Twins acquire OF Jake Cave, DFA Kennys Vargas

The Twins announced a couple of roster moves Friday afternoon, one surprising and one not so surprising.

The surprising move is that the Twins acquired outfielder Nick Jake Cave in a trade with the Yankees. The Yankees designated Cave for assignment earlier this week, and apparently the Twins think highly enough of him they were willing to trade rather than try to wait their turn to simply claim him. Cave, 25, spent 2017 split between Double-A and Triple-A, hitting a combined .305/.351/.542 with 20 home runs and 26 doubles. He seems like a fine prospect, but was apparently blocked by, uh, other random Yankees outfielders like Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge.

In exchange for Cave, the Twins gave up minor league pitcher Luis Gil. Don’t worry, I have no idea who Luis Gil is either. Apparently he’s only pitched in the Dominican Summer League.

The not so surprising move is that the Twins designated Kennys Vargas for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Cave. Frankly, after the Twins signed Logan Morrison, the writing was already kind of on the wall for Kennys. He’s out of options, and was unlikely to make the 25-man roster out of spring training. It’s not that Vargas is a terrible player, but he’s not super great either, and he’s become a bit redundant for the Twins, who also have Joe Mauer, Morrison, and Miguel Sano.

Vargas hit .253/.314/.444 with 11 home runs in 78 major league games in 2017. It sounds like Tampa Bay is in need of a Kennys Vargas-type player, so he most likely won’t pass through waivers.

Thanks for those super-hard hit dingers, Kennys.