The Minnesota Twins have traded outfielder Aaron Hicks to the NY Yankees in exchange for catcher John Ryan Murphy, the teams announced on Wednesday afternoon. Judge and Bird will take over for Beltran and Mark Texeira permanently in 2017, leaving left field for whomever of Ellsbury or Gardner remains with the club and third base as the only potential question mark (presumably, they’ll have the money to sign someone, though the 2016-17 free agent class isn’t too inspiring). With the Yankees, though, Murphy was blocked in every direction. “He’s got a good arm, receives the ball well, and he can hit”. But it also could be the precursor to a bigger move; the Yankees might be shopping Brett Gardner, according to reports out of the GMs meetings in Boca Raton, Florida, this week. Pirela, 25, an offensive-oriented infielder, hit. 256 in 97 games with 11 homers, 11 doubles and 33 RBI.
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The Twins didn’t have a spot for him, with Byron Buxton ready to handle center field and young, talented outfielders like Eddie Rosario and Oswaldo Arcia warranting significant playing time in 2016. I think Minnesota got a good player, and I certainly hope we got a good player. 277 with three homers and 14 RBIs in 67 games. Murphy doesn’t have much of an offensive track record, with a history of high strikeout rates, meager power, and a reliance on high BABIP between the majors and minors. That made Hicks an ideal asset to use to fill another hole; I had speculated they would go for pitching, but they did something even better, addressing the black hole they had behind the plate.
“We’ll let it play out, but we believe Murphy will play more than our second catchers [Chris Herrmann and Eric Fryer, who batted a combined.161] did last season”, Antony said.
Murphy, meanwhile, helps address a Twins organizational need.
Like previous year with Clint Barmes, A.J. Preller’s first addition of the season is to the middle infield. Hicks can play anywhere in the outfield (and well) and being a switch-hitter surely provides the Yankees with more options than Young did.
The Yankees just traded a catcher, and they also happen to have a high-end catching prospect who made massive strides this season and got to the big leagues for the first time.
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Former Twin Aaron Hicks, 26, can play all three outfield positions, and he batted. He’s controlled through 2021 and doesn’t hit arbitration until the 2018 season, giving the Twins an extra year of control over Hicks. The 26-year-old appeared in 247 games with the Twins from 2013-15. He had Brian McCann’s contract in front of him with Gary Sanchez’s bat coming up behind him.
