Romero Traded

Well, scratch all the rumors about Hank Blalock for now. Unless, that is, we are going to trade Lohse and one of our prospects. The Twins traded J.C. Romero today for Alexi Casilla, a minor league infielder who ended last year at Triple-A. No big package or Brandon Wood or any of the Angels' best infield prospects. It is, seemingly, a bad trade for the Twins.

The Twins need help right now in their infielder. Are they planning on using Castilla right away? Casilla spent most of last year at Class-A Cedar Rapids, where he hit .325 with 47 stolen bases and a .392 OBP. However, with 3 HRs and 17 RBI only, he doesn't present the power option we need as well. So, was the trade purely a salary drop or the overwhelming desire to get rid of clubhouse cancer?

If so, I still believe we could have done better. After all the talks of various deals involving Romero, it makes little sense that Terry Ryan would take this deal. It doesn't really address any of the Twins needs and doesn't improve us for 2006. Romero to Texas or Boston in a deal to at least get a decent 3B option would have been better. And it seems the Angels have much better options to give us for Romero, when it appears he had at least a little value left on the market.

After a week of much talk and hard work from Ryan, this is not a very good result. Perhaps Casilla can help soon, but it seems doubtful. We still need a DH and a third baseman. Why would Ryan throw out one of the cards he has if he doesn't want to trade Baker or Liriano? I just hope this clears up money to sign Piazza or some bat. Cause we certainly need it.