Twins Trade outlook

For those of you who love the Minnesota Twins as much as I do, it has been a painful year. They are a maddening team - showing flashes of brilliance, followed by stretches of incompetence. And, if you are even more like me, you hope that every year the Twins will make a trade that will help push them over the edge and either make the playoffs, or make a run in the playoffs.
But this, I have a different frame of mind. Think about this, all you devoted Twins fans. Are Twins even good enough where one trade would make a difference? The Twins have more than one hole right now. They need bullpen help, infield help at numerous positions (three, if in fact Joe Crede is seriously hurt) and their starting pitching has been very shaky. They are not a mere trade away, but rather two or three moves away from being a very good team. Now I want them to win as much as the next guy, and want these areas of weakness to be addressed. But can they all be addressed in the middle of the season? Some of this should have been done in previous years and the front office failed to step up. But that means they should not exaserbate the problem by trying a mid-season trade where they will probably over-pay for a player anyway. Nobody likes to give up on a season. Surely, I do not. But at some point in time, you've got to cut bait. The Twins have been entirely too inconsistent this year for me to believe they are one move away from being a good team. Yes, the Twins should continue to explore ways to make their team better. Trading for a player who is signed for more than this season would be a good move. But unless they can find a good reliever (which every contender is looking for) a solid right-handed bat, a quality middle infielder and a consistent starting pitcher, there is no need to trade for one of them. You only marginally make your team better and you risk losing assets to retool your team over the winter to make a run next year. And folks, next year is incredibly important. It is the new stadium, as well as Joe Mauer's final year under his current contract. The fans are going to look for an increase in payroll and are going to expect more from this team.