Eight years and $184 million can do a lot of things, but prying inexpensive, top-tier closing talent away from a small-market club is a gargantuan task, regardless of the resources available.
Yet if the Minnesota Twins have any designs on persuading the San Diego Padres to part with their All-Star closer, Heath Bell, they took the first and most important step on Sunday.
That is when they agreed to a mega-deal with catcher Joe Mauer, extending him through the 2018 season and solidifying their catcher situation for the majority of the new decade.
That newfound certainty about their future at the position puts them in position to deal minor-league catcher, and one of the organization's top prospects, Wilson Ramos to San Diego.
Ramos, 22, is a poor man's Mauer, having shown a very consistent ability to hit for average but only gap power to this point in his development. He flourished at the Double-A level last year, despite battling injury, and is at most one season away from being big league-ready.
San Diego, meanwhile, has been frustrated by the slow progress of their top catching prospect, Nick Hundley. Already 26, Hundley has failed to make consistent contact during two big league seasons, striking out an alarming 28.2 percent of the time en route to a .238 batting average and a .298 on-base percentage.
For the Twins, the move would be wise for two reasons.
First, it would allow them to enter the season with a comfortable feeling about their closer situation despite the absence of perennial All-Star Joe Nathan. Nathan set the wheels of this entire proceeding in motion during early Grapefruit League action, when he tore his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL), an injury that will require Tommy John surgery and a full year of rehab to heal.
Secondly, the Twins would gain in this exchange by adding Bell, to whom they would need to pay only $4 million in 2010. Then, with Nathan returning, the team could flip Bell next winter, getting in exchange a prospect who plays a position at which they have greater need. For instance, they might pursue a true center fielder, which would allow Denard Span to move out of that spot and into his more natural right field.
The deal would represent a risk. It would mean Minnesota intends to win this season and would demonstrate a willingness to risk some measure of future success (after all, were Bell to bust, the team would not get a solid return when trading him after 2010) to win with a team that is built to compete in 2010. It also may be the key to a deep playoff run.
As all things Twins seem to do these days, however, it all began with Joe Mauer.
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