Twins Acquire Utility Infielder Tristan Gray in Trade with Red Sox

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins traded minor-league catcher Nate Baez to the Boston Red Sox overnight, in exchange for infielder Tristan Gray. Jeff Passan of ESPN broke the news Wednesday morning.

Gray, 29, has 122 plate appearances in parts of three big-league seasons, primarily with the Tampa Bay Rays. He's batted .207/.264/.369 in the majors, but a more robust .242/.310/.472 in over 2,000 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He's a left-handed batter who can play all over the infield, with 37 games at second base; 25 at third base; and 23 at shortstop in 2025. He can be optioned to the minor leagues for one more year.

If the above sounds like a sketch of ex-Twins infielder Ryan Fitzgerald, that's about right. Gray is a good facsimile of Fitzgerald, with better bat speed: he averaged a swing speed of 74.4 miles per hour in the majors last year. He's unlikely to be a solid starter at any point, but he's good depth in the high minors and can be a versatile contributor off the bench. 

Baez, 24, is a decent prospect in his own right, with a .263/.363/.425 line in 918 professional plate appearances. He split his time between first base and catcher in 2025 and might not stick behind the plate, but if he does, he has enough thump in his bat to be valuable. He's at least a year away, though, and given his age, that introduces a risk that he'll never mature into a useful big-leaguer. The Twins, who acquired plenty of catching help on the farm at last year's trade deadline, elected to move on from Baez and bolster their big-league depth on the infield, instead.

That they can option Gray to the minors makes this move easy on the Twins in the short term. He won't worsen their roster crunch at the end of spring training. On the contrary, having a player like him in the mix will give them the ability to choose the winner of the final roster spot without disproportionate consideration for positional value. It's a small move, but this deepens Minnesota's roster as they try to hold onto a competitive foothold in the wide-open AL Central.

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[bean5302]

WHY???? Bats left, fewer options, doesn't play SS. Why not just keep Fitzgerald? Is Falvey just trolling fans at this point?

[Nashvilletwin]

Is anyone else having trouble getting through to the Twins ticket office?  It seems like they are unprepared for the high call volume this morning…….sheesh. 

[bunsen82]

We have re-arranged the deck chairs slightly, but all in all I do like some of these marginal players we have been picking up for effectively scraps.   Wagaman could be starting 1st baseman,  Jackson could be  tandem catcher, Gray could be a decent utility player.   They are moving the needle and not much more, for depth end of the bench players or AAA players, its not something that I am really excited about or upset about.  I think you have gotten better marginal players across the board but we will see how it works out.  

[Dman]

This move appears to be a way to be able to fill in at short or third if an injury occurs.  They don't have much beyond Culpepper at AAA unless they want to go with Will Holland and I don't think he plays short all that well.

Since Gray has an option left it allows them to move him up and down.  It likely is also protection for removing Brujan since he has no options left he won't be easy to move up and down.

They are short on 40 man space so will need to make another move.  I'd guess that would be removing Brujan or some type of trade.  They should have just kept Fitzgerald on the 40 man.  They should only need a stopgap until Culpepper is ready.

[dberthia]

As mentioned above, I swear they're just trolling the fan base at this point. I played in high school 40 years ago, and I'll work for substantially less money- hit me up, Falvey.

[amjgt]

15 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

doesn't play SS. 

Based on what? His limited time in the majors is roughly split between all 4 infield positions and his time in the minors he was predominantly a SS.

[amjgt]

2 minutes ago, dberthia said:

I swear they're just trolling the fan base at this point.

Would you prefer they NOT address the backup SS role?

[Maybebaby]

One after another, uninspiring signing on and on it goes.  How many more times can they insult the fan base?  It looks more and more like a 100 loss season.  I was hoping there was a glint of hope by them saying they plan on keeping Ryan and Lopez.....more and more I am thinking these two should ask for a trade.  Unless they pitch like Koufax and Gibson there is hope, but only if they keep their ERA <2, because  (my opinion) team BA will be below .210.  When you have a lineup of 9 left handed Frank Quilicis' there is little hope to put crooked numbers on the scoreboard.  I've attended many games over the years (starting in the 60's) but not lately with the SKY HIGH ticket prices and the lousy on field product.  In the past I have subscribed to accounts to watch on TV, but probably not even that this year.  Hard to be interested in this story book when the cover of this book is so blah.   PS sign a RIGHT handed hitter! 'Nuff said from this disgruntled SDakota fan.

[Parfigliano]

Signing Tristan Gray changes may whole outlook on the coming season.  

[D.C Twins]

"Small overnight trade: The Boston Red Sox are acquiring catching prospect Nate Baez from the Minnesota Twins for utilityman Tristan Gray, sources tell ESPN."

 

A small overnight trade indeed...

[Danchat]

This looks like a bad trade on paper, but for whatever reason Baez doesn't seem to be considered much of a prospect. We have a bunch of minor league catchers that are on the precipice of even being a prospect, so I guess it's not a loss to move any of those guys. I see Baez hit a lot better at A+ than AA, but he is already 25 this year. After some analysis, he's probably not a major leaguer.

[Chembry]

26 minutes ago, Dman said:

This move appears to be a way to be able to fill in at short or third if an injury occurs.  They don't have much beyond Culpepper at AAA unless they want to go with Will Holland and I don't think he plays short all that well.

Since Gray has an option left it allows them to move him up and down.  It likely is also protection for removing Brujan since he has no options left he won't be easy to move up and down.

They are short on 40 man space so will need to make another move.  I'd guess that would be removing Brujan or some type of trade.  They should have just kept Fitzgerald on the 40 man.  They should only need a stopgap until Culpepper is ready.

Just a minor point of clarification, Will Holland isn't in the Twins organization anymore.  He selected minor league free agency in November.

[amjgt]

And also to clarify.... Culpepper hasn't ever played at AAA

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

For the love of all that is holy, will they address the bullpen anytime soon?!

[bunsen82]

6 minutes ago, Danchat said:

This looks like a bad trade on paper, but for whatever reason Baez doesn't seem to be considered much of a prospect. We have a bunch of minor league catchers that are on the precipice of even being a prospect, so I guess it's not a loss to move any of those guys. I see Baez hit a lot better at A+ than AA, but he is already 25 this year. After some analysis, he's probably not a major leaguer.

The bigger issue -  he probably isn't a Catcher at the big league level.  

[Dman]

14 minutes ago, Chembry said:

Just a minor point of clarification, Will Holland isn't in the Twins organization anymore.  He selected minor league free agency in November.

Thanks!!! I missed that.  Still had him in my spreadsheet.  So many players move in the offseason.  They really don't have much for short or third then in the high minors.

[TheLeviathan]

I'm getting tired waving the homer hanky this offseason.  Can't even muster up the gif!

[Dman]

4 minutes ago, amjgt said:

And also to clarify.... Culpepper hasn't ever played at AAA

Yeah can't "plan" on him looking good enough for MLB this year, but given the moves made it sure seems like they are creating ways to give him chances if he looks ready.  They can move Kreidler or Gray up and down while giving Culpepper chances at the MLB level if injuries or ineffective play occur.  A lot of things have to go right for Culpepper to make it, but given how things turned out for Keaschal it certainly could happen for Culpepper.

[Dman]

12 minutes ago, Danchat said:

This looks like a bad trade on paper, but for whatever reason Baez doesn't seem to be considered much of a prospect. We have a bunch of minor league catchers that are on the precipice of even being a prospect, so I guess it's not a loss to move any of those guys. I see Baez hit a lot better at A+ than AA, but he is already 25 this year. After some analysis, he's probably not a major leaguer.

His bat was really good at High A last year and he showed power, but he was old for that level.  Given his inability to throw out runners catcher doesn't seem likely, but if the bat does catch fire 1st base or DH could work,  Still he has never made top 30 Twins list and is quite a longshot IMO.

[Cris E]

He doesn't look much like James Outman. What's the goal here?

[amjgt]

6 minutes ago, Dman said:

Yeah can't "plan" on him looking good enough for MLB this year, but given the moves made it sure seems like they are creating ways to give him chances if he looks ready.  They can move Kreidler or Gray up and down while giving Culpepper chances at the MLB level if injuries or ineffective play occur.  A lot of things have to go right for Culpepper to make it, but given how things turned out for Keaschal it certainly could happen for Culpepper.

Don't get me wrong, I think Culpepper will contribute to the Twins by mid season, but the orginaization can't assume that and I think we all just have forgotten that he's only played 59 games at AA.

I think it might be more likely he starts the year at AA than AAA.

[Russ]

Gray is better than Bujan and probably Fitzgerald.  Another lefthanded hitter.

Looks more like a St. Paul Saints acquisition.  

[mikelink45]

How amazing is it that the twins have basically cornered the market in worthless utility players and mediocre catchers. Just keep moving them around like chairs on the deck. Maybe One will fall overboard. No bullpen just playing this little game at the end of the roster. Whoever said this gives us a backup for shortstop is obviously reading different tea leaves than I see. There's nothing in any of these that gives me a real sense that there's somebody who can fill in for Lee.  But I do want to thank the twins because I really didn't realize how many of these utility players there were. And of course with her catching pipeline we can use this talent to keep shuffling through 

[DJL44]

I'm not sure why this roster needed another Kody Clemens, but he's probably more useful than Eddie Julien.

 

[Chris Spencer]

Can he pitch out of the Bullpen? This team will be terrible unless they start getting some relievers! 

[Exiled in Illinois]

I share the frustration of not addressing glaring needs at the MLB level, but I don't I don't get all the hand-wringing about moves like this.  Trying to improve at the margins is an improvement, trying to improve minor league rosters is improvement and always neccessary.  I imagine both clubs are trying to catch lightning in a bottle hoping to get some positive MLB contibution from their side of the trade.  I also imagine 90% the time neither club gets that.  We'll see, but why get worked up about it.    

 

[DataNerd]

47 minutes ago, Danchat said:

This looks like a bad trade on paper, but for whatever reason Baez doesn't seem to be considered much of a prospect. We have a bunch of minor league catchers that are on the precipice of even being a prospect, so I guess it's not a loss to move any of those guys. I see Baez hit a lot better at A+ than AA, but he is already 25 this year. After some analysis, he's probably not a major leaguer.

Horrible arm makes him unplayable as a catcher; In 932 innings, he has had 194SB/27CS (87.8% SB), which is 18.5 runs below average in about a years worth of defense.  Combine that with him only hitting 8HR in 400PA as a 24yr old, it's hard to see the bat play at 1B.  I wouldn't put him in the top 50 org prospects.

[Patzky]

15 minutes ago, Chris Spencer said:

Can he pitch out of the Bullpen? This team will be terrible unless they start getting some relievers! 

Let's just get Jonah Bride back. He's well loved on Instagram and they probably have some old uniforms they could repurpose, saving a few bucks.

[garn from vancouver]

we could have had castro back instead....(i just happen to like him..)