The Indians have acquired right-handed pitching prospect Damon Casetta-Stubbs from the Mariners, the two teams announced. The move completes the clubs’ June 10 deal that sent first baseman Jake Bauers to Seattle for a player to be named later.
Casetta-Stubbs was Seattle’s 11th-round draft pick in 2018 out of a Washington high school, signing for an overslot $325K bonus. He has spent the past three years in the low minors, topping out at High-A in 2019 but pitching in Low-A to this point in 2021. While he’s only managed a 6.42 ERA in 40 2/3 innings this year, the 21-year-old has struck out a lofty 31.2% of opposing hitters, far and away a career-best mark. Casetta-Stubbs has issued way too many walks (14.5%), but he’s also keeping the ball on the ground at stellar 56.2% clip.
The uptick in strikeouts doesn’t seem to be a coincidence. In mid-May, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote that Casetta-Stubbs had improved his velocity from sitting in the low-90s to working in the 93-95 MPH range consistently. Longenhagen slotted Casetta-Stubbs as the #25 prospect in the Mariners system, suggesting he’s likely to wind up as a solid reliever at his peak based on his combination of quality stuff and subpar control. He’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster or made available in the Rule 5 draft after the 2022 season.
Bauers, meanwhile, has continued to struggle in Seattle after a poor start to the year with Cleveland. The left-handed hitter has taken 91 plate appearances as a Mariner, hitting .241/.290/.299 with a single home run.
What is it with Dipoto giving up decent prospects for DFA’d players and other minor trades? Not to mention what he gave up (Jose Corniell & Andre Mesa) for the abysmal Rafael Montero. DCS was a local boy who many draftniks were stoked when we were able to sign him. His numbers haven’t been great but his upside is pretty solid. Too many times Dipoto has been burnt on these minor deals. What the M’s could look like right now with Freddy Peralta and Pablo Lopez in the rotation.
None of those players you mention are top prospects, nor will they most likely ever make the big leagues for a guy who is in the big leagues. So it just depends how you look at it- most GM’s in baseball would pull the trigger for that kind of trade.
this dude has a career ERA near 6.00…
In Rookie/A ball nonetheless, I hardly think he turns into Randy Johnson anytime soon and might never see AA yet alone AAA or the majors; Bauers may be a stiff but he’s a major leaguer.
His peak is a middle reliever. Chill. Your gm is trying to win games now, not in 2026
Indians getting anything more than a bag of baseballs for Bauers is a win
Sooooo……garbage out, garbage in?
Ms fans seem pretty pissed about this trade. I’ll take a lotto ticket for Bauers. Moving him was basically addition by subtraction so this Stubbs dude is a bonus
I remember the last time they had a player named Stubbs. Ugh.
DCS is not even a Top 15 arm in the system. They’ll add equal or better talent this weekend in the draft. Worrying about this is a waste of time.
Don’t underestimate Cleveland’s ability to develop bullpen arms.
Or starting pitching
Bauer’s has not really struggled. .240 w the dead ball is not bad. He has been a suprisingly decent player for the ms. He’s been cold for the last week or two but was hitting over .300. I’ll take this trade 10 outta 10 times for a dude pitching over 6.00 in rookie aa ball
That’s cool. It ended up making room for Bobby Bradley. We’ll take that.
Disregarding the average which isn’t really important in this day and age anyway, Bauers doesn’t provide much overall offense. I wouldn’t say he’s cooling down as much as I’d say he probably just had a few good games at first and nothing more. Even when he does hit, it’s rarely anything more than a single and he doesn’t have the power that teams want from first basemen. (Personally, I think power profiling at certain positions is overrated, but as a first baseman there’s just an expectation that he should have more power.) He’s a really good defender, but at this point I don’t think he’ll amount to anything more than Casey Kotchman or a lesser James Loney.
The Indians got rid of a below replacement level player, replaced him with a guy that’s been a really solid hitter for the last month, and got a raw but intriguing arm to basically take a free chance on. Any one of those would be a good outcome on their own, let alone all three happening at the same time.
Thanks Bauers, for not hitting .241 in Cleveland! They prolly would have sadly kept him if he could have even did that ♀️ it’s time to hang the cleats, you suck.