The Rangers announced Tuesday that they’ve acquired minor league outfielder Alexander Ovalles as the player to be named later in last month’s Cole Hamels trade. Ovalles joins right-hander Eddie Butler and minor league right-hander Rollie Lacy in the package sent from Chicago to Texas in that swap.
Just 17 years of age, Ovalles made his professional debut with the Cubs’ affiliate in the Dominican Summer League this year. Through 21 games and 94 plate appearances, he’s posted a .316/.430/.368 batting line with four doubles and eight steals in 13 tries.
Ovalles, who signed with the Cubs out of the Dominican Republic during the 2017-18 international signing period, isn’t ranked among the club’s top tier of prospects, though that’s not a huge surprise given his age and modest price tag. While the amount of Ovalles’ bonus wasn’t reported last year, the Cubs were under the maximum penalty bracket for exceeding previous international spending limitations, meaning they were capped at $300K per signing when they added Ovalles.
boo
Good trade for the rangers. Hopefully he can develop.
Rangers need to mold him rights if they want him to sucede
Succeed*^
No, they need to mold him the wrong way. That’s the key.
I love Ovalles. One of my favorite rookie ballers with Eddy Diaz (colorado)
Fastest PTBNL to be named ever? Lol
was being facetious, ofc. Strange all these PTBNL are being named this fast. thought would take — minimum— maximum 6 months—amt time allowed. This is a big decision, this PTBNL return seems rather uninspiring… couldn’t top this, Cash? 17 y.o prospect, not ranked in top-tier prospect in Cubs’ system. Don’t use Luxury tax crap, as an excuse. Cubs ONLY had to pay $4M TOTAL
There have been plenty of 17 year old foreign prospects that eventually get up there. They’re usually unknown quantities at this time. Willy Adames come to mind. They’re high risk higher reward players. I’d rather have that than a 25 year old “prospect” in AAA.
Not to mention nobody new Hamels was going to turn into his old self. They went out and got the number one rental pitcher on the market in Happ. Then they went out and got lance Lynn. Lynn had better peripherals than Hamels albeit very similar. There’s no one to blame here. Lynn has been the Yankees Hamels so far.
I knew he would be real good. Closer to his road era. But I didn’t know he was gonna be this good. He will come back to Earth at some point. Just hope it’s before postseason, and doesn’t hurt down the stretch. But I bet his come down won’t be terrible either. Maddon will manage his pitch count. And he only threw a couple of times in about a 3 week span around the break and the trade
“Not to mention nobody new Hamels was going to turn into his old self.”
Lol. He was the #1 reclamation pitcher. Check out Hamels’ Home/Away splits. ERA, HR etc. Not to mention, year younger than Happ. It’s was all about preference this ‘bad’ SP market, and made it known Hamels was my #1 choice. Dont make seem like Happ was unquestioned #1 rental SP. That’s only your opinion.
Just because Happ was #1 on Yanks’ and others’ list, doesn’t make him #1. all relative. Here’s why I was sceptic trading for Happ: (tho Happ’s been a beast for NY so far)
J.A.Happ (before trade)
5.20 ERA last 7 starts prior to trade
4.18 ERA in 20 starts at time
35 y.o rental
Hamels was the #1 one rental SP avail IMO, owed 15M next 2 yrs (counting buyout) of which Cubs had to pay 4M. If Happ leads us to the promised land, I couldn’t care less, but as of right now, I still prefer Hamels. Both have been GREAT for their respective [new] teams. You can’t argue one is def. over the other.
I said Hamels could weeks ago. Took some sweet downvotes and minor ridicule. Getting out of Texas and pitching on a very good NL team will help. Change of scenary. Something to play for.
I mean Tyler chatwood had huge home and away splits last year but that didn’t make him a good pitcher for the cubs this year. Hamels has rebounded. Nobody had a crystal ball. We’ll see if it lasts. I can guarantee you no one though lance Lynn would have a sub 2 ERA through 3 starts either. Happ has undoubtedly been the best starter the last 3 seasons. You can say Hamels was the #1 reclamation project pitcher but you just gave yourself up right there. A “reclamation” project is not the #1 SP available. It may end up being that way but Happ was the most valuable at the time.m
I did. If you saw the away numbers for Hamels, you had an idea
typical for JD to get ripped off. any tradable asset he gets rid of will be greatly undersold. basically ate salary to get nothing in return. ovalles and rollie will never make the big league roster.
Seems like all of the players Jon trades away suddenly figure themselves out as soon as they put on a new uniform…
Ever heard of Lewis Brinson?
Everybody whines about the Lucroy trade, and both of the headliners for the Brewers have already been traded a second time. Brinson can’t hit his weight and Ortiz is just a guy.
And even if you look at the Hamels trade, only Alfaro and Williams look like future regulars, and neither appears to be a difference-maker. Eickhoff could still be a solid rotation piece for the Phillies, but he’s had trouble staying healthy and appeared to get figured out last season.
Fans are always going to overvalue their team’s prospects and rip their GMs for trading them. But in the cases that Rangers fans bring up most often, they did pretty well. Hamels and Lucroy helped the team win back-to-back division titles and brought back a few magic beans in seller trades. You could do much, much worse.
Sounds like the Rangers need new personnel.
So you would rather have Hamels for the rest of this season as opposed to prospects? For the same cost as Hamels the Rangers now have Bahr, Gearrin, Butler, Lacy and Ovalles. And before you can say but he can do better…..nobody did any better this year as rentals don’t get what they used to.
Morons commenting how they’re big fans of a 17 year-old with less than 100 pro at-bats. Jesus.
The Rangers have a very good Dominican program.
Two teams. Both around the 67 percent winning percentage this season.
Good luck to Ovalles in the Rangers system.
So no one special.