The Indians announced today that they’ve acquired minor league infielder Andruw Monasterio as the player to be named later in last month’s Yan Gomes trade.
It’s the second trade of the past four months for Monasterio, whom the Nationals acquired in the August trade that sent Daniel Murphy to the Cubs. The 21-year-old Monasterio’s stay with the Nationals organization will go down as a brief but productive one, as he hit .308/.404/.359 in a tiny sample of 47 plate appearances with Washington’s Class-A Advanced affiliate. On the season as a whole, Monasterio batted .267/.363/.338 with three homers, 14 doubles, three triples and a dozen steals through 483 plate appearances against generally older and more experienced competition in the Class-A Advanced Carolina League.
Monasterio not only split the 2018 season between the Cubs and Nationals organizations but also split his time on the field between second base (645 innings) and shortstop (236 innings). At the time of the Murphy trade, Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote that Monasterio’s size made his likeliest outcome that of a utility/bench piece, though he also praised the Venezuela native’s above-average speed and arm strength while noting he has the hands and feet to play basically anywhere on the infield. Monasterio did walk at better than an eight percent clip in A-ball in 2017 and walked in more than 12 percent of his PAs in High-A in 2018, so there’s certainly some elements of his game about which to be optimistic.
Monasterio joins outfielder Daniel Johnson and right-hander Jefry Rodriguez in comprising the entirety of the Indians’ return for Gomes, who will be under control for the next three seasons in Washington.
Way prospecty
Ok, but who did the Mets get from the Phillies for Jose Bautista? It was the famous “PTBNL or cash considerations” deal, but it was never confirmed.
They received 100 50% coupons from Subway. Eat fresh.
There’ve been lesser returns. Brad Mills was traded from Milwaukee to Oakland for a dollar.
Career WAR of -0.4. Overpay.
At least he wasn’t Harry Chiti. Harry Chiti was traded from the Cleveland Indians to the New York Mets for the proverbial ‘player to be named later’. In 15 games for the Mets, Chiti batted .195. He was sent back to the Indians two months after the trade as the ‘player to be named later’. He was traded for himself.
He didn’t play another game in the majors after being returned to the Indians.
Plus the guy who was traded for a bag of baseballs
Probably courtesy of Jared Fogle from the state penitentiary.
Teams don’t usually announce when they give cash to finalize a trade like that. I believe they technically have up to six months to announce the PTBNL, so I suppose there could still be a return, but it’s not like Bautista had any value. I’d expect it was just a cash transaction.
Free DD advertising!
Indians still sold low on Yan. This doesn’t help.
Um, what? The Indians sold really high on Gomes. He’s coming off his most productive year in at least 3-4 years and still has 3 years of control. Selling low would be if they traded him after 2015 or 2016.
I thought the same thing at first, but catchers don’t age well and Gomes was coming off of an offensive season that he probably wouldn’t have repeated. I’m not really a fan of Roberto Perez, but he can replace the defense at a minimum for a fraction of the cost.
Getting a major league ready reliever, a toolsy prospect, and a lottery ticket is decent value considering how much they saved too.
This is like a gift that keeps on giving for the tribe. In the summer of 2012,the Indians bought Esmil Rogers fr Colorado. That offseason they traded him to Toronto for Mike Aviles AND Yan Gomes. Now they get the aforementioned MLB ready reliever, potentially every day of’er in Daniel Johnson (personally i think he compares favorably to Marquis Grissom),plus the “lottery ticket” if’er announced today. All in exchange for 3 yrs of Yan Gomes, whose best offensive season was back in ’14.
Well, it appears that he has a steady high OBP.
This is a relatively unexciting pickup, but for what it’s worth, he has the exact same profile as Jose Ramirez when he was in the minors. Jose was small and didn’t have any power, but he could play anywhere and got on base a lot without striking out much.
I’m not suggesting he’s anything close to the next Jose, but they might see some of the same things and think it’s at least worth a shot (when you’re choosing a PTBNL, it’s not like you have your choice of top prospects, so you might as well throw a dart at someone you could mold into something). At a minimum, someone with good plate discipline who can play anywhere has a high floor as a utility guy.
I was thinking the same thing.When the worst thing that dilettante Longenhagen has to say is that the guy is small,then you might just have a player on your hands.
Yeah, what was up with the size comment by him? Is he always like that?
The Indians have another guy that kinda fits that description in Ernie Clement (he’s basically the same player, just not as small). I’m sure a lot of teams have someone like that, but maybe they see something in these types of players.
I don’t expect them to do what Jose did (expecting Jose to do what he did would have been crazy enough), but I don’t think size is an accurate indicator of anything. His plate discipline is great and he’s got versatility, so he should a decent guy to have around.
he’s no Trea Turner. now that’s a ptbnl!!!