10:02am: Kratz is indeed going to San Francisco for Hinojosa, per an announcement from the Brewers.
9:40am: The Brewers will acquire shortstop C.J. Hinojosa from the Giants, Robert Murray and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic report. Milwaukee may send veteran catcher Erik Kratz to San Francisco, Murray and Baggarly suggest.
Hinojosa had been with the Giants since they took him in Round 11 of the 2015 draft. He spent the majority of 2016-18 at the Double-A level, where he owns a .259/.321/.345 line in 951 plate appearances. The 24-year-old offered roughly league-average minors production across 283 PAs last season in a return from a late-2017 Achilles tear; however, he also missed 50 games after testing positive for a drug of abuse for the second time.
As recently as last May, Hinojosa ranked as the Giants’ 16th-best prospect, per FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, who wrote that the ex-Texas Longhorn “projects as a utility man trending upward with contact skills.” In return for him, the Giants are landing the well-traveled Kratz, an out-of-options 38-year-old who has appeared in the majors in each season since 2010. He’d immediately replace catcher Rene Rivera, whom the Giants released Saturday, and would join Aramis Garcia and Stephen Vogt as another potential backup to Buster Posey.
While Kratz is a plus defender who quickly became a respected figure in Milwaukee after it acquired him from the Yankees last May, a lack of offensive upside helped seal his fate with the Brewers. Kratz is just a .211/.258/.363 hitter across 858 major league PAs. The Brewers have two far better offensive backstops in Yasmani Grandal and Manny Pina.
seems kinda silly from SF’s standpoint. What does Kratz do for them?
Play baseball, I would assume
I think he plays ball.
Good deal for Milwaukee. Kratz was going to be cut otherwise so trade him and get a lottery ticket for him.
I agree, it’s good to get something instead of nothing. However, what did you just read that indicates anything close to a lottery ticket? Your bar must be set very low.
Never know when a guy can put it together or what different coaching can do for him What if he goes and hits .290-.300 this year then people talk different about him but he could go hit .230 also that’s why it’s a lottery ticket never know what might happen might get lucky and might get rich but good chance you get nothing out of it.
that’s not a lottery ticket, it’s minor league IF depth
You dont always win on lottery tickets. Sometimes you get an all-star and sometimes you get minor league IF depth.
That’s what the Red’s thought when they picked up Scooter Gennett…like a lottery ticket, you can’t win if you don’t play!!!
Organizational fodder for a bad backup C.
Is Zaidi getting paid by the transaction?
Good one.
Your move, DiPoto!
Giants are back, folks.
Haha. That made my morning
This “don’t make no sense” unless the Giants are working a trade,sending a catcher as part or all of the deal, for outfield help. That’s my sense of what this could be about.
They are trying to lower the average age of the team.
Back where ?
So the Giants cut Rene Rivera then trade their 16th best prospect for an even older 38 year old catcher who can’t hit? This makes zero sense as they still have Vogt and Garcia who can both hit. Just trade Garcia if they are never going to play him.
Has anything the Giants have done make sense? Look at all this “depth” we now have. Giants have done absolutely nothing to address the outfield. Given what they’re trotting out opening day, I’d be happier seeing Hunter Pence in the outfield. At least he was a fan favorite.
their OF will again be awful. The one thing they absolutely needed to address this offseason.
last year ws bad defensively last year but 2017 was amazingly bad, even if the offense doesnt improve javing people that know how to catch a ball will be an improvement, if for no other reason than to boost the pitching numbers to improve their stock
Zaidi has improved the team and overall organizational depth. We may not like who he’s brought in but it has improved. They can get younger in the OF and they have. Can’t get younger at SS, 1B, 3B because of bad contracts.
these people dont understand logic, or the baseball is a business that sometimes requires business decisions. You’re spot on and I personally think fz has done a great job. this kratz deal is the only one i dont get.
A lot of respect for what Kratz can do, having watched him with Milwaukee last year. He is strong defensively and great with a pitching staff. Strong clubhouse guy who will likely one day be an MLB Manager.
Actually a solid move from both sides. Vogt can hit better but coming back from the injury may limit him, plus Kratz is better with pitchers. Giants give up a 2 time loser, who is at best going to be a utility guy. Brewers get something vs. nothing.
Hold on a sec…
Are you seriously telling me this guy was the Giants 16th best prospect?
If that’s the case I feel really bad for Giants fans the next decade.
Idk how in the hell a 24 year old with a .600ops after almost 1000 Pa’s in AA could possibly be the 16th best prospect in any organization.
That’s just brutal!
On the plus side though. Milwaukee is doing a bang up job cleaning all the potheads our of the Giants farm. Let’s just hope this guy contributes more to the Brewers then Bickford has.
He is not even on their top 30 prospect list anymore. Stop acting like this guy is worth anything.
The main reason they traded CJ, is because of his drug problem he’s been suspended twice now for drugs, the Giants do not like to deal with anybody with criminal problems
Did Farhan tell you that? Sounds like speculation on your part.
Rivera’s release and the trade for Kratz don’t seem related.
It’s probably something along the lines of this: the Giants felt Aramis Garcia was their backup. So they gave Rivera an opportunity to find somewhere else.
THEN, Kratz became available and they liked him more than they liked Garcia. So they traded for him.
It doesn’t matter what his prospect ranking was. At best, he’ll spend a few years as a backup IF in the majors, but his SS play is highly questionable, so basically you have a no power, no speed, so-so contact 2B. Having a really good defensive catcher to help develop pitchers seems way more valuable than that.
This one is a major head-scratcher from the Giants standpoint.
Well weed is legal in CA maybe the Giants GM likes to indulge and the Brewers GM caught him at the right time. LOL
I don’t get it. Trading potential upside for guaranteed downside.
Milwaukee must be really happy, though.
What upside?
What? Kratz could have been had for free after he gets cut. He’s 38 and a journeyman catcher. Why would the Giants want him? And they traded a prospect to get him? Makes no sense at all.
As crazy as it may sound – there must have been interest from other teams otherwise SF would have just waited.
This makes absolutely no sense for the Giants, UNLESS they are working on a deal that will send out one of their backup catchers (Garcia or Vogt) in a separate transaction. Very odd.
garcia wouldn’t make sense, he has to much value for a rebuild, maybe vogt gets packaged with a reliever to make roster space for gott?
Seems though, with Bart’s solid showing in ST, that Garcia is a young, expendable asset that other teams may be interested in. Hate to lose him but if hes packaged for a decent outfielder, it’s not a bad move.
Wolf Chan- I agree. I guess we’ll know more in the next couple of days.
Good for Kratz.
This makes no sense the giants continued to add players that are done already,please make a deal for a power outfield,and stop signing senior citizens for God sake
You realize that good outfielders are going to cost the Giants good minor leaguers, right?
There’s almost zero incentive for the Giants to give up good minor leaguers unless they are close to winning the division.
Everyone’s a GM….SMH
What fans don’t understand is guy like Rene Rivera doesn’t want to be 4th on the depth chart so he asks for his release,thinking he can do better somewhere else so you trade for guy like Kratz who’s fine with being 4th String
Nice move by the Giants. They know they are not going to win this year so getting a catcher that can help develop their young pitchers is a good idea. He may start in the minors with the Giants hoping Vogt gets off to a fast start and brings something back in a trade when they go into yard sale mode halfway through the season.
There’s a reason for trading for Kratz and releasing Rivera. Zaidi not just making moves to make moves. Maybe Rivera asked to be let go? I’m sure we’ll know more in the coming days/ hours as to why this took place. Big picture wise, the SF Giants are healthy thus far, they are more athletic, they’ve gotten a bit younger, they have more depth, they have money to spend, they have a great bullpen and good starting rotation. I’m not sure what all the doom and gloom is about. Let’s see the roster on Thursday and give them a month or so to see how things look, I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised. The roster was a disaster and Zaidi has been brought in to clean it up and that’s what he’s doing.
What’s with all the “I don’t get it” comments? Zaidi is pretty transparent at this point. If there’s a player available anywhere in the league who is better than the last person on the roster, then he’ll pick him up. And most everyone on the roster is available to move in an effort to improve. Any pickup is not about now; it’s an ongoing process.
nice to see the former drummer of stone temple pilots can still get work
Kratz is closing in on a milestone looking to reach his 100th Major League RBI
Hinojosa strikes me as the kind of player who could develop into another Hernan Perez. He probably won’t be a star but he strikes me as someone who could be a steady backup utility guy.
I think Zaidi got confused with the names. He said he wanted Eric. Brewers were thinking kratz… Farhan was thinking Thames
Ha!