Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
MMO’s Michael Mayer reports the Twins spent time this weekend scouting Mets’ minor leaguers, particularly players at their Low-A St. Lucie site, with the trade deadline is just five days away.
Mayer says the Twins have “monitored” Junior Santos, a 19-year-old with a 5.37 ERA through 13 appearances (11 starts) for St. Lucie this year. The 6’7″ righty has touched 97 miles-per-hour with his fastball this season, though the rest of his repertoire is very much up in the air. He’s also walked 26 batters in 55.1 innings in 2021.
Other players at the Mets’ St. Lucie site include outfielder Alex Ramirez and infielder Jaylen Palmer, a 20-year-old Flushing-born infielder who’s boosted his average to .284 and on-base percentage to .383 the last couple months. He has 64 hits and 23 stolen bases through 60 games. He’s hitting .356 in the month of July.
The Mets have been loosely linked to Twins players like José Berríos (Jeremy Hefner reportedly sung high praises for Berríos after he was his pitching coach in 2019), Josh Donaldson and Taylor Rogers, as Mayer reports.
Minnesota has had a disappointing season thus far, sitting at 42-57 and 16.5 games out of first place in the AL Central and 13.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot after winning the AL Central the previous two seasons. They began their sell-off this weekend by shipping Nelson Cruz to Tampa Bay in exchange for two Top 20 pitching prospects. The difference between Cruz and the three aforementioned Twins, though, is Cruz only had this year of control left. Berríos, Donaldson and Rogers are each under control through at least 2022.
Berríos threw seven innings of two-run ball against the Angels Saturday night and has 3.48 ERA on the season. Rogers was one of the Twins’ two All-Stars this year along with Cruz. He has a 3.35 ERA and 125 ERA+ in 40.1 innings.
Donaldson, on the offensive side of things, has continued his steady above-average offensive play this season with an .825 OPS and 124 wRC+.
