The Rangers annnounced today that they have acquired minor-league lefty Joshua Javier from the Diamondbacks. He’ll represent the player to be named later from the agreement that sent veteran southpaw Jake Diekman to Arizona at the trade deadline.
Javier, 19, showed well last year in the Dominican Summer League. He reached the Rookie level Arizona League in 2018, marking his first time playing professionally outside of his native Dominican Republic. Through 35 1/3 innings over four starts and six relief appearances, he carries a 2.80 ERA with 33 strikeouts and 15 walks.
Otherwise, there isn’t much information available publicly on Javier, who is a native of the Dominican Republic. He’ll join young righty Wei-Chieh Huang in constituting the return for Diekman. While both pre-MLB hurlers seem to have their share of promise, it doesn’t appear to be a major haul of talent, though neither was one expected for a rental reliever who has his share of demerits on the hill. Of course, the 31-year-old Diekman still brings a mid-nineties heater and has dominated right-handed hitters this year, contrary to his more typical career platoon numbers. He owns a 3.86 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 5.8 BB/9 this year through 42 innings and figures to be a useful asset for Arizona down the stretch.
How does this work? Given that it’s past the trade deadline does the “Player to be named later” have to clear waivers or anything or does that not apply to minor league players?
Waivers doesn’t apply to players off the 40 man roster
Deke, yes the “player to be named later,” in this case was Javier either had to clear revocable waivers first or had to be off a 40 man roster. In this case the pirates claimed him back before the deadline but he probably had to be righted off a roster first. He may not have been even the original player to be named later as they could have negotiated who it was between them but agreed to talk about who at a later time.
Thanks @Brixton and @Axisofhonor25 that clears it up!
I think the Rangers did better than expected in this trade.
These guys are a long way away from being ML players.
Still, the Rangers were able to acquire two, very young assets with promise for Diekman..
Which, it isn’t like Diekman was really supposed to bring anything back of value anyways, so I have to agree the Rangers did well.
Both young players have shown promise thus far in their short professional careers..Obviously, like you alluded to, they are both still a WAYS away from making it to the big leagues, if they ever even make it, BUT the return still adds two “lottery ticket” prospects for basically a reliever they’d lose next year anyways…
Rarely do these kind of prospects ever make it to the big leagues, but every once in awhile a team hits gold finding a future role player, and even more rarely a starter..Even so, a lot of times, these kind of prospects are able to be repackaged to acquire a more pressing need later down the line..Either way, both young players are two useful assets for this organization, but if they bust, so be it..Like I said, nothing really lost anyways…