The Rangers addressed their pitching staff earlier today when they acquired pitchers Lucas Harrell and Dario Alvarez from the Braves for second base prospect Travis Demeritte. The price was seemingly high—Demeritte was a starter in this year’s All-Star Futures Game—for two pitchers who had very little value when picked up by the Braves in late May. Harrell was signed to a Minor League contract four days after he was released by the Tigers. Alvarez was claimed off waivers from the Mets. But with pitching being the Rangers’ top priority, general manager Jon Daniels was able to acquire two pitchers who could help in 2016 and are not yet eligible for arbitration. In a conference call earlier today, Jon Daniels explained his thinking behind the deal.
Described by Daniels as “a sinker-baller who’s going well right now,” the 31-year-old Harrell will be reunited with current Rangers pitching coach Doug Brocail, whom he knows from his days with the Astros. Daniels said that Brocail’s assessment of Harrell was “more of a confirmation of what we thought” and the expectation is that he’ll be a part of their rotation. After tossing six shutout innings in his final Braves start on Tuesday, Harrell is lined up for a home start against the Royals on Sunday.
In regards to his new lefty reliever, Daniels called the 27-year-old Alvarez, who has allowed five earned runs in his 15 innings of work with an amazing 28-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio, a “real interesting guy” with “deceptive delivery and plus velocity.” He also mentioned that this was Alvarez’s first time with an extended run in the Major Leagues. “Sometimes you have to take a chance before a guy’s a household name”, said Daniels, who did just that when he traded for Sam Dyson on the last day of the 2015 trade deadline and has seen him blossom into a successful late-inning arm.
Asked if he was done addressing his pitching staff and if there was a possibility that he would acquire a non-pitcher before Monday’s deadline, Daniels said that he wouldn’t rule anything out. “We’re still having additional conversations”, he said, adding that pitching remains his team’s top priority.
Demeritte was in futures game but is nowhere near that level of prospect, nice get for Braves tho for sure. With his huge swing and miss issues Demeritte has a realistic optimistic outcome of being a solid utility piece.
When I heard about this I thought it was a waiver claim trade. The Rangers really can’t think this rotation is going to hold?
I hope we pick up another possible starter, worst case we don’t and only have Hamels and Darvish (if remaining healthy) to get us through, not a big fan of Perez and don’t know Hollands timeline for return either but sources say Colby Lewis should be back by September and that won’t be much help if the Astros have like a 10 win lead on us which is very possible at this stage. Matt Moore possibly, quite like the idea of Volquez on the team too, not really big on Odorizzi however, but we’ll see what they do before the deadline – fingers crossed.
With how Sonny Gray pitches in Texas, they should just offer Mazara, Profar, Tate & Gallo for him and get it over with.
Great trade for the Braves, but not a bad one for the Rangers I think. The Braves are mostly just happy they turned nothing into something by taking guys other teams didn’t want and giving them enough playing time for different teams to realize they did, in fact, want them. Even if the prospect never makes an impact on the big league team (which is a very real possibility and why I don’t think this is a bad trade for Texas), it was at least worth a shot.
ALEXEI BELL youtu.be/NhjF9uY7hpA
The Braves got Dan Uggla Jr.
Please don’t.
Uggla was a monster for several years, I would love to have that again.
This is a win-win for both teams IMO. Low risk on both sides. possible high rewards. Lottery ticket prospect for two hot hands. I don’t think there was a winner and a loser in this deal. I Think this a good deal for both. The Rangers weren’t trying to fix all their problems with one deal. This is a super cheap depth move. I hate to see Alverez and Harrell go, they both were cool stories to see. But, I think it will work out for both teams in the long run.
With the wild overrating of prospects in these comments I’m surprised no one is saying “Demeritte should have bought back Teheran!”
I thought the Only Overrating was Braves fans overrating Teheran? Haha
Nice to see GMs looking for quality and reasonable prospect cost. I hate to see the farm sold for rentals
“Sometimes you have to take a chance before a guy’s a household name”
This quote from John Daniels right here, turning into his specialty.
I thought it was an amazingly fair deal. Braves were rewarded for “taking a chance” with roster spots and the Rangers get the benefit of that work for the cost of a blocked prospect that has some flags on his record. That said, this is very important for the Braves minor league system b/c there just isn’t enough bats there to grow towards the major league team.