Johan Santana has the best ERA (0.46) in the National League and Jason Bartlett is hitting .373, eighth highest in the American League. The season is less than three weeks old but the performance of these two former Twins makes a point about major moves by the local team in 2007, 2008 and 2009: Minnesota is looking for a better return than seen last year and this year.
After the 2007 season the Twins made two of their more significant trades in memory. Cy Young award winner Santana went to the Mets in the winter of 2008 for center fielder Carlos Gomez, and pitchers Phil Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Delois Guerra. Santana was 16-7 with a 2.53 ERA last year and almost helped the Mets to the National League pennant. Gomez is the only ex-Met to contribute to the Twins so far and his exciting but erratic play is what you might expect from a 23 year old.
Tampa Bay became a pennant winner last season in the American League, partially because of former Twins Bartlett and Matt Garza. Some opinion is that Bartlett’s defense from his shortstop position (only 16 errors in 125 games) and hitting (.286 with 20 stolen bases) made him Tampa Bay’s MVP. Garza won 11 games last season, the most in his big league pitching career and this year is 1-1, striking out almost as many batters as innings pitched. Garza is a power pitcher, something the Twins don’t have and is 25 years old. Last season he struck out 128 batters in 184.2 innings and those numbers figure to improve with experience.
Bartlett and Garza went to Tampa Bay in November of 2007 in a trade that brought outfielder Delmon Young and utility infielder Brendan Harris to the Twins. The Twins have tried various players at shortstop since Bartlett went to Tampa Bay after being a regular here. Among those players has been Harris who has played shortstop, second and third. In limited play this season, Harris is hitting .355.
Young, with a reputation before coming here as one of baseball’s best young prospects, was considered the prize of the deals involving the Mets and Rays. He’s yet to be dominant at bat or in the field, and sometimes far less than that. While he hit .290 last season, the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Young had only 10 home runs. This season, unable so far to win an everyday spot in the lineup, he’s hitting .229 with one home run and looking awkward in left field.
Earlier this year the Twins acquired third baseman Joe Crede who so has sort of claimed the position starting more games there than anyone else. During his career Crede has had three seasons where he’s hit 20 or more home runs. Although he certainly may improve his numbers, so far he has hit one with a .167 batting average.
The Twins are 7-9 this season. Their success hasn’t been produced by their major moves of the last 17 months. And if the Twins needed any reminder of that, they’re playing in Boston this week where the Red Sox reportedly had such a strong interest in acquiring Santana they might have given up center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury as part of a deal. Ellsbury hit .280 in his first full season last year and stole 50 bases.
For now, the Twins will wait to judge their big moves and hope for better results.