Fresh off designating All-Star DH Corey Dickerson for assignment while acquiring first baseman C.J. Cron, the Rays weren't done dealing Saturday night. They also sent starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi to the Twins for minor-league shortstop Jermaine Palacios, the club announced.
The Twins badly needed to bolster their rotation before Ervin Santana got hurt, but now knowing he'll miss a big chunk of the season, they had a pretty brutal rotation before this trade.
Now, the Twins' opening day rotation figures to be something like: Jose Berrios, Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, Anibal Sanchez, Adalberto Mejia.
That's still not very good, but Santana should return before June and Phil Hughes could be back early in the season as well.
Odorizzi, 27, was 10-8 with a 4.14 ERA (100 ERA+), 1.24 WHIP and 127 strikeouts in 143 1/3 innings last season for the Rays. He's pretty well established to be an acceptable mid-rotation guy. Expecting anything resembling a frontline starter isn't really realistic.
Still, the Twins got better with this move. That's the most important takeaway for the team who won the second AL wild card spot last season and is hoping to improve upon that.
Palacios, 20, hit .296/.333/.454 with 21 doubles, 10 triples, 13 homers and 20 stolen bases between Class A (62 games) and Class A-Advanced (62 games as well) last season.
