Twins trade IKF to Yankees in five player deal

Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s stint in Minnesota was a short one.

Less than 36 hours after being dealt by the Texas Rangers to the Minnesota Twins, along with Ronny Henriquez, in exchange for catcher Mitch Garver, Kiner-Falefa is reportedly being flipped by the Twins, along with third baseman Josh Donaldson and catcher Ben Rortvedt, to the New York Yankees for catcher Gary Sanchez and third baseman Gio Urshela.

So the net result is that the Twins traded their cheap power hitting catcher with two years of team control remaining and their veteran third baseman who was owed $50 million over the next two years for a more expensive catcher with one year of team control (who hasn’t been good the last couple of years) and an inexpensive third baseman with two years of team control remaining.

Oh, and they sent Rortvedt, who was their second round pick in 2016 and who is a backup catcher type who can’t hit, to the Yankees while picking up Ronny Henriquez from Texas.

The Twins seem to have gotten a little worse, but have saved money. The Yankees get their short term shortstop in IKF, someone they’ve been rumored to have been pursuing for a while, allowing them to move Gleyber Torres off shortstop. And they get a veteran righthanded bat in Donaldson who can play third base, and could be a first base option, as well as a possible DH in 2023, with Aaron Judge and Joey Gallo being free agents after the season.

The Twins also just landed Sonny Gray today, so maybe they felt they needed to shed Donaldson’s contract to afford him. I don’t know.

Weirdness.