Cubs acquire catcher Bobby Wilson from the Twins

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The Cubs continue to poke around the waiver wire looking for overlooked talent, already plucking Daniel Murphy from the Nationals, and it looks like Theo Epstein and the front office may have snagged an underrated framing catcher in Bobby Wilson. 

As the Tweet mentions, the Cubs are sending Iowa catcher Chris Gimenez back to Minnesota who he played his entire 2017 for, and a player to be named later for Wilson, who is currently ranked 22nd in all of baseball in framing runs - how many runs a catcher saves by making a ball look like a strike. For reference, current Cubs starter Willson Contreras is ranked dead-last in the stat at -15.1 runs saved, whereas Bobby Wilson has saved 3.1 runs due to his framing ability. 

The 35-year-old Wilson also has 8 DRS saved on the season, putting him in the 10 of catchers with a minimum of 350 innings played, and caught 8 of 19 would be base stealers behind the plate. It's clear the Cubs want to make sure they have a reliable backup option behind Contreras for the division race and postseason, and Wilson seems like a solid option in that role. He's also known as a good receiver from his days in Tampa Bay according to Sun-Times reporter Gordon Wittenmyer, however, he brings essentially nothing to plate offensively. 

Wilson is a career .202 hitter and is currently slashing .178/.242/.281 with two home runs in 151 plate appearances, but if he can provide the Cubs with some excellent framing behind the plate and solid defense in the running game he could still be valuable to any title contender. 

The Cubs did have to make run on the 40-man roster and designated RHP Cory Mazzoni for assignment, he had a 1.09 ERA in 8 games with the Cubs this season. 

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