Twins Trade Delmon Young

This afternoon, the Twins traded OF Delmon Young to the Detroit Tigers for LHP Cole Nelson and a player to be named later. This coming as the team gets set to open up a three game set against Detroit tonight, in the Motor City.

Young has been having a dismal season batting .266 with 4 HR and 32 RBI in 84 games played. This coming off an impressive 2010 season where he hit .298 with 21 HR and 112 RBI. His time in the lineup in the second half this year has been limited due to his poor outfield defense and the emergence of Ben Revere as a reliable outfielder for the Twins. Delmon has one year of arbitration left, but was expected to be non tendered by the Twins due to his high salary and poor production.

Cole Nelson, the prospect the Twins acquired in this trade, is in his first full season of professional baseball. He has spent the 2011 season with the Lakeland Flying Tigers of the Florida State League (Class A Advanced), going 5-11 with a 4.87 ERA in 26 games played (17 starts). Since the beginning of July, Nelson has been moved to the bullpen (reaching his innings pitched limit, I assume?) and has been effective going 1-1 with a 2.86 ERA in his last 10 games. He will probably finish out the season with the Fort Myers Miracle (Twins Class A Advanced affiliate).

I personally think this is a good move for the Twins. They were going to have to move an outfielder this offseason because of the good play of Ben Revere this year. Had the Twins just waited until the offseason, they would of just non tendered him and got nothing in return. Hopefully, the player to be named later will turn out to be a good prospect as well, but I'm guessing thats depending on how well Delmon plays for the Tigers to close out the season.