Twins Swap Jovani Morán for Mickey Gasper, Acquiring An Underwhelming Last-Minute X-Mas Gift

[TopGunn#22]

Merry Christmas everyone on TD !!  I guess this is about as good an exchange as we could have hoped for in trading Moran.  Let's hope this is a precursor to a Vasquez trade and will be the catalyst to making some of the other talked about moves (moving Paddack etc...).

Here's to hoping we all see better results for the Twins in the New year...starting with NEW OWNERSHIP.  

Again, Merry Christmas everyone !!!

[Otaknam]

14 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

This was a salary dump by the Twins

Moran and Gaspar are making the minimum ML salary, a paltry $729 K. So it’s not a salary dump. But I understand why you think that, since ownership has embraced its Scrooge persona towards the few Twins fans left who are not jaded. My first thought is they are looking at Gaspar as a cheap replacement for Castro and his $6.8 million contract. But he isn’t versatile enough and plays different positions, despite his modest flexibility. More likely they think Gaspar can be the backup catcher, freeing them to trade Vasquez and his always ludicrous $10 million contract, though I think they would have to pick of part of the Vasquez contract to make it happen. I guess the Twins brass thought Moran, with his TJ surgery and control issues, was unlikely to make the squad. Hopefully they haven’t misjudged Moran, like they did with Yenier Cano. 

[sweetmusicviola16]

1 hour ago, Tom Froemming said:

This was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to poke fun at Gasper being our X-Mas present from Falvey. There's nothing in the article that suggests I didn't think the actual trade was fair. I barely even wrote about Morán, and certainly didn't gas him up when I did.

If I thought this was a terrible trade or that Morán was some kind of prize this would have been much different and not nearly as light-hearted. If my main goal was to stir up **** and flame bait, I wouldn't waste my time writing on X-Mas Eve about an insignificant trade. There would be much easier targets and more convenient times to do that.

I thought it was a good article Tom,Thanks for writing it. It's an article written about an insignificant trade is all. I don't think its a bad trade, just insignificant. Sums up the off-season so far.

[East Coast Twin]

11 hours ago, Linus said:

No way. This is AAA depth in case they suffer two catcher injuries in a short period of time. 

According to a comment on the MLB.com article on the trade, Gasper is out of options.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/red-sox-acquire-jovani-moran-from-twins-for-mickey-gasper.html

[Linus]

6 minutes ago, East Coast Twin said:

According to a comment on the MLB.com article on the trade, Gaspar is out of options.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/red-sox-acquire-jovani-moran-from-twins-for-mickey-gasper.html

If that is correct then this is a real head scratcher. 

[killertwinfan]

Prolly signaling we’ll dump a catcher.  Honestly, if it’s Vazquez we’ll have to give away something to move him and If it’s Jeffers it’s disappointing cuz we won’t get anything back. 

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, East Coast Twin said:

According to a comment on the MLB.com article on the trade, Gasper is out of options.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/red-sox-acquire-jovani-moran-from-twins-for-mickey-gasper.html

Clearly, an uninformed commenter.  There's absolutely no way he's out of options when he was just a minor league Rule 5 acquisition in 2023.

[Major League Ready]

27 minutes ago, East Coast Twin said:

According to a comment on the MLB.com article on the trade, Gasper is out of options.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/red-sox-acquire-jovani-moran-from-twins-for-mickey-gasper.html

That's not possible.  He made his MLB debut at the end of last season.  Therefore, none of his is options have been used.

[saviking]

Was this even newsworthy 

[DJL44]

There's a good video interview of his parents in the stands watching him play. He's named after his dad, who was named after Mickey Mantle. They followed him all over the east coast last summer hoping to see their son get his first MLB hit but it never happened.

[mikelink45]

1 hour ago, arby58 said:

A 0.3 WAR over three years is practically the definition of a replacement player. Besides the 5.31 ERA in 2023, he also had a 1.465 WHIP. That's not a pitcher we need on the 40 man either. We traded a bag of balls for another bag of balls.

I am not sure about all the emotions - we traded a replacement player who could fill a need in the BP if everything goes well for a below replacement catcher who we do not need.  

[USAFChief]

He's not even really a catcher.

Occupies a 40 man spot though. 

 

What a sad joke this team has regressed into 

[bean5302]

Options are based on the 40 man roster, not the 26 man roster. If a player is on the 40 man roster and they're assigned to the minors for more than 20 days, they burn an option. It's possible for a player to run out of options without stepping onto an MLB field once in their career. Emmanuel Rodriguez, for instance, burned an option last year. He only has 2 remaining.

Moran wasn't on the Twins' 40 man roster so he was eligible for the MLB Rule 5 draft. Since he was on a MiLB contract with the Twins, he transferred to Boston as a MiLB contract without needing to be added to the Red Sox's 40 man roster. That means Moran will be making like $50k in AAA. Moran has 1 option remaining, and unless he's added to the 40 man roster by the Red Sox, the option will not be burned.

Gasper was on Boston's 40 man so he's been transferred to the Twins' 40 man, but that only entitles him to like $85k a year in AAA. Gasper was added to the 40 man roster for the first time in his career on 8/12. At that point, he had 3 options. He still has 3 options remaining because the Red Sox only optioned Gasper to AAA for 14 days (9/7-9/21) after he was added to the 40 man and 20 days is the minimum to burn an option. I'd consider him highest on the depth chart behind Jeffers and Vazquez at this point, but the fact his bat has played so well means there might be the potential he could fill other gaps on the roster.

Both players will make league minimum if they're called up.

2018 draft pick Chris Williams officially parted ways with the Twins' organization by signing a MiLB deal with the Mets on 12/20. I don't think it's a coincidence the Twins made a move to acquire MiLB catching depth. I don't think this move had much to do with Vazquez.

[old nurse]

3 hours ago, Tom Froemming said:

This was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to poke fun at Gasper being our X-Mas present from Falvey. There's nothing in the article that suggests I didn't think the actual trade was fair. I barely even wrote about Morán, and certainly didn't gas him up when I did.

If I thought this was a terrible trade or that Morán was some kind of prize this would have been much different and not nearly as light-hearted. If my main goal was to stir up **** and flame bait, I wouldn't waste my time writing on X-Mas Eve about an insignificant trade. There would be much easier targets and more convenient times to do that.

I think yu have a section for that called just for fun. Not front page news 

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, arby58 said:

A 0.3 WAR over three years is practically the definition of a replacement player. Besides the 5.31 ERA in 2023, he also had a 1.465 WHIP. That's not a pitcher we need on the 40 man either. We traded a bag of balls for another bag of balls.

But TCs bag of balls threw with its left hand

[theBOMisthebomb]

Well, Gasper was 0 for 18 in 2024 to start his career. 

[HoskenPowell]

8 minutes ago, theBOMisthebomb said:

Well, Gasper was 0 for 18 in 2024 to start his career. 

So Gasper will replace Margot as out PH specialist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Blyleven2011]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

He's not even really a catcher.

Occupies a 40 man spot though. 

 

What a sad joke this team has regressed into 

The joke started 8 years ago  ...

[big dog]

I congratulate both players on getting this far in a very tough profession and I wish them both even more success this year. Merry Christmas to all. 

[High heat]

Well I think this is the bin we are shopping in.

If they think he can be a back up catcher I guess it provides a floor if they trade Vasquez or Jeffers.  

[DocBauer]

I've always been a big, hopeful, fan of Moran's. He can be really nasty at times. At other times, his control is almost non-existent. And while I had hopes he'd help the Twins at some point in 2025, he's coming back from TJ and control is reputed to be the last thing that comes back from such a procedure.

Meanwhile, Funderburk and Headrick are ahead of him on the pecking order, and Nowlin at AAA has great stuff and very likely moves to the pen at some point this season.

So the Twins acquired a bat for AAA to replace Chris Williams and provide some depth. That's all that happened here.

[Hubie29]

9 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I thought the same thing, Tom. Falvey's wait-and-see strategy always puts us in a situation where he feels he has to do something at the last minute, so he frantically picks up something that other teams want to flip, something this team doesn't need, but something he feels he can spin to make the fanbase believe he did something, like a Desclavani, Margot, Richards, fruitcake, or a nail clipper. 

LHP Moran wasn't on the 40-man. Gasper was & BOS have been busy this offseason and eventually needed a roster spot so Gasper would have been DFAed so instead getting nothing fortunately for them they got something out of it. Gasper was picked up last season via Rule 5. Fangraph has him projected to play 0 games any position in MLB this season for the catcher desperate BOS & he'll take up a valuable roster space for MN.

We could use some 1B depth & desperately need catching depth. But by thinking Gasper will fill any of these needs we are deceiving ourselves again. FO should have been proactive, approached BOS & traded Paddack for Romy Gonzalez & Gasper & BOS would still have come out on top but at least we'd have accomplished something.

Nail on the head. Great summary. 

[Jocko87]

5 hours ago, Tom Froemming said:

This was a tongue-in-cheek attempt to poke fun at Gasper being our X-Mas present from Falvey. There's nothing in the article that suggests I didn't think the actual trade was fair. I barely even wrote about Morán, and certainly didn't gas him up when I did.

If I thought this was a terrible trade or that Morán was some kind of prize this would have been much different and not nearly as light-hearted. If my main goal was to stir up **** and flame bait, I wouldn't waste my time writing on X-Mas Eve about an insignificant trade. There would be much easier targets and more convenient times to do that.

That would imply that the regular articles are serious? 

That’s what we are pointing out, when the regular articles are chock full of sensationalization about nothing, tongue in cheek has no meaning.  It’s not a comment on this article, it’s a comment on the editorial bent. 

[Hubie29]

3 hours ago, USAFChief said:

He's not even really a catcher.

Occupies a 40 man spot though. 

 

What a sad joke this team has regressed into 

I can't wait for the next big trade! Maybe we get a back up,  back up,  center fielder? But then again, that player might end up hitting 5th by mid May.

[Finlander]

Stones tune has to be "Sad Sad Sad" off the Steel Wheels album!   : )

It does seem a strange trade, given the lack of lefty pitchers in the system. My optimistic view is that maybe Prielipp is not far from being in the picture. And at least the Mickey bat looks more useful than the launch angle strikeout kings the Twins have been obsessed with in recent years.

Happy holidays!

[Blyleven2011]

12 hours ago, DocBauer said:

I've always been a big, hopeful, fan of Moran's. He can be really nasty at times. At other times, his control is almost non-existent. And while I had hopes he'd help the Twins at some point in 2025, he's coming back from TJ and control is reputed to be the last thing that comes back from such a procedure.

Meanwhile, Funderburk and Headrick are ahead of him on the pecking order, and Nowlin at AAA has great stuff and very likely moves to the pen at some point this season.

So the Twins acquired a bat for AAA to replace Chris Williams and provide some depth. That's all that happened here.

And I wouldn't be surprised if they signed theilbar to a minor league contract with an invite , and a opt out for theilbar if he has made the 40 man roster by may 15th ...

[David HK]

Welp, that moves the needle.

[Riverbrian]

Twinsdaily should come up with a naming contest. 

What we need is an interesting term that we can unfairly apply to this type of player. 

Every off-season... we make trades on the fringes, we sign players on the fringes. All teams do these sort of deals and every off-season these players or deals are torn to shreds. Yet, all teams must make them. 

We should be able to label these players with a unique term. This will make it easier to just shove them in a box. 

[Original_JB]

"B*tch" for me.

[tony&rodney]

We are on Page 3 of comments on a nothing trade. Falvey & Sons may have been purposely done putting this roster together last offseason. We are stooges just goofing around having a little fun in our spare time with an entertainment that helps us avoid the continuing tragedies in our world. Thank you Twins Daily.