Twins had a lot of outfielders. Yankees had a lot of catchers. Hicks has more upside probably, but I don't think it's that far off.

No. 2, without a doubt.

Oddly it's possible both are correct. Since it seems that Plouffe is not going to be traded, for the time being at least, that left an OF to trade for a catcher. Whether the value was fair is open to discussion. But catchers are harder to find than OF, so looking for a tit for tat trade might be overly hopeful. To address #2, Ryan seems to put an inordinate amount of weight on personality and attitude when making roster decisions. He is loathe to trade a trusted veteran who makes no waves, but has often jettisoned far more gifted players who do not fit what many sarcastically refer to as "The Twins Way". Ryan is lauded by some for his patience in "developing" players such as Plouffe and Dozier. But that patience was notably absent with Gomez, Hardy, Garza, and others.

or 3.  Twins fans are overvaluing their own players.  The catcher they got has been a better hitter at the Major League level than Aaron Hicks and has been doing it at a younger age and as a backup (which I tend to think is harder when not getting consistent at bats).  

HIcks may have more upside but really, he's had one good month as a hitter in the majors over the past 3 years.  Murphy has a good shot to be a league average starting catcher offensively and defensively.  Trade made sense and now the Twins don't have to give up top prospects for Lucroy or pay too much for Wieters.  

I think the fact that when we traded Herrmann we got a guy with an .857 OPS in A+ ball that should tell us that catchers are expensive.

Trade from strength and trade for need.

I'm not sure this was a great trade, but I'm not willing to hang TR for it.

yes, I would have taken a broken bat and a box of doughnuts for Hermann

Which Hicks are you talking about? The one who got on a bit of a roll in July and got everyone excited or the one who slumped the last 40 games of the season?

To me, the one who slumped is the one who has shown up most the past three years so that's who I traded if I'm TR.

I hope Hicks turns into a star or even a valuable everyday player but at this point and based on his body of work I think it was a fair trade based on baseball reasons.