Is Plouffe really part of the future in Minnesota?

Trevor Plouffe has had a minor breakout season in 2012, and GM Terry Ryan feels like now is the time for Plouffe to establish himself as the team’s long-term answer at third base. Ryan says that Plouffe has the “rest of the year” to prove that he can be a reliable option at third base.

I know Plouffe has had a nice season with the Twins, but I’m not sure whether he’ll be part of the future in Minnesota. Right now, at age 26, he is hitting .241 with 19 homers and 41 RBI in 344 plate appearances. Many people just look at his home runs and think, Wow, this guy must be good. In reality, the .241 batting average is awful and 41 RBI in 88 games is OKAY. He also has a .308 on-base percentage, which isn’t good at all. Now, I realize that Plouffe has high upside since he was drafted in the first round of the 2004 draft, but if he doesn’t get that average up, I can see him being packaged in a trade that will bring a starting pitcher to Minnesota. He is 26, so he hasn’t hit his prime yet, and I suppose that he has the capability of hitting 25+ homers in a season, but the Twins should be rebuilding from scratch and in my opinion, Plouffe will be out of his prime by the Twins are a dominant team once again.

Overall, Plouffe is a talented player, but hasn’t really been able to put it all together throughout his brief MLB career. His 2012 season has gotten a lot of people in Minnesota excited that he could finally break out and become the star. In my opinion, I can see Plouffe hitting a fairly decent amount of home runs next season, but don’t expect that average to get over .250-.260. I know many Twins will disagree with this, but I think that they should have kept Danny Valencia. As you may recall, Valencia was shipped to Boston in early August.