Passan: Kiner-Falefa coming to the Twins

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

[Brock Beauchamp]

Holy crap, I did not see this coming.

 

[beckmt]

on mlbtraderumors seems twins will get another player also. 

[jorgenswest]

OPS Projections for next years .697, .698, .701

Can his defense really make up for the offense the Twins lose at catcher?

 

 

[beckmt]

Ronny Henriquez is the prospect coming according to the Pioneer Press reporter.  

[Joey P]

Who even is this guy, I have never heard of him. He any good? Also, what does this say about Royce Lewis long term? If we are trading one of our best trade chips for a shortstop, do we expect Royce not to pan out now?

[Brock Beauchamp]

Here is the line for Ronny Henriquez, the throw-in coming the Twins' way:

Register Pitching

Year	Age	AgeDif	Tm	Lg	Lev	Aff	W	L	W-L%	ERA	RA9	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
2018	18	-0.4	Rangers 2	DOSL	FRk	TEX	5	0	1.000	1.55	2.79	11	11	0	0	0	0	58.0	37	18	10	2	8	0	79	0	0	2	219	0.776	5.7	0.3	1.2	12.3	9.88
2019	19	-2.8	Hickory	SALL	A	TEX	6	6	.500	4.50	5.49	21	19	1	0	0	0	82.0	91	50	41	6	27	0	99	3	0	4	357	1.439	10.0	0.7	3.0	10.9	3.67
2021	21		2 Teams	2 Lgs	AA-A+	TEX	5	7	.417	4.71	5.09	21	16	2	0	0	0	93.2	78	53	49	17	25	0	105	4	2	1	387	1.100	7.5	1.6	2.4	10.1	4.20
2021	21	-3.7	Frisco	AACN	AA	TEX	4	4	.500	5.04	5.43	16	11	2	0	0	0	69.2	65	42	39	15	17	0	78	2	1	0	291	1.177	8.4	1.9	2.2	10.1	4.59
2021	21	-2.3	Hickory	HAE	A+	TEX	1	3	.250	3.75	4.13	5	5	0	0	0	0	24.0	13	11	10	2	8	0	27	2	1	1	96	0.875	4.9	0.8	3.0	10.1	3.38
All Levels (3 Seasons)							16	13	.552	3.85	4.66	53	46	3	0	0	0	233.2	206	121	100	25	60	0	283	7	2	7	963	1.138	7.9	1.0	2.3	10.9	4.72

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/12/2022.

[beckmt]

3 minutes ago, Joey P said:

Who even is this guy, I have never heard of him. He any good? Also, what does this say about Royce Lewis long term? If we are trading one of our best trade chips for a shortstop, do we expect Royce not to pan out now?

Read this player being a place holder for a year.  Also says Twins do not view Martin or Gordon as shortstops.  

[jorgenswest]

I read it as another nail in the 2022 coffin. Win protection has to drop after this move.

[KirbyHawk75]

Henriquez was the Ranger's 15th ranked prospect according to MLB.com.

[Brock Beauchamp]

2 minutes ago, beckmt said:

Read this player being a place holder for a year.  Also says Twins do not view Martin or Gordon as shortstops.  

Martin is almost certainly not a shortstop but Kiner-Falefa is only under contract for two years. I'm not sure this says much of anything about Lewis, as he's a Minnesota Twins at best in August of this year, probably more like 2023.

[twinssporto]

Interesting, seems like a great kid. Well thought of too. Can play SS, 3B and even did some catching....I'd be ok having a .280 hitting SS. Hate losing Garver though.

 

[USAFChief]

This is an AWFUL deal. Holy cow.

[stringer bell]

I speculated during the lockout that the Twins might acquire Kiner-Falefa for someone like Arraez. I would have thought that Garver is more valuable than Arraez, but maybe not. He's a very good defensive shortstop, who has played high-quality third base as well. He's never hit a lot, but makes contact and is an excellent base runner. Kiner-Falefa put up a 3.7 WAR despite an OPS+ of 85 last year (per BBRef), so outside of the batter's box, he is a fine player.

[Joey P]

Maybe they anticipate Garver regressing soon. He is a catcher with some injury history after all. If this is the only move I will be mad. But hopefully we get ourselves a frontline starter shortly. 

[jorgenswest]

BR uses DRS. Fangraphs WAR was 2.3. That is a big discrepancy the Twins must be banking in for a player with no power or walks. This reminds me of the Hicks for Murphy deal. Murphy had a good defensive reputation with an empty .277 and .284 prior to the trade.

[Squirrel]

This has a 'Matt Capps for Wilson Ramos' feel to it ... crappity crap crap

[Squirrel]

3 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

BR uses DRS. Fangraphs WAR was 2.3. That is a big discrepancy the Twins must be banking in for a player with no power or walks. This reminds me of the Hicks for Murphy deal. Murphy had a good defensive reputation with an empty .277 and .284 prior to the trade.

That, too ... crappity crap crap

[rambis26]

Does this make us better for this year?  It makes our infield defense pretty good.  It allows Polanco to stay at 2nd. And it gives us more infield flexibility. But does that make us better after you consider the offensive loss?  Normally I would say we also lost chemistry with our pitching staff, but this year...not sure there is enough returning pitching for there to be considerable chemistry.

[goulik]

So based solely on WAR in 2021 alone, this is an overall upgrade. (3.7 > 2.1)  and shortstop was a definite hole in the infield. I’ll withhold judgement on the trade for at least a few more months and I’ll give this off season a couple more days.

still waiting to see how we spend the 50 million… guess we can trade for expensive starters now that we don’t need Trevor Story and Rodon is with the Giants…

*sigh*

[USAFChief]

1 minute ago, rambis26 said:

Does this make us better for this year?  

No.

 

You know what would have made us better?

 

Adding Trevor Story. For nothing but Pohlad money.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Baseball Trade Values thinks this is pretty close to even:

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

23 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

This is an AWFUL deal. Holy cow.

This, from the fellow who hates Mitch Garver with “the intensity of a thousand white hot suns”??  

[TheLeviathan]

I like the SS....not sure I like the trade value.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

28 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I would have thought that Garver is more valuable than Arraez, but maybe not

With a DH now in both leagues, Garver is likely to be more valuable going forward than he was previously (setting aside the comparison with Arraez) 

[Brock Beauchamp]

5 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

I like the SS....not sure I like the trade value.

When it comes to SS, this front office apparently has a type.

[Brock Beauchamp]

This trade makes more sense had the Twins signed Marcus Stroman.

Just sayin'.

[Danchat]

Hmmmm... I really don't like moving Garver. I can see the argument for the trade - Kiner-Falefa is a top notch defender at SS in his prime and his bat is the kind you stash in the #9 spot in the lineup, but for an elite hitting catcher? I am not looking forward to the Jeffers / Rortvedt combo that's probably going to hit for .190 combined. I like Jeffers, but he was a disaster last year.

If you're going to land IKF as your SS, fine, but why not trade a prospect [or two] for him instead of Garver? It feels like a step back from contending. Sure, Henriquez is a nice prospect, but we're already loaded on the #15-20 type pitching prospects. 

[AceWrigley]

My favorite Twin after Buxton. Crap. Looks like its Ryan Jeffers and Ben Rortvedt behind the plate.

Kiner-Falefa can pick it, could win a gold glove at SS for the Twins this year. He's 26.

A creative trade with pitching prospect to boot. I hate losing Garv-Sauce but this trade is dealing from strength to filling a need big time. Ronny Henriquez is a small (5-10, 160) righthander who held his own in AA ball at age 21. 

[USAFChief]

19 minutes ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

This, from the fellow who hates Mitch Garver with “the intensity of a thousand white hot suns”??  

Find that quote.

 

I have said Garv has solid stone hands.

 

Still an awful deal. Texas moved on because IKF is a place holder. He plays while you're searching for his replacement.