The Orioles have acquired infield prospect Victor Gonzalez from the Mets as the player to be named later in the August trade that sent Miguel Castro to New York. The 17-year-old Gonzalez has been added to Baltimore’s 60-man player pool, while right-hander Chandler Shepherd was released to make room.
Gonzalez, hailing from the Dominican Republic, signed for a $250K bonus as a member of the Mets’ 2019-20 international signing class. With the 2020 minor league season canceled, Gonzalez has yet to officially begin his pro career, and he wasn’t part of the group working out at the Mets’ alternate training site. Baseball America’s Ben Badler described Gonzalez as having “a good chance to stay at shortstop” since he has “a quick first step, covers ground well and has a strong arm for the position.”
Shepherd joined the Orioles on a waiver claim in May 2019 and made his MLB debut last season, posting a 6.63 ERA over 19 innings for the O’s. The righty was outrighted off the 40-man roster after the season but remained in the organization, and was briefly called up to the Orioles’ roster this season but didn’t appear in a game before being designated for assignment in August.
Originally a 13th-round pick for the Red Sox in the 2014 draft, Shepherd has a 4.17 ERA, 3.44 K/BB rate, and 8.6 K/9 over 455 2/3 career minor league innings in the Boston and Baltimore organizations. Somewhat unusually, he began his pro career as a reliever before becoming mostly a full-time starter prior to the 2018 season. (Three of Shepherd’s five Major League games were starts.)
https://www.amazinavenue.com/2020/1/31/21082545/mets-top-prospects-2020-guerrero-blackham-acuna-carpio-new-york
“Signed during the 2019-2020 international free agent period out of the Dominican Republic for $250,000, Victor Gonzalez has the physical profile of a prototypical shortstop.” etc etc more in link
Nice posting! Seems to have defensive chops but a little scary to see nearly 6′ tall only 155 pounds. Elias is really building up the international guys to replace the void from prior years. Collect as many as possible for cheap and hope u got the next Tatis in there
At that age six foot, 155 is perfectly normal for an athlete.
I was a college swimmer at 6’0” and weighed 155. If it’s all muscle than that is actually a really solid athletic baseline. Now I’m 23 and weigh 180 after lifting more and doing less cardio. If he fills out with age he could be a dynamic athlete.
He’s 17. When I was 17 I was 5’10 140. Now I’m 52 and a depressing mound of lard. Thanks for bringing this up guys…
Why are we not picking up any pitchers?
Orioles farm looking pretty good re pitchers. A very good system seems to be getting better and better now.
They will. This year’s Class has yet to be announced.
Elias and Perez are turning things around Internationally
Smith seemed like an overpay on his own in my opinion, and they still get a lottery pick of a prospect.
Welcome to BVW 101 – Intro to over pay.
What was an overpay? Mets got a reliever with high leverage stuff that is only 25 for a teenager that hasn’t even played in any professional ball yet? haha..
Gonzalez was a PTBNL in a two player deal. The primary player was Kevin Smith, a 22-year-old lefty who made it as high as Double-A ball in 2019. According to MLB Pipeline, Kevin Smith ranked as the 12th-best prospect in the Mets organization. In contrast to Castro, Kevin Smith has been groomed as a starter to this point in his career, making 23 starts across High-A and Double-A in 2019 while pitching to a 3.15 ERA. At 6’5″, one might assume he’s a power pitcher, but Pipeline notes that he gets outs more by effectively mixing his pitches and the deception of his delivery.