The Rangers announced that they’ve acquired minor league outfielder Pedro Gonzalez from the Rockies as the player to be named later in the trade that sent Jonathan Lucroy to Colorado.
Gonzalez, 19, ranked as the Rockies’ No. 14 prospect per Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen rated him as highly as fourth among Colorado farmhands on his updated summer ranking of Rockies prospects.
Callis and Mayo note that Gonzalez has the type of power that scouts can dream on, noting that he has “considerable” bat speed and has grown three inches and added 15 pounds of muscle since signing as a 16-year-old. Longenhagen calls his upside “immense,” though he notes that strikeouts are an issue for the shortstop-turned-outfielder. MLB.com’s report notes that while he has the present range for center field thanks to improved speed, he could be destined to play a corner in the bigs.
Through 209 plate appearances, Gonzalez is batting an excellent .321/.388/.519 with three homers, 16 doubles and six triples against older competition. He’s swiped 11 bases in 17 tries on the season as well. He’ll report to the team’s short-season Class-A affiliate in the Northwest League, per the Rangers’ announcement.
Gonzalez looks to be a nice add to the Rangers’ farm system, even if he’s a ways from the Majors and obviously won’t eliminate the sting of surrendering Lewis Brinson, Luis Ortiz and Ryan Cordell to acquire Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress in the first place.
As for the Rockies, they have to be rather pleased with the way the trade has played out to date, as through his first 16 games in Colorado, Lucroy has slashed a resurgent .313/.443/.458. He’s yet to connect on his first Rockies homer, but he’s chipped in five doubles and a triple since joining his new club.
Well…it’s not awful I guess. Seems to be a lot of hype and expectations around this guy
There’s a plethora of hype and expectations around prospects, in general.
I like this as a PTNL. #10 Rockies prospect, only 19 years old, and fun to dream on.
Not bad for a Rental and pure Half-season Rental at that. (Lucroy hit .242 with four home runs and 27 RBI in 77 games for Texas Rangers prior to the trade)
Pedro is almost 20 years old (end of October) and he’s playing in rookie ball. He’s a lottery ticket.
The Article states “Through 209 plate appearances, Gonzalez is batting an excellent .321/.388/.519 with three homers, 16 doubles and six triples against older competition.”
Sounds like more than a lottery ticket to me, and definitely better return than Jay Bruce got the Mets. (Salary relief)
The Lucroy Trade was a Rental Trade done right for the Texas Rangers
the Mets picked up a hard throwing pitcher which they also dream on
Knowing the Mets, that dream will turn into a nightmare..down DLane…
#BreaktheMetsDLCurse!!
He isn’t in rookie ball lol
Brinson looks like a bust in my eyes. Nothing of value was really delt in the lucroy deal…
Brinson is 23 and absolutely killed it in AAA. He’s arguably the top OF prospect in baseball.
Nothing of value? You cant just say Brinson is a bust because you don’t like him. They also traded another top 100 prospect in luis ortiz. You sound like you want to make excuses for the rangers getting destroyed by the lucroy trades
salty rangers fan
That guy is a Dodgers fan. Most Rangers fans I have talked knew it was a high price but worth it. If we were still getting the Lucroy of last year, similar to what Colorado is now getting, then that deal was worth it. Not sure if he needed to play every day or what happened here.
I am not so sure about our coaching staff anymore though as players seem to be under performing here and then leaving and doing great. Not a good sign.
I think Lucroy gets a little fussy if he doesn’t get to play everyday. Performance for some players is a bit of a mystery though. Maybe your on to something.
Mindless once again
As a Rockies fan, I would have hoped to give up less. But the player the Rangers received does make the deal fair.
So this is essentially the trade:
Lew Brinson
Luis Ortiz
Ryan Cordell
for
Taylor Scott
Pedro Gonzalez
Lucroy over 124 games with the rangers hit .254, with an OBP around .350, SLG .393, OPS .743 and Jeffers had very little redeeming about his time as a Rangers. This is pretty easy to compare. Overall, bad trade.
in a bubble, yes, but the Rangers were winning the west and needed help staying in front of Houston last year. He was very good last year but fell off this year. He also stabilized a pitching staff last year. And the end of last year, this was a good move. Nobody could have seen the fall off of Lucroy this year.
Last year for that second half he was well above his average for RBIs, HR, slugging, OPS, etc.
There was a lot of talk locally that the Rangers needed to lock Lucroy up long term in the winter. I see it as a win that we didn’t now.
You obviously forgot the contributions Lucroy made to the Rangers winning the West last year.
Very easy to make that claim with the benefit of hindsight. It’s 20/20 you know.
This was not a Sosa for Baines deal. Lucroy and Jefferies both helped TX get to the playoffs last year so from that aspect, the deal was a success. Maybe Brinson and Ortiz become good for MIL….we shall see. If Scott and/or Gonzales amount to anything, it’s a better deal. The fact that Lucroy decided to pout about not getting a big deal from TX shows JD & company made a smart business decision NOT to offer him a big contract.
That GM the Rangers have in Daniels, is always dealing from a “weak hand.” Trading the farm for long established players – a quick fix – has undermined his own team. It’ll be years before any youngster emerges from their minor system.
Could be true. Few Rangers top prospects have stayed in the system.
Simply not true. People put too much stock into the minor league talent ratings. But the reality is, you just can’t know how well a youngster will make the transition to the show. Can’t say any of the young talent Daniels has traded away for immediate playoffs help have been ML studs. I thought trading Justin Smoak and Blake Beaven for Cliff Lee was a bad deal. But, without Lee, the Rangers do not get to the world series. Beaven never made it and Smoak, after six years, FINALLY has emerged as an all star. But it was after Seattle gave up on him. Lucroy and Jefferss were keys to the Rangers winning their division last year. Both were lousy this year. MAYBE Brinson and Ortiz will do something for Milwaukee Who knows if Gonzales or Scott can help Texas in the future. Getting Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman three years ago was a great trade for the Rangers. Maybe Alfaro and Thompson will be good for Philly. Alfaro was brought up up this month and is doing quite well. But Hamels is 31-8 for Texas the last three years and Diekman was outstanding in relief. That same time, Daniels also got Sam Dyson from Miami for two minor leaguers. Dyson did a great job his first two years for Texas. He was awful this year. But the guys Miami got haven’t done anything. Really, only one prospect Daniels traded away has proven to be good, that’s Kyle Hendricks who has done very well for the Cubs and the guy the Rangers got, Ryan Dempster had a 7-2 record for texas for the stretch drive. Overall, Daniels record as GM has been pretty darn good. Five trips to the playoffs including two trips to the world series for a team that was basically awful for the first 10 years of this century.