Tag: Isiah Kiner-Falefa

Twins minor league players of the week are Henriquez & Palacios

The Minnesota Twins minor league players of the week are right-handed pitcher Ronny Henriquez and infielder Jermaine Palacios and both are with the Triple-A St. Paul Saints.

Ronny Henriquez was signed as international free agent by the Texas Rangers on July 3, 2017. Barely 5-10 and 150 pounds when he signed in 2017, he received just $10,000. But as a 17-year old he could already hit 93 with his fastball. Henriquez was acquired by the Minnesota Twins over the 2021 offseason in a trade with Texas, along with infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa, in exchange for catcher Mitch Garver. At the time of the trade Henriquez was rated the Rangers 15th best prospect. He is currently rated as the Twins 11th best prospect. This is the second time ths season Ronny Henriquez has won this award.

Henriquez, 22, appeared in one game in relief for the Saints this week versus Iowa, pitching 4 shutout innings, allowing five hits, no walks and four strikeouts. The Bonao, Dominican Republic native has gone 1-1, 3.12 ERA (26.0 IP, 9 ER) with eight walks and 29 strikeouts in his last six games (4 starts) for the Saints. Henriquez is currently on the Twins 40-man roster.

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Twins minor league players of the week are Henriquez & Wallner

The Minnesota Twins minor league players of the week are Triple-A St. Paul right-handed pitcher Ronny Henriquez and Double-A Wichita outfielder Matt Wallner.

Ronny Henriquez was signed as international free agent by the Texas Rangers on July 3, 2017. Barely 5-10 and 150 pounds when he signed in 2017, he received just $10,000. But as a 17-year old he could already hit 93 with his fastball. Henriquez was acquired by the Minnesota Twins over the 2021 offseason in a trade with Texas, along with infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa, in exchange for catcher Mitch Garver. At the time of the trade Henriquez was rated the Rangers 15th best prospect.

Henriquez, 22, appeared in one game in relief this week for the Saints on Thursday at Louisville, pitching 4 shutout innings with four hits allowed, no walks and four strikeouts. Henriquez is 1-1, 3.80 ERA (23.2 IP, 10 ER) with eight walks, 27 strikeouts and a .236 opponent batting average in his last five games (3 starts) for the Saints. Henriquez’s numbers on the season are not nearly as good as he is 1-3 in 9 starts (13 appearances) with a 6.15 ERA and a 1.500 WHIP and his SO/W ratio is 2.71. Henriquez is on the Twins 40 man roster and according to MLB Pipeline he is the Twins 11th best prospect.

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Twins shock everyone with their Carlos Correa signing

Carlos Correa

News broke just after midnight that the Minnesota Twins had signed free agent shortstop Carlos Correa to a $105.3 million three-year deal with opt outs at the end of each season. The deal has not been confirmed by the Twins ballclub but Correa has confirmed it. Twins fans were shocked and amazed as was I with the signing this morning.

After the Twins acquired shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa from Texas a few days ago and less then 24 hours later traded him to the Yankees, most Twins fans were baffled. Then news came out that the Twins were interested in FA shortstop Trevor Story and fans were excited but days went by and nothing happened until this mornings breaking news about Correa. I don’t think there was a single fan in Twins Territory that thought that the Twins would even consider going after Correa.

Even if Correa was to leave after just one season via his opt out it would give Royce Lewis and Austin Martin more time to develop and give the Twins more time to determine if either one could be a long term answer to the shortstop job. In the mean time it will be fun to watch Carlos Correa, the 2015 ROY, two-time All-Star and last years Gold Glove winner play shortstop in Minnesota. If you are looking for something to be critical of, it would be that he has just played more than 110 games twice in his seven big league seasons.

The FA signing of Correa was the latest in a series of moves made by Falvey and Levine in the last week that included trades with the Rangers, Yankees, and Reds. When you watch a Twins game this season in person or on TV you may need a scorecard to identify the players. I would say that we will see more moves before the season starts on April 7 when the Twins face the Mariners at Target Field.

Twins & Yankees agree on a blockbuster

Less than two days ago the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees agreed on a blockbuster trade but Twins and Yankee fans are in a quandary about what to think of the deal. Social sites for both teams seem to be up in arms about the deal with both sides thinking they got the short end of the stick.

The trade in question calls for the New Yorker’s sending 29-year old catcher Gary Sanchez and 30-year old third baseman Gio Urshela to Minnesota for 36 year-old third baseman Josh Donaldson, 27-year old shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa and 24-year old catcher Ben Rortvedt.

It appears that there were multiple reasons to make the trade. The Twins seem to be looking to get out from under the $50 million the team owes Donaldson over the next two seasons and the Yankees have wanted to move Sanchez for some time. It is one of those situations where you swap my problems for your problems. The Yankees were in desperate need of a shortstop and the Twins had just acquired Kiner-Falefa from Texas earlier in the day. So in order for the Yankees to take Donaldson and pay him what he is owed the Yankees needed to get Kiner-Falefa in the deal and they wanted Rortvedt to replace Sanchez. Getting Donaldson and Kiner-Falefa made Urshela expendable and he was on his way to Minnesota.

Gary Sanchez
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Twins and Rangers make a deal

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.

Mitch Garver – Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY

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.

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