Deadline day: Milone, Suzuki, Vargas, Fuld

It speaks to how deep Oakland's
pitching is that the Athletics
could discard Tommy Milone
for a backup outfielder.

The Twins did indeed make a deal on deadline day. One trade, and it looks pretty darn good from here: Sam Fuld back to Oakland for Tommy Milone.

They had other moves to make as well: they called up Kennys Vargas and signed Kurt Suzuki to a two- or three-year contract extension, depending on how many at-bats the veteran catcher gets in 2016.

Going through the moves, one player at a time:

Tommy Milone

A soft-tossing 27-year-old lefty, Milone has compiled a 32-22, 3.84 record in 80 games, 78 starts over the past four years. Yes, he's in Triple A now; that's because the A's overloaded themselves with starters earlier in July with the Jeff Samardzija-Jason Hammel trade, and Milone had an option left.

The Twins have been trying to add velocity in recent years. That is, emphatically, not Milone; he averages 86 mph on his fast ball. But he's been effective anyway.

Will that effectiveness continue? Well, he won't have the outfield defense behind him with the Twins that he generally had in Oakland, but Target Field, like the Oakland monstrosity, is pitcher-friendly. He's not close to be being the best lefty dealt on Thursday, and he's nobody's idea of an ace, but he will be an upgrade in the middle to back of the rotation. His track record says he's better than Kevin Correia.

Milone had dropped to seventh on the A's starting pitcher list with the addition earlier Thursday of Jon Lester, and he was vocally displeased about his demotion. For now, he's assigned to Rochester, but I rather suspect the Twins won't even have him report to the Red Wings. He started Tuesday for Sacramento; I expect him to be called up this weekend.

Kurt Suzuki

I opined in the Monday print column that a big reason -- really the only reason -- for the Twins to retain Suzuki was the lack of alternatives in the system. The veteran got two years guaranteed at $6 million a year -- more than double his current salary -- and a third year at the same pay if he meets playing time criteria.

What this tells us, besides the fact that Suzuki has had a surprisingly good season with the Twins, is that the organization doesn't believe in Josmil Pinto in particular or in any of the catchers in the upper levels of the farm system. That last is no surprise -- it's why the Twins drafted three catchers in the first nine rounds of the 2013 draft.

Sam Fuld

Everybody is falling over themselves lauding Billy Beane, the Oakland GM, for landing Jon Lester on Thursday. His moves with Fuld, on the other hand, don't look quite as nifty.

Fuld opened the season with the A's; he played centerfield against the Twins during Minnesota's home opener series because of injuries to Coco Crisp and Craig Gentry. When Crisp and Gentry were ready to play, Beane waived Fuld, and the Twins picked him up.

And now Crisp and Gentry are hurt again, and the A's plan to fill left field after trading away Yoenis Cespedes doesn't involve defensive whizzes, and Beane needed somebody who can handle center field and come off the bench to catch a fly ball in left.

So he surrendered a legitimate major league starter (Milone) to get Fuld back after giving him away.

Kennys Vargas

The Twins called Vargas up from Double A to fill Fuld's roster spot. They are not comparable talents; Fuld is a 32-year-old speedy slap-hitting outfielder, Vargas a lumbering 23-year-old DH-first baseman with bigtime power.

Vargas' solid numbers at new Britain were fueled by a monster month of May; he endured a stiff slump in July. I doubt he's going to shine in this trial.

But I have no problem with letting him try. The at-bats he gets will be taken from the likes of Chris Collabello, Chris Parmelee and Josh Willingham, none of whom are prominent in the Twins future plans. Vargas might be.

Shuffling the roster

Jason Kubel choose
not to report to Triple-A
Rochester.

A few Twins roster notes to clear out of the way:

* Jason Kubel cleared waivers and declined a minor-league assignment. So the Twins will release him.

Kubel was designated for assignment to make room for Kendrys Morales. This may be it for Kubel as a major league player. He's only 32 and wacked 30 homers for Arizona as recently as 2012, but his bat just up-and-died in midseason of that year.

Seriously: At the All-Star break in 2012 he was slashing .293/.367/.533; after the break, .201/.275/.470. Still a good slugging percentage, but the homers was all he did ... and it got worse from there.

So it's been about two calendar years since he was a truly good hitter. 

* Aaron Hicks went on the disabled list Friday after getting his sore shoulder examined. Sam Fuld was reactivated from the concussion DL.

It's possible Hicks would have been optioned out this weekend to make room for Fuld had he not gotten hurt. He needs more regular at-bats, especially against righties, as he transitions from switch-hitting, than he was going to get in the majors.

Mike Pelfrey's
surgery was done by
Dr. James Andrews,
who also did his
2012 Tommy John
surgery.

* Mike Pelfrey had surgery to remove scar tissue in his right elbow that was pressing on his ulna nerve and causing tingling in his pitching arm.

He kept saying he was healthy, but the radar gun readings said something was wrong. Presumably this was the something.

Pelfrey is to miss at least two months, which would put his return no earlier than mid August. I'll hazard the guess that the only way he gets on a major league mound again this year is if the Twins fall out of contention. (He has another year on his contract with the Twins.)

*Eric Fryer was indeed the callup to replace Josmil Pinto as the No. 2 catcher. Chris Herrmann was at the same time reactivated off the minor league disabled list.

What next in center field?

Danny Santana,
center fielder by default

Aaron Hicks apparently injured a shoulder making a diving catch to end Saturday's game. He hasn't started the past three games (although he did pinch run in one of them), and there was chatter Tuesday that he may go on the disabled list as soon as today.

Hicks decided on May 26 that he would abandon switch-hitting and stick to the right side. He has since then gone 5-for-19 with four walks, a slash line of .263/.391/.316. Twenty-four plate appearances don't prove very much, but I'm not sure you can find another stretch of 24 plate appearances in his brief career in which he hit .263, much less reached base more than 39 percent of the time.

Still, between the injury and the significant switch in his game, there's reason to doubt that he should be on the major league roster. One big reason he remains on the roster: a lack of reasonable alternatives.

Enter, perhaps, San Fuld, currently serving a rehab assignment in New Britain as he prepares to return from his concussion. Should Hicks go on the DL, Fuld probably gets reactivated.

And Danny Santana doubtless gets a steady diet of center field time. Santana has produced so far, but his major league numbers far outstrip his minor league stats. He's not this good. But one cannot blame Ron Gardenhire for riding him while he hits.

The center field option that intrigues me most is probably at least few weeks away from getting a shot: Eddie Rosario. Rosario had a late start to the 2014 season because of his drug suspension. Once eligible, he spent a bit more than a week at High A Fort Myers shaking off the rust (.300/.382/.300 in eight games), then moved back to Double A, where he finished 2013. In his first three games there, he went 6-for-13 with a double and a homer.

Rosario was a center fielder when he started his minor league career. The Twins a couple of years ago started trying to convert him to a second baseman, and the reviews on that have been mixed. I assume he's a better defensive outfielder than defensive infielder; the rationale for trying to switch him was rooted in (a) the other center fielders in the organization and (b) a sense that he may not have the extra base thump to be a corner outfielder.

When somebody asked Gardenhire a few days ago about converting Santana's primary position from shortstop, Gardy said something along the lines of We all know what's coming there. Referring, of course, to Byron Buxton. But Buxton isn't an answer to the immediate question.

Right now, the Twins have four possible answers to the question: Who's our center fielder? To one degree or another, they've tried three of them. I fully expect that before long they'll try the fourth.

Adding Sam Fuld

Sam Fuld: Former Cub, former Ray,
former A and now current Twin.

The Twins on Sunday picked up outfielder Sam Fuld on waivers and designated outfielder Darin Mastroianni for assignment.

This is swapping out marginal outfielders. Mastroianni had gone 0-for-11 (with one walk and five strikeouts) since his recall and has a major league career average of .220 in 241 at-bats; Fuld was hitting an even .200 when Oakland designated him for assignment and has a major league career average of .233.

The move raised immediate speculation about the implications for Aaron Hicks, the Twins regular center fielder. Hicks, a switch hitter, is much better from the right side. Fuld, a lefty, makes a natural platoon partner should the Twins be so inclined. (Mastroianni, a righty, didn't fit that role.)

But as I've noted repeatedly, Ron Gardenhire is not a platoon-oriented manager. And even beyond managerial aversion to platooning, I doubt that Hicks' development will be enhanced if he's dropped into a platoon role at age 24.

The next good Twins team will have Byron Buxton in center, not Hicks. If Hicks is a regular on that team, it will be as a corner outfielder, and he'll need to hit a lot more than he has to hold that kind of role. Sitting him against righties isn't going to help that cause.

For what it's worth -- and it's not much -- Fuld in his major league career has actually hit better against lefties than against righties.

Meanwhile, we are treated to more evidence that Gardenhire's managerial skills don't necessarily include talent evaluation. Fuld, he said after Sunday's game, is "a leadoff type." No, he isn't. He can steal a base, yes, but he has a well-below average career on-base percentage (.312). He's a bottom-of-the-order type. He may wind up hitting leadoff for lack of a real leadoff hitter, but he is NOT a leadoff type. Neither is Brian Dozier, for that matter.

Another interesting aspect (at least to me) in this move is the sequence that began late in spring training, when the Twins lost Alex Presley on waivers in order to keep Jason Bartlett. Now Bartlett is unofficially retired (he remained on the 40-man roster as of Sunday) and the Twins have scooped up another left-handed reserve outfielder, which is what Presley is.

I'm confident that Presley is a better hitter than Fuld, but Fuld is a superior defensive player and baserunner. Which is the better player? I'd say it depends on what the team needs from the bench. Considering the defensive deficiencies of the Minnesota outfield (particularly in the corners), Fuld may indeed be a more useful piece for this team.