8:13am: Holding on to hope Nate Baez headed to Boston for Gray’s services, as reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Baez, 24, was selected by Minnesota in the 12th round of the 2022 draft and hit .278/.371/.423 in 96 games split between the High-A and Double-A levels last year.
7:41am: The Red Sox trade for an infielder Tristan Grey to the Twins, according to a report from MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. The return Boston will receive in exchange for Gray’s services is unclear. Minnesota will need to make a corresponding move to add Gray to the 40-man roster, assuming the return to Boston is not a 40-man player.
Gray, 30 in March, was selected by the Pirates in the 13th round in 2017 and has seen some playing time in the majors over the past three seasons. After brief stints with the Rays, Marlins, and A’s that added up to just 36 plate appearances in the 2023 and ’24 seasons, Gray got his longest major league stint with Tampa last year. In 86 trips to the plate in 30 games, Gray slashed .231/.282/.410 with an 89 wRC+ while splitting time between all four infield spots. He was traded to the Red Sox at the beginning of the season but now he is leaving again.
Interestingly, despite being a left-handed hitter Gray did his best work against other southpaws. Two of his three home runs came off the same pitch last year, and his career line against lefties is .360/.407/.680 in 27 trips to the plate as opposed to a .163/.223/.279 line in 95 trips against righties. Of course, using a lefty/righty split with a small sample size can be misleading, so it’s fair to wonder how well Gray’s reverse platoon might hold up if given a long leash in the majors. It’s hard to believe that Gray can keep his career OPS north of 1.000 against the rest of the league at the major league level, if he’s exposed to big league pitching for an extended period of time.
Regardless of the unusual nature of his production, Gray is a career .242/.310/.472 hitter at the Triple-A level with experience all over the infield. Although he hasn’t had much chance to show what he can do in the majors so far, maybe Minnesota will be the place where he gets that chance. The twins have it Luke Keachall on second base, Brooks Lee at shortstop, too Royce Lewis in third place going into the season. Gray won’t break any of those top talents at their positions, but each comes with significant injury history that could open up opportunities in the majors throughout the season.
Entering Spring Training, gray figures to compete for a utility infield role on the Twins’ bench. There is a lot of internal competition in that role already. Is Clemens again Austin Martin they are probably considered the favorites for that type of role given their strong production last season, and the players love it Vidal Brujan, Eric Wagamanagain Ryan Kreidler they can find themselves in trouble with bench work. It’s a deep enough team with enough major league experience that Gray will face an uphill battle making the team’s roster out of camp, but perhaps an injury elsewhere on the roster could allow him to return to the majors sometime this year.
