Rebuilding not reloading--the disappointment of the Jose Berrios trade

I’ve been a fan of the Minnesota Twins ever since I listened to Herb Carneal and Halsey Hall broadcast games from the old Metropolitan Stadium. I used to keep score on an old red scorebook.  I still haven’t figured out why a shortstop is a “6” when a third basemen is a “5” and a second basemen a “4.” I’ve always been a fan. Fans have opinions, and I’m writing to share my opinion about the recent Jose Berrios trade. 

I wish the trade hadn’t happened. Even if the management of the Twins has received kudos for getting Austin Martin and Simeon Woods-Richardson, two high prospects for Berrios, the trade indicates that once again the Twins are in rebuilding mode instead of reloading mode.  Twins fans went into this season hoping that we would win a playoff series and at a minimum a playoff game. Now we’re hoping the Twins can make the playoffs in 2023. 

 It seems to me that it didn’t have to be this way. The Twins could have signed him during the off-season of 2019. Instead they haggled in arbitration. The Twins won the case, but lost the optics. Then they could have signed him after last season when Berrios again did well. I still don’t understand why Rocco took him out at the end of five innings in the playoffs last year. I remember seeing Berrios arguing in a professional way with Rocco in the dugout. He lost the argument; the Twins lost the game; now the Twins have lost Berrios, and Twins fans have lost any hope of winning a playoff series. 

This isn’t the first time the Twins have traded their ace for prospects. And it has worked out. I remember when the Twins traded Frank Viola to the Mets. That turned out to be a fabulous trade as Kevin Tapani and Rick Aguilera led the Twins to two World Series titles. I remember the Johan Santan trade when the Twins traded him again to the Mets for Carlos Gomez and others who most don’t remember.

Trading Berrios makes me feel the Twins are a small market team again. I could understand the Twins trading our ace pitchers when they played in the Metrodome. That stadium never allowed the Twins the revenue streams they needed to pay for an ace. But the Twins promised that playing in Target Field was going to change this equation. We were going to keep our homegrown stars and money was not going to be an object to keeping the players that they developed.

The Twins kept their promise by signing Joe Mauer to a 184 million dollar contract.

But now we’re back to rebuilding mode. This trade feels like it has brought the Twins back to the Metrodome days.  A player is developed and then traded off for prospects. The prospects might be good and like the Viola trade they might lead the Twins to the World Series. But I think that Berrios could have led the Twins to the playoffs. I’m more interested in them consistently winning playoff games then having highly rated prospects.

The Twins have rewarded their fans with championships. I’ll never forget watching Frank Viola shut down the Cardinals in game 7 in 1987; and who can forget Kirby’s homerun and then Jack’s masterpiece in 1991. The Twins made the AL Championship in 2002 and have won eight division titles in the last twenty years.  We’ve had reasons to celebrate. And with Derek Falvey and Thad Levine it seemed that the Twins were going to replace non-productive players with younger players from their farm system without missing a beat.

But this trade reveals that the team has missed a beat. Quality pitching at the top of the rotation hardly exists right now.

Which leads me to my final point—sign Byron Buxton! Like Berrios he is a player that the Twins developed from the farm system. And he has been injured, and there are no guarantees that he won’t be injured in the future. According to media accounts Buxton wants to play for the Twins and is willing to sign a fair contract. Not signing Buxton is another sign that we are a small market team.

I’ll still go to Target Field and watch games. But the beauty of Target Field is not as exciting as a winning ball club. Unfortunately the actions of this past week have pushed that possibility of winning playoff games out for at least another year.