The Dust Has Settled on the Trade Deadline

The Trade Deadline resulted in a mini fire sale by the Twins, but I was looking for different sales on my own. I've had my eye on this 1972 Topps hi number card of Joe Morgan, his first in a Reds uniform.

It's good to know that the unbridled optimism of Topps cards is sometimes completely accurate. Joe Morgan was good before he came to Cincinnati, but his brand of speed and power transformed the Reds' lineup into a Big Red Machine.

I was thinking about the National show, which is happening this week (going on right now in Cleveland), so I entered "National" into the search engine on COMC to see what exclusives might crop up. This Dave Winfield was new to me, though it turns out the O-Pee-Chee was not. Who needs a copy of it? Lemme know and I'll send it over with some cardboard friends in a blind trade.

The Twins' GM Thad Levine was quoted at the deadline that the front office still believes the Twins' core includes Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Sano, and Jose Berrios. My reaction was "Well, you traded everyone else, so what's left to be the core?" Buxton had a recurrence of wrist issues and has landed once again on the AAA Disabled List, possibly for the rest of 2018. Quite a precipitous fall from 2017 when he was a Gold (and Platinum) Glove winner.

I've made a pact with myself to always look for at least one 1959 Topps card each time I fill up my COMC cart now, and I found this later series common for under a dollar.

Affordable relics come into play as well, and I found this Mauer mini (complete with a throwback Saint Paul Saints uniform) for a steal.

Staying on the topic of Twins' first basemen, I found a rookie relic for Justin Morneau, as well as this fun quad relic with 1.75 Hall of Famers on it. Raffy would have been a lock if it weren't for PED controversy, and Olerud probably needed a few more peak seasons and a little more power to be in the conversation. Still a very cool card that would have been very spendy in 2002, but was a much nicer price in 2018.

No Doz

BUMMER.

No cards of the prospects yet, so you get "Four"sythe.

DANG.

Fogo de Ciao

It's never easy to lose a fan favorite in a trade. Eduardo Escobar, in the final year of his contract, leading all of baseball in doubles, versatile in the field, was a valuable trade piece for a Twins team well out of the playoff picture. The Twins get three Class-A prospects in return from Arizona, but what do they lose?

Escobar had no problem making himself the clubhouse glue, whether he was playing the role of AAAA bench guy, then fill in utility guy, then first man off the bench, and the last three seasons as the everyday Shortstop. His obsession with Fogo de Chao eventually led to his own dugout drink, #cagejuice, which is essentially water he liberated from the restaurant in the weeks following the team's trip to Puerto Rico, where he met with Nicholas Cage. Twins fans will miss Eddie's #Fogopower and his leadership on and off the field. I hope the Twins try to sign him again in the off-season.

The Twins also parted ways with lights-out reliever Ryan Pressly. He was originally a Rule V draftee from the Red Sox org., and after a year stashed at the back of the bullpen, he was sent to the minors. Similar to Escobar, Pressly worked very hard to move his way up the ladder to eventually become an anchor of the Twins bullpen. I was surprised to find this was the only Pressly card I owned, but middle relievers have a tough time making it onto cardboard. The Astros gave up two AA prospects, a pitcher and a Center Fielder, to get the hard throwing righty. Pressly's still under his first MLB contract, giving the Astros control for a full season beyond this one.

So the question is - Who is next? Brian Dozier, another Free Agent, has drawn interest from many clubs, most recently Cleveland and San Francisco. Gibson has been mentioned in lots of rumors, from New York to Milwaukee and several others. It would take an aggressive offer to get him. The new guys in the Twins' bullpen are likely all available, Duke, Rodney, Addison Reed might not raise eyebrows, but could help out contenders looking to shorten the games down the stretch.

Which Twin do you wish your team would trade for?