move for the Twins unless you can still live with a great trade. If they can’t get something great, then it’s not worth it.
MLB is short quality 3B’s. And from what I’ve seen this year, Plouffe is playing the position defensively as well as anyone in the AL. Like Moustakas learning to hit to LF during the off-season, Plouffe dedicated himself to learning to play D. Hope he can keep it it. Reminds me of Wade Boggs – he was terrible at 3B for years when he came up, but at some point he dedicated himself to playing the position well, and ultimately turned himself into a Gold Glove 3B.
Being able to hit never hurts the Gold Glove odds
Don’t really agree on that, there are a ton of good 3B in the league. In no order Arenado, Donaldson, Longo, Beltre, Pablo (slow start but he should be fine), Bryant, Carpenter, Guerrero, headley, plouffe, mouse ect…
It really depends on who you have in the “etc.” portion of your comment. The ones listed only make up about 1/3 of the starting 3B in the league.
How did Frazier and Seager end up in the “ect” category?
I was just going off top of my head I knew I forgot some! Both are terrific!
No kidding
They certainly deserve mention, you could also include Manny Machado.
Having seen Sano play 3rd, he’s not horrible for a guy his size; but that doesn’t mean he’s good either. More than the bad defense, I worry about injuries if he sticks at 3rd long term. Think about Miguel Caberra and his success since moving off of 3rd to focus on hitting and to keep him healthy and fresh. Long-term Sano will be facing the same thing.
Troy Glaus is another player comp that comes to mind.
I am not in favor of extending Plouffe. He is about to be 29 and has two more years of control. Certainly if we can gain an extra year, with an option I would not be upset with it but anything beyond that I would be against.
As for the whole, “what to do with Sano/Plouffe” debate. I’d like wait until the Twins hand is forced before considering moving Sano to a new position or trading Plouffe. Let Sano continue as a 3rd baseman and if his defense isn’t ready by the time his bat is then we can move him then but I believe he can be at least as good a defender as Plouffe currently so I don’t want to stunt his development before it is really an issue.
I wasn’t thinking anything too crazy for a contract extension for him. I was thinking somewhere around 4/45 and tack on an option year to that. I don’t think that’s crazy in years or dollar amount. He’s eligible for arbitration next year and I would not be surprised if his salary doubled through that alone.
I think Plouffe has just entered his prime and I think that will continue for the next several years so a small-ish extension would cover that. He’s turned himself into a top 10 (9-10) 3B in all of baseball the last 2-3 years or so. That’s very valuable to the Twins.
Not sure I agree that Sano’s defense can be at least as good as Plouffe’s right now, unless also like Plouffe, he stops making the “shouldn’t ever happen” type of errors. Plouffe stopped making those. Sano would need to do the same. Not impossible of course, as I said, Plouffe did the very same thing.
I don’t think the Twins have to worry about moving Sano until Sano forces their hand, as you said. So right now, that’s not happening even though Sano is hitting well so far this year.
I think we are pretty much on the same page. If we were discussing the extension after this season I would likely be more definitive, just a little leery about the possibility since Plouffe is playing at peak level right now. If he has another solid season (off to a great start) then I am in favor of it.
Plouffes camp likely would want more free agent years covered since he is close to free agency thus not risking much going year to year and every year we buy out of FA could limit his contract he receives after an extension. If they were okay buying out only a year or two (around the dollars you mentioned, likely cost a bit more imo) then it would not be bad for the Twins.
My comment about Sano is that he is a more gifted athlete and has a stronger arm than Plouffe did at this stage so he has the tools to be equal if not better. Though it is likely since Plouffe has developed as a capable defender the Twins might not let Sano iron out the finer points of the game as they had to do with Plouffe.
Oh yeah, I agree. I wouldn’t extend him right this second. I would wait for the offseason because I expect his offense to cool down to a more normal level than it is at right now. Plus the injury possibility is always there while the season is going.
Like you said, it’s hard to peg what Plouffe will want in terms of years and dollars. He likely would want more years/money than I said or would like a Dozier like pay increase with no FA years. Hopefully neither of those are the case, but if he does want either of those things then I’d probably lean more towards trading him once Sano comes up.
I also agree Sano is more gifted. I’m more worried about Sano’s first step and his range at 3B. I have seen him, on video, make several hard plays at 3B though. We know he has the arm for it and it sounds like most of his errors are trying to make something out of a play where there is no chance to get the runner.
I’m not sure if its 2 or 3 years that I’ve been reading that the Tigers are waiting for Bruce Rondon to come in and save the bullpen. He’s only 24 years-old and what little I’ve seen of him, he can be lights out one day and missing the plate the next – so he grooves pitches and gets hit.
I understand the Tigers calling him up if he’s healthy. But Step 1 should be to allow him to establish himself as a 5th or 6th inning reliever before asking more of him.
Bullpen seems “saved” at the moment. The rest of the team needs help though.
I think the twins would be smart to explore the market for young impact starters with Ploufe+ non Berrios/Sano/buxton prospect in offseason
So the Mariners are looking for an arm? They need about 3 regular bats that can hit over .200.
With the Reds out of the playoff contention, that might be a good trading partner by sending Chapman (Rodney’s replacement as a closer), Zach Cozart/Johnny Cueto, and Jay Bruce for Ackley (change of scenery to the NL will help him) and four or five others in seven or eight player trade. Which of those players are the Mariners targeting from Cincy?
The Mariners are quite a surprise so far, and not in a good way. While a lot of people writing them into the playoffs pre-season was a bit much, there’s definitely cause for concern. It’s not just their pitching that’s an issue, they’re the third worst team at scoring runs in the league right now on top of that, Cano isn’t giving them as much as he should be,it’s a mess all around. There’s still time for things to settle a bit, but it’s certainly concerning if i’m a SEA fan.
Walker has been Jeckyl & Hyde out on the mound. Iwakuma hurt most of the season and been brutal the 1st 2 starts back. Paxton has been mostly good, but Bucholz like bad in his bad starts. Hernandez has been the savior of the rotation, no doubt and that’s the part of the team (along with it’s bullet proof ‘pen) that they were counting on to pull them through in 2015.
‘Pen has been great, other than Rodney being Rodney. Thank Goodness his 2y deal expires this season. Agree on offense. Cruz, Cano tries too hard and Seagar are it. Pitching will decide how far this team goes and they’ve got to get Walker on steady track, then Iwakuma and Paxton healthy.
Pens solid….but they threw Danny Farquhar out there WAY too often before demoting him.
Hernandez got lit up last night
Walker is going to continue to be Jekyll and Hyde until her can hone his control. Same issues he’s had, and he needs to get his K to BB ratio closer to 3/1 before he’s going to have any consistent success.
I thought Alex Wilson would get a legitimate shot at sticking in a MLB BP for an entire year with the Tigers in 2015, but maybe not now. He’s done nothing in his MLB career thus far to disprove he doesn’t belong there, yet continues to be one of the 1st to get optioned back and forth to AAA.
A guy who throws 92-95 with a pretty nasty slider and decent cutter one would think is capable of at least being a workable middle reliever and his numbers over the last 3 MLB seasons show it, yet both Boston and detroit keep him on that shuttle to AAA.
Wilson’s not going anywhere. He has been extremely good.
AlAl should go down – he has been really inconsistent. Unfortunately, it will probably Nesbitt, who has done really well in his rookie campaign.
Joey Gallo seems like a left handed Javier Baez who walks. I dig that. His K% is pretty absurd though. Maybe they’ll do what the Cubs did with Baez and give him a cup of coffee then send him down to start next year to work on Ks.
This kid Gallo will hit a home run tonight and its going to the roof on the second deck
What a debut….
This kid is strong and he hit a second deck shot whoa that is amazing
In all fairness, how many players in the league DON’T strike out at an absurd rate? Compared to the 80’s…..not very many.