7:14pm: Minor league pitcher Darren Bowen is the final player involved, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (on X). There’s also an unreported amount of cash changing hands. Seattle is sending some cash to cover part of the DeSclafani contract, Rosenthal tweets.
7:12pm: Recently-acquired righty Anthony DeSclafani is also going back to the Twins, along with outfield prospect Gabriel Gonzalez, reports Dan Hayes of the Athletic (X link).
7:07pm: Reliever Justin Topa is among the players headed to Minnesota, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (on X). Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reports that the Twins are acquiring four players — two of whom are at the MLB level.
6:59pm: There’s an agreement in place, tweets Jeff Passan of ESPN.
6:58pm: The Mariners and Twins are finalizing a deal that’ll send second baseman Jorge Polanco to Seattle, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (X link). Minnesota president of baseball operations Derek Falvey suggested a few weeks ago that the Twins would target MLB-ready help if they were to trade one of their infielders.
Seattle and Minnesota have long seemed an on-paper fit for this kind of move. The M’s didn’t get much out of their second basemen last season. Opening Day starter Kolten Wong was released midway through the year. Landing Josh Rojas in the deadline deal that sent closer Paul Sewald to the D-Backs helped to an extent, but the position still seemed a weakness entering the offseason.
The M’s further thinned the infield with a trade sending third baseman Eugenio Suárez to Arizona. Seattle brought in non-tender candidate Luis Urías in a deal with the Red Sox to add a contact-oriented hitter to the mix. While Rojas and Urías could split time between second and third base, it’d have been risky to count on both players as regulars.
As a result, Seattle lands one of the top offensive middle infielders on the trade market. The switch-hitting Polanco has posted above-average numbers at the plate in four of the past five seasons. Since the start of the 2019 campaign, he owns a .267/.337/.458 slash in nearly 2400 plate appearances. Knee and hamstring issues bothered him early last season, but he hit at a typically solid level when healthy. Polanco connected on 14 homers over 80 games, running a .255/.335/.454 line through 343 trips to the dish.
That steady production made it an easy call for the Twins to exercise a $10.5MM option on his contract. That’s a below-market price for a quality regular. Yet even with Minnesota triggering the option, there was a general belief that he could find himself on the move this offseason. The Twins have an enviable collection of infield talent that already threatened to bump Polanco from his natural position.
While Polanco was on the injured list, 24-year-old Edouard Julien mashed his way to the second base job. He hit .263/.381/.459 as a rookie to secure a spot atop Rocco Baldelli’s lineup. The Twins gave Polanco 103 innings at third base once he returned, his first action at the hot corner since 2016. With former first overall pick Royce Lewis emerging as a star down the stretch and into the postseason, that wouldn’t have been an avenue to regular playing time moving forward.
Minnesota could have used Polanco at second base while deploying Julien at designated hitter. That would have limited their flexibility to cycle other players through the DH spot while potentially pigeon-holing one of Minnesota’s more talented young hitters to a bat-only role. Polanco had some experience at shortstop early in his career, but he moved off the position because of defensive shortcomings and clearly wasn’t going to start over Carlos Correa. Minnesota also tendered arbitration contracts to utility infielders Kyle Farmer and Nick Gordon. José Miranda remains on hand as an option at the corners, while former #8 overall pick Brooks Lee could make his MLB debut in 2024.
More to come.