Rumors: Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins discuss deal for Mike Minor

The trade market has been fairly quiet to this point, but perhaps the Texas Rangers could be getting closer to dealing Mike Minor.

Up to this point, there hasn’t been much to speak of in terms of concrete trade rumors surrounding Texas Rangers’ ace Mike Minor. The All-Star lefty is no doubt one of the best arms on the market, but things have been fairly quiet thus far. In fact, the entire trade market has been more or less quiet up until yesterday afternoon. As rumors surrounding Noah Syndergaard, Robbie Ray and Marcus Stroman began to heat up, Jon Morosi of MLB.com noted that the Minnesota Twins have reached out to the Rangers to discuss Mike Minor.

The Twins no doubt make sense as a potential suitor for Mike Minor. Using a rotation that features just two regular starters with ERAs under 4.00, Mike Minor would be an instant upgrade for the Twins. He’d slot in alongside Jose Berrios at the top of Minnesota’s rotation giving them a good 1-2 punch. Minnesota currently leads the AL Central by a game and will be looking to hold on to that slim advantage. Their offense leads the MLB in homers, recently setting an all-time record for the fastest team to 200 homers in a season. Unsurprisingly they also lead baseball in team slugging percentage and OPS while sitting just 2nd in batting average. They have the offense to get it done, but could use a boost to their starting pitching if they want to try and make a run.

Prospects to Watch in a Possible Return

If the Twins did decide to jump on Mike Minor, the Rangers should be able to net a nice return package of prospects. Minnesota currently boasts a couple of Top 20 prospects in baseball, SS Royce Lewis (#7) and OF Alex Kirilloff (#16). While the Rangers would love to snag one of those top talents, that’s highly unlikely at best. However, the Twins do have other Top 100 prospects and I’d be curious to see if Texas could pry away RHP Brusdar Graterol (#58). Graterol could get a place in a big league rotation next season and would become the top prospect in the Rangers organization.

Other names to watch include RHP Jordan Balazovic (#82) and OF Trevor Larnach (#97), the latter of which has been mentioned as a player the Twins would be open to dealing. Assuming the Twins won’t give up their top pitching prospect in Graterol, if Texas could find a way to get a package of Balazovic and Larnach, they’d upgrade their minor league system big time. While the Twins don’t necessarily have the mouth-watering minor league system of the Braves or Padres, the Rangers could get some serious young talent that would help them build for the future.