It didn’t take long for the Minnesota Twins to make their first post lockout deal when they traded 31-year old catcher Mitch Garver to the Texas Rangers for soon to be 27-year old shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and minor league right-handed pitcher Ronny Henriquez who pitched in AA ball after starting at High A.
Garver was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 9th round of the 2013 amateur draft and for all practical purposes was the best player the Twins selected in that draft. In addition, Garver was the best catcher drafted that year if you rank them by WAR and they got him for a measly $40K signing bonus.
Garver made his big league debut on August 19, 2017 at Target Field against the Arizona Diamondbacks as a pinch-hitter for Miguel Sano and struck out in his lone appearance in that game. Garver had a breakout season in 2019 as part of the Bomba Squad when he hit 31 home runs and was awarded the Silver Slugger award as the best hitting AL catcher. 2020 and 2021 were seasons that Garver would just as soon forget as injuries limited him to 23 and 68 games respectively.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 4th round of that same 2013 MLB June Amateur Draft as a shortstop but played all over the infield. In 2016 he started catching and actually caught 38 big league games in 2019 but since then he has played primarily shortstop due to his defensive skills. He won a Gold Glove in 2020 playing 46 games at third base and 15 games at shortstop.
Although Kiner-Falefa is better known for his glove then his bat, he has a bit of pop in his bat and he hit 8 home runs last season while stealing 20 bases. In Texas he batted primarily first or second but in Minnesota I don’t see that happening but with the Twins FO you never know.
The Twins also acquired 21-year old minor league starting pitcher Ronny Henriquez in the transaction. Although small in stature at 5’10 and 155 he has good control with a 10.1 SO/9 and he keeps the ball in the ballpark. Henriquez started 2021 in high A and then moved up to AA where he averaged under five innings a start. Maybe he is better suited for the bullpen.
Bottom line is that this is probably just the first of numerous moves the FO will make before the 2022 season starts. This trade solidifies a hole at shortstop that needed to be filled and adds another name to the pitchers that the Twins will audition in 2022. The streaky hitting Garver has been injured quite a bit the last two seasons and maybe the FO said let’s take what we can get before his value drops even more. Catching wasn’t Garver’s strength and if his hitting isn’t above average and he doesn’t take the field on a regular basis, his value becomes questionable. As they say, it is better to trade a player a year to early then a year too late. Then there is always the lockout that just ended where Mitch Garver did not exactly hide his displeasure with how he felt that MLB owners were handling negotiations. Just saying.
Most Twins fans that I have seen on Twitter and Facebook seem to think this is a bad deal for the Twins because Garver was a popular player with Twins fans. Fans always believe that their favorite players never bring back enough in return in trade value. Fans want their team to play good defense but not at the expense of good hitting and a lot of Twins loyalists were hoping for the home team to sign a big name shortstop, but that was not in the cards. In the end the Twins filled a need with a gold glover and Garver went to a team that has always liked hitting over defense and pitching. I will give the Twins FO a “B” for this deal, it works for me. Only time will tell. Welcome to Minnesota Isiah Kiner-Falefa.