Nothing.
No Alfonso Soriano. No Bill Mueller. No Kevin Millar. No Matt Lawton. No Kevin Youkilis.
Almost every baseball team in the world needs pitching. The Twins have a surplus of pitching. They have more pitching than they know what to do with. And Terry Ryan can't make a trade?
As if to demonstrate one final time how desperately they needed an added bat in their lineup, the Twins wasted another good pitching performance from Brad Radke on Sunday and lost by one run.
They left the bases loaded three times. Twice they had a runner on third with fewer than two outs and could not bring him home. They drew eight walks and couldn't score any of those men.
It was a sickening performance by some allegedly professional hitters. Yet it is all too common.
This is an organization with Rod Carew, Paul Molitor and Tony Oliva on the payroll. Perhaps it's time for these fellows to suit up and try to teach some hitting. The current approach is not working.
OK, the organization doesn't want to part with a top prospect such as Francisco Liriano. We'll see how it all turns out. I remember when the team needed bolstering down the stretch in 2001. Ryan would not part with Adam Johnson or Michael Restovich.
They were the hot prospects of the day and could have fetched quality players in return. Both are long gone. And the Twins faded badly that year after settling for Rick Reed, who went 4-6 with a 5.19 earned-run average down the stretch.
But you can't tell me that the Red Sox wanted Liriano for Mueller. No way. Mueller is no Manny Ramirez, but he is a dependable third baseman and a disciplined hitter. He would have been a good addition.
Something should have been done to shake things up. The designated-hitter spot is the easiest to fill. No worries about defense or speed. All a fellow has to do is put his bat on the ball.
Yet the Twins don't have a decent, everyday designated hitter. Apparently, they couldn't talk two dozen pitching-starved teams into trading them one. It's ridiculous.
And now with Torii Hunter out, the team's immediate future looks especially bleak. The only positive thing I can come up with is that maybe the player to be named later in the Bret Boone deal with Seattle will turn out to be Bret Boone.
We've already seen enough of Boone, apparently the big acquisition of 2005, to last us a lifetime. Jason Bartlett likely will replace him on the roster any minute now.
No doubt Ryan will stay busy, trying to work some sort of trade. It can be done, even though a player now has to clear waivers first. It's tough to envision anything meaningful happening at this point. Besides, the Twins are fading so fast that it might be pointless.
With luck, the team has had a good advance ticket sale for August and September. From here on out it is going to be a tough sell. Standing pat will be a tough sell to the fans, and most of all, to the Twins pitchers. All were quite open about the need to add some offense.
The thought of adding Soriano was tantalizing. Imagine, a fellow who can be counted on for 30-40 homers a season. Here is a legitimate No. 3 hitter, a rock-solid middle-of-the-order guy. Signing him to a three-year deal was not out of the question, either, especially considering some of the contracts the team will be jettisoning this winter.
But the Rangers wanted Liriano. Pray that Liriano doesn't turn out to be the next Adam Johnson.
All I know is that it doesn't make sense to keep throwing this lineup out there day after day. That makes the absolute least amount of sense for a team that wants to win.
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