Gomez traded for Hardy

The Twins made a big splash into the offseason by trading for a new starting shortstop. The Twins needed upgrades at 2B, SS, and 3B and they needed to sort out the outfield situation. Today they solved two of their problems.

JJ Hardy, age 27, will be under the Twins control for at least the next two seasons, and hopefully more. In 2007 Hardy hit 26 homers, and in 2008 he hit 24 homers with a triple slash line of .283/.343./.478. (Avg/OBP/Slg). Last season he had a slump that never went away. He had 11 homers and a triple slash line of .229/.302/.357. Hardy was sent to the minors towards the end of the season to make room for the Brewers shortstop of the future.

Hardy plays superb defense. Even if he doesn't rebound completely to his former offensive numbers, Hardy is a huge upgrade for the Twins.

I am sad to see Gomez go, but with each passing year it becomes less and less likely that Gomez will tap into his enormous potential and become a star. Gomez is the best defensive outfielder in the majors, but his lack of batting skills made it hard for him to play every day. Even when he got on-base, he didn't steal as many bases as he should have.

Here are some other items related to this trade:

-Hardy is a good friend of Mauer's. This can't hurt in the attempt to keep Mauer here.

-The Santana/Garza trades just might work out after all:

-The Santana trade becomes essentially Santana for JJ Hardy, Jon Rauch, and Deolis Guerra. (Guerra will rank very high in my top 50 prospects series). That doesn't look as bad as Gomez/Guerra/Humber/Mulvey.

-Delmon Young becomes an everyday outfielder. He thrived at the end of the 2009 season when he played everyday. I think he has a monster breakout year in 2010.

-Span finally has just one position as he will be the starting centerfielder.

-So the everyday outfield will be Young in LF, Span in center, and Cuddyer in RF.

-It will be interesting to see who the 4th outfielder will be. Rene Tosoni? Or do they sign a FA?

-Is Bill Smith done improving the infield? There are some great 2nd basemen available as free agents. And today Smith wouldn't commit to saying that Punto is the team's 2nd baseman next year.

-There wasn't very many great free agent shortstops this offseason, so it's great to see the Twins nab one of the few available through trade.

-Will Hardy be the #2 hitter? His career average of .323 isn't ideal for the #2 hole but it would be better than anything the Twins threw out there last year.

-This also means Orlando Cabrera won't return to the Twins. I'm not going to lose sleep over that.

I'd say this is the best trade Bill Smith has made, and the Twins look to be the big winners in this one.