The Mariners announced that they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Chase De Jong from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league infielder Drew Jackson and minor league right-hander Aneurys Zabala. To clear room for De Jong on the 40-man roster, the Mariners designated infielder Mike Freeman for assignment.
De Jong, 23, was the Blue Jays’ second-round pick back 2012 but was traded to Los Angeles alongside second baseman Tim Locastro in a swap that sent international bonus money to the Blue Jays.
The former No. 81 overall pick has raised his profile since joining the Dodgers organization and is coming off an impressive 2016 campaign that saw him reach Triple-A for the first time. De Jong tossed just 5 1/3 innings in Triple-A (allowing one run and striking out eight against one walk) but also delivered an excellent campaign at the Double-A level. With Tulsa, the righty logged 141 2/3 innings with a 2.86 ERA, 7.9 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 and a 38.3 percent ground-ball rate.
Last offseason, Baseball America ranked De Jong 16th among Dodgers farmhands, praising his feel for a solid-average curveball. That scouting report noted that his 88-92 mph fastball, which can top out at 94 mph, is a bit straight. He also sports a fringe-average changeup, per BA, and could eventually surface in the Majors as a back-of-the-rotation arm.
De Jong will give the Mariners another upper-level arm to provide depth beyond a rotation that projects to include Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma, Drew Smyly, James Paxton and Yovani Gallardo. De Jong will join Dillon Overton, Rob Whalen, Ariel Miranda and Cody Martin — each of whom has been acquired by Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto in the past calendar year — as an upper level depth option. De Jong is merely the latest trade acquisition for the game’s most active general manager, as Dipoto is now up to 14 trades this offseason and 40 total since being tabbed as the Seattle GM following the 2015 season (hat tip: MLB.com’s Greg Johns, on Twitter).
[Related: Updated Seattle Mariners Depth Chart and Los Angeles Dodgers Depth Chart]
As for the Dodgers’ return, the 23-year-old Jackson rated 12th among Mariners’ farmhands, per MLB.com, and ranked 18th among Seattle prospects in the eyes of ESPN’s Keith Law (subscription required/recommended). The 2015 fifth-rounder spent last year at the Class-A Advanced level, where he batted .258/.332/.345 with six homers and 16 steals in 596 plate appearances. Jackson swiped 47 bags in Class-A a year prior, and the scouting reports from both MLB.com and from Law praise his speed, throwing arm and defensive prowess. His power is a question, though, as Jackson has just eight long balls in 862 pro plate appearances. Law noted that Jackson lacks power and hits the ball on the ground with regularity.
Baseball America was more bullish on Jackson this winter, ranking him seventh among Mariners prospects and calling him a potential everyday shortstop, though they too note that he’s routinely graded as a “fringe-average hitter with below-average pop.” Still, Jackson’s “double-plus” speed and arm create plenty of hope in BA’s scouting report (subscription required/recommended to read in its entirety).
Zabala, 20, spent the 2016 season in the Rookie-level Arizona League, pitching to a 2.88 ERA with a 28-to-15 K/BB ratio in 25 innings. He’s been used out of the bullpen exclusively in each of the past two years, and Law notes that he reached 99 mph in 2016. MLB.com rates him 22nd among M’s farmhands and puts a hefty 75 grade on his fastball, though he receives 40-grade control from that report. Zabala’s curveball draws praise from each report, though it’s not regarded nearly as well as his fastball. Low-level arms with this type of velocity are becoming more common in today’s game, but he makes for a nice long-term lottery ticket of sorts to add to a deep Dodgers farm system.
Losing his roster spot in all of this is the 29-year-old Freeman, who made his Major League debut in 2016 but received just 24 plate appearances between the D-backs and Mariners. Seattle claimed Freeman off waivers from Arizona shortly after the non-waiver trade deadline. In 503 Triple-A plate appearances last year, the former 11th-round draft pick hit .314/.285/.419 with four homers, 23 doubles and six triples. Those numbers, tallied across 104 games, bear a striking resemblance to the second baseman/outfielder’s career marks in 298 contests: .314/.376/.424.
The latest Mariners trade leaves Seattle with a full 40-man roster but does create an opening on the 40-man for the Dodgers, should they wish to make another move in the coming days. Alternatively, the Dodgers could simply keep the spot open to create the flexibility for some waiver activity throughout the remainder of Spring Training.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
How many trades have the Mariners done now this offseason?
Greg Johns @GregJohnsMLB 13m13 minutes ago
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Dipoto has now made 14 trades this year and 40 since hired by Mariners after 2015 season.
Thanks.
Finally.
Great move DiPoto! DeJong is going to be solid. DeJong gives more top minor depth for the rotation. Tacoma should be starting DeJong, Miller, Povse and Whalen in Tacoma. That’s a very good and very young AAA staff.
He’s good
m.mlb.com/news/article/215583532/mariners-gm-jerry…
He’s made 37 trades involvin 95 playes since being GM in Seattle.
Why did they trade him he was good and they got nothing back
Never mind dodgers got a decent return of young talent that could develop nicely
This clears a 40 man spot so mabey another move is to come. However it seems strange to trade dejong after such a good season
Jackson was the M’s 3rd ranked prospect in the most recent MLB Pipeline update, which isn’t saying a lot. At this point, I think Dipoto just likes making trades.
He was one of the worst pitchers the Mets ever had. I doubt he is much better as a GM.
Billy Beane was a first round bust
Yes, they don’t need to have been good baseball players to be good GMs. Different skill sets.
Funny. He had a .8 fWar in his time there. Doesn’t sound like he was that bad
I prefer to watch with my eyes. He was horrible. Him and Dale Murray ..The two worst they ever had.
Jackson is ranked 13th on their recent update and the other guy is ranked 22nd. But I like this deal better for Mariners than Dodgers
I guess this is a low-risk, potentially high reward-type move for the Dodgers. De Jong isn’t 1 of their top prospects. Most sites have him ranked around #18-25 among LAD’s overall prospect rankings, & rank him around #7-12 among LAD’s pitching prospects. He profiles as a mid-to-back of the rotation SP at best…
Drew Jackson profiles as a good glove, mediocre or below average bat, backup middle-infielder, so not anyone who’s going to significantly help LAD in the future; he probably won’t be much better than Chris Taylor or Charlie Culberson…
The real prize for LAD, if there is 1, is Zabala. He can hit triple-digits on the radar gun, & has an above-avg. curveball. The problem is that he’s wild, averaging 5.7 BB/9 in his brief career. He’s only 20 yrs. old, so he has time to learn better control (Randy Johnson averaged 5-6+ BB/9 until he was 29 yrs. old…). If he does, Zabala could be a steal. If he doesn’t, well, LAD is deep w/ pitching prospects…
So the Dodgers get two of Seattle’s top-20 prospects for one of their own, but the one they gave up is the headline instead of the two they got?
::rolls eyes:: not EVERY story has to be about the Dodgers.
Exaggerate much? So, tell me, why is Seattle getting De Jong the headline?
Because some people realize the Dodgers don’t have to be in every headline. Or because the Mariners got a player more likely to play in the MLB this year. Possibly further along on development. Who knows, maybe it’s just because they’re not Dodgers homers.
Exaggerate even more?
I was surprised the Dodgers got as much as they did for De Jong. Weren’t you? Even the Freeman DFA was considered to be more important than the price Seattle paid. Explain.
Not two top 20 as Zabala was ranked between 22-28 depending on which site you look at. De Jong was probably listed in the headline as he is probably considered the best prospect of the 3 with the highest ceiling. De Jong projects as a possible 4-5 starter type where Jackson is probably a utility infielder and Zabala possibly a late inning bullpen guy.
Top 25 or 30, then. Not sure what that changes. You are probably right in that Jackson has utility infielder written all over him and Zabala is a lottery ticket. Yet I remember last July when the Dodgers traded similar prospects to the A’s for two veterans, the talk was about how they’d paid a really tall price (yes I know, they were rentals).
I am starting to think Dipoto thinks this is like a football team and every player at every level has to be a player he drafted or traded for.
Maybe this is so the Dodgers can get a look at Jackson and make another trade and we can have brothers play at 3rd and SS. The Dodgers need to cut salary so you should let those brothers play together. Lol
Now how many Dodger fans have to look up and see who Seattle’s 3rd baseman is and flip out thinking I am crazy? Though out would be nice it was a joke. I know you aren’t trading Seager just like we aren’t trading our Seager. Unless you want to give us the pitcher who is scheduled to pitch opening day for him.
It isn’t as much Dipoto adding another high level SP as it was the Dodgers clearing a 40 man roster spot….yes Dipoto has made some good trades this offseason but give credit to the Dodgers for finding takers on 40 man roster guys that had no room on the 25 man roster….in other words he wouldn’t have made the big league roster anyways with the Dodgers….
Kyle would be traded before Corey….if anything I could see Turner and 2 top 30 prospects going to Seattle for Kyle Seager but Corey is untouchable….
Minor error I think but…
“In 503 Triple-A plate appearances last year, the former 11th-round draft pick hit .314/.285/.419”
How is his OBP lower than his BA?
That is a typo, but it’s possible. Early in the season we can see it every once and a while. It happens when a guy hits a single and tries to stretch it into a double. When he’s tagged out, he’s credited with the single (for his batting average) but didn’t get on base (against his OBP). In this case, his OBP should be .385
I think it happened to Kyle Seager last year early on. He was like 2-9 with 2 singles, but one of them he got tagged out. So he hit .222, but had a .111 OBP
That’s awesome. I really wasn’t trying to be “that guy”, but it made me chuckle thinking about how someone could have a lower OBP than BA over the course of a season. My first thought was “this guy is a terrible baserunner…”
Not to be that guy but stretching a single to a double and getting thrown out doesn’t decrease your OBP. A sac fly is the only way to have a higher BA than OBP
So here’s my take this move is a half churning move half eye on this year. Jackson seems to be a speedster/ def type guy. They lost some of their pure speed in Johnson. So maybe they view him as playoff pinch runner type guy. The churning aspect of it Zabala. Collecting electric arms that other teams might take a particular interest in with an eye on future trade pieces. It’s not a bad move if other teams view Zabala having value. I can’t fault this trade at all. It works for both sides. DeJong plays in a huge spacious ballpark and might see an opportunity this year. The Dodgers free up a 40 man spot without losing anything significant. The question then becomes who takes that spot opening day, because they’ll be required to carry 40 with a guy on the 60.
The Dodgers FO seems to be attracted to flamethrowers with dubious control. They seem to go with the philosophy that control can be taught, but velocity can’t. Has it worked for anybody yet, I wonder? Anyway no lack of competition for the 40-man.
Well I mean they gone both ways in terms of acquiring control arms with high spins rate and lower level power arms so I’m not sure they necessarily have a type. But that’s generally what most teams will do in terms of relief guys. That being said I’m quite curious as to what the other shoe to drop is going to be. Because there is usually a minor precursor to a bigger deal that no one saw coming.
It’s probably sport-wide to some extent but I am looking at the patience they’ve had with the likes of Baez, Hatcher, Raven, and I see them keeping these pitchers on the roster longer than they might if they weren’t throwing hard. They also traded for Montes and though they ended up flipping him his main attraction was velocity.
Overlooking this.
My Dodgers have made transactions with the A’s and now again with the Mariners.
Any possibility that any 3 of these teams are dealing and not with Eppler and the Angles?
Not sure what the real overall effect will be this season, but M’s fans should be pretty impressed with how they’ve built the pitching depth. In the last decade it seems that at least half of the starts made at Tacoma were by guys who probably werent AAA worthy / had no MLB ceiling at all.
Now all of a sudden they have dare i say one of the better rotations at the AAA level, all of these guys are capable of being #5 starters or at least swingmen on a lot of rosters.
Not even sure which ones will form the rotation out of Rob Whalen, De Jong, Andrew Moore, Chris Heston, Dillon Overton and Max Povse. I dont want all of them getting starts this year in SEA, but pitching injuries happen. Will be interesting to see how they end up stacking up as next guy up if/ when a big league guy gets hurt.
And thats not even bringing up the fact that Miranda would likely get first crack at it as the likely opening day long relief guy who is a capable spot starter