The Diamondbacks announced a pair of acquisitions Tuesday: left-hander Joe Jacques was claimed off waivers from the Red Sox, while infielder Sergio Alcantara was acquired from the Pirates in exchange for cash. Both players are headed to Triple-A Reno. Jacques is on the 40-man roster, but Alcantara — who’d signed a minor league deal with Pittsburgh — is not. Arizona’s 40-man roster is now at capacity.
Jacques, 29, appeared in just one game for the Red Sox this season, allowing a run in 1 2/3 innings. He yielded three hits but didn’t issue a walk and also picked up a pair of strikeouts. Dating back to last season’s MLB debut, he’s pitched to a 5.08 earned run average in 28 1/3 innings with a 16.8% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and massive 64.8% ground-ball rate.
Although the sidearming lefty’s track record in the big leagues is minimal, Jacques has pitched in parts of four Triple-A seasons and worked to a 3.93 ERA in 128 1/3 innings. Boston originally acquired the former 10th-rounder from the Pirates in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 Draft. He was designated for assignment Friday when the Sox selected the contract of fellow left-hander Cam Booser from Triple-A Worcester.
Arizona currently has three lefties in the big league bullpen: Joe Mantiply, Kyle Nelson and Logan Allen. Neither Mantiply nor Nelson has pitched especially well in 2024, and while Allen’s lone appearance yielded solid results, the former Guardians, Rockies and Orioles left-hander has a spotty track record in the big leagues, to put it mildly. Jacques will add a depth option who’s had success in Triple-A and who can potentially pile up grounders in Chase Field, which has been quite homer-happy for right-handed hitters in the early stages of the 2024 season. Jacques is in the second of his three option years and thus gives the D-backs some flexibility in the ’pen.
As for Alcantara, he’s no stranger to the Diamondbacks organization. The now-27-year-old infielder spent the bulk of the 2022 season there, appearing in 71 big league games and batting .241/.283/.406 in 186 trips to the plate. He’s a career .209/.281/.343 batter in 502 MLB plate appearances who’s drawn strong defensive grades at shortstop, per both Defensive Runs Saved (4) and Outs Above Average (7). Those strong marks have come in a sample of just 530 plate appearances.
The Diamondbacks recently lost starting shortstop Geraldo Perdomo to a torn meniscus. Top prospect Jordan Lawlar suffered a torn ligament in his thumb late in spring training — an injury that’s expected to shelve him for several months. With that pair of injuries, have been using hot-hitting rookie Blaze Alexander and glove-first veteran Kevin Newman as the primary options at short. Alcantara will give them some depth at the Triple-A level, where he’s a career .268/.386/.397 hitter in 548 trips to the plate.
Alcantara is out of minor league options, so if the Diamondbacks end up selecting him to the 40-man roster, he’ll have to either stick in the majors or else be passed through waivers. Upon clearing, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.
Thank goodness. I was worried he’d clear waivers and eventually be back on the Sox roster
They got some cash to boot. A used wad of tobacco held more value.
The Sox didn’t get cash for Jaques and Rsox wasn’t talking about Alacantra (where the cash went to the Pirates)
Correct. 1 time was a waiver fee. long ago perhaps.
According to cots. boston on hook for just 22k of 740k contract Jacques signed over the winter. In my book? Only thing they could have done better was DFA him after last year was completed.
D’back fans are not going to like what they see after cpl appearances. he has nothing, just like another lefty boston still employs, name-a joely rodriquez.
Getting all the former Pirates minor leaguers I see.
Too bad the D-Backs couldn’t have acquired Andy Haines for cash considerations
He’s about the worst hitting coach in baseball
Should be better than Mantiply or Nelson.
Flukebacks on their way to 80 wins
Would you like a tissue?
“Flukebacks hurrdurr 80 wins” MLBTR needS to do something about these bots. I swear there is a Dodger or Philly fan that just can’t handle that their team choked that just kèps creating multiple accounts to say the same thing over and over. My mute list just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
Dodgers fans mad they can’t win a real world series
And if the Dodgers don’t win it all this year they will spend another $100 million next year to try again