Rumors have been floating around the Minnesota Twins for a while now regarding trades for bunches of players, with Francisco Liriano being the top candidate as the trade deadline approaches. Liriano was finally unloaded to the Chicago White Sox, but with two days to go until the deadline the pressure is still on the Twins and their players.
Understandably, the players are still a bit concerned that they may not be Twins by August. Specifically, Denard Span, Justin Morneau and Josh Willingham are the three big names that have been on the trade reports in the past month or so. The locker room pressure will likely keep going until the deadline has finally passed:
"I've only thought as far as today, wondering if today is going to be my last day or I'm going to be here for another two or three years," said leadoff man and center fielder Denard Span. "I don't know. I can't control it. Do I want to be here? Yes, but if something happens I'm going to try to accept it and take it with my best."
Fortunately, the deadline is only two days away, at which point the Twins can stop worrying about losing or gaining players and get their focus back on playing some baseball. They may be in last place, but they still have time to get back into the thick of the wide open AL Central with a few good runs.
As it stands, it looks like GM Terry Ryan doesn't know if they'll come up with another deal or not before the deadline finally hits:
Asked if he's done dealing -- he has until 3 p.m. on Tuesday -- Ryan said, "I have no idea. That's a tough thing to quantify. I don't know. I felt like this thing with Frankie was going to happen because there was interest in pitching and we didn't talk about an extension."
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