REPORT: Twins to Trade Eduardo Escobar to Arizona

News the two sides were close was originally relayed by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on Twitter. Jon Heyman of Fancred confirmed there was indeed a deal being finalized.

John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 has shared that three Diamondbacks minor leaguers will be headed over, though we're still waiting for names.

UPDATE: Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports has the details. The Twins are acquiring right-hander Jhoan Duran and outfielders Ernie De La Trinidad and Gabriel Maciel.

Over the past seven seasons, we've watched as Eduardo Escobar has blossomed from a pretty nondescript utility man into an everyday player who's on pace to set the all-time doubles record this year. It's been a fun journey, and I can only speak for myself, but he's a guy who I feel has endeared himself to the fans much more than the average ballplayer.

He was less of a professional baseball player who I enjoyed watching and more like a character on my favorite TV show. Always smiling, always having fun, always playing hard. And an entertainer to boot! Arizona is getting a good one.

Whether it was his play on the diamond, those great Escobar Name Game videos or him talking about Fogo de Chao in all his postgame interviews (there's one in Scottsdale, I checked), Eduardo will be sorely missed across Twins Territory.

According to MLB Pipeline, Maciel ranked No. 11 in Arizona's system and Duran was the Diamondbacks 19th-best prospect. De La Trinidada was not listed among their top 30. In Baseball America's most-recent update of the Arizona rankings, Duran slotted in at No. 10. All three of those players were with Kane County, Arizona's affiliate in the Midwest League (same as the Cedar Rapids Kernels).

Here are links to their respective Baseball-Reference pages if you want to scope out their numbers: Jhoan Duran, Gabriel Macial and Ernie De La Trinidad.

This is difficult to do in the moment, but if you take your heart out of the equation, you have to recognize that Escobar is exactly the kind of player who it makes sense to deal at the deadline. Not only is he an impending free agent, but he's in the middle of a career year. Escobar's current OPS, .852, is nearly 100 points higher than he's posted in any other season and 130 points higher than his career mark.

UPDATE: He's not making it any easier to say goodbye ...

The Twins were riding high on the heels of an impressive 2-1 win at Boston last night, but their playoff odds still sat at just 1.6 percent, per FanGraphs. They are seven games back of Cleveland, who recently took measures to build up its biggest weakness.