Twins acquire Isiah Kiner-Falefa by Mitch Garver

The Twins and Rangers agree on a deal that will send Isiah Kiner-Falefa to Minnesota, ESPN’s Jeff Bassan reports. Kiner-Falefa and likely will head to Minnesota opposite catcher Mitch Garver, in MLB’s John Heyman. Bowler Ronnie Henriquez is the prospect in the deal, According to Betsy Helfand of St. Paul Pioneer Press,.

For Rangers, this is another move that has grabbed the headlines in a season that has been very busy for the club. Before closing, they threw in big money to add different players, the two biggest names being short Cory Seeger and second man Marcus Simin. The addition of these two attackers, along with the impending arrival of potential prospect Josh Jong, led to immediate speculation that Kiner-Falefa could be a commercial candidate. But when Young had shoulder surgery last month, it seemed to move the pendulum toward Texas while keeping Keener-Valeva the daily third baseman. However, it has now been proven that this is not the case, as he is heading to Minnesota.

I had the Andrelton Simmons twins as a first story last year. Despite displaying the defensive skills he has long been known for, Simmons had a sombre year on the board, notching .223/.283/.274, wRC+ of 56. Yesterday, he signed with the Cubs for a modest $4 million salary, Which shows that the twins didn’t have a terrible motive to get him back into the fold. With Kiner-Falefa, they brought in a player with a similar profile to Simmons, but there are more reasons to be optimistic about his future performance. Like Simmons, Kiner-Falefa is a number one gauntlet, placing third among MLB pro players in the Fielding Bible vote last season. His racket has been below average so far in his career, having never put a WRC+ above 94. However, he’s still relatively young, aged 27 later this month, compared to Simmons’ adult She is 32 years old. He also hit .271/.312/.357 last year for a WRC+ of 85, not big numbers but definitely better than what Simmons delivered. He is also expected to receive an arbitration salary of $4.9 million, Per MLBTR Contributor Matt SchwartzAnd it comes with an extra year of control after that.

But in order to make this powerful addition to their court, the Twins had to send a valuable player the other way. Garver had a massive breakout season in 2019, scoring .273/.365/.630, a WRC+ of 155. This would be an exceptional production for any player but was particularly impressive for a hunt. Injuries were limited to just 23 anemia-producing games in the short 2020 season, but he recovered well last year. Although he’s still dealing with injuries and only played 68 games, his 2021 streak was .256/.358/.517, a WRC+ of 137. Last year, the Rangers divided catch-up tasks almost equally between Jose Trevino and Jonah Heim, who placed wRC+ is of length 60 and 64 respectively. Garver is capable of producing at a much higher rate, but it comes with concerns given the injuries that have occurred in the past few years, making it a high-risk, high-reward option for Texas. However, it wouldn’t be too risky financially, as he was expected to earn an arbitration salary of $3.1 million this year, with another year of control remaining after that.

More is coming.