Josh Donaldson helps Yankees, but Twins got best of big deal

By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Most trades nowadays are some version of "big leaguer for assortment of prospects," so whenever two clubs pull off a blockbuster deal composed entirely of MLB players, it’s a refreshing change of pace.

That's what happened Sunday, when the New York Yankees acquired infielders Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa and catcher Ben Rortvedt from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for catcher Gary Sánchez and infielder Gio Urshela.

We’ll get into the nitty-gritty here in a moment, but the upshot for both teams is similar: This trade feels like the first of many shoes to drop. Odds are neither New York nor Minnesota is quite finished wheeling and dealing, but this swap is a compelling start to what should be a busy next few weeks.

I'd give the Yankees a B- for this deal. They filled a hole but created some new ones along the way.

Let’s start with Donaldson, who immediately becomes the every-day third baseman. The 2015 American League MVP has struggled to stay healthy as he creeps deeper into his 30s, but he's still a difference-maker at the plate whenever he suits up. By WRC+, the 36-year-old was the fifth-best-hitting third baseman in the majors last year, behind José Ramírez, Austin Riley, Rafael Devers and Justin Turner. 

Donaldson has bounced around a lot the past few seasons — the Yankees are his fifth team in five years — which has overshadowed how productive a hitter he still is. Defensively, he’s no doubt declining with age, but the other half of this trade will help to paper over some of that. The Yankees have him under contract through the end of the 2023 season, with a mutual option on the books for 2024.

Kiner-Falefa, who has had a really bizarre few days, gives the Yankees something they haven’t had since peak Didi Gregorius: a reliable, no-doubt defensive shortstop. The Hawaiian, who turns 27 next week, came up through the Texas Rangers' system as a utility player, seeing time at the non-first-base infield spots before Texas tried him out behind the dish in Double-A in 2016. He did some catching in the bigs his first few seasons, until the Rangers dealt longtime shortstop Elvis Andrus before 2021 and moved IKF to shortstop full-time. 

When Texas inked Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to enormous deals before the lockout, Kiner-Falefa became expendable, and he was traded to Minnesota for catcher Mitch Garver on Saturday. He showed up to Twins camp Sunday, shook manager Rocco Baldelli’s hand and was promptly dealt to the Yankees.

Kiner-Falefa certainly won’t enter the annals of legendary Bronx Bombers — his career .670 OPS is well below league average — but he provides the Yankees defensive stability at shortstop. He isn't the second coming of Ozzie Smith, but he’s a legitimately solid defensive shortstop. And after the Yankees spent 2021 shuffling among Gleyber Torres, Gio Urshela and Andrew Velazquez at the six, IKF should be a notable upgrade.

Rortvedt made his big-league debut last year and struggled in limited time, but he's thought of as a perfectly feasible backup catcher with the potential to develop into a low-end regular. The Wisconsinite has never posted eye-popping power numbers but has always reached base at a high enough clip to give his offensive game some value.

But like I said, this trade should not be the totality of the Yankees' offseason. They now have five infielders (Donaldson, Kiner-Falefa, DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres and Luke Voit), and if you’ve watched baseball before, you know that you can have only four. Sure, they could put one of those guys at DH, but when you’ve got an enormous and slightly injury-prone outfield of Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks, you’d love to keep the DH spot as open as possible. Dealing one of those other infielders for a catcher is a possibility if the Yankees don’t want to enter the season with a duo of Kyle Higashioka and Rortvedt. 

First base is the other upgradable spot. Voit led the league in dingers in the shortened 2020 season but hasn’t quite proven himself as The Guy. The Yankees have been connected to free-agents Freddie Freeman and Anthony Rizzo. And this has nothing to do with the Twins' trade in question, but New York still needs a depth starter or two.

If the Yankees sign Freeman and trade for Frankie Montas or Luis Castillo or Alejandro Kirk, then this Twins deal bumps up a grade or two, but until then, GM Brian Cashman has some work to do. 

I like this deal a smidge more for the Twins, grading it as a B for Minnesota, just because of Sánchez’s upside. The Twins, however, still need to convert the payroll flexibility gained from flipping Donaldson’s hefty contract into another acquisition or two. Donaldson was owed an average of $23 million over the next two seasons, and sending his contract to New York pushes Minnesota’s payroll under where it was last year, which hopefully leads to the Twins splurging a bit on the free-agent market.

Sánchez has had quite a tumultuous few years in the Bronx, and by the end, he was one of the most divisive players in recent Yankees memory, defended by half the fan base and vilified by the other. His 2018 season, in which he smacked 34 homers in 106 games, is one of the more stupendous and overlooked offensive campaigns by a catcher this century. But since then, Sánchez became scapegoat No. 1 in the New York media for his defensive inadequacies, which clearly impacted what was a lackluster season at the plate in 2021. If you’d walked into any Manhattan sports bar last summer, you could've found two people willing to throw hands over whether Gary was fact or fiction, hero or villain, truth or fraud.

Sánchez still has the otherworldly raw power that made him a household baseball name in 2016; he just needs to rediscover some consistency in his approach. And while he has been much maligned for his lapses behind the plate, his framing numbers are generally pretty good and could certainly benefit from a more relaxed environment. Let’s just say the Minneapolis media do not bring the same level of scrutiny. 

Urshela’s bat took a step back in 2021 after two outstanding offensive seasons in ‘19 and ‘20, but he remains a superb defender at third base and a viable one at shortstop. The Twins have been connected to free-agent shortstop Trevor Story and seem intent on filling that spot externally. With Donaldson gone, expect Urshela to play the majority of innings at the hot corner for the Twins.

Nobody has been more active since the end of the lockout than the Twins. They dealt Garver for Kiner-Falefa before they flipped IKF to New York. And before that big Yankees swap Sunday, they acquired Reds pitcher Sonny Gray, who has just one year of control remaining, for their 2021 first-round pick Chase Petty, an extremely raw but promising starting pitcher. 

That move indicates Minnesota’s intention to compete in 2022, which means they still have a few holes to fill even after adding Sánchez and Urshela. But if a change of scenery rejuvenates Sánchez's bat and Urshela hits like he did in 2019 and '20 (134 OPS+ in 175 games), this deal could push the Twins back into contention in the relatively open American League Central. 

Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.