Thursday,
December 16, 2010
Twins Trade Jose Morales for Paul Bargas
The Twins today
traded backup catcher/1B/DH/PH Jose Morales today to the Colorado Rockies in
exchange for 22 year old left-handed pitcher Paul Bargas.
Morales has had an eventful career since the Twins drafted him as a
2B in 2001, two rounds after taking Joe Mauer. He
always put up solid offensive numbers, but he was just hurt so often.
He played one game for the Twins in 2007, went
3-3 with a double, but he hurt himself sliding into 2B and was done for the
year. He would spend parts of 2008-2010 with the Twins. In 2009, he was
frequently the Twins DH. He is a decent catcher with a poor arm. But he is
fairly athletic for a catcher. He should play more with the Rockies.
Obviously this
is a big thing for Drew Butera in that it appears he
will remain the Twins backup catcher. Morales was
options in 2008, 2009 and 2010, so he would not have been able to go to
Rochester again in 2011.
Bargas was the Rockies 13th round pick in 2009 out of UC-Riverside. He pitched in
58 games out of the bullpen in 2010 for Asheville, the team’s Class A affiliate
in the Sally League. He went 5-4 with 5 saves and a 3.59 ERA. In 67 innings, he
walked 19 and struck out 65.
Please feel free to Comment
in the Comment section.