Was it any coincidence that Minnesota Twins general manager Thad Levine took a question about the MLB trade deadline and answered it by mostly talking about players already on the team who are coming back from injury?
Appearing as a guest on WCCO Radio Wednesday morning, Levine was asked about the looming August 2 trade deadline and how the Twins are approaching it.
"We've been dealing with so many injuries," he began. "We started the season with seven starting pitchers on our Major League Baseball team. We had six in the rotation and Josh Winder in the bullpen. Within like four weeks we were down to like two starting pitchers, which was partially down to COVID and then some injuries that we sustained.
"We're still trying to get healthy on the starting rotation side, just recently getting Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan back and Josh Winder just got promoted again, and we're still waiting for Bailey Ober to return. I think there's a lot of help on the horizon."
He then switched gears assessing the bullpen: "Joe Smith is going to get activated today, he's going to help out in the 'pen. We've got Danny Coulombe and Jorge Alcala tracking back to being healthy and hopefully Jhon Romero as well, so there's some help from within that's on the horizon that we're very excited about."
For the sake of clarity, Levine was specifically asked this question by Mike Max: "As you move towards the trade deadline, how do you assess your pitching staff and do you get any feel for if there's going to be a lot of movement in terms of teams trying to pick up pitching?"
So Levine assessed the starting rotation and bullpen with optimism about getting guys back from injury. None of those guys, however are considered game-changers who can help the Twins in a big spot in the playoffs. If that's an unfair claim, it's certainly fair to say none of those names have a track record of being called upon in the playoffs in a critical situation. They're definitely not going to inject hope into a fanbase that has watch the Twins lose 18 straight playoff games.
Now to Levine's answer about his approach to the trade deadline:
"Like every team that's out there who's a playoff contender, we're certainly combing the market to see what options there are to improve our team, and I think it's no mistake the focus will be on the pitching side."
That's something. A very minimal something, but better than nothing. Twins fans can at least know the leaders of the team are aware of what should be considered desperate pitching needs.
New York gets to send Gerrit Cole to the mound in Game 1. Houston can roll with Justin Verlander. The Rays get to go with MLB ERA leader Shane McClanahan. The Blue Jays can go with rising star Alek Manoah. Even the Mariners, if they make the playoffs, can send the reigning Cy Young winner Robbie Ray to the mound.
The only AL playoff contender the Twins have a better No. 1 starter than (Sonny Gray or Joe Ryan) is Boston, but that might be changing right now because Chris Sale is making his season debut Wednesday night.
It's no secret that the Twins probably can't be taken seriously in the postseason against the likes of the Yankees, Astros and Red Sox.
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