You’re correct about Kubel being expendable. He just has limited trade value given that NL teams will doubt he can play the OF every day and he has not demonstrated he can hit LH pitching well.

There are a lot of proposals floating in blogdom that have Ramos and Mauer sharing catching and DH roles, but given Gardy’s phobia concerning having both of his catchers in the lineup and, potentially, losing his DH if his catcher gets dinged during the game, this solution may result in the Twins carrying 3 catchers. I don’t think that’s a luxury any team can afford.

Some sort of gradual transition over the course of a season may work out (Victor Martinez has done that C/1B shuffle pretty well for a few years now). I suspect, however, that some team will eventually make Bill Smith an offer he can’t refuse.

Oh… and my guess on the number of seasons Joe remains primarily a catcher is 2 (after this season). By 2013, I’d bet money he spends more time at another position than he does catching and I’d make a side bet that he is the eventual successor to Morneau at 1B.

My plan would be to trade Kubel and insert Ramos as a DH (thats if no one is willing to trade a stud pitcher for Ramos) Gives the team a nice right handed bat and a fill in catcher

actually my plan would be to keep the team intact and never to trade anyone :p , but thats not possible

I’m glad you enjoyed the blog. It’s nice to know that pieces you put some time and thought in to are actually being read occasionally!