The Minnesota Twins traded minor-league catcher Nate Baez to the Boston Red Sox overnight, in exchange for infielder Tristan Gray. Jeff Passan of ESPN broke the news Wednesday morning.

Gray, 29, has 122 plate appearances in parts of three big-league seasons, primarily with the Tampa Bay Rays. He’s batted .207/.264/.369 in the majors, but a more robust .242/.310/.472 in over 2,000 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He’s a left-handed batter who can play all over the infield, with 37 games at second base; 25 at third base; and 23 at shortstop in 2025. He can be optioned to the minor leagues for one more year.

If the above sounds like a sketch of ex-Twins infielder Ryan Fitzgerald, that’s about right. Gray is a good facsimile of Fitzgerald, with better bat speed: he averaged a swing speed of 74.4 miles per hour in the majors last year. He’s unlikely to be a solid starter at any point, but he’s good depth in the high minors and can be a versatile contributor off the bench. 

Baez, 24, is a decent prospect in his own right, with a .263/.363/.425 line in 918 professional plate appearances. He split his time between first base and catcher in 2025 and might not stick behind the plate, but if he does, he has enough thump in his bat to be valuable. He’s at least a year away, though, and given his age, that introduces a risk that he’ll never mature into a useful big-leaguer. The Twins, who acquired plenty of catching help on the farm at last year’s trade deadline, elected to move on from Baez and bolster their big-league depth on the infield, instead.

That they can option Gray to the minors makes this move easy on the Twins in the short term. He won’t worsen their roster crunch at the end of spring training. On the contrary, having a player like him in the mix will give them the ability to choose the winner of the final roster spot without disproportionate consideration for positional value. It’s a small move, but this deepens Minnesota’s roster as they try to hold onto a competitive foothold in the wide-open AL Central.