The Orioles have acquired right-hander Jonathan Heasley from the Royals in exchange for minor league right-hander Cesar Espinal, per announcements from both clubs. This appears to be the corresponding move for right-hander Michael Wacha, whose deal with the Royals was officially announced by that club earlier today. Jeff Passan of ESPN relayed the deal prior to the official announcements. Baltimore’s 40-man count is now at 38.
Heasley, 27 in January, was a 13th-round pick of the Royals in 2018 but seemed to increase his stock with a strong 2021 campaign. That year, he tossed 105 1/3 innings in Double-A with a 3.33 earned run average, striking out 27.7% of batters faced while issuing walks at just a 7.9% clip. He was added to the Kansas City roster in mid-September and went into 2022 with a bit of helium. FanGraphs and Baseball America each ranked him the club’s #13 prospect for 2022.
He hasn’t found much success since then, however, serving as a frequently-optioned depth arm. In his 133 2/3 major league innings to this point, he has a 5.45 ERA and 14.5% strikeout rate. In 134 Triple-A innings over the past two years, he has a 6.11 ERA, though his 22.6% strikeout rate at that level is more encouraging. He still has an option so the O’s can continue to develop him without having to give Heasley a spot on the active roster. He has worked both as a starter and reliever in recent years, though it’s unclear if the O’s have a particular role in mind for him.
Espinal, 18, is not a prospect of note as of right now. He has 53 2/3 innings of minor league experience thus far, pitching in the Dominican Summer League in the past two years. He has a 4.02 ERA in that time, along with a 21.9% strikeout rate and 11% walk rate.
Thank you, Mr. Angelos.
Child….We are trying to go to the World Series. That means go after someone legit. You just signed the lease agreement. Now SPEND!
Yeah, only worry about spending big money on big names. Don’t bother doing anything about depth moves. Picking up pieces like Danny Coulombe, Yennier Cano and Kyle Bradish yielded absolutely nothing.
Orioles have a number 1 now!
Reclamation project? I don’t really see the appeal unless it’s part of another deal down the line.
Just depth. They might try to sneak him through waivers.
Possibly the worst pitcher in the entire league. Not even joking
Considering the O’s have the smartest front office in baseball, they must know something you don’t 😉
The smartest front office in baseball that just signed Craig Kimbrel for $13 mill. Two steps forward, one step back.
Silly attempt to draw a parallel 🙂 the Kimbrel signing makes loads of sense. Y’all being mad at a depth move, on the other hand, doesn’t!
I just don’t like Kimbrel at $13mill. He old, down velocity, anxiety attack watching him close. Much rather would have liked that $13mil be invested into a starting pitcher like Giolito.
you understand that is moving forward?
But they could have been “more forward”…
$13M for Giolito? Hahaha!
The fact that the Royals got a teenage lottery ticket for him is nuts cause he is terrible lol.
Waiting for more…interested in reading about Espinal.
Christmas comes early in Birdland
John Angelos is never going to financially recover from the Kimbrel signing. So these are the kind of moves you can expect.
Are they supposed to just ignore minor league moves? You really think this guy is on the major league roster at the start of the year. Complaining about a depth move is just irritatingly whiney.
Because Angelos came out and lied that a 200 million dollar contract would put the franchise completely under water, I will rag on him any time I can. Look at any positive Orioles’ news last season, and the comments by Angelo’s that followed. His comments crushed any good vibes and positive feelings towards the future, and were embarrassing for the fans of Baltimore. At least the lease was announced before Martin Luther King Jr. day…
Whine whine whine. Just enjoy a good team or go root for someone else.
Still more whining. Hey, how did going out and freely spending a bunch of money on free agents work out for the Mets last year? And you’re hoping for an owner that follows that idea? I’m so tired of the “what have you done for me lately” group that doesn’t understand that this team has been up and down. They took the team to the bottom to build it back up. The best team in the majors for a run of 6 years in the early to mid 2010’s, then tanked for a while to be a winner in the long term again. This ownership group has shown you don’t have to spend large amounts of money and bury your team for years to come. You can win by building a solid minor league system. And yet still you whiners aren’t happy just because they aren’t shelling out $700m to Ohtani and burying the club for the next 20 years for just 3-4 years of production.
It’s ok, some people are so blinded by their hate of the Angelos family that they lose their grip on reality.
@blackandorange, I wholly agree with you. I’d certainly like to see the trade that happens for a starter but that’s not likely to happen until the top free agents are under contract and teams with starters return to earth with their demands. but the minor moves are fine, I have no reason to think that this move will destroy the franchise. hopefully we capture lightning in a bottle with another KC castoff. seems we did fine last time and I’m sure there was a lot of bellyaching on this board when we signed O’Hearn and then played the waiver wire game with him to stash him in Norfolk. hoping the coaching and development folks see something in this guy that they can improve.
“worst pitcher in all of baseball”. exaggerate much?
Oh boy. Another High spin FB to add to our collection
Royals are busy this offseason
This should shut up all the whiners in Baltimore who have been crying that Elias wouldn’t bring in a pricey, quality ace. These same losers will be wearing Heasley jerseys by spring training.
Absolutely. This is the move I was waiting for. I go into Christmas happy!
They must have a really positive feeling about this core group of youngsters. To then go out and sign Heasley is them telling us “we’re pushing all our chips into the center of the table.” That means they’re ALL IN boys !!!!!
What part of “depth move” flies 30,000’ over your head?
It’s called sarcasm at 30,000 feet.
There’s your starting pitcher. Now calm down and enjoy ’24.
DAMN – thought we had an Adam Haseley sighting…..
I’m glad I’m not an orioles fan. They’re so bitter. This seems like a decent flier with an option who cost them next to nothing.
There are two types of Orioles fans. Those who lament lack of spending who have seemingly forgotten Chris Davis already (dunno how!) and overlooked that BAL paid Cobb to pitch in SF even this season, and then on the other hand there’s those who stay intensely positive forever – but the latter type of O’s fans get crapped on by MLB fans everywhere, all the time, and generally stop participating in discussion because it isn’t worth the heartache seeing the ignorance (enter: the guys in the lease-signing thread that claim the lease is a liberal corruption deal and that the Orioles over-achieved in 2023).
Most of us just want our own ranks to quit whining and enjoy a good team while we have the opportunity.
The Davis deal was an overreaction due to not giving Nelson Cruz 4 years instead of 3 and the front office feeling like they had to do something to keep their window open. They were competing in a vacuum for him and tremendously overpaid.
They also spent “big money” (if you look at it closely, they were reaching for a bargain because they didn’t want a top tier guy) a year or two before that provided 4 years and $50M for a certain starter who went 42-52 with a 5.22 ERA and is on my All Useless 21st Century Orioles squad.
The intensely positive fans live in an orange-hued neverland. It is quite evident with a neutral view that the Orioles don’t make the bold moves that can make a good team into a dominant one and hope they win with a strong bullpen, enough hitting, bargains, youth, and luck.
BTW 101 wins off a 30-16 1 run game record and 11-6 wins in extras can’t be fully attributed to a flawless bullpen, so the choices are overachievement or luck, or a combination of the two. On paper very similar to the 90-win Rangers, and if they “only” win 90 games next year it does not mean they regressed in quality.
The Royals are ĵust making room on the 40 man roster for Wacha. Heasley was overmatched in both AAA and the majors. He is years away as a starter but might be able to do relief work sooner.
“I Got Blistahs on my Fingahs!!!!”
I think I’m gonna puke.
A nonsensical move. They don’t need another high era reliever. The orioles spent lots of time and money in developing the Latin pipeline. Giving up this prospect for crap doesn’t make sense. Don’t tell me they don’t have a comparable high ERA pitching project in their own system to use as “depth”.
Ya know, Yennier Cano had a 9+ ERA before coming to the Orioles and I don’t hear any complaining about him
@schwender
Exactly what I was thinking. Also, be honest… did anyone actually think that Espinal was a lynchpin in the future pitching stock? Or even know he existed?
bad take. Whining for whining sake.
Oh, but when that move was made, there was ENDLESS complaining. People like to whine.