Christian Vázquez, C
For all that was made about Jorge Polanco and Max Kepler as trade candidates this winer, Christian Vázquez's value on the trade block got overlooked.
The tricky part in shopping Vázquez is his contract. He's still owed $20 million over the next two seasons, which could scare some teams off considering his relative down year last season. Vázquez is still an elite defensive catcher, but his offense leaves a lot to be desired, which might result in a scenario where the Twins have to eat some of his salary if he's traded away.
Considering how much the team has been pinching pennies lately, that's not an ideal scenario.
Moving Vázquez might be more about its impact internally than what he'd bring back in a trade package. He's talented, so there would be at least some sort of decent return package -- although don't expect anything that will knock you out of your chair. Instead, the upside is handing the everyday catching duties over to Ryan Jeffers and making room for Jair Camargo to move up behind him.
Jeffers is expected to continue splitting time behind the plate with Vázquez, which worked out alright last year. It's starting to become clear, though, that Jeffers is the catcher of the future in Minnesota and the sooner he assumes that role the better. Camargo, on the other hand, was protected in this year's Rule 5 Draft and is already on the 40-man roster. He showed a lot of promise at St. Paul last season, slashing .259/.323/.503 with 21 home runs and 63 RBI in 90 games at Triple-A.
Camargo would make for a nice pairing with Jeffers, and he'd would be a lot cheaper on the books than Vázquez -- who is still a productive player who teams would absolutely be interested in.