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| Francisco Liriano in his White Sox debut. |
Terry Ryan is taking some criticism for not following Saturday night's trade of Francisco Liriano with the purging of more veterans, but I'm fine with Tuesday's inaction.
Things may well have been different were Carl Pavano and/or Matt Capps sound, but they're both on the disabled list. (It's permissible to trade a player on the disabled list, but it doesn't happen often.) Pavano is a free agent after the season, and Capps can be if the Twins don't exercise their option. They fit in the "move 'em or lose 'em" category; Ryan would have been a motivated seller, as he was with Liriano.
It's a different story with the Twins who were rumored to be involved in trade talks at the deadline -- Josh Willingham, Justin Morneau, Denard Span, Jared Burton, Glen Perkins. These guys are all under team control through 2013 at least. As long as the Twins are comfortable with the payroll space those guys eat up, Ryan didn't have to move any of them now.
Ryan's been pretty vocal about what he wants in a trade: Top-end pitching prospects with which he can reconstruct the rotation. Those guys, with one exception, weren't getting moved at the deadline. The Tigers did send Jacob Turner to Miami in the Anibel Sanchez/Omar Infante trade; I really doubt Detroit would have sent Turner (the No. 9 overall pick in 2009) to a division rival. And Jim Callis of Baseball America says Turner's status has faded.
Ryan is right to hold out for what this organization clearly needs. No need to create new holes in the roster if you're not fixing the roster's biggest problem.
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