The Rangers officially acquired a former Rookie of the Year today, getting catcher Geovany Soto and cash from the Cubs for minor league pitcher Jake Brigham and a player to be named later or cash.
Soto, 29, has a .195/.278/.345 batting line in 194 plate appearances this year. The 2008 NL Rookie of the Year earns $4.3MM in 2012 and is on track to go to arbitration for the third time this offseason. However, he could be non-tendered given his salary. The Mets also had interest in trading for Soto.
The move led to the Rangers designating catcher Yorvit Torrealba for assignment. If Soto's production improves, Texas will have an in-house alternative to Mike Napoli when he hits free agency this offseason. Otherwise, the Rangers could non-tender Soto and let him test the free agent market a year early.
Brigham, a 24-year-old right-hander, had been pitching at Double-A Frisco. He has a 4.28 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 124 innings over the course of 21 starts this year. Brigham is a fringe arm, Ben Badler of Baseball America writes (on Twitter). ESPN's Keith Law says he has "a plus fastball and power breaking ball but lacks the command and the third pitch to start."
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that a trade would take place and Tim Brown of Yahoo first reported that the Rangers acquired Soto. Photo courtesy of US Presswire/Benny Sieu.
Another Mystery Team!
Tampa Bay has a new C.
I’m not going to be able to fall asleep!!
Still waiting for the Braves trade…. heard that FW’s office was full of executives after he was seen on a call
Where did you hear this? I’ve been looking everywhere for Braves news and haven’t heard a thing!
He was traded to Orlando for Dwight Howard
The Unknowns… Don’t they play somewhere west of Somewheresville?
Who plays first if you didnt know.
Third base!
Trust me on this:
at third base, I dont know, what is on second?..
I don’t care!
Oh, that’s our shortstop!
They are from Parts Unknown….
why would anyone want Geo? he has been on a downward slide since 08, there are more than enough qualified baseball analysts and writers that think he used roids, considering he literally came out of no where had an awesome year and fell off a cliff, why would you give up anything for him he is horrible
apparently no one did. the cubs traded him, but he wasn’t acquired. he’s just gone
ha
Traded into ｔ ｈ ｅ Ａ Ｂ Ｙ Ｓ Ｓ
Hopefully its not the mets.
My first thought was Mets.
EDIT: Welp, never mind that.
I’m thinking your post will be gone soon, cuz we are not allowed to type in all caps. its in the rules!!!! and I’m just joking around, I’m not actually serious and don’t care
We could always go to your blog where everything is 100% accurate and on time…..
who got the guy that hasn’t done anything in 4 years? oh, the anticipation!
Ever since they caught him on the weed
Ever since he’s refused to maintain a somewhat-athletic figure.
This is our response to the Angels getting Greinke, obviously.
Love the mystery team tag
Geovany Soto had a very respectable .280/.393/.497 2010 season with 17 HR. That was better than his 2008 season. He hasn’t been on a consistent slide, he’s just been very hit and miss.
Loud noises!
It was the rangers so says Tim Brown
hearing hes to the rangers
Traded to Rangers according to Tim Brown on twitter
Soto has been traded to Rangers.
Wow that’s a surprise.
Rangers are the mystery team once again.
But in a surprising twist, it’s the New York Rangers.
hahaha
Texas, huh? So is Torrealba going somewhere? Or some other piece moving and Napoli is gonna play 1B or DH, or…? #mysteries #somany
I’d guess so, unless someone wants Napoli, and I don’t see who would
Well, despite the low average, he still is a power hitting catcher who’s still arb-eligible for next season. (EDIT: no he’s not, why do you lie to me, b-r…)
why the rangers? he is a downgrade from torrealba
a bench bat better than snyder.. Yeah
Have you seen Torrealba this year? Zero offense and declining defense. At least Soto can throw out a runner here and there.
nothing on the rangers website yet cant call it official until that in my opinion
MLB Network is also saying Rangers.
Yeah Dempster might change his mind and reject it…
Texas? Remember when Texas had the big 3 headed giant at catcher of Taylor Teagarden, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and Max Ramirez? Such a shame none of the 3 worked out.
Teagarden must be going to Boston, he’s the only one of the three left not to have spent time in their organization.
For Jacob Brigham
Having a hard time figuring out why Soto, getting paid 4.5m in 2012 was worth more than Shoppach, getting paid 1m and Shoppach was actually hitting better, plus throws out runners pretty decent and that is on a staff in Boston where holding them on is virtually non existent.
@johnsilver:disqus
Look at his numbers the past two years for your answer. You’re correct in your comparisons, but the Sox took a chance on him based on the past two year’s production. Right now I don’t trade Shoppach straight up for Soto.
I have been thinking (hoping) they would clear Shop’s roster space so they could call up Lavarnway. Shoppach, for sure was pretty awful the previous 2 seasons and his K rate brutal this season as well (plus 3 more k’s tonight along with a 3b hit) so it’s all or nothing with him.
Texas is probably going to non tender Soto anyway after the season, surely they don’t offer him arbitration and Shoppach probably wouldn’t have played more than 1-2 games a week either for them.
Was mainly thinking they need someone (Texas) who hits some and plays good defense. Have hard time seeing Soto hitting any better than Torrealba and he is still owed over 2m this year.
Please let there be a reason other than catching depth.
The guy thay’re trading is likely an organizational depth arm. He wasn’t in FanGraphs’ top-15 prospects for the Rangers, and he’s 24 with a 4.58 FIP at AA. I’m guessing they’re getting cash anyway.
I’m just glad the Cubs are moving some of these useless pieces.
Right on the money. Jake’s shown flashes of greatness, but I guarantee
none of the Rangers fans here have really followed his progress on a day
to day basis. He’s already 24 (yeah, crazy to even say ‘already’ with
24), but with how many younger guys (Grimm, Perez, Ross, Scheppers) that
have already made the big club, he was pretty much a shoe-in to get
squeezed out.
I like the move for both teams. Cubs need to shed the dead weight and
let Theo stamp this team his own, Rangers need to cash in on a talented
(albeit inconsistent) piece to get a guy who will be useful immediately
and an insurance policy going into next year if Nap’s slump continues.
maholm and johnson to braves….damn
Do we need another catcher? And how is this an upgrade from Napoli.
I think its a better bench bat over snyder, maybe that’t the logic
He’s under contract for 2013 too…might be a move in that area as Napoli is a FA.
If our catchers next year consist of Soto and Torrealba then we have problems. Unless he starts hitting like he used to.
They could send their catchers up there without bats and the Rangers still wouldn’t have a problem scoring runs.
True. I think after tonight’s game, we realize the problems not our hitting. It’s our bullpen. Really hoping we could get Broxton from the Royals and move Ogando into the rotation.
I still don’t really understand why the Rangers haven’t put Ogando back in the rotation already. Do they want him to stay in the ‘pen for some reason? I understand not wanting to create a hole in the bullpen, but a hole in the rotation is a whole lot more serious I would think.
We we’re supposed to be stretching him out. We need to do something. Roy O has been horrible for us and I’m tired of seeing start after start of 5+ ER.
Jonathan Broxton is awful, guys. He’s allowed as many hits as IP with a K/BB ratio of 25/14. That’s just a replacement-level middle reliever. The rangers probably have 5 guys like him in their system. Mark Lowe is a better pitcher.
he will not take away any playing time from nap
As implausible as it may seem, Soto is now the Rangers’ best-hitting catcher against LHPs, with a .224 average.
That’s sad to say the least.
Washington does a good job at getting guys regular playing time and regular days off. The Cubs could never find the right balance with Soto. They either played him so much, he’d get nagging little injuries, or they didn’t play him enough to keep his bat going.
If TX can get him going again, they’ll have an alternative if Napoli leaves. If not, all it cost them was a 25 y/o minor leaguer with control issues.
related roster move? Moreland just came off the DL that pushes Nap back to full time catching, and Young back to full time DH/rotating IF
As a Ranger fan, our catchers have thrown out ONE base runner in a month…..we have to lead the league in opponents stolen bases. I suspect this means the end for Torrabela.
EG says possible waivers/DFA for Veet
We need pitching JD..get some…man….
lol PSD forums are down
Most head-scratching move of the trade deadline! Rangers counter the Zack Greinke trade by acquiring…Geovany Soto. Mmmk.
This was just a move to sure up the catching for the rangers. Torrealba is an out waiting to happen every at bat and a DP machine. They will now probably move to relievers like Broxton and League. Don’t expect a big splash unless mariners want to deal Felix or they can pry away shields, which both are highly unlikely.
“Torrealba is an out waiting to happen every at bat and a DP machine.”
Sounds like the Rangers got the same thing, just under a different name.
Why do the Rangers need a guy who is a worse hitter than Yorvit Torrealba?
according to fangraphs fld, bsr and WAR have him better but im with you i dont get it, unless torre is hurt and they just have yet to DL him or another trade is in the mix JD is keen on flipping for people
From Worst To First! Soto is a Lucky Man!
If I remember right, the pitcher he wass traded for pitched a perfect game this year in the minors…..might be wrong on that…..but that kid’s name rings a bell. BAD TRADE.
Jonathan Sanchez pitched a (pitcher-)perfect game – so whats your point?
(oh, and he didnt pitch a perfect game. In fact, he hasnt thrown more then 7 innings in a game. Shoot, he wasnt even a starter all year last year. And he’s 24 in his second season in AA. And he still cant seem to get under a 4.50 ERA and 4.25 FIP)
So the Cubs basically got a rule 5 guy for Soto? Suckfest.
Well, he’s been league average or worse 3 out of the last 4 years, so I don’t know that you really could have expected a whole lot more than that really.
Brigham was originally drafted by the Rangers and they put him on the 40 to protect him from the Rule V last year.
As a cubs fan I can say you are getting a pretty good defensive catcher who is also a high character guy. Maybe the Rangers get lucky and the change of scenery helps his offense. I can say he hits a lot of long fly balls that might turn into home runs in Arlington.
Napoli for Shields because Rays need a Catcher and Rangers want a number one starter or Young or Moreland know for a Starting Pitcher
So you’re proposing Napoli (FA in 2 months) for Shields (3rd place in 2011 CY, under control through 2014)?
Go ahead and read that again and see if it makes sense.
And it was the most boring trade deadline ever.
SD keeps Headley.
Phils keep Lee.
Cubs keep Garza.
Marlins keep Johnson.
Marlins deal Hanley.
Brewers deal Greinke.
And a whole mess of medium-sized deals–Wandy, League, Liriano, etc.
Plus, often as not, the biggest stuff happens in the last few hours.
Patience, grasshopper.
Ichiro Suzuki
Zack Greinke
Hanley Ramirez
Hunter Pence
Shane Victorino
Anibal Sanchez
Wandy Rodriguez
Francisco Liriano
Brett Myers
Marco Scutaro
A.J Happ
Brandon Lyon
Paul Maholm
Chris Johnson
Travis Snyder
Carlos Lee
Geovany Soto
Omar Infante
Brandon League
…this trade deadline has been rather extreme, especially against something like last year where Pence, Bourn, Jimenez and a handful or relievers headlined the moves.
In-house alternative to Napoli if he leaves?
Napoli >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Soto
hoping the next few hours we see some huge trades, or at least more cubs gone ie. soriano, demp and garza
Solid low risk move. He is controllable until next year, an improvement over Torrealba, and insurance in case Napoli leaves.