November 21, 2022

We hardly knew ye, Gio Urshela

Gio Urshela, the ex-Yankee who spent the 2022 season with the Twins, is gone after he was traded to the Angels for a 19-year-old pitching prospect.

Urshela was part of a core group of Twins, the others being Jose Miranda, Luis Arraez and Carlos Correa, who helped the Twins stay relevant for most of the season before the team’s injury problems overwhelmed them. He hit .285/.338/.429 with 64 RBI, a good season at the plate by any definition, and he also made a number of outstanding plays at third base, especially going to his right and throwing long to get the out at first base. However, defensively overall he doesn’t rate that high. I know the Twins radio play-by-play tandem of Cory Provus and Dan Gladden, who frequently talked about his play in the field, would beg to differ.

Urshela was traded for Alejandro Hidalgo who is too young and not far enough long in his minor league pitching career to know if he will amount to anything, frankly. He pitched to a 4.62 ERA over 39 inning in Low-A ball, according to MLB Trade Rumors.

So why trade Urshela for a nobody? Miranda is waiting in the wings, of course, but I also think this is about dumping some salary so the Twins can make the best possible offer to retain Correa for the 2023 season. The rumor is the Twins are going to make him a monster proposition.

Before that transaction happens (if it happens) the Twins, still needing some infield depth, went out and got Reds infielder Kyle Farmer in exchange for Double-A pitching prospect Casey Legumina. Farmer doesn’t hit as well as Urshela, but he still has some power (14 home runs in 2022) and has played at shortstop and third base where he rates a notch higher defensively, MLB Trade Rumors reports.

Extra innings…

-The Twins announced new uniforms this week and I like ‘em, especially the white home uniform that says Twin Cities across the front. The one exception is the M-branded cap which I have never cared for. The Twins should always use and only use “TC” on the cap.

Even a Chicago White Sox fan dished out some praise for the new uniforms.

 

-And then there was this… former Twin Brent Rooker weighing in on the tenuous state of Twitter, the company.

COMMENTS

Hi, I’m Rolf Boone, Twins fan.

I became a fan of the Minnesota Twins after a friendly wager in the early 1980s. I survived Ron Davis, the meltdown in Cleveland, Phil Bradley at the Kingdome and then marveled at a rising generation of stars and two World Series wins in 1987 and 1991. Brad Radke made the 1990s bearable, while Kirby Puckett’s eye injury, exit from the game and eventual death made it almost too much to bear. The new century ushered in more talent — Joe Mauer, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter, Justin Morneau — and consecutive seasons of playoff baseball, followed by consecutive seasons of losing baseball. A winning season returned in 2015. So here we are. Go Twins.