Minnesota Twins Trade Young Minor League Pitcher to Dodgers for Recent Top 20 Prospect

By Ted Schwerzler |

Updated: Jan 9, 2025

Minnesota Twins, Diego Cartaya — Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Minnesota Twins have struck another trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Derek Falvey has previously worked with the organization in acquiring Kenta Maeda (and Jair Camargo) for Brusdar Graterol. The latest deal doesn’t have those levels of implications, but the Twins grabbed a former top prospect.

Catching depth coming to Twins

The Minnesota Twins 40-man roster is light on catching options, and even moreso when considering that they are actively working to trade veteran Christian Vazquez. Ryan Jeffers and Jair Camargo are the only other options at the top of the system, but todays acquisition of Diego Cartaya helped to address that.

We have acquired C Diego Cartaya in the following trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers: pic.twitter.com/XmK04g68EK
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) January 9, 2025

Cartaya is a big name given his former prospect status. He played in the 2022 Futures Game and was a consensus top 20 prospect across baseball heading into 2023, but then he put together a pair of terrible seasons.

As a 19-year old, Cartaya owned a 1.023 OPS in 31 games at Single-A. He followed that up with a .254/.389/.503 slash line in 2022 at multiple levels of Single-A, and that’s where it went sideways.

With the Dodgers making the Hyeseong Kim signing official

Former Top Prospect Diego Cartaya was designated for assignment.

pic.twitter.com/JZqYI68ds1
— Dodgers Muse (@LADodgersMuse) January 3, 2025

The past two seasons, spent at Double and Triple-A, Cartaya has posted .656 and .686 OPS totals respectively. The power has remained (30 home runs in 188 games), but he owns a terrible 230/84 K/BB. He really struggled in his first taste of Triple-A, and is now 23 years old.

Cartaya isn’t a great defender, as he will need to make strides as a receiver, but has held his own in the running game. He has hovered around a 20% caught stealing rate until getting to Triple-A last season. The Twins will look to make tweaks there that help him defensively.

Diego Cartaya put a HURTIN on that ball! pic.twitter.com/ipQwIYQzwU
— Oklahoma City Comets (@okc_baseball) August 17, 2024

Minnesota is definitely banking on the upside here, and there is reason to believe he could settle in for a new organization. Cartaya will start at Triple-A St. Paul, and depending on Rocco Baldelli’s catching situation, he could be the next man up.

What the Twins gave up

Jose Vasquez is a complete dart throw for Los Angeles, and it’s surprising they’d move Cartaya for that return. He is 20 years old and has yet to compete stateside.

In a pair of seasons spent in the Dominican Summer League, Vasquez owns an 8.05 ERA across 57 innings. He has 71 strikeouts, but as expected, the command is a problem and has translated to 47 walks.

If the Twins can get even a shred of the former prospect luster to polish out for Cartaya, this will be a massive come up. The more depth Minnesota adds behind the dish, the more likely it becomes they deal a veteran.