Notes, quotes and comment (catcher edition)

The Twins on Friday announced that Anthony Recker cleared waivers and was outrighted to Rochester.

There didn't seem much reason for Recker to be on the 40-man roster, but it's interesting that the Twins opened another spot on the 40. They're down to 38 now after removing Recker and John Ryan Murphy, which would suggest that they are prepared to add before Monday's trade deadline rather than subtract.

That doesn't fit the conventional wisdom, which holds that the combination of the recent slump, the continuing win streaks of the Indians and Royals, and the horrid run differential have turned the Twins from buyers to sellers.

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Kurt Suzuki leads off the #Braves 7th with his 11th homer of the season.

7 of those home runs have come in July where he's hitting .371

— Kevin McAlpin (@KevinMcAlpin) July 29, 2017

The former Twins backstop is now the backup for Tyler Flowers in Atlanta. Flowers is hitting over .300 for the Braves this year; his batting average in two seasons in Atlanta is more than 60 points higher than it was with the White Sox. So the Braves are getting some good hitting from their catchers.

The new park there is apparently playing as a hitter's park, but most of Suzuki's damage has come on the road.

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Chris Herrmann, another former Twms catcher who is now with the Arizona Diamondbacks, has eight homers himself this year. He's also hitting .165, which is quite the comedown from last year's .284.

The D-backs have three catchers on their active roster, and Herrmann leads the trio in plate appearances with 185. But he's played almost as much in the outfield (12 starts and 142 innings) as behind the plate (17 starts and almost 185 innings). The other catchers are veterans Jeff Mathis and Chris Iannetta, each 34.

This might explain why the Diamondbacks were sufficiently interested in John Ryan Murphy to trade for him. There looks like a pretty good opportunity there for JRM.

A minor league trade

John Ryan Murphy was supposed to be the future at catcher for the Minnesota Twins when then-general manager Terry Ryan traded Aaron Hicks to the Yankees for him. The expectation was that he would open 2016 as the backup to Kurt Suzuki and by midseason claim the No. 1 job, perhaps even allowing the Twins to trade Suzuki at the deadline.

But Murphy simply didn't hit. His batting average was .075 when the Twins shipped him down to Rochester, and while he did a little better when he returned after the rosters expanded, his final average of .146 wasn't going to cut it.

The new regime went in a different direction. Murphy has spent the season in Rochester, hitting about as well (or poorly) as he did in Triple A last season, and was passed on the depth chart by Mitch Garver. On Thursday the Twins traded Murphy to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Gabriel Moya, a 22-year-old lefty reliever at Double A Jackson (Texas League).

LHP Gabriel Moya went 17 for 17 in save chances at Double-A Jackson this year. 0.82 ERA, 68 Ks , 12 BB in 43.2 IP. #mntwins

— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) July 27, 2017

Those are some intriguing stats. 0.82 ERA? 68 strikeouts in 43.2 innings?

Despite that imposing strikeout  rate, Moya does not have blazing velocity. He is said to have a deceptive delivery and a plus changeup. He's not on the 40-man roster, and I doubt the organization is eager to push him to the majors from Double-A.

Berardino reports that Murphy is, for the second straight year, leading minor league catchers in pitch framing, as compiled by Baseball Prospectus. That clearly wasn't enough to win over the new front office, which emphasized pitch framing in signing Jason Castro last winter.

At least we now have a reason for the acquisition in the Jaime Garcia trade earlier this week of journeyman catcher Anthony Recker, who takes Murphy's spot as the No. 2 catcher at Rochester.

Not a big trade, obviously, but it does open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Lots of moves, lots of criticism

The Jaime Garcia trade finally went down Monday. The trade itself is OK, with one curious aspect. The roster ramifications of adding the veteran lefty starter have, in my opinion, been mishandled.

I discussed in the Monday print column why such a trade was a logical move. Two (to three) months of Garcia will cost the Twins Huascar Ynoa, a 19-year-old Dominican signed in 2015 for a $800,000 bonus. He has to this point put up a 5.26 ERA at Elizabethton (25.2 innings), not that Appy League stats matter. Ynoa is a strong armed project who might make it and might not, a genuine lottery ticket. The major league team has a chance at a playoff spot and it desperately needs competence in the back of the rotation. Giving up Ynoa for Garcia is sensible.

Plus it probably saves me from having to learn to spell Huascar Ynoa.

Less obvious is the addition of "Quadruple A" catcher Anthony Recker. He's 33, he has accumulated 630 major league plate appearances over seven seasons, he landed on the 40-man roster via the trade and I don't really see the point. I would not only rather have Chris Gimenez than Recker, I'd rather have Mitch Garver. (At this point, I might rather have Garver than Gimenez, but that's another matter.) The Twins now have five catchers on their 40-man roster, which seems excessive (Jason Castro, Gimenez, Garver, Recker and John Ryan Murphy).

The Twins, as noted in Monday's post, pushed Craig Breslow off both the active roster and the 40-man roster after Sunday's game. I had expected that they would fill the 25-man spot by bringing back Rule 5 pick Justin Haley from the disabled list. Instead they recalled Alan Busenitz and returned Haley to Boston. Nothing against Busenitz, but I don't care for abandoning the Haley project at this point, even though they almost certainly would have to carry his Rule 5 restrictions over to next season.

Dumping Haley does open a second 40-man roster spot, and they needed that to accommodate the addition of Recker -- assuming that they needed to add Recker. Meanwhile, it's worth noting that last winter the Twins exposed catcher Stuart Turner to the Rule 5 draft and lost him to Cincinnati; in a very real sense, this series of roster moves amounted to trading Turner for Recker. Turner hasn't done much for the Reds, but he's still there, and he's about eight years younger than Recker.

Recker, at least for now, is assigned to Rochester. Garcia, obviously, needs to be on the 25-man roster. And the Twins got there by optioning Kyle Gibson to Rochester for the second time this season. They're going to stick with Bartolo Colon in the rotation.

I've little good to say about Gibson's pitching this season. He remains a highly frustrating pitcher. But if it's a binary choice -- I have to start either Gibson or Colon -- I'd go with the guy with the 6.08 ERA on the season (94 innings) over the guy with the 8.00 ERA (72 innings).

Pedro Martinez, who knows more about pitching than I ever will, backs his countryman Colon:

I saw Bartolo's stuff, and I think he is getting back on track. He can use this start to build up for the next.

— Pedro Martinez (@45PedroMartinez) July 25, 2017

I will say this for Colon: He made his first two starts against some stiff lineups, the Yankees and the Dodgers. Those were not cupcake assignments. Gibson's seven shutout innings in his most recent start came against a much softer lineup (Detroit).

I would go with Gibson over Colon, which is not claiming that either is an optimal choice.