Some moves pan out; others don’t. And then there are those whose importance turns out to be of an entirely different magnitude than had been anticipated. We’ll look at that latter category here.
Among the many great first-half performers, there are many heralded veterans and rising youngsters who were widely expected to do just what they’ve done. But there are also some surprisingly valuable assets who were added for a relative pittance over the winter. Steve Adams already recently covered beneficial minor-league signings, but here are a few who were acquired in other ways:
- David Freese, INF, Pirates — He’s a well-known player, but that doesn’t mean that anybody was expecting this kind of production (.291/.373/.472 over 287 plate appearances). At just $3MM on a one-year term, that late-spring signing is already a certifiable bargain.
- Leonys Martin, OF, Mariners — Seattle has benefited from Martin’s good glovework, wheels, and solid bat — which has produced a surprising double-digit homer tally. Better still, the club now has both Martin and the key piece that it originally gave up to get him (reliever Tom Wilhelmsen).
- Jonathan Villar, SS, Brewers — David Stearns went from Houston to Milwaukee, and it didn’t take long for him to bring a few former ’Stros with him. Villar, picked up in a minor trade, has been perhaps the best get of all with above-average hitting and big-time speed on the bases driving his value.
- Drew Pomeranz, SP, Padres — When we’re comfortably discussing a player as one of the best starting pitching assets at the deadline, it’s safe to say his organization did well to acquire him just months prior for a package of Yonder Alonso and Marc Rzepczynski.
- Dan Straily, SP, Reds — Passed around multiple times at the end of camp, Straily has settled in as a useful arm in Cincinnati. He’s still not going to provide exciting results, but one hundred frames of 4.35 ERA pitching has value.
- Brad Hand, RP, Padres — At the cost of a waiver claim and a 40-man spot, Hand has delivered a 3.10 ERA over 49 1/3 frames. Even better, he’s jumped to a career-best 10.9 K/9, suggesting he may have found another gear upon moving to the pen full-time.
- Dan Otero, RP, Indians — Acquired for cash by Cleveland, Otero is another player who bounced around over the winter. All he has done is post a 1.27 ERA with 8.7 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 over 35 1/3 strong frames.
From this list, which has been the best bargain? (Link for mobile app users.)
What about loney to mets for cash
Mid-season move so not considered.
Matt Joyce has done real well for the Pirates!
Minor league deal, so that’s within the purview of Steve’s post that I linked to.
Pomeranz has to be the one. He’s brought a lot of value already and that could go up if he’s traded.
That trade cost SD Marc Rzepczynski and Yonder Alonso. That is a lot more than the other guys on this list cost.
What the Padres get in return for Pomeranz is the factor if it was a great deal. A’s might deal Rzepcynski so what they get is off setting the price for him. Alonso has had a OK year for the A’s good defense with some hitting. Pomeranz has always been a question on being injured so best for SD to deal him now in case he is injured.
2 non-tender guys. Basically nothing
Both would’ve be non-tendered.
Non tendered? Now that is not true. Why have teams called Beane on Rzepcynski? There is always a need for left handed relief.
They were absolutely both likely non-tender candidates for the Padres last winter.
Your analysis of Alonso’s season is either comically (or embarrassingly) wrong. I mean, if by “some hitting” you mean he hasn’t actually struck out in every plate appearance of the season, I guess you’re right. But by measures anyone else would use to evaluate hitting, you’re not even close.
He has the lowest slugging percentage of all qualified first basemen in the majors.
He has the third-lowest OBP of qualified first basemen.
He has the second-lowest wOBA of qualified first basemen.
By every metric – and by the eye test – he is at-best mediocre defensively.
You cannot call trading away a player who has negative values offensively, defensively and running the bases “giving up.” That’s called “getting rid of.”
In terms of Rzepczynski, the worst-case scenario for the Padres out of this trade before the season started was that they were getting a slightly better LHRP than they were giving up, while paying about 45 cents on the dollar to do it.
When Rzepczynski was moved at last year’s deadline, he netted Abraham Almonte. That’s more than the A’s will get if they move him at this year’s deadline.
And I’d put my money on Jose Torres providing more value to the Padres bullpen in each year between 2017 and 2019 than Rzepczynksi produces this season for the A’s.
But then you would also have to judge the return for Pomeranz. Alonso is really a non factor in the trade. His absence allowed the Pads to move Myers to 1st. Rzepcynski is a good LOOGY but he’s not going to get close to the return as Pomeranz. The Pads essentially won this trade. Preller has recieved a lot of slack but it’s clear he knows minor league talent. He basically blew up a questionable minor league farm system to build up a better one. With more pieces to trade he could have them sitting pretty in a 3-4 year time period.
Pomeranz problem has never been his stuff but his injuries. Pomeranz was replaced by Hill in the rotation. What the Padres need to do with Pomeranz is trade him for young starting pitching. All 3 of their starters are injured prone. They could do some nice rebuilding if they trade them for future aces.
150% Pomeranz. At the time of trade, it was fair for a destined pen guy in swap for an average LHB. But considering Pomeranz gave Padres a much need SP ASG representative (who shined with 1H, 0R), and now will essentially be swapped for a minimum of 1 Top 100 prospect (plus probably more), while essentially paying him zilch, is hitting a moonshot. No question.
No Desmond?
Well, 8 million dollars and a first round draft pick (plus slot money) isn’t really low-cost even though the contract has been quite a bargain so far.
They didn’t lose the draft pick. They deferred it a year.
That wasn’t known at the time of the signing. Anyway, too expensive for what I was looking at here.
Well, I hope they won’t get it back because of an extension… However, I expect Desmond to test the FA market with the limited number of stars available.
I agree, to an extent. But then again, it wasn’t known that he’d be a productive player this year either. It was part and parcel of the same gamble they took.
They deferred the pick? How?
He’s going to get a QO this winter, so they’ll get a comp pick that falls about 5 slots behind the 1st round pick the gave up this year.
Hope klentak kicks himself when he sees oteros numbers compared to Andrew baileys.. Sigh
Regarding Dan Straily, it’s funny, there was a Fangraphs article before the season about how he was working with weighted balls and some new training regiment with the goal of strengthening his shoulder and increasing his velocity, which he deemed essential to finding MLB success. He is now having a fairly respectable season out of the Reds’ rotation.
When you look at the PitchFX numbers his velocity is essentially unchanged from last year – averaging 89.3mph on his fastball – and notably below where he was in 2012 and 2013. He’s had the improved season he hoped for, while not making the improvements he thought were necessary for that to happen. Ha!
I’m wondering if he’ll be traded, but I guess his 4.35 ERA isn’t too inspiring. The Reds have no particular need to trade him, as he’d be useful as an inexpensive long reliever even after he loses his rotation spot to a younger prospect. Since he’s not yet arbitration eligible and still being used as a starter his trade value is probably as high as it’ll be, but without an appealing return there’s no harm in keeping him.
Well he has a 4.35 in a hitters ballpark so
Freese, Joyce and Jaso have played better than expected. with Jung Ho possibly being suspended , the Freese signing is huge.
What about Francouer?
Would be nice to have triple slash line for all the hitters and say ERA, K/9, BB/9 and IP for all the pitchers in the post. Trying to compare stats between a bunch of tabs in a tad annoying.
Tony barnette ?
Joe Blanton?
No Trumbo?
Rodney?
Jeff – what about Kim for BALT.
$2..5 mill – OBP over .400
hitting . 338
Mark Reynolds for the Rockies has almost identical statistics to Freese, and was actually cheaper on his one-year deal.
Trumbo should definitely be on here. Yes he is expensive salary wise, but all it took to get him (and Reifenhauser) was Steve Clevenger.
Good call on Kim. He looked rough in ST and then something clicked.
In the long term Pomeranz may be a bigger asset to the Padres. If traded he can bring a nice piece or two into an organization that needs them. Staying he could be a solid piece in a rotation fraught with injuries but the question was about this season that makes the answer David Freese.
Freese added enormous value outside of his rather surprising numbers to the Pirates, Hurdle has said his presence made the clubhouse better. The pending issue with Kang may make Freese even more important down the stretch as well so he’s certainly been of the most current value.
Of the remainder only Otero is on a contender and an everyday player is more valuable than a situational reliever so Freese gets the nod there.
Junior Guerra is missing from this list
Yes, and he was a much cheaper acquisition than Villar, who cost the Brewers a decent pitching prospect in Cy Sneed.
He’s #2 in the Poll, but I’m very surprised that Villar isn’t being talked about more in the comments. MIL turned what might be a AA relief P into a top 10-ish MLB SS. We’ll see if he keeps this up going forward, but that’s a huge steal so far.
I think you should have made this more of a free-answer post rather than a poll because I think Seung-Hwan Oh, DaeHo Lee and HyunSoo Kim all can make a case to be included in this poll.
Freese for sure, especially now 3b may be in question later in the year. (Kang)
Rajai Davis has had a huge impact in the first half for the Tribe.
Indeed. Little more expensive than I was looking at … informally, I was looking at under $4MM type of deals and especially trades/claims.
Basically, guys who were perhaps somewhat underappreciated by the market, rather than those who have made good on their deals – if that makes sense.
But as all the responses suggest, doing a separate post on guys like Rajai, Desi, Rich Hill and the like would be interesting, too.
Can you imagine if the Mariners didn’t have Martin in CF? We got a sneak peak of what that would be like by running Aoki out there, and it was near traumatic. Leonys was on fire with the bat until he hurt his hammy too, and there’s lots of season left; so as a Mariners fan I am very happy we got him.