Trade Recap- Twins and Rays swap young talent

The News

The Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays completed a six- player trade sending SP Matt Garza, SS Jason Bartlett & bullpen prospect Eduardo Morlan to the Rays for OF Delmon Young, IF Brendan Harris and OF Jason Pridie. It appears Tampa Bay is playing for 2008 after years of building for the future. The Rays who needed help in their rotation land Matt Garza who joins two young talented pitchers in Scott Kazmir and James Shields. Garza who was one of baseballs top prospects went 5-7 with a 3.69 ERA in 16 appearances, 15 starts, for Minnesota after he was called up right before the All-Star break. Along with Garza, the Rays feel they made an upgrade at Shortstop with Jason Bruntlett who became a regular when he was called up in June 2006. He gave the lineup a legitimate spark that year and batted .309 in 333 at-bats for a playoff-bound team. Like many of the Twins, though, he slumped in 2007 and finished with a .265 average, five homers, 43 RBIs and 23 steals in 510 at-bats. He made 26 errors.
The Twins meanwhile add the bat they coveted in Delmon Young. Young will likely shift to Left field with Michael Cuddyer remaining in Right. Young who unfortunately is known more for his hot temper than his unquestionable talent is given a chance to reshape his image with a no non-sense team in Minnesota. In his first full season Young finished with a .288 average, 13 home runs, 93 RBIs and 10 steals in 645 at- bats. He had 16 outfield assists while playing all 162 games in right field and filling in for injured starters in Center field. Young was criticized for being impatient and chasing too many bad balls he finished with 127 strike- outs compared to only 26 walks. Minnesota also received a talented infielder in Brendan Harris who played his first full season and will be heading to his sixth team in the last five years. Harris hit .286 with 12 homers, 59 RBI's and 72 runs scored, while playing both 2nd base and short stop for Tampa Bay.

Fantasy Outlook

When you take a look at this transaction the Fantasy impact is almost non existant. All players are staying within the American League and both the Rays and Twins posses marginal offenses. Young has a chance to put his history behind him and emerge as a consistent threat with Morneau and Cuddyer, but his draft position should remain the same. Brendan Harris currently holds the edge to start at shortstop, but the Twins have expressed interest in obtaining an infielder in any trade including Johan Santana. Harris could be a nice complementary player as he has shown he can produce solid offense when given playing time, he has average power from a middle infielder blasting 12 home runs.
Matt Garza is and was a highly touted pitching prospect and proved in his debut that he has the stuff to fool big league hitters. He will likely improve on his control and increase his strike out numbers, but the Rays have been consistently inconsistent on offense the last few years and with little veteran presence I don't see this year being any different. Garza will be handed the #3 spot in the rotation so he will surely surpass his win total of 5 from last season. Meanwhile Jason Bartlett will be handed the starting shortstop position as Executive Vice President Andrew Friedman the rest of the Rays front office are very high on him. Bartlett showed a great all around game in 2006, but regressed along with the rest of the Twins team in 2007. Statistically Bartlett will likely fall somewhere in between, though his stolen bases are likely to increase on an aggressive young Tampa Bay squad.