Indians keep moving-Yonder Alonso to Chisox.

The Cleveland Indians weren't going to be finished moving chess pieces after their three-team trade that added Carlos Santana from Seattle and Jake Bauers from Tampa Bay.

That left veteran first baseman Yonder Alonso as the odd man out from a playing perspective (Santana switch-hits) and from a financial one (Alonso makes eight million in 2019 and has a makeable 2020 option if Alonso stays healthy in 2019 triggered by total plate appearances), so it was a natural fit for the Indians to move Alonso.

The mild surprise was the destination for the veteran- the division rival Chicago White Sox, who not only have a bevy of young talent, both in the bigs and near it, but also are reported to be prepared to make a big charge at free agents Bryce Harper and/or Manny Machado in a final attempt to bring a championship to aging owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
Alonso in a side note that I didn't know before this trade is Manny Machado's brother in law, so could that play into this trade?
If so, it's a small factor as I doubt that anyone pays nine million for a player in the hopes that his brother in law will sign with you.

The 31-year-old (turns 32 shortly after opening day) signed a two-year deal last winter as the Indians attempted to replace (ironically enough) Carlos Santana after Santana signed with the Phillies and the return was a mixed bag.
Alonso, who was one of the players mentioned most as gaining from the then-new "Launch Angle" craze in 2017 with a career-high 28 homers after a previous high of nine, maintained his power as he hit 23 homers for the Tribe.
However, he only collected 19 other extra-base hits (all doubles), struck out a career-high 123 times and continued to not hit lefthanded pitchers well (,223 and 4 homers), so he'll need to be platooned.
The signing of Alonso was far from a flop, but I wouldn't say that he replaced the production of Santana either and with making nine million for 2019 and an option that could be activated with Alonso staying healthy, it makes sense for the Indians, who always look to strain money from the skim, to try to save those dollars.

Still, being able to stash that cash away does have one huge benefit- the Indians may have managed to save enough money in trading Yonder Alonso and Edwin Encarnacion (and the six million that they are receiving from Seattle doesn't hurt either) that they may not feel compelled to be forced to trade either Corey Kluber or Trevor Bauer for financial reasons, although they still could for baseball reasons as the outfield is still a problem zone even with the addition of Jake Bauers.

Of course, when you trade a player making that kind of salary and you want the new team to pay all of that, the return will never be as strong as it would be if you were willing to pay some of that total and it wasn't this time either as the White Sox traded minor league outfielder Alex Call to the Tribe.
Call was the White Sox third rounder in 2016 from Ball State and the 24-year-old played for High A Winston-Salem and AA Birmingham last season, hitting a combined .248 with 12 homers in 123 games at the two stops.
In other words, Alex Call is another outfielder that seems to fit the Indians template-average power, mildly above-average speed and often a college draftee.
Call's ceiling would see him in Cleveland eventually, but with the impact of the Tyler Naquin types that have populated the system for years.
Again, you cannot expect an elite prospect when the other team is eating the entire contract, so whatever Call does in Cleveland is a bonus.
I'd expect Call to be assigned to AA Akron.

A side note- what is this team's aversion to developing power hitting outfielders?
They haven't drafted one near the bigs since Clint Frazier (Will Benson has been drafted, but being at Low A, I'm not counting him yet), haven't developed one since trading for Grady Sizemore, who started in High A with the Indians organization and haven't drafted/developed one since Manny Ramirez!!!
Here is a list of just first round outfielders (including sandwich picks) picked by the Indians since 2000.
I know there is more to developing players than just first rounders, but for reference.

2001: Mike Conroy
2003: Brad Snyder
2005: Trevor Crowe
          John Drennan
2012: Tyler Naquin
2013: Clint Frazier
2014: Bradley Zimmer
          Mike Papi
2016: Will Benson

Back later with the WBO super middleweight title on the line between Gilberto Ramirez and Jesse Hart.

Pirates trade Ivan Nova to White Sox

The Pittsburgh Pirates continued to shed salary for 2019 as they swapped righthanded pitcher Ivan Nova to the Chicago White Sox in return for a minor league pitcher.

The soon to be 32 year old Nova started 29 games for the Pirates in 2018 and finished 9-9 with a 4.19 ERA and 114 strikeouts as part of their rotation.
Nova earns eight million for the 2019 season and would be a free agent following that year so I can see the Pirates wanting to receive something for him and the Pirates appeared to be set in their rotation with Jameson Taillon, Chris Archer, Trevor Williams, and Joe Musgrove as their top four, so for a team with limited dollars to spend, Pittsburgh decided that eight million for an impending free agent was a bit high for their budget.

I might have kept Nova as the fifth starter and took what would have had the potential to be a pretty decent starting corps into the season and see what happened.
I would think had the team been in selling mode at the trade deadline, the Pirates would have likely been able to acquire a similar prospect in a trade, so that makes me think that as usual, the decision came down to the financial budget.
Still, I understand it as Nick Kingham pitched very well at times in his 15 starts and the cost difference between what the Pirates hope would be similar pitchers is pretty vast, so slotting Kingham into the fifth spot in the rotation makes sense.

Pittsburgh received 19 year old (turns 20 next month) pitcher Yordi Rosario.
Rosario split last year between the White Sox Dominican and Arizona league teams combining for an ERA of 2.57 between the two teams in 56 innings.
The interesting number is 70 strikeouts in those innings, so there appears to be some upside, although far from a sure thing.
I would think Rosario has a chance to start at Low A Greensboro, but may also stay in Florida and then be assigned in June to either Bristol (He'd be a little old) or West Virginia (He might be a little young).
Rosario's a lottery ticket, but an intriguing one.

Pittsburgh also signed journeyman righthander Jordan Lyles to an undisclosed deal.
Lyles was 3-4 with a 4.11 ERA in a season split between the Brewers and Padres.
Lyles started eight games for the Padres and made 16 relief appearances before his being traded to Milwaukee where he pitched in eleven games all from the bullpen.
Lyles will likely be in the bullpen to start and might be either a challenger for the fifth starting spot for Nick Kingham or the fallback option in case of injury or need.

Minor League Fantasy Draft: Round One-Luis Robert

My fantasy baseball league has been quite hectic this year in the cold days of winter.
After many years of existence, we finally made the decision to expand to 12 teams from ten teams, so
as commissioner, I had expansion drafts to run.

Each team would lose two players from their minor league system and then in a week, the minor league draft would begin.
I lost Jose DeLeon, a once highly touted pitcher from the Tampa system that has been riddled with injuries and Sean Reid-Foley, a pitcher that I still like that had his struggles last year for Toronto's AA affiliate in New Hampshire.
Once, I knew what I had lost, I have five picks for my system in the draft and I thought I'd write a small piece on each player that I select.

Picking eighth in round one, I felt I had some good fortune as I was able to select Luis Robert, a 20-year-old outfielder from Cuba with my first pick.
Robert has yet to play a professional game, but I happened to be watching the Indians play the White Sox last year on the day Robert signed with Chicago.
I've noted before that when the Indians play the Chi-Sox and Hawk Harrelson (retiring this year sadly) announces the game, I watch the Chicago network.
The talk during that game was all about Robert and his accolades.
I immediately looked for a video of Robert, found his workout very impressive and filed his name away for later.


Having the chance to add Robert was possible, but unlikely in my opinion,
Joe Werner's Prospect Digest (my go-to book and look for Joe to be doing a podcast with me in the next week or so) has Robert as a future star and compares him more favorably than Yasiel Puig at the same age against the same level of Cuban competition.
Joe's final quote on Robert- "Can someone say star"?.

At 6'3 and being graded as having plus power and plus speed by both Werner and Baseball America and profiling as being able to stay as a centerfielder defensively, Luis Robert seems to me to be a gamble worth taking with massive upside.
Robert will start with either Low A Kannapolis or High A Winston-Salem and in either case, I'll be able to scout Robert for myself and see what I've drafted.
The White Sox think he'll eventually be a middle of the order hitter, in front of another mega-prospect that is winding his way through the minors now - Eloy Jimenez.
What team owns Jimenez's rights in our league?
That would be mine..

Back later tonight from the road office..

How to rebuild in just a few short months

The Chicago Cubs may be the more popular team in Chicago and they are the defending world champions along with being set up to be a contender for a long time to come.

All of that might be true, but if all works out, the Cubs might not wind be being the best team in Chicago, if the amazing amount of talent that has been brought to the less popular team on the South Side in the White Sox pans out.
White Sox general manager Rick Hahn has moved assets for a bounty of prospects that are the envy of the league and took advantage of teams from contenders that frankly surprised many observers.
These deals have revitalized a franchise that has had four losing seasons in a row (about to have their fifth) and their fan base by trading good players to desperate contenders.

Let's go back to December and the first deal with the Red Sox.
Chris Sale is a legitimate top-of-the-rotation starter, but seemed like a luxury item on a below-average team.
Combine that with occasional clubhouse issues like this one and it made sense to shop Sale as the player that could bring back the highest return (more on that later).

The Red Sox won their division last year after missing the playoff two years straight, but being swept in the first round left a rabid fan base wanting to see their team make a move to improve a good team into a serious championship contender.

Sale was sent to Boston and the prospect return was quite good as the top prospect in the game second baseman Yoan Moncada (last night, Moncada made his big league debut) was the headliner.
Getting Moncada was a good start, but add power-armed Michael Kopech (several times clocked at over 100 MPH), who in each level of his career is averaging double digits strikeouts per nine innings with a ceiling of a 1 or 2 starter and a floor of a hard-throwing reliever, an interesting arm in Victor Diaz (Diaz has struggled in high A this season with Winston-Salem) and toolsy outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe (Basabe is striking out once every four at-bats with Winston-Salem) and the White Sox looked to be quite happy with their return.

This deal might come down to how Michael Kopech develops.
Moncada looks to be about as sure of a bet as you can have for a prospect and Kopech might be the difference between a good deal and a very good deal as both Diaz and Basabe were high-ceiling lottery tickets that the White Sox have to be hoping that they get anything out of just one of them to make this a successful trade.

One day later, Hahn struck again with a team desperate to make postseason progress in the Washington Nationals, who have made flopping in the post-season a habit over the last few seasons.

Even considering desperation, it was more than a surprise that the ChiSox were able to turn outfielder Adam Eaton into three high-level pitching prospects.
Eaton was injured after 23 games in Washington, so the jury is still out on this trade, but Washington felt the need to win now as their window might only have a few years left and Eaton was under a very friendly contract, so he would not be considered a rental.

The cost was three of the Nationals' top four pitching prospects and left the Nationals dependent on the development of Erick Fedde if they were to get any help at all from the farm system for the immediate future as far as pitching-wise.

Lucas Giolito was thought of as one of the best pitching prospects in the game but had struggled in a brief cameo with the parent club in 2016, Reynaldo Lopez looked very good at AA Harrisburg last year but was unimpressive in Washington in his short stint there and the Nationals first-round draft pick Dane Dunning was included in the deal as well.

The results so far are mixed, but promising for the White Sox.
Giolito has been pounded for AAA Charlotte but has occasionally shown signs of brilliance (a seven-inning no-hitter and seven innings allowing just two hits two starts ago).
I wondered about Giolito (the link is here somewhere) and the lack of movement on his fastball as far back as his time with the Hagerstown Suns, but the talent is there.

I liked Lopez as the better of the two even back then and Lopez has begun to be mentioned as the next potential callup from the Charlotte Knights.
Lopez has allowed more than three runs only once since the end of May and more than two just twice in the same period.

Dunning has been excellent all season at two stops (Low A Kannapolis and High A Winston-Salem).
In my opinion, the White Sox had to do this trade even if none of them turned out at the big league level.
The potential to plug in three arms into a future rotation for a good, but not impact outfielder is one that a rebuilding team has to make every time....

The season moved on and the White Sox used Jose Quintana, a good not great starter who will eat innings and slot into the middle of most team's rotation anywhere from 2 to 3 depending on the team.
Combine that with another reasonable contract and Quintana was yet another valuable trade chip for Hahn.

Hahn managed to turn the dependable arm of Quintana into the huge upside of outfield power hitter Eloy Jimenez as the main piece of another four-player return.
Jimenez (Remember him?) missed the early part of the season, but his eight homers in 155 at-bats were enough to make the Carolina League All-Star game, and his forty doubles last season at low A South Bend is the type of stat that impresses observers.

Power bats like the 6'4 Jimenez don't come around every day and at 20, Jimenez looks like a future star.
Add another top prospect arm in Dylan Cease (thought of as a top 100 level prospect) at low A South Bend (batters in two seasons have hit below .200 against him) and two other high A minor prospects in first baseman Matt Rose (14 homers with Myrtle Beach this season) and middle infielder Bryant Flete (hitting over .300 in a breakout season for the same Pelicans) and you have the potential for a huge return.
Jimenez could be a franchise cornerstone, Cease has the upside of a solid starter and if Rose or Flete give the major league anything, this deal would be rated as a huge win for the White Sox.

Hahn still wasn't finished as he used the interest of Boston in Todd Frazier to help with their failing third base situation to parlay that into a deal with the Yankees that included help for the New York bullpen in David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle.
This deal carried a little more financial wiggling as Robertson is owed 18 million for 2018 and the pro-rated version of that for the rest of this season and Frazier earns five million over the final few months of the year.

Chicago had to decide to move them and eat some money, perhaps improving the haul or making the money the problem of the buyer, and as a result, the prospects might not be of the level of the players returned earlier.
This time, Hahn chose the lesser return to save the dollars and gained one nice prospect and others with questions.

Outfielder Blake Rutherford is the blue chip return of this bunch as he was the Yankee first-round draft selection in 2016.
Rutherford was hitting .281 for Low A Charleston with only two homers, but his twenty doubles give me hope that he'll grow into his power.

Righthanded pitcher Ian Clarkin has good numbers in two years at High A Tampa, but has been plagued by injury and has never pitched 100 innings in his nearing five-year career.
Outfielder Tito Polo is hitting .307 in 2017 between High A Tampa and a recent promotion to AA Trenton after being acquired from Pittsburgh at last year's trade deadline.
Polo has speed to kill (stolen base numbers of 46,37 and 27 over the last three years), but doesn't seem to have the pop in the bat to be more than a 4th outfielder.

The White Sox also took on veteran reliever Tyler Clippard for the rest of 2017 to offset some of the Yankee's expenses for the new players.
This deal is the riskiest for Hahn, yet he managed to turn a player he acquired in a minor deal (Kahnle) and two high-priced players into somewhat of a decent return.
There is no sure thing in this trade and only the recent fourteen games of Polo have been at the AA level, so all three players have reasons to be looked at skeptically.

The Chicago White Sox have accumulated what seems to be a strong amount of talent by moving players that didn't help them to even be average.
None of these players are guaranteed to be contributors, although the odds are that at least a few will be, but the commitment to blow it up and do it quickly is a sound one.
I like what's being done in Chicago and if even some of these players fulfill their potential, there could be two powerhouse teams by Lake Michigan....

Nationals send former Suns to Chicago

I usually don't write about teams trades that I don't cover,but today's swap between the Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals badly needed to be a topic for discussion.

Not just because there were two former Hagerstown Suns players involved in the deal either,but to discuss the apparent all in attitude by the Washington Nationals,a team that you always have to give credit for at least trying to improve a franchise that to this point has failed to win in the postseason.

The Nationals sent arguably their three pitching prospects and at minimum three of their top four (Depends on where you rank Erick Fedde) to the Chicago White Sox for outfielder Adam Eaton.
Former Hagerstown Suns Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez are headed to Chicago along with the Nationals top draft pick from last season in Dane Dunning as the White Sox add those three players to the haul led by Yoan Moncada in the Chris Sale trade earlier in the winter meetings in an attempt to bolster one of the weaker farm systems in the game.

For the White Sox,it makes a ton of sense to move some valuable players from a team that went just 78-84 with those assets.
Chicago may not be done if they desire,as they still have players of value that they could receive even more prospects for in pitcher Jose Quintana and especially infield power bats Jose Abreu and Todd Frazier,should they desire to do so.
Giolito is the big name of the three,but I've always preferred Reynaldo Lopez of the two.
On the radar gun,the two are pretty similar,but Giolito's fastball has always been straight with little movement even in his Hagerstown days and no matter the speed,when you fire straight fastballs against major league hitting,they tend to disappear as seven of them flew over the fence in just 21 big league innings last season.
I like Lopez's stuff and movement,my main worry about him is his slight frame.
Pitchers with similar size as Lopez tend to flash brightly and flame out quickly,so there is somewhat of a risk over the long term.
I didn't get to see Dane Dunning,who was Washington's first round pick out of the University of Florida last season.
Dunning was expected to start the season in Hagerstown before the trade and perhaps with a fortunate assignment (the White Sox have teams in the SAL and Carolina leagues) I could still see him pitch.

For Washington,who had been rumored to be talking to Pittsburgh for Andrew McCutchen to patrol center field,this comes as a surprise.
Adam Eaton hit .284/14/59 and those numbers have been consistently in that range over the last three years with the power picking up over the last two seasons.
Eaton brings some speed and intangibles to Washington as he is a high intensity player that Nationals fans should quickly love.
At 28,Eaton should be in his prime years and is under contract for five years (three years and two club options),so that could play into the exorbitant price paid for him.
Eaton is also a good defensive right fielder,but is not as solid in center,which is where he will play as a National.
Bryce Harper isn't moving from right,so plugging Eaton into center means that Trea Turner can be moved to shortstop,where his bat will play even more than center.

In my opinion,this smacks of a panic move.
The Nationals see the window closing with several of their bats possibly moving on over the next two or three seasons and having dealt many of their top prospects (they have held onto Victor Robles and Juan Soto) in trades,the Nationals are in win now mode.
I understand that and give them credit for continuing to tinker with the lineup in an attempt to put them over the top,but this is such an oppressive cost for a player that is good but not great.
Desperation can make teams do things that they normally would not and I feel some desperation on the Nationals part.
Had the Pirates received those three players for Andrew McCutchen,I would have rated it an excellent deal for the Pirates,but to add those three pitchers for Adam Eaton,I would score that as a win for the White Sox.
Prospects are far from a guarantee and they arrive with plenty of risk,but the more you get-the better your chances of success.
Adam Eaton may be a productive player in Washington,but the White Sox made the better deal-even with risk....