The Orioles announced they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Yaqui Rivera from the Marlins. He’s the player to be named later in the April deal that sent relievers Cole Sulser and Tanner Scott to South Florida.
Rivera, 18, was a recent signee of Miami’s out of the Dominican Republic. He made his professional debut last season with a few outings in complex ball and nine starts in the Dominican Summer League. Rivera, who has never appeared on an organizational prospects list at FanGraphs or Baseball America, missed some bats but also had an elevated walk rate — unsurprising tendencies for a pitcher so young.
The 6’2″ hurler is one of three young players the O’s added to the organization in the deal. Baltimore also picked up left-hander Antonio Velez, who has struggled with home runs over his first eight outings in Double-A this year, and low minors outfielder Kevin Guerrero. The 25-year-old Velez is certainly the most likely of the trio to make any kind of near-term impact in spite of his early struggles in Bowie; Guerrero and Rivera are long-term developmental fliers.
Sulser and Scott have each stepped into the big league bullpen in Miami, with the former assuming some high-leverage opportunities. It’s been a fairly similar start to the season for both, who each have quality swing-and-miss numbers but have struggled with control. Sulser owns a 4.50 ERA through 18 innings, and he’s seen his fastball velocity drop nearly two ticks on average relative to last season. Scott remains among the harder left-handed throwers in the game, but he’s dealt with strike-throwing issues throughout his career. He has a 5.40 ERA in 18 1/3 frames with the Fish.
The draft pick was the center of the package of the trade
Likely none of these guys are very much.
Thank you Mike Greenberg.
Now back to you Al in the studio.
Antonio Velez has the potential to be MLB player.
The Marlins just have a bad team. Other than Jazz Chisholm, Pablo Lopez and Sandy Alcantara, this team is hard to watch.
We thank you for watching though, hard as it may be.
Main benefit of this trade was the Os dumped to mediocre relievers and cleared up 2 spots in the pen…..giving way for some new blood to prove themselves, which they certainly are this season.
Does a team deep in rebuild really need to evaluate relievers for the future?. Most relievers have a window way too small for it to matter years from now when they are competitive. In other words, any reliever that proves himself today isn’t very likely to still be good 4 years from now. Relievers are just too fickle.
Are the Marlins rebuilding?
Is the sky blue?
It’s a fair question since the Marlins made moves that teams that want to win do. Trading a draft pick and a couple lottos for relievers. Signing Soler and Garcia.
Doubt they thought the division was in sight but those are definitely moves that a team that is trying to take the next step does.
Stallings has been a huge bust. They didn’t get what fans thought they were getting. Fooled by the Pirates, that’s a shame…
gr81t2 – replace “new blood” with “guys on league minimums” and “to prove themselves” with “to take up space” and I’m 100% with your comment.
Rumor has it that the Orioles are not through making moves.
They also have interest in acquiring Yaqui Doodle !!
He will go to town
Swing and a miss