| this was written on March 6, 2004
Yesterday, Torii Hunter sprained his wrist during a Spring Training
game against the Cincinnati Reds. Thankfully, the X-rays were
negative and so Hunter is not looking at missing an extended period
of time. However, his injury raises the question, “Who plays
centerfield if Hunter suffers an injury?”
The most obvious solution is to simply plug Lew
Ford into the position everyday. Ford would provide a substantial
improvement over Hunter in terms of ability to reach base. However,
Ford also has a lot less range defensively and does not possess as
much pure power. In all honesty, I would rather have Ford at the
plate than Hunter in a crucial situation but that may just be
because I am tired of Hunter offering a half-hearted check-swing at
two sliders in the dirt before grounding into a double play.
Mike Ryan could also play centerfield, but he
does not have the offensive upside as Lew Ford. However, he does
provide a left-handed bat with a little more power (and a lot less
plate discipline) so there is a pretty good chance that he could get
on Ron Gardenhire’s “good side”.
Ron Gardenhire could also get creative and
slide Jacque Jones back into the position he occupied while Hunter
was still in the minors. Jacque has great range and a strong, but
erratic arm and was an above-average defensive centerfielder
according to most defensive metrics. A platoon of Jacque Jones and
Lew Ford in centerfield would be extremely productive and Jones
could stay in defensively at the end of the games. This move also
has an added benefit of opening up at-bats in right field. Michael
Cuddyer would seem to be the most likely candidate to receive these
new at-bats, but a player could be called up from the minors to fill
that role as well.
In fact, now that the situation has been
covered, it becomes pretty obvious that Torii Hunter is not
that valuable to the Twins. If he was removed from the
lineup, any combination of Lew Ford, Michael Cuddyer, Mike Restovich
and Mike Ryan would be able to step in and provide virtually similar
offensive production. Plus, Jacque Jones is not that much of a
defensive downgrade from Hunter defensively so the team would not be
hurt in that way either. When it becomes apparent just how many
choices the team has for the outfielder, Torii Hunter’s contract
really stands out as being completely unnecessary.
In addition, other teams should observe this
glut of talent and the Twins should be able to work out at least one
trade to alleviate the logjam while also filling the organization
with some much needed middle infield talent or some pitching
prospects. In fact, if other teams value Torii Hunter extremely
highly, it might be worth the public relations hit to trade him. At
the very least, the option must be explored.
updated on May 12, 2004
Ford has now had basically a month's worth of
playing time and is one of the leading hitters in the American
League. While he does not boast the power of Torii Hunter, he
has much better plate discipline and hits many extra base hits.
Like I wrote earlier in March, I would be completely happy with the
team if Torii Hunter was traded and Lew Ford was installed as the
full-time centerfielder.
However, teams may be more reluctant to make a
trade with the team because the Twins now have an overabundance of
talent. The Twins do not have enough plate appearances to go
around for their outfielders, so they are in a bind. It will
be interesting to see if any moves will be made for the rest of the
season, but it is almost guaranteed that Jacque Jones will be
jettisoned after the year.
It cannot be said enough, but Terry Ryan is
master at plucking players from other organizations. Ford was
acquired for Hector Carrasco in September of 2000. Carrasco
gave Boston 20 outs (6.2 innings) while allowing 20 base-runners and
7 earned runs.
|
