Around The AL Central: Twins And Royals Make Big Acquisitions

The Minnesota Twins trade for Pablo Lopez and the Kansas City Royals sign Aroldis Chapman.

The Guardians have remained fairly silent in the free agency and trade market since their two big singing of Josh Bell and Mike Zunino. However, the rest of the division has been pretty active. 

These are some of the recent moves Cleveland's division rivals have made:

Twins Trade For Pablo Lopez

The bigger of the two deals was the Minnesota Twins who traded for Miami Marlins pitcher Pablo Lopez. The acquisition of Lopez turns the Twins' pitching rotation into a real threat as they now have the depth to go up with any team in a playoff series.

Lopez was incredible for the Marlins in 2022. He posted a 3.75 ERA and a 1.167 WHIP. There could be some competition, but it wouldn't be surprising if Lopez was the team's Opening Day starter.

Acquiring a talented pitcher such as Pablo Lopez means you have to give up something just as valuable. In this case, the Twins had to give up one of the best hitters in the division and arguably MLB in Luis Arraez.  

Arraez has slashed a .314/.374/.410 over his four-year MLB career. He's a professional hitter in a league full of fantastic hitters. Minnesota needed to have his bat in the lineup but had to move him around in the field in order to make that happen. Now in Miami, he'll be their full-time second baseman.

He's someone that the Guardians' pitching staff won't miss not having to pitch to. 

Royals Sign Aroldis Chapman

This story is big mainly because of the name, not the stats. The Royals signed Aroldis Chapman to a one-year $3.75 million dollar deal for the 2023 season.

Chapman is far from the dominant reliever he once was. In 2022 he had a 4.46 ERA and gave saw his strikeout numbers decline. In 2021 he had an SO9 of 15.5 but in 2022 that was down to 10.7

There was a lot of drama between him and the New York Yankees which eventually led to him being left off the playoff roster along with his regression. 

You can't blame the Royals for taking a shot at him though. Having a deep bullpen is never negative and if he does turn out to produce at a high rate Kansas City could always flip him at the deadline. 

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