Twins get Byron Buxton insurance and right field bat in Manuel Margot trade | Top Vip News

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FORT MYERS, Fla. — After spending months pursuing several free agent outfielders, from Michael A. Taylor and Kiké Hernández to Adam Duvall and Tommy Pham, the Minnesota Twins finally turned to the trade market on Monday to find the right-handed bat they they needed. I have been searching.

In a move initiated when Hernandez re-signed with Los Angeles, the Twins acquired veteran outfielder Manuel Margot from the Dodgers, along with minor infield prospect Rayne Doncon and cash, in exchange for shortstop prospect Noah Miller.

Margot, who went from the Rays to the Dodgers in December as part of the Tyler Glasnow trade, is owed $10 million for this season and has a $12 million mutual option or a $2 million buyout for 2025. league sourcesthe Twins will receive $6 million to cover Margot’s salary in 2024 and will not be responsible for the buyout, essentially making it a one-year, $4 million deal.

And just to end this strange game of musical chairs with right field bats: Hernandez’s deal to return to the Dodgers is for one year and $4 million.

Basically, the Twins traded Miller for Doncon to add Margot to their outfield mix for $4 million, a logical acquisition that checks two important boxes with a roster spot: Byron Buxton’s lock in center field and a capable veteran right-handed bat. to form a platoon with the left. Hitters Matt Wallner, Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach in the corner outfield.

“We think he has the ability in center field,” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “But there’s also no secret about our roster, that we have some left-handed corner outfield bats. We think for us, the combination of ability in center field, edge in the corners, with the ability to hit left-handed pitchers, was the best combination of all things.”

Simply re-signing Taylor, 33, would have made a lot of sense for the Twins after he hit a career-high 21 home runs and played Gold Glove-caliber defense last season, but they weren’t willing. to comply with their contractual demands. and he had reservations about his age. Margot is almost four years younger and plays the same role equally effectively, but they are very different stylistically.

Taylor has elite speed and 20-homer power, but his 33.5 percent strikeout rate last year was the seventh-highest in the MLB and he hit just .220 with an ugly .278 on-base percentage and 130 to 26 strikeouts per walk. relationship. Margot simply has good speed and limited power, but she struck out half as often last year (16.4 percent), while she outperformed Taylor by 44 points in batting average and 32 points in OBP.

“We had been in contact with several free agents in this space, different outfielders who fit,” Falvey said. “There are still a lot of guys on the board that we had talked to pretty early in the offseason. We’ve talked about different trade angles and we’ve talked about different free agents. “We felt like we finally had a path to acquiring one that was really a good fit for us.”

Margot hit .263/.316/.378 for a 97 OPS+ over the last three seasons and posted an OPS+ over 90 in each of the last four years. By comparison, Taylor had a 94 OPS+ for the Twins last year, his first time with an OPS+ over 90 since 2017. Within that lackluster overall production, Margot hit .290/.348/.410 against lefties during those three years, making it a solid and much-needed platoon option.

Margot’s defensive metrics have gone from excellent to very good in his mid-twenties, but he is still a quality center fielder and an excellent corner outfielder. Given their age difference, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to project Margot and Taylor as roughly equals defensively.

“He can play all three spots in the outfield and fits in very well with us,” Falvey said. “There were other guys on the market that we felt were maybe more center field oriented, but not really corner or maybe not the left-right split that we were looking for. He added a lot of dynamics to the lineup in a way that we think fits this roster.”

Miller was a supplemental first-round pick in 2021 and his glove can take him to the majors, but his bat has not developed as expected. He walks and makes a lot of contact, positive signs for the Wisconsin high school recruit who played last season in High A as a 20-year-old, but Miller has hit just .220 with a .318 slugging percentage in 250 professional games.

And yet it wouldn’t take much improvement offensively for the switch-hitter to emerge as a major league player. Miller is a legitimate defensive shortstop with outstanding range, arm strength and instincts, and he won the all-minor league Gold Glove despite his relatively low prospect profile. I ranked Miller as the No. 26 prospect in the Twins’ farm system last month.

Doncon earned a similar ranking within the Dodgers’ farm system, and the 20-year-old is closer to a lottery ticket than a draft pick. Signed internationally for $500,000 when he was 16, he has shown some offensive upside but struggled last season as one of the youngest hitters in Low-A. Given the lack of difference in value of the prospects, it’s clear that the Dodgers made this trade primarily to make room for Hernandez.

Margot’s arrival increases the Twins’ payroll from $123 million to $127 million, about $30 million less than last season and 19th out of 30 teams. While there are certainly still areas that could be improved, a right-handed bat capable of covering all three outfield spots fills the latest hole on the roster, and Falvey hinted that there are unlikely to be any more major league additions before Opening Day.

“Realistically, with where our team is, the way the roster is built now, the way it looks, obviously we’ll continue to monitor where our roster is and its health,” Falvey said. “But this was the main focus for us for the last while. I would say that, in general, these are the general elements, but we will keep an open mind about the different opportunities that present themselves along the way.”

(Photo of Manuel Margot celebrating a victory with the Rays last season: Scott Taetsch / USA Today)

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