6:00pm: Left-hander Evan Sisk and righty Steven Cruz are headed back to Kansas City, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link).
5:58pm: The Twins are acquiring a center fielder Michael A. Taylor in a trade with the Royals, according to Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. He’ll add a high-end defensive option behind Byron Buxton as a fourth outfielder in Minnesota.
Taylor has spent the past two years in Kansas City. Initially signed to a one-year, $1.75MM guarantee over the 2020-21 offseason, Taylor impressed Royals’ brass with his excellent outfield defense. The rangy center fielder proved a perfect fit for spacious Kauffman Stadium and an organization that places a premium on defense. He secured his first career Gold Glove in 2021 and earned himself a $9MM extension covering the 2022-23 campaigns late in that season.
During the first season of that new two-year deal, Taylor continued his typically excellent defensive play. He logged just over 1000 innings of center field work, with Defensive Runs Saved pegging him as 19 runs better than an average defender at the outfield’s most demanding position. It was the second consecutive year in which DRS graded him at +19 runs, making him far and away the game’s most valuable defensive outfielder by that metric. Since the start of 2021, no other center fielder has tallied more than 21 total DRS — with second-place Myles Straw well behind Taylor’s cumulative +38 mark.
More to come.
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