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Luis Alexander Basabe

Giants Acquire Luis Basabe

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The Giants and White Sox have completed a trade, with outfielder Luis Basabe heading to San Francisco in exchange for cash considerations.  Right-hander Jordan Humphreys was placed on the restricted list to make room for Basabe on the Giants’ roster.  (Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that Humphreys is dealing with a family matter.)

The White Sox designated Basabe for assignment earlier this week, ending an injury-plagued three-year run for the outfielder in Chicago’s farm system.  Basabe was acquired from the Red Sox as part of the trade package in the Chris Sale blockbuster, though he sandwiched a very impressive (and healthy) 2018 campaign in between injury-shortened 2017 and 2019 seasons.

It was enough for Chicago to make Basabe expendable, though the Venezuelan prospect was once a well-regarded international prospect and is still a couple of weeks shy of turning 24 years old.  There’s certainly no harm for the Giants in spending a few dollars to acquire Basabe’s services and see if he can unlock some higher potential in a new environment.

MLB Pipeline has already ranked Basabe as the 18th-best prospect in San Francisco’s farm system, with a scouting report noting that he “has the tools to be a worthwhile fourth outfielder,” even if his hitting is still a question mark.  Basabe has batted .248/.345/.392 across 2570 PA in the minors (none above the Double-A level), and he has shown a lot of swing-and-miss in his approach at the plate.

White Sox Place Carlos Rodon On Injured List, Designate Luis Alexander Basabe

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The White Sox have placed left-hander Carlos Rodon on the 10-day injured list due to left shoulder soreness, per a team announcement. In his place, they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Brady Lail from their alternate training site. Outfield prospect Luis Alexander Basabe was designated for assignment to open space on the 40-man roster for Lail. In other Sox news, MLBTR has learned that they’ll add right-handed pitching prospect Andrew Dalquist, their 2019 third-round pick, to the 60-man player pool.

Rodon exited last night’s start early after displaying a worrying drop in velocity. The former No. 3 overall pick came out firing with fastballs in the 91-93 mph range in the first inning but topped out at just under 86 mph in the second inning. For a pitcher who has averaged better than 93 mph in his career with the heater, that type of drop is alarming — particularly given that he’s only just returning from 2019 Tommy John surgery. The Sox haven’t provided a more in-depth diagnosis or timeline for his recovery, though they’ll presumably provide more info the next time GM Rick Hahn or manager Rick Renteria meets with reporters.

As for Basabe, the 23-year-old was at one point a well-regarded outfield prospect. He joined the White Sox organization in the Chris Sale blockbuster, although he was a clear third piece behind headliners Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech. (Righty Victor Diaz was also sent to Chicago in that swap.) Basabe had a miserable first year with the White Sox before rebounding to hit .258/.354/.445 with 15 homers, 21 doubles, eight triples and 16 steals between Class-A Advanced and Double-A in 2018.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for Basabe in a second stint in the Double-A Southern League this past season. In 291 plate appearances, he slashed just .246/.324/.336 with a glaring 29.2 percent strikeout rate. The Southern League is a pitcher-friendly setting, but Basabe’s overall output was nevertheless below the league average. His strikeout totals and continued middling success rate on stolen bases — 60.4 percent over the past two seasons — surely worked against him as well.

Basabe can still be optioned for the remainder of the 2020 season, but he’ll be out of minor league options in 2021. Given his pedigree and the bit of flexibility he still carries as an optionable player in 2020, another team could have interest in taking a flier on him. However, he’s looked mostly overmatched at the Double-A level, so there’s a chance the Sox could succeed in passing him through waivers and keep him in the organization without requiring a 40-man spot.

As for Dalquist, he’s only pitched three innings with the White Sox’ Rookie-level affiliate, so he won’t be viewed as a 2020 option. Still, there’s plenty of value in allowing the 19-year-old to work with the team’s staff and other more experienced players at the satellite site. He ranks seventh among ChiSox farmhands at Baseball America and 12th at both MLB.com and FanGraphs, so it’s not a surprise that the front office wants to continue to get him some valuable developmental reps in the only setting that’s really available to them this season.

Winter Meetings Previews: Royals, White Sox

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In advance of the winter meetings, let’s take a moment to quickly preview a couple teams from the American League Central…

  • The Kansas City Royals will look for value buys on the free agent market, per Lynn Worthy of The Kansas City Star. Given the sale of the team and the managerial transition underway, the Royals have more justification than usual for patience this offseason. With Kansas City, however, there’s often a sense that internal valuations of the talent on hand differs from those of the general public. The Royals continue to present the idea that they are happy with their core, an impression bolstered by the “moon, sun, and stars” type packages the Royals are demanding for players like Whit Merrifield, Danny Duffy and Ian Kennedy. Senior VP of Baseball Ops & GM Dayton Moore refined his fence-walking trick recently while saying both, “…we’re very encouraged with where we are based on how our players performed individually last year,” and also, “I think we’ve got to upgrade everywhere, really.” Pitching is definitely a target, and Moore has been active in trade discussions already, enough to have a sense of where trades might happen – though from Moore’s comments, it seems the Royals are disinclined to be major players on the trade market unless opposing GMs become more amenable to Moore’s ask(s). They do have four open spots on the 40-man roster and should be active in the Rule 5 draft, per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis.
  • After being spurned by Zack Wheeler, the White Sox remain in the hunt for starting pitching, per MLB.com’s Scott Merkin. Chicago was also among the teams in on Jordan Lyles before the righty signed with the Rangers, tweets the MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Their rotation candidates are currently made up of high-ceiling but largely-unestablished youngsters, fronted by 2019 breakout superstar Lucas Giolito. Speculatively, Dallas Keuchel fits nicely from a culture perspective as the perennially-attention-starved White Sox have already added Yasmani Grandal from the nobody-believes-in-us free agent pool – and they like playing with a chip on their shoulder on the southside. As for position players, Chicago boasts close to a full house now that Grandal and Jose Abreu are officially on board. With prospects Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal expected to play a large portion of 2020 in the big leagues, they have one of the more intriguing groups on that side of the ball. Still, there’s definitely room to tinker around the edges, especially in the outfield, where Luis Alexander Basabe, Daniel Palka, Leury Garcia, Adam Engel, and Luis Gonzalez make up the flexible collection of candidates to join Eloy Jimenez and Robert in the outfield.

White Sox Outright Chris Beck, Tyler Danish

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The White Sox announced today that right-handers Chris Beck and Tyler Danish have cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte, thus removing them from the 40-man roster. The moves will help pave the way for Chicago’s newest slate of 40-man roster additions, which includes minor league outfielders Eloy Jimenez, Luis Alexander Basabe and Micker Adolfo; minor league lefty Ian Clarkin; and minor league first baseman Casey Gillaspie, per the team’s announcement.

Beck, 27, soaked up 64 2/3 innings out of the White Sox’ bullpen in 2017 but struggled to a 6.40 ERA with an unsightly 42-to-34 K/BB ratio along the way. The 2012 second-rounder averaged nearly 95 mph on his heater in the process but proved extremely susceptible to home runs (2.23 HR/9). Beck does have a more palatable 3.72 ERA in 162 frames at the Triple-A level, though he’s averaged just 6.9 K/9 there in spite of his solid velocity.

Danish, meanwhile, has just 6 2/3 minor league innings under his belt — all coming in the past two seasons. Also a former second-round pick (2013), the 23-year-old was considered to be one of the Sox’ most promising minor league arms in the low minors before stalling in the upper levels. Danish logged a 5.47 ERA with just 4.6 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 in Triple-A this past season and posted ERA marks in the mid- to upper-4.00s at Double-A in Triple-A from 2015-16.

With the exception of Adolfo, each of the new 40-man additions was acquired by the White Sox within the past 12 months on the trade market. Jimenez (acquired in the Jose Quintana swap) is considered among the top five to 10 prospects in all of baseball. Adolfo, Basabe (Chris Sale trade), Clarkin (Todd Frazier/David Robertson/Tommy Kahnle trade) and Gillaspie (Dan Jennings trade) are not quite as highly regarded but are all among Chicago’s top 30 overall prospects, per MLB.com.

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