photo credit: TheBusyBrain
It’s gonna be a tense season without a closer…
Minnesotans are a little more queezy today after it was revealed that Joe Nathan–their star closer–has torn his ulnar collateral ligament. Yeah, that means he might need Tommy John surgery. That sucks royally for the Twins.
The already were having a hard time signing Joe Mauer and now this? Nathan has 246 saves in the last 6 season and now those just went right down the toilet. Yikes!
So, can the Twins go out and fix this? Can they go “Closer by committee”? At 37 with 12-18 months of recovery on the horizon from Tommy John surgery I don’t know if Nathan would be able to come back at all. Ouch!
If the Twins’ plan to let the soreness let up and see if the muscle can build itself back up works then there won’t be any issues, just one long season without him for most of it, but if he needs surgery then we’ve got problems in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Can they go out and get someone right now? Maybe. More than likely they’d have to trade for someone though and I don’t know that you want to give up alot to do something for the closers spot.
If you look over their active roster you don’t see many names that jump out at you, but you do see that they have lots of guys on the roster listed at Pitcher. That’s helpful when you need options.
Plus, if they wait just a little bit into the season somebody–a pathetic team–will already be done and ready to fire sale everything. So, waiting is a good option from their perspective.
Until then they can probably work something otu and then dupe a stupid team into a lopsided trade. Let’s see if they’re as smart as I think they are…
