Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Tuesday, August 1, 2017 Twins Trade All-Star Reliever Brandon Kintzler to Nationals
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Tuesday, August 1, 2017 Twins trade All-Star reliever Brandon Kintzler to Nationals. Star Tribune (Neal) p. 1 Twins' slide was a self-fulfilling prophecy fueled by bullpen decisions. Star Tribune (Rand) p. 2 Twins-San Diego series preview. Star Tribune (Neal) p. 3 Brian Dozier critical of trade that sends Jaime Garcia to Yankees for minor-leaguers. Star Tribune (Neal) p. 3 John Shipley: It’s not looking great for Twins manager Paul Molitor. Pioneer Press (Shipley) p. 4 Twins trade closer Brandon Kintzler to Washington Nationals. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 5 Twins get prospect Watson from Nats for Kintzler. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 7 Zulgad: Shortsighted will complain but Twins’ new brass made right moves. ESPN 1500 (Zulgad) p. 8 Wetmore’s 5 thoughts: Brandon Kintzler trade is the right kind of deal for the Twins. ESPN 1500 (Wetmore) p. 9 Twins send closer Kintzler to Nationals at deadline. Associated Press p. 11 Preview: Twins at Padres. STATS p. 12 MLB Trade Deadline: How Darvish, Gray and every deal shakes up playoff odds. CBS Sports (Axisa) p. 13 Nationals Acquire Brandon Kintzler From Twins. Wilmoth (MLB Trade Rumors) p. 13 Kepler: Berlin, Bundesliga and baseball. FIFA (Staff) p. 14 Rebuild committee, Twins to host groundbreaking ceremony at Tink Larson Field. Southern Minn (Ring) p. 15 Twins trade All-Star reliever Brandon Kintzler to Nationals La Velle E. Neal lll | Star Tribune | August 1, 2017 SAN DIEGO – Brandon Kintzler was feeding rhinos at a safari park in San Diego with his pregnant wife, Melissa, when the call came Monday, and mixed emotions followed. The All-Star closer was being traded to Washington for a pitching prospect. While he was fine with staying with the Twins and seeing if they could get hot and make things interesting, he is headed to a team with the second-best record in the National League. “I love it here, the coaching staff and everyone here,” Kintzler said. “It is what it is. I could always come back here [as a free agent] if it works out. “But I get to go to a first-place team with a chance to go to the playoffs and do some things. That’s what we play for.” The Twins shipped Kintzler in return for lefthander Tyler Watson, who has struck out 9.7 batters per nine innings in two-plus years as a pro. He was ranked as the Nationals’ 17th-best prospect by MLB.com. The Twins also received $500,000 in international signing bonus money, which can be used for this current period. It was the Twins’ second deal to send away a veteran pitcher in as many days; they sent lefthander Jaime Garcia to the Yankees on Sunday. The trades came two days after General Manager Thad Lavine said the team faced an “unfortunate reality” in its chase for a playoff berth. The Twins are 2-7 in their past nine games and sit 6½ games out in the American League Central. It’s been quite an ascension for Kintzler, whose career included a stop with the St. Paul Saints in 2009. He signed with the Twins as a minor league free agent before the 2016 season, made the team, took over as closer last year and made the AL All-Star team this season. Kintzler, 32, is 2-2 with a 2.78 ERA and 28 saves, third-best in the major leagues. He is making $2.93 million this year. Among those Kintzler needed to speak with included bullpen coach Eddie Guardado, who mentored the righthander through his transition to closer. “I haven’t called Eddie yet,” Kintzler said. “That one is going to be a little emotional.” Watson, listed at 6-5 and 200 pounds, is intriguing since he is only 20 with the ability to strike hitters out. He was a 34th-round pick in 2015 out of Perry High School in Gilbert, Ariz. He will be assigned to Class A Cedar Rapids. “We felt we found a guy in Tyler Watson who has a chance to be a long-term starter,” said Derek Falvey, the Twins chief baseball officer. “We’ll see where it goes. … The long-term view of him is that there’s a lot more growth in there.” The deal was completed with just a few minutes remaining before the 3 p.m. deadline. A few other teams had expressed interest in Kintzler, including Boston and Arizona, in recent days. In eight days, the Twins sent righthander Huascar Ynoa to Atlanta for Garcia and catcher Anthony Recker; sent catcher John Ryan Murphy to Arizona for lefthander Gabriel Moya; flipped Garcia to the Yankees for righthander Zack Littell and lefthander Dietrich Enns; and dealt for Watson. That’s four pitching prospects and a backup catcher. “That was one of our targeted and stated goals, going back to when we first arrived,” Falvey said. “We felt like we had some young position player talent. We felt we had a group that could continue to compete. We felt there were areas and opportunities to improve our pitchers at different levels.” Kintzler’s trade, of course, leaves the Twins without a closer. They already are ranked 28th in bullpen ERA. The Twins have been outscored 15-2 after the fifth inning during their current road trip, a direct reflection on the relievers. Manager Paul Molitor might go with the committee approach until someone emerges from the pack, although Taylor Rogers and Tyler Duffey — Kintzler’s chief setup men — figure to get a look. Then there’s the clubhouse fallout. Some Twins players still hoped to get on a roll even after Garcia was dealt Sunday. But they then blew a five- run lead against the A’s to fall to 1-5 on their road trip, and now Kintzler is off to a real pennant chase. “It’s tough because Brandon has helped us save a lot of games,” first baseman Joe Mauer said. “It’s going to be an opportunity for someone else. We still have 59 games left to go. We still can do some things. We have to stay positive and keep playing. “… Brandon will be missed. But I’m still planning on winning ballgames.” Twins' slide was a self-fulfilling prophecy fueled by bullpen decisions Michael Rand | Star Tribune | July 31, 2017 The Twins stayed in or near first place in the AL Central for 3.5 months this season thanks to a combination of strong defense, adequate offense, a bend-but-don’t-break bullpen, mediocrity within the division and — let’s face it — some good old fashioned luck. They were 48-46, half a game out of first place, on July 19 — just 12 days ago. They had given up 61 more runs on the season than they had allowed, but they had been very good in close games — 10-5 in one-run games at that point — and their bullpen, while sporting a bruised ERA, had established at least a capable 1-2 punch of Taylor Rogers and Brandon Kintzler at the end. If the Twins could get deep into a ballgame with a lead, they felt reasonably good about their chances. It always felt precarious, though. All along, it seemed like the Twins were one or two dependable bullpen arms away from feeling really secure about life after the sixth inning. It was a failure of roster construction — much of it bad luck for new bosses Derek Falvey and Thad Levine, and part of a lack of urgency on their part. Eventually, the bullpen woes became a self-fulfilling prophecy that fueled the Twins’ seemingly inevitable slide, turning them from buyers to sellers and from contenders to mediocrity at warp speed. The bad luck was that so many of the Twins’ power minor league arms — they guys they’ve been waiting on for two or three years — succumbed to injuries. Also: Trevor May and Glen Perkins haven’t pitched all year because of injuries. Ryan Pressly regressed. Those are significant obstacles. The lack of urgency was this: the Twins’ bullpen was a problem last year (and in past years) under the old leadership team. To that group, the notable outside additions were Matt Belisle (a 37-year-old with a career 4.22 ERA) and Craig Breslow (a 36-year-old journeyman who has since been designated for assignment after a poor season). Neither were likely to be high-impact relievers. Paul Molitor was screaming from the top of the tower for help, and the cavalry never came. The Twins survived because Kintzler and Rogers 2 overachieved, Tyler Duffey was good enough as a third option and the lower-leverage guys were used as much as possible when the Twins were ahead by a lot or down by a lot (more often the latter based on their run differential and 13-21 record in blowout games this season). Then everything fell apart at once. Cleveland and Kansas City went on big winning streaks, turning the AL Central from mediocre to competitive. The Twins lost a bunch of winnable games on the West Coast, the last three of which have come in walk-off fashion. In two of those three games, the Twins led 5-0, only to lose 6-5. In the other, they led 4-3 in the ninth. Rogers had a bad week. Kintzler took the loss in one of those walk-offs. Suddenly the Twins are 7 games back in the division race at 50-53. After Rogers gave up the two-run walk-off home run Saturday, Molitor said this (while also praising Rogers for how good he had been for most of the year): “It just goes to show you, you can’t take for granted the value of outs late in games and people who can handle that.” It sounded like a manager throwing his hands up and saying, “This is all I have to work with, and when Plan A doesn’t work we’re in trouble.” The bullpen the Twins built inevitably turned them from buyers to sellers right at the trade deadline.