When the Twins traded away Brandon Kintzler and Jaime Garcia, some thought the moves indicated the team had begun to wave the white flag on their season.
Obviously that couldn’t have been further from the truth, as Minnesota still ended up making the postseason, while stockpiling prospects in their minor league system.
When asked on Tuesday afternoon if he regrets those trades, chief baseball operator Derek Falvey believes he made the right call.
“At that moment in time, we thought that was the right decision,” said Falvey at a press conference. “Certainly, trading Brandon away was difficult but that’s the type of decision we need to make in that moment where we felt like it could impact us moving forward in the longterm.”
Minnesota was able to land three prospects in those trades – and on top of a draft class that put up impressive in numbers in their limited taste of playing professional baseball.
Falvey acknowledged that you have to be “careful” when thinking about trading away prospects because it’s easy to make a decision like that in the moment.
However, he’s aware that if there’s an opportunity to improve the club, he’s open to going down that path.
“That doesn’t preclude a conversation if there’s an opportunity to impact our team that we can’t pass up, we’ll go down that path. But we have to evaluate that each on its own individual merits.”
Obviously keeping your young players and letting them develop worked out for Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler.
Minnesota probably wouldn’t have sniffed the playoffs if they had parted ways with their talented outfielders or even veterans Brian Dozier or Ervin Santana.
Once the offseason officially begins this winter, Falvey and the rest of the staff have to figure out which avenue they want to take.
Will they trade away a top prospect – maybe someone like Nick Gordon – or will they be able to add a piece or two in free agency, without taking a hit in their farm system?
But because the Twins are coming off a postseason berth, the upcoming offseason is crucial to the team’s success in 2018.
