Almost one week later, baseball pundits are still proferring their opinion that the centerfielder the Minnesota Twins aquired in the Johan Santana trade, Carlos Gomez, won't help them in 2008. I am going to continue to disagree.
Carlos Gomez will be the Opening Day starter in CF, and he will produce at least one stat, SB, that will have baseball punditry taking notice. To buttress that position, take a look at the Twins' current depth chart:
LF Delmon Young
CF ?
RF Michael Cuddyer
BN Jason Kubel, Craig Monroe
One of those bench outfielders will DH. That still doesn't leave a good option to play CF. This brings me to an issue that has not been considered (in addition to the Twins' stated desire to get a CF back in the Santana talks.)
The Twins currently have three AAA centerfielders: Carlos Gomez, Denard Span and Jason Pridie. While Pridie appears to be capable of moving to a corner position, Denard Span does not posess any power and would essentially see his baseball career end if he shifted to LF or RF.
Are the Twins ready to concede that or are they more likely to leave Span in CF at AAA Rochester? If so, where do Pridie and Gomez? One is going to CF in Minnesota.
Want to guess which player obtained in a trade for a marquee player that will be?