Brusdar Graterol is not the same as Sam Dyson

As Tawny wrote in the wee hours of this morning, a part of the three-team trade might fall through after the Boston Red Sox read through Brusdar Graterol’s medical reports. Many fans of the Minnesota Twins are calling this a repeat of the Sam Dyson trade between the Twins and San Francisco Giants, where Minnesota sent Jaylin Davis, Prelander Berroa, and Kai-Wei Teng to the Bay Area. However, it is quite far from the case.

With Graterol involved, the Twins seemed to be pretty open with moving him to a bullpen role moving forward, at least in 2020. As you may remember, the righty had shoulder issues for most of 2019 before being reinstated from the injured list and working his way up to a September cup of coffee, where he pitched out of the bullpen. However, Boston believed that they were getting a starting pitcher out of this trade and now seem to “only” be receiving a reliever. On the trade market, starting pitchers are much more valuable than relievers, and the Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Minnesota, will need to re-group and find a way to alleviate the issue. Boston caught this ahead of time in the final few steps of the trade transaction process, before Graterol could throw a pitch for them.

Quite the contrary for the Twins when they received Dyson. During the trade, the Twins were not made aware of any injury or physical issues during the transaction. Whose fault that is is still up in the air. Dyson had come out and said that he had soreness as early as mid-July. Whether he reported it to any members of the San Francisco staff, trainers, or medical professionals is unclear. In either instance, the Twins were not made aware of Dyson’s physical issue through any medical reports provided to them. Once Dyson was injured the second time around, the trade was deemed a bust and the Twins looked to have egg on their face even though it was no fault of their own. Dyson will most likely not pitch in a big-league game in 2020, so he was non-tendered by the Twins and also has some off-the-field issues.

Although the Red Sox found something unpleasant in the medical reports for Graterol and put this trade on hold, it’s a good thing for Minnesota, otherwise they’d be finding themselves with egg on their face again.