Two more trades

The Twins on Monday moved out a pair of pitchers on one-year deals, Zach Duke and Lance Lynn.

Neither brought much of a return, which is to be expected of a 35-year-old LOOGY (Duke) and a started with a 5.10 ERA (Lynn).

The trades:

#MNTwins Roster Moves: Twins acquire Chase De Jong and Ryan Costello in exchange for Zach Duke. pic.twitter.com/llJfdi4s14

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) July 30, 2018

#MNTwins Roster Moves: Twins acquire Luis Rijo and Tyler Austin in Exchange for Lance Lynn. pic.twitter.com/IqCNwh66Gg

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) July 30, 2018

Costello is the more interesting of the gets in the Mariners deal. MLBpipeline.com has him as No. 28 in the Mariners system, but Seattle has a notably depleted system. Costello leads the Midwest League (low A) in homers and RBIs, but ...

• he's old for the level and
• in two minor league seasons he's played his way off third base and is apparently a poor defensive first baseman.

He's gonna have to mash to make it to the majors. If I were making the call, he would move up to Fort Myers and a more age-appropriate environment.

De Jong is going on his fourth organization. He got 28 innings in the majors last year, allowing five homers and a 6.25 ERA. He's been in Double-A this year. He's on the 40-man roster, but there's not much here to interest me.

Austin got most of the attention from Dick-n-Torii during the TV broadcast in the Lynn deal, probably because he hit a homer off Lynn earlier this year. He'll turn 27 before the season ends. Right-handed hitter, genuine power, lots of strikeouts. The Yankees gave him 269 major league plate appearances and spun him off; he'll be out of options next year and my guess is they weren't going to keep him on the 40 this winter. 

He appears to be high floor, low ceiling, and that doesn't do much for me. I don't see a use for him on the current roster -- unless Logan Morrison is leaving soon -- and in the future Brant Rooker, also a right-right 1B-OF, is a better bet to contribute.

Rijo is the very definition of a lottery ticket. He's a 19-year-old right handed pitcher out of Venezuela who has split his 2018 on three levels and put up decent numbers in limited exposure. He is said to have good control and secondary pitches but limited velocity. He might be something, and we might never hear of him again.