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Sexson Apparently Going to Yankees

So says the rumor. Sexson hit .218 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs with Seattle this season. However, he hit .344 vs. lefthanded pitching. Yankees manager Joe Girardi recently said that a right-handed hitter was the team's greatest need.

Boy, the Twins could sure use someone who kills left handed pitching.

This entry was posted by SBG on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 3:39 pm and is filed under WGOM Headlines. It is one of 3089 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

13 comments to Sexson Apparently Going to Yankees

  • twayn
    July 17th, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Yeah, the Twins could use a right handed power hitter in a DH platoon and off the bench. It was supposed to be Craig Monroe, but he's kind of been Bizarro Monroe this year versus lefties. Sexson would appear to be a cheap pickup, until you factor in that you'd have to release somebody (Monroe? Lamb? Everett?) and eat their salary as part of the acquisition cost. At that point the risk really outweighs the potential reward, I would think.

    • ubelmann
      July 17th, 2008 at 4:10 pm

      Sexson would also give the Twins less positional flexibility than Monroe or even Lamb does. If we're looking to upgrade our right-handed hitting, I'd say the positions to look at are 3B, LF, and RF. But there are reasons to go with a platoon at 3B, hope that Delmon will improve, and hope that Cuddyer can help out when he gets back. This isn't exactly the easiest team to improve, even though there are clearly needs.

      • twayn
        July 17th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

        I read that the Twins have actually now inquired with Seattle about Beltre. Considering his contract and Twins precedents I'm not going to hold my breath over it, but getting him would help us on both sides of the ball at 3B. Also, he could be treated as a rental for a playoff push this year and moved in the offseason or kept for the 2009 season, which would give Smith a little manueverability in any deal for him. And I think the odds of Delmon improving in the second half are better than Cuddyer making a significant impact when he comes off the DL, but both of those propositions seem to be longshots to me at this point. I certainly wouldn't pin my playoff hopes on them.

        • ubelmann
          July 17th, 2008 at 4:33 pm

          I've thought about this a lot, and I would love, love, love to have Beltre around, but I just can't think of anything that would really make sense for both teams. (And on top of that, Seattle's interim GM probably doesn't want to do anything terribly major until the iterim tag is removed.)

          The main obstacle to me is that the Twins can't move anyone who is currently contributing for the trade to make sense as playoff push move, and Seattle has a large enough budget that they shouldn't settle for A-ball prosepcts that won't help them for 3 years. What would work best is if the Twins had someone like Matt LaPorta in AA or AAA who was blocked within the organization but could be an impact player pretty soon. The Twins are pretty thin in the upper minors, though, so I think that really hurts their ability to make a deadline deal that significantly improves them.

          If Seattle was willing to settle for a deal centering around a low-level prospect, I'd imagine the deal would have to include at least one of Robertson/Guerra/Ramos/Revere. (And even Ramos might not be that enticing given the Johjima/Clement C problem they currently face.) Even at his current salary, Beltre has real value, so we would have to give up real talent to get him. I'd be willing to give up real talent if we could extend Beltre's contract by 2 years or so. I think he could be legit long-term help at 3B, and I don't see the Twins spending those dollars more wisely on the free agent market.

          • brianS
            July 17th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

            don't they owe us something more from the R.A. Dickey deal? Wink

          • Diggity Dino
            July 17th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

            You know, if it were me, I'd do one of those deals. I'd give up one of Ramos/Revere/Robertson/Guerra for Beltre in a 1-for-1 deal. Each of them is quite far away from the majors and each of them has enough questions about the level they can reach (Ramos needs to hit better this year, Revere has power/D questions, Robertson has health questions, and Guerra hasn't proven much in the minors yet). Sure, probably at least one of the 4 if not more will become at least MLB-average, but at least one will probably flame out to be no better than MLB-replacement level. Beltre could improve the team at a position of need, he hits right-handed which is a need, plays top-notch D, doesn't have any health issues, and is still relatively young. Plus, if you buy into it, he will have a contract-year performance next year Smile. He has a decently large salary, but it seems like the Twins should be able to fit in it their budget, plus, the longer they stay in the pennant race this year, the more attendance they get, meaning more $.

            • ubelmann
              July 17th, 2008 at 6:44 pm

              I would do a 1-for-1 deal with any of those players in a heartbeat, but I'm sure that the Mariners wouldn't. They're in line to get at least two high draft picks if/when Beltre leaves as a free agent, so we would need to at least match that. We would probably need to send something like, say, Robertson/Hughes plus another arm. I think that would be worth it from both sides--sort of like the Castillo deal. The prospects are valuable if they pan out, but none of them are guaranteed, and the likelihood of any one of those prospects having less impact than Beltre would have over the next 1.5 years is very good. Then if Beltre leaves after 2009, we would get 2 draft picks back to replace some of the long-term value that we lost by sending Robertson/Hughes/LiveArm. If anything, I think the Mariners might be able to get more than that for Beltre.

              I'm not really worried that much about Beltre's salary. With so many teams locking up key players to long-term deals, money spent on the free agent market doesn't go very far.

          • Rhubarb_Runner
            July 17th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

            I think BSmith is going to toy with some 3-way deals, and stretch his GM legs a bit.

      • SBG
        July 17th, 2008 at 4:27 pm

        I would never put on glove on Sexson. He's totally mashing against lefties, though. 1.000+ OPS. I'd be willing to live with his lack of positional flexibility for the chance to put him in between M&M when facing southpaws.

  • AMR
    July 17th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    Will the Yankees show the "Funk Blast" when he hits homers?

    • ubelmann
      July 17th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

      That's probably against their "no fun" policy. The bleacher creatures will probably come up with something nice and obscene for when he hits homers, though.

  • socaltwinsfan
    July 17th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    The reason Sexson was dropped by Seattle was because he was pouting because of lack of playing time. I'm not so sure he would be willing to accept a platoon and DH only role, although he might for a contender and I'm sure he's said all the right things for the Yankees.