Santana criticizes Twins front office for giving up on season
The Minnesota Twins' disappointing season resulted in a significant selloff and left veteran starter Ervin Santana scratching his head over some of the moves by the front office.
Minnesota has struggled to stay consistent over the course of the season and sat nine games back in the division at the non-waiver trade deadline. Those results led to Brian Dozier, Fernando Rodney, Zach Duke, Lance Lynn, Eduardo Escobar, and Ryan Pressly all being traded away over the last three weeks.
"It's tough, especially when we're only 10 games out and we have two months left," Santana said, according to Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press. "Everybody's like, 'They gave up.' We're not giving up, but they did. They took our pieces away, and it's difficult to play without our good pieces. You know what I mean? So we just have to play with what we have and try to win games."
It's not the first time the Twins front office opted to sell at the deadline. In fact, when the club acquired Jaime Garcia last July, they flipped him six days later following a losing streak. Minnesota was 4 1/2 games out of the second wild-card spot at the time, but were able to close the gap and reach the postseason before losing to the Yankees in the one-game playoff.
The Twins face a much larger deficit this time around, and it's hard to fault the front office for moving some veterans on expiring deals. Entering play Saturday, the Twins sit 11 games back of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central and 14 1/2 out of the second wild-card spot. The team's playoff odds are 0.1 percent, according to Fangraphs, slightly worse than the 0.2 percent it had on the non-waiver trade deadline.
Santana, who is a candidate to be traded in August, has a $14-million team option for next year before hitting free agency.