The Orioles announced that they have traded infielder/outfielder Luis De La Cruz to the Mets as the player to be named later from the James McCann trade.
De La Cruz, 20, has spent the past couple of seasons in the Dominican Summer League, playing first base and the outfield corners. In 60 games over those two seasons, he’s hit .252/.405/.316. He has just one home run but has walked in 16.4% of his plate appearances compared to an 18.5% strikeout rate.
McCann signed a four-year, $40.6MM contract with the Mets going into 2021, but he struggled in the first two years of the deal. In flipping him to the O’s for a player to be named later or cash considerations, it was mostly about getting him off the roster and clearing some money off their ledger. They’re still on the hook for $19MM of the $24MM owed to McCann, but that $5MM drop will actually save them more than that since they are well into luxury tax territory this year and seem likely to be in the same position next year. But in addition to the cost savings, they’ve now added a young player to the lower levels of their farm system.
De La Who?
He can’t possibly be worse than McCann!
But he can
If he never takes a single major league at bat, he’s an upgrade.
@Candy
LMAO Deep.
Sounds almost mean, but when you realize McCann’s two season WAR with the Mets was -0.3, it’s quite literally true.
100%
@H E
De LA Soul
Who needs Correa?
Surprised we got anything at all for McCann, even if it’s just a lottery ticket teenager
Poor performance plus high salary equals de la Cruz.
Cruz is far from a lottery ticket. You didn’t get anything. You got nothing.
Ok Willy Wonka
@YourDreamGM Entirely correct. He’s a corner guy who, even when old for his league, had no pop. despite having already filled out, at 6′-2, 190lbs.
He also pro rated to 60 errors over a full season. I’m almost assuming he’s somebody’s nephew, to be able to repeat the foreign rookie league at 19 despite already being a little older than most of the guys there the previous season.
Hard to say ‘never’ with teenaged ballplayers, but it’s mighty tempting to do so here.
decent numbers in the DSL if you don’t care about silly things like HRs or SLG in your first baseman
And here comes the Massapequa comedy hour in 3…2…1….
@10centBeerNight Yeah maybe anyone with an italian username
What’s a massapequa
@in nurse follars its a town on Long Island in NY, all italians from the old Brooklyn live there
I have underwear older than him.
Let ‘em go man. They’ve served you well.
Mets hope you have more holes in your undies than he has in his swing
Not impressed, but then again, they traded McCann so I didn’t expect much anyway. Would of liked a relief prospect lotto ticket instead
Still no Orioles and Trevor Bauer rumors
U want him Lefty? The rotation could certainly use him especially at minimal cost but I don’t see him choosing Orioles. If they wanted him they should have traded for him. Probably could have had LA still pay majority of salary in trade
I wanted him and thought the Davis Deferrals could be a trade chip and people laughed at me
Anyway, the Orioles could still get him
What do you mean?
You can’t trade deferred salary
Well that was something I could not really confirm and maybe it was an NBA thing where I got the idea
Getting rid of bad contracts
The real win here is saving some money, completing the deal to get rid of McCann, and a minor leaguer. I’ll take it.
Love the avatar
At the end of the night, even the ugliest person left at the bar is better than nothing!
O’s fan here. If it’s any indication as to the prospect quality, I didn’t recognize this name.
That being said, De La Cruz had a considerably better season this year than last year. Improvements across the board both offensively and defensively. Even put up a few steals.
Just might be something a few years down the line of improvement continues.
The good? De LA is a lefty bat who can get on base. The bad? He has no power yet he plays in bat-first positions. Decent lottery ticket.
Looks like he can draw walks and get hit by pitches. That’s all I can add.
He hit .291/.396/ .349 in the Dominican Summer League in 2022. He’s only 20. Certainly more than a bag of balls. Which is what I figured the Mets would get for McCann.
100 abs…….
He signed for 130k and is a pop-less 1B. Wasn’t a 16-17 year old either. He’s now a 20 year old.
This isn’t really a prospect. Just an org depth filler.
He’s listed as 6’2″ 190.
Need scouting report and projections on him, not just stats. If I correctly recall, Mets were given a choice of 5 players from whom to choose.
You guys should look at how many shut out McCann caught in 66 games last year. Also lead 5 different pitchers to a no hitter. Also remember how well the whole pitching staff has done since he signed and lastly remember deGrom was 1 game over 500 when he won a Cy Young but was 7 games over 500 with McCann. Houston wins with the worst hitting player in MLB catching for them.
Luis De La Cruz
Statistics and more…
http://www.fangraphs.com/players/luis-de-la-cruz/sa3016298/stats?position=1B/OF
In 2000, Mets traded 20-yo OFer In the DSL named Nelson Cruz for Jorge Velandria. Luis De La Cruz is a long way off but the Mets liked something about him, so who knows?
I consider it one of the truly great feats of baseball ledgerdemain that J. McCann got $40.6 million out of the Mets.
The O’s are on the upswing so perhaps he can rehab himself? But at least he’s filthy rich…even if he can’t hit a curve. Or anything.
He’ll be a good presence for Rutschman if/when he’s healthy… but that’s a big IF.
Honestly, I was hoping they’d wait the full six months then acquired the Orioles 2022 late round draft pick who’s a seven-foot tall pitcher that played in the summer for the Savannah Bananas.
A crab cake was worth McCann. Adding a cold one was too much
Still Eppler has never made a successful trade.
@Shade 2 Remember when the Cohen sycophants were telling us that Eppler really, really was a talented GM who was only held back by evil Angels’ ownership?
How thrilling. A punchless corner guy ALREADY two years too old for the foreign rookie league.
Still, it’s about what you’d expect. The PTBNL was just to keep up appearances of something other than a strict salary dump.