The Cubs have acquired backstop Bobby Wilson from the Twins in a deal that will send fellow veteran receiver Chris Gimenez to Minnesota, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press was among those to report on Twitter. Cash or a player to be named later will also go to the Twins in the arrangement.
To create space on their 40-man roster, the Cubs announced, righty Cory Mazzoni was designated for assignment.
This deal involves a pair of catchers whose careers to date share quite a few similarities. Clearly, the Chicago organization preferred Wilson to Gimenez — at least, that is, at this point in the season.
Truthfully, there isn’t a ton that separates the two on the stat sheet. Both are 35 years of age and known for their positive clubhouse presence. Wilson and Gimenez have respectively, appeared in nine and ten MLB seasons while taking a grand total of 1,000 and 1,033 plate appearances. At the time of the trade, they had each spent time in the majors with six different clubs — several of them in common (Rangers, Rays, Twins, and now Cubs).
Though Gimenez has the advantage in the hitting department over the course of his career, he has endured a dreadful season at the plate. He didn’t produce at all in a dozen MLB games with the Cubs earlier in the year and is batting a meager .204/.282/.303 in 227 Triple-A plate appearances.
Wilson, certainly, hasn’t impressed the Chicago brass with his offensive output in 2018. In 151 plate appearances for the Twins, he’s slashing just .178/.242/.281 with a pair of home runs. Instead, it’s likely his sturdy defensive reputation — in particular, as a pitch receiver — that sparked today’s move.
Now this trade makes no sense. One no hit catcher for another?
For which side does it make no sense?
If you have seen how poor the Cubs pitch framers are, you would understand
Wilson is one of the worst hitters I’ve ever seen. His pitch framing is overrated and he has a jerky receiving style that seems to cost pitchers close pitches. I hope Jimenez is not on the Twins next year. Castro is no gem but he does seem to frame pitches better. Hopefully, Garvey will be starting more and soon. He’s a halfway decent batter.
Now this is the August blockbuster us Cubs fans have been waiting for! Acquire a top tier catcher on both defense and offense to start in place of the struggling Wilson Contreras!
People will say Bobby Wilson offense is no good, but he hit .333 with a 1.167 OPS at AAA for Detroit as recently as 2016. There is lots of talent left in this young player. And the Cubs convinced the Twins to only receive in exchange the older Gimenez hitting just .204 at AAA, and PTBNL or cash.
You would have to be crazy to think the Cubs aren’t world series favorites now!
Your level of sarcasm may be lost on your intended audience.
Wilson had FOUR PLATE APPEARANCES at the AAA level for Detroit in 2016.
Gimenez has now changed teams 8 times in his 10 years. Going back to Texas once and Cleveland twice.
The yuppie data-driven front-office people (all teams Gimenez has been with fit that criteria) play fantasy league for real. Will he go to one (or two or three…..) of his past teams in 2019, or will he go to another data-driven team? Pittsburgh, Toronto, and Oakland are good possibilities. I have no inside information. Just rumormongering.
Every Team in Major League Baseball pours money into analytics. Data is everywhere, we are past the point of ignoring its value.
Sure it does. Twins needed the relief pitching help; While Gimenez has only appeared once for the Cubs this year, he pitched in 6 games for the Twins in 2017
Glad to see him coming back to MN. Best back up catcher since Mike Bluemond!
Mike Greenmond*
Did you mean Redmond?
You’re no fun
Boooooooo
This should help the Cubs make the playoffs. Lol
This is such a Minnesota type of move
Meh
What is the cash? $15 and a McDonald’s coupon booklet. Twins need to get some people through waivers and makes some quick moves to climb those reverse rankings… if they try really hard they could nab 7th pick next year
With Yu Darvish out for the season, there’s no reason to keep his personal catcher/BFF around anymore. At least the Twins get a familiar face and a mop-up pitcher, if needed as well.
If the Cubs wanted another backup catcher they should have traded for Renee Rivera before the Braves did.
They couldn’t in August.
Rivera was run through waivers. The Braves claimed him, and that prevented the Cubs from having their claim honored.
Da roolz.
Braves didn’t claim him. He cleared waivers and then was traded.
Edit: Nevermind, I’m thinking about the Lucas Duda trade. You were right, Rivera was claimed.
I would say the trade is about doing right by Bobby Wilson… but aren’t you kind of screwing over Chris Gimenez in the same way? “Veteran going to a contending team” can’t really be your selling point here. Weird trade.
Gimenez was in the minors and not on the Cubs’ 40-man roster anyhow. If Chicago wasn’t going to call him up, then the Twins are kind of doing right by both — giving Wilson an opportunity on a contending club and simply giving Gimenez another month in the show with a team/teammates he knows well. (Assuming, of course, he is called up … which stands to reason since they now lack a backup beyond Willians Astudillo)
Very solid point.
Cool, bullpen help for the Twins.
Now that we have Wilson here is my projected playoff starting lineup for the Cubs. Would love to get some feedback…
Zobrist RF
Murphy 2B
Bryant LF
Rizzo 1B
Baez SS
Bote. 3B
Contreras C
Heyward. CF
Wouldn’t sleep on Russell. He’s stepped up in post season before and his D is irreplaceable.
What does having Wilson have to do with this starting lineup?
Zobrist will probably end up batting 5th or 6th, and while I would like to see Bote at 3B and KB in LF, they’ll probably go with Schwarber in LF, especially against RHP.
RHP:
Murphy 2B
Bryant 3B
Rizzo 1B
Baez SS
Zobrist RF
Heyward CF
Contreras C
Schwarber LF
LHP:
Murphy 2B
Bryant 3B
Rizzo 1B
Baez SS
Zobrist LF
Contreras C
Heyward RF
Almora CF
Perfect !
If Gimenez was coming back to the Twins as a catcher’s coach, I wouldn’t mind. But as a player I will have to watch, F no.
lmao why???
this might be the most useless trade ever on paper, which means Wilson will probably end up some kind of postseason hero, because, baseball.
The Cubs wanted a third catcher on the 40.
They didn’t want it to be Gimenez, and offered a PTBNL to get it done.
I think everyone has missed the point. Wilson never said anything about Yu Darvish, Gimenez did. Who was the backup catcher who complained about the Cub starters not holding runners close? And was gone the next day? The world’s smartest front office can be very vindictive and eager to scapegoat people for its own mistakes. Ask Chris Bosio…after all, he couldn’t fix Justin Wilson. And Justin Wilson was nothing compared to the disaster Darvish has been.
I believe it was Miguel Montero.
How dare you
Rumor is Wilson is a better pitcher than Gimenez.
I could see the PTBNL being Maples.
I can see you have no idea what you’re talking about.
I’m looking forward to a late September game where Giminez and Austidillo both rotate through every position on the field
Good luck, Bobby, and I hope you get a chance at the post season and a ring.
Thanks for your service on the Twins and for mentoring Garver.
And welcome back, Chris.
My take: The September call-ups are upon us. I assume the Cubs want a better catcher to work with younger pitchers and give the regular catchers a rest. Neither catcher can hit and they are about the same throwing out runners. However, Bobby Wilson is an upgrade catching the ball,(overlooked).. As these catchers age, Chris Jiminez allows too many PBs.
This move certainly puts the Cubs over the top. One word says it all……Championship!
A swap of the 2015 Rangers backstop super duo lol.