Devil Rays Ship Young to Minnesota

ESPN reports that the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have traded outfielder Delmon Young, infielder Brendan Harris, and minor-league reliever Eduardo Morlan to the Minnesota Twins for right-hander Matt Garza, shortstop Jason Bartlett, and minor-league outfielder Jason Pridie.

Headed to Minnesota

Interesting deal for both sides. In Young, the Twins get a replacement for Torii Hunter, who recently bolted for the greener pastures of Anaheim. Although Young may have been a tad overrated by his former manager in Tampa Bay, the kid has game. Also, he’s young, cheap, and likely to improve.

Young hasn’t always been a model citizen, but there is a ton of upside here. He could outperform Hunter as soon as, well, right now. Given their financial situation, this is a shrewd pickup for the Twins.

Harris had a nice season at shortstop for the Devil Rays, but the sense I get is that he’s a bit stretched defensively at the position and might be better suited to second base or even a utility role. Then again, that’s what folks used to say about Bartlett, and he’s turned out to be a solid big-league shortstop, so who knows.

Pridie is a prototypical Devil Rays prospect — power, speed, no plate discipline. His stock had fallen in recent years, and in an organization as stacked as Tampa Bay’s, he wasn’t likely to get much of a shot.

Headed to Tampa Bay

On the other side, Garza was Minnesota’s #1 prospect headed into 2007 according to Baseball America, which said among other things that “calling him a No. 2 starter behind Johan Santana almost seems conservative.” For a team desperate to add depth to a rotation headed by Scott Kazmir and James Shields, the acquisition of Garza makes perfect sense.

Bartlett provides the Devil Rays with a more proven big-league shortstop, albeit one whose value is heavily tied to his ability to hit for a high batting average. Morlan, the other player coming to Tampa, is a native of Cuba who had been a starter before 2007 and who had been rated Minnesota’s #21 prospect by BA coming into the season. In his first campaign as a full-time reliever, the 21-year-old posted some impressive numbers (most notably 12.61 K/9) in the Florida State League.

Fun trade. It isn’t every day you see two of the top young talents in baseball swapped for each other.

Others Voices

• Twins Geek
• Rays Index
• crashburnalley