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Mets Acquire Cedric Mullins

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The Mets have acquired outfielder Cedric Mullins from the Orioles, according to announcements from both clubs. Pitching prospects Raimon Gómez, Anthony Nunez and Chandler Marsh are heading to the Orioles in exchange. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reported the deal prior to the official announcement. Outfielder/designated hitter Jesse Winker has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Mullins.

Mullins, 30, will be changing teams for the first time in his career. The Orioles drafted him with a 13th-round pick back in 2015. He got some part-time play in the 2018-2020 seasons without doing too much to stand out, but then had a massive breakout in 2021. He hit 30 home runs that year and stole 30 bases. He walked in 8.7% of his plate appearances and only struck out 18.5% of the time. He slashed .291/.360/.518 for a 136 wRC+. Thanks to that offense, those steals and his strong defense, FanGraphs credited him with six wins above replacement.

That season now looks like an outlier. He hasn’t been able to maintain that level of production but has been a solid everyday player nonetheless. From 2022 to the present, he has hit .241/.310/.412 for a 103 wRC+, indicating he’s been 3% better than the league average hitter in that time. But he has stolen 99 bases and still runs the ball down on the grass. FanGraphs has credited him with 8.8 fWAR in that span, a bit more than two wins per year.

Mullins’ presence on the roster provided a bridge between eras. The Orioles were rebuilding when he first came up. As he broke out, he was a rare bright spot during an otherwise dreary period, with the O’s losing at least 108 games in each full season from 2018 to 2021. The club then emerged as a contender, getting over .500 in 2022 and then making the playoffs in the two years after that.

However, things have gone downhill in 2025, his final season before reaching free agency. Multiple injuries tanked the club early on. They are currently 50-59 and seven games back of a playoff spot, marking them as clear sellers. They have already traded Bryan Baker to the Rays, Gregory Soto to the Mets, Seranthony Domínguez to the Blue Jays, Andrew Kittredge to the Cubs and Ramón Urías to the Astros. With Mullins being an impending free agent, he was also on the list.

For the Mets, Mullins is a sensible addition, as center field has been a question mark for them this year. They began the season with Jose Siri and Tyrone Taylor as their options there. Siri fouled a ball of himself early in the year and suffered a fractured tibia. He’s been on the shelf for almost three months and still hasn’t begun a rehab assignment. Taylor has a dismal .201/.258/.295 line on the year. With those struggles, the Mets have been connected to center fielders such as Mullins, Luis Robert Jr., Harrison Bader and Ramón Laureano.

The Mets have been using Jeff McNeil in center field quite a bit. Presumably, bringing Mullins aboard will allow McNeil to move back to his regular second base position. That could perhaps increase the chances of the Mets flipping one of their young infielders. The Mets have been using Brett Baty, Mark Vientos, Ronny Mauricio and Luisangel Acuña at second and third base this year. Reportedly, they are open to trading from that group, though nothing has come together yet.

Mullins is making $8.725MM this year, which leaves about $2.8MM left to be paid out. The Mets are a third-time payor of the competitive balance tax and are over the top tier. That means they face a 110% tax rate on any money they add to the ledger. The taxes will be about $3.1MM, so they’re paying close to $6MM total to bring in Mullins for the stretch run and postseason. That’s a drop in the bucket for them, as they have some of the highest payrolls in the league in recent years.

They are also parting with three young players. Gómez, 23, has attracted some attention thanks to his elite velocity. He can hit triple-digits regularly, having even touched 105 miles per hour. However, as often happens with pitchers with this kind of stuff, there are health and control concerns. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 and most of his 2024. He has just 102 innings pitched in his five minor league seasons. He has punched out 28.4% of opponents but also given out walks at a 13.3% clip.

He is a project but one with exciting raw talent. Baseball America lists him as the #22 prospect in the Mets’ system. FanGraphs recently put him in the #31 slot. The big question seems to be whether or not he’ll ever harness his stuff. He hasn’t yet climbed beyond the High-A level but has already been eligible for the Rule 5 draft and will be exposed again this winter.

Nunez, 24, is a converted infielder. He was drafted by the Padres as a shortstop but got released back in 2021. He took up pitching and landed a minor league deal with the Mets in 2024. Since then, he has climbed as high as Double-A. In 50 innings across multiple levels, he has a 1.80 ERA and massive 37.5% strikeout rate. He has also walked 11.5% of batters faced, though that high figure is perhaps not surprising for a guy who hasn’t been pitching for very long.

BA lists him as the #27 prospect in the system. Their report notes that he throws a four-seamer, sinker, cutter, slider and changeup. FanGraphs puts him in the #18 spot. Like Gomez, he has already been Rule 5 eligible, so he’ll need a 40-man spot if the O’s don’t want him to be exposed again.

Marsh, 22, was signed last year as an undrafted free agent. He has thrown 42 2/3 minor league innings with a 2.53 ERA, 31% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate. FanGraphs gave him an honorable mention on their recent list of the top Mets prospects, noting that he has a great slider but a lack of fastball control. Unlike the other two, he won’t be Rule 5 eligible until after the 2027 season.

For the O’s, Mullins was on his way out the door in a lost season, so they’ve grabbed a bunch of young arms. They all seem like long-term projects, but the organization presumably feels like there’s upside in here which makes it a worthy gamble. For the Mets, none of those arms were likely to help them anytime soon. Since they are in first place and making a run at a title, Mullins helps them today.

Winker landed on the 10-day IL July 11th due to back inflammation. This transfer means he’s ineligible to return until early September, so it seems the Mets don’t think he’s close to a return.

Photos courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Mitch Stringer, Imagn Images

Padres Acquire Nestor Cortes

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The Padres and Brewers have agreed to a trade that will send left-hander Nestor Cortes, shortstop prospect Jorge Quintana, and cash considerations to San Diego in exchange for Brandon Lockridge.  Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the Padres will only owe Cortes the prorated MLB minimum salary over the remainder of the season, as the Brewers will be covering the remainder of the approximately $2.4MM owed to Cortes.

Cortes is on the move again after being dealt from the Yankees to the Brewers in December, and the southpaw’s Milwaukee tenure ends with just two starts in a Brew Crew uniform.  Cortes had a 9.00 ERA over his eight innings in 2025 before a left elbow flexor strain sidelined him for the bulk of the season.

With his rehab assignment nearing an end, the Brewers had to make a decision about activating Cortes or perhaps dealing him elsewhere, given the club’s crowded pitching situation.  The result was a trade to San Diego, as Cortes will now provide some depth to a rotation that was thinned when Ryan Bergert and and Stephen Kolek were dealt to the Royals earlier today in the Freddy Fermin trade.

However, the Padres didn’t move Dylan Cease despite multiple rumors and acquired JP Sears as part of the Mason Miller blockbuster, leaving the club’s rotation as Cease, Sears, Yu Darvish, Nick Pivetta, and Randy Vasquez.  Cortes and the injured Michael King should likely supplant Vasquez and Sears when they return from the IL, but the bottom line is that the Padres’ plethora of deadline moves has seen the team shuffle but not really overhaul its core rotation mix.

“Nasty Nestor” emerged as a relief weapon and then as a starter with the Yankees during the 2021 season, then seemed to fully break with a tremendous 2022 campaign that saw finish eighth in AL Cy Young Award voting.  Injuries unfortunately limited him to 63 1/3 frames in 2023, and he bounced back to toss 174 1/3 frames in the regular season before a late-season flexor strain surfaced.

Since Opening Day 2024, Cortes had a 4.09 ERA over 237 2/3 innings and good enough secondary numbers to make him still a solid rotation option, but New York opted to deal from a crowded rotation and sent Cortes and Caleb Durbin to Milwaukee for Devin Williams.  Cortes is earning $7.6MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility, and he doesn’t have a ton of time left in the season to re-establish some value heading into free agency.

Since the Brewers will end up eating pretty much all of Cortes’ salary, the Williams trade hasn’t worked out to date, yet the deal will ultimately be judged down the road depending on how Durbin and now Lockridge or Quintana develop as big leaguers. Lockridge has seen some time in the majors already, though with only a .210/.248/.280 slash line to show for 59 games and 107 plate appearances over the 2024-25 seasons.  He is 10-for-11 on stolen base attempts in the bigs, and he topped the 40-steal plateau in both the 2023 and 2024 minor league seasons.

Capable of playing all three outfield positions, Lockridge is an average-to-capable defender all over the grass.  His Triple-A numbers have perhaps been inflated by the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League over the last two years, but Lockridge has a .299/.398/.396 slash over 712 career PA with the Padres’ and Yankees’ Triple-A affiliates.  The Brewers seem likely to give Lockridge a look in the majors right away, as Jackson Chourio’s hamstring injury is probably going to result in a stint on the injured list.

Quintana is an 18-year-old lottery ticket of a prospect who was a member of Milwaukee’s 2024 international signing class.  He has hit .257/.355/.392 over 467 career plate appearances, all at the Rookie League levels.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal was the first to report on the Cortes deal, while the New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported that Lockridge was heading to Milwaukee in the return and Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Quintana’s involvement.

Red Sox “Not Even Close” In Late Joe Ryan Trade Talks

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11:09PM: The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey provides a few more details on the Ryan negotiations, and top-100 outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia “was in the mix to be in the deal.”  Overall, however, the Red Sox weren’t willing to give up more of their highest-rated prospects, and weren’t willing to trade any outfielders from their Major League roster.

5:10PM: Ryan isn’t heading to Boston, as MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo hears from a source that the two sides were “not even close” to completing a trade.

4:42PM: After missing out on Merrill Kelly, the Red Sox are making a late push for Minnesota’s Joe Ryan, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. Francys Romero suggests the Twins are seen as likely to deal the right-hander amidst what has become a shockingly big sell-off.

Aside from the usual rental players, the Twins have dealt one of the game’s best relievers in Jhoan Duran and their most expensive player in Carlos Correa.  With less than 20 minutes remaining until the deadline, could they move one of the game’s better starting pitchers in Ryan?  The 29-year-old owns a 2.82 ERA and 23.8 K-BB% in 121 1/3 innings and is under team control through 2027.

The Red Sox shockingly traded Rafael Devers to the Giants in June, but they’re still in position to secure a Wild Card spot.  Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow has taken a few big swings but has thus far only landed Steven Matz.

Outright Assignments: 7/31/25

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Here’s the rundown of a few outright assignments that were announced during the blizzard of roster moves taking place on deadline day…

  • Catcher Jacob Stallings cleared waivers, and elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate.  Baltimore designated Stallings for assignment earlier this week, and since he has been previously outrighted in his career, Stallings had the ability to opt for free agency this time around.  Stallings signed a minor league deal with the O’s last month when the team was dealing with a myriad of catching injuries, and he was selected to the active roster to appear in 14 games.  Now in his 10th big league season, Stallings has hit .134/.195/.168 over 129 combined plate appearances with the Orioles and Rockies in 2025.  While these struggles represent a low for Stallings, he has generally been a below-average hitter apart from an .810 OPS over 281 PA with Colorado last year.
  • The Mets outrighted left-hander Jose Castillo off their 40-man roster and assigned him to Triple-A Syracuse.  It is the second time in a little over a month that Castillo was DFA’ed and then outrighted, and he chose to accept his last assignment to Syracuse rather than test free agency.  After posting an ugly 11.37 ERA in 6 1/3 innings with the Diamondbacks, Castillo was traded to New York in mid-May and has pitched well when he has been in the big leagues, with a 2.19 ERA over 12 1/3 innings and 14 relief appearances.  This is Castillo’s first real sustained stretch of decent MLB results since his 2018 rookie season with the Padres, when he had a 3.29 ERA across his first 38 1/3 frames in the Show.
  • The Braves outrighted catcher Jason Delay to Triple-A Gwinnett.  Delay also has a past outright on his resume, but it isn’t yet known if he’ll accept the assignment or opt for free agency.  It wasn’t known that Delay had been designated for assignment, but the move isn’t too surprising, as the Braves are deep at catcher and Delay hadn’t seen any time on Atlanta’s active roster.  Delay has a .231/.295/.315 slash line over 373 PA in the majors, all with the Pirates from 2022-24.  The Braves acquired him from the Bucs in April to add depth when Sean Murphy was recovering from a broken rib.

Royals Designate Joey Wiemer For Assignment

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The Royals designated outfielder Joey Wiemer earlier today, and shifted left-hander Kris Bubic from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL.  The moves cleared some 40-man roster space after a busy day of transactions for Kansas City, as Mike Yastrzemski, Bailey Falter, Stephen Kolek, and Ryan Bergert were all brought into the organization.

Wiemer came to K.C. in another prominent trade last November, when Wiemer and Jonathan India came to the Royals from the Reds in exchange for Brady Singer.  Wiemer hasn’t received any big league playing time since the deal, and he has hit just .182/.291/.312 over 296 plate appearances at Triple-A Omaha.  This is Wiemer’s fourth straight season with at least a bit of action at the Triple-A level, and after some big numbers with the Brewers’ top affiliate in 2022, his production has steadily declined.

Almost all of Wiemer’s big league experience came in his 2023 rookie season, when he hit .204/.283/.362 over 410 plate appearances with Milwaukee.  He stole 11 bases in 15 attempts and displayed very good glovework at all three outfield spots, and those same skills combined with his hitting prowess early in his minor league career helped Wiemer get some top-100 prospect attention.  However, he made just 28 trips to the plate over 21 games with the Brewers and Reds in 2024, and the Royals are now the third team to seemingly lose faith in Wiemer’s ability to turn it around at the plate.  Some teams could take a flier on Wiemer as a late bloomer.

Even just as a glove-only bench piece, Wiemer has some value to other teams on the waiver wire, especially now that the deadline has passed and depth options are harder to acquire.  If Wiemer clears waivers, he can’t reject an outright assignment off the Royals’ 40-man roster, since he has neither a past outright on his resume or enough service time to be eligible for free agency.

Bubic will miss the rest of the season due to a rotator cuff strain, so it was just a matter of time before the Royals made it official by placing the southpaw on the 60-day IL.

A’s To Promote Luis Morales

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The Athletics are calling up pitching prospect Luis Morales prior to tomorrow’s game with the Diamondbacks, according to reporter Francys Romero.  Morales will be making his Major League debut whenever he makes his first appearance in a game.  No corresponding moves will need to be made, as the Athletics’ deadline trades have left space on both the 26-man and 40-man rosters.

Mason Miller was one of the players dealt, as the A’s sent Miller and JP Sears to the Padres as part of a blockbuster six-player swap.  The 22-year-old Morales may slide right into Miller’s old bullpen role, if perhaps not specifically as a closer, given how Morales has been operating as a multi-inning reliever over his last month of Triple-A action.  While Morales had operated almost exclusively as a starter before the role change, the decision was made to help manage Morales’ innings.  He has already set a high career high with 89 1/3 frames in 2025, and the A’s are interested in seeing how Morales can now fare against big league hitters.

MLB Pipeline ranks Morales as the 80th-best prospect in baseball, and he also sat 79th in Baseball America’s preseason top-100 ranking.  The A’s gave the Cuban-born Morales a hefty $3MM bonus as an international prospect in 2023, and he has been living up to expectations by making a pretty quick rise through the farm system.  The 2025 season has seen Morales pitch at the Double-A and Triple-A levels for the first time, and he has a 3.73 ERA, 9.6% walk rate, and 29.2% strikeout rate over his 89 1/3 combined innings at the two affiliates in Midland and Las Vegas.

Morales’ control has been average at best, but he brings heavy velocity with a fastball that sits in the 96-97mph range, and cracking the 100mph threshold seems a possibility with this temporary move to the bullpen.  His slider is another quality pitch and his changeup has promise, but is a little more inconsistent.

Pipeline’s scouting report notes that Morales cut back to just these three pitches, and while he could reincorporate his curveball or another pitch down the road, narrowing an arsenal is usually a sign that an organization could be ultimately viewing a pitcher as a reliever over the long term.  The A’s will surely give Morales a chance to stick as a starter before considering a permanent move to the pen, of course, and he might well get a couple of starts in the majors in an early audition for 2026.

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Astros Outright Jon Singleton

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TODAY: Singleton cleared waivers and has been outrighted off Houston’s 40-man roster, the team announced.  It isn’t yet known if Singleton will accept the assignment or elect free agency.

JULY 28: The Astros are designating first baseman Jon Singleton for assignment, according to an announcement from Singleton’s wife Linzy on social media this afternoon. Additional roster maneuvering will be necessary to replace Singleton on the club’s active roster, but it’s not clear what the corresponding transaction will be at this point.

Singleton, 34 in September, was added to the club’s roster last week alongside Shay Whitcomb in the wake of an injury to third baseman Isaac Paredes last week. Singleton ultimately appeared in just three games for the Astros this year, during which he went 1-for-9 with at the plate with one strikeout and no walks. He began the season in the Mets’ minor league system but signed a minor league deal with Houston back in July. Between those two club’s Triple-A affiliates, Singleton has slashed a solid .224/.373/.451 this year with 16 homers in 306 trips to the plate.

The veteran first baseman previously was rostered by the Astros last year as their regular first baseman after the departure of Jose Abreu. Singleton provided a league average bat for the Astros at the position as he slashed .234/.321/.386 with a wRC+ of 104 across 119 games. It was a solid enough performance to earn Singleton consideration for the club’s 2025 roster, but Houston eventually pivoted away from Singleton due to incoming first baseman Christian Walker. With Walker at first base and Yordan Alvarez expected to serve as the club’s everyday DH, there was no path to playing time for Singleton in Houston. Injuries have opened up playing time since then, but the Astros have generally preferred to opt for younger or more versatile options like Taylor Trammell and Cooper Hummel when filling out their roster this year.

Singleton has plenty of history with the Astros organization. A top prospect in the Phillies’s system who was dealt to Houston in a trade for Hunter Pence, Singleton signed a five-year, $10MM extension with the Astros before he even made his MLB debut. The deal was widely viewed as a coup for the Astros at the time, but Singleton struggled upon arriving in the big leagues back in 2014 and slashed just .171/.290/.331 across two seasons in the majors. He did not resurface in the big leagues until the 2023 season and spent time playing both in the minors and for independent leagues during his years away from the majors.

The loss of Singleton leaves them without another lefty bat on the roster. Pending the corresponding move for Singleton’s exit, the Astros only have Trammell (as well as switch-hitters Hummel and backup catcher Victor Caratini) capable of batting from the left side on their roster. As for Singleton, the Astros will have until the trade deadline on July 21 to attempt to work out a trade involving him or else he’ll be passed through waivers. If he clears waivers unclaimed, he’ll have the opportunity to accept an outright assignment from the Astros and remain in their minor league system or test free agency.

Padres Designate Martin Maldonado, Trenton Brooks

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The Padres have designated catcher Martín Maldonado and infielder Trenton Brooks for assignment, per an announcement from the team. San Diego also optioned newly acquired infielder Will Wagner to Triple-A El Paso. Among the numerous trades the Padres pulled off before the deadline were a deal for catcher Freddy Fermin (link) and one for first baseman/DH Ryan O’Hearn and outfielder Ramón Laureano (link). That influx of position player talent to the roster meant cuts were unavoidable, and Maldonado and Brooks were (two of) the odd men out.

Maldonado’s reputation as a strong game-caller has kept him employed long after most statistics suggested he should hang up his gear. From 2012-20, he caught more than 700 games and produced 13.2 FanGraphs WAR, the 14th most among primary catchers. While his bat was a liability, his glove was valuable enough to compensate. According to FanGraphs, only five players racked up more defensive value than Maldonado in that span: Yasmani Grandal, Buster Posey, Yadier Molina, Andrelton Simmons, and Russell Martin. Yet, Maldonado’s offense has only gotten worse, and his defense has dropped off too – at least according to stats like Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Fielding Run Value (FRV), and Deserved Runs Prevented (DRP). Over the past five seasons, no player who has taken as many or more plate appearances has a lower OPS or wRC+, and without Gold Glove-caliber defense to make up for his feeble bat, he ranks among the league’s 10 worst players in fWAR since 2021. With the Padres seeking every possible edge as they look to hold onto their postseason position, it’s no surprise they wanted to improve behind the dish. Fermin isn’t a star, but he’s an upgrade in almost every quantifiable way.

Maldonado will most likely clear waivers, reject an outright assignment, and return to the open market as a free agent. On the one hand, it might seem unlikely that he’ll find another major league job, especially with his 39th birthday fast approaching. On the other hand, one could have said the same thing before he signed with the White Sox in 2024 and the Padres this season. Perhaps it would be foolish to count out Maldonado just yet.

Brooks spent time in the minors with the Guardians and Athletics organizations from 2016-23 before he finally made his MLB debut with the Giants in May of 2024. The lefty batter went 3-for-25 over 12 games, playing first base and DH, before he was DFA’d in June. He spent the rest of the season with San Francisco’s Triple-A affiliate, where he hit well; he finished the minor league season with a .302 batting average and a 132 wRC+ in 94 games. Brooks then inked a minor league pact with the Padres and continued mashing Triple-A pitching in the early part of 2025. He batted .311 with a 133 wRC+ in 60 games before he had his contract selected in mid-June. Unfortunately, he did not have anywhere close to the same kind of success at the MLB level, as he hit .146 with a 26 wRC+ in 25 contests. If Maldonado’s DFA was unsurprising, Brooks’s may well have been inevitable.

Now 30 years old, and with a .136/.208/.212 career slash line to show for his two brief stints in the majors, Brooks is hardly a prospect. Still, his impressive numbers at Triple-A over the past two years (.306/.410/.508, 24 HR, 38 2B, 104 BB, 104 K) might convince a team in need of some left-handed depth to claim him off waivers in the coming days.

Cubs Acquire Willi Castro

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The Cubs have landed utilityman Willi Castro from the Twins, according to Jon Heyman of the New York Post.  Minnesota will receive multiple prospects in return, and ESPN.com’s Jesse Rogers specifies those players as minor league pitchers Ryan Gallagher and Sam Armstrong.

The switch-hitting Castro can play all over the diamond, but he’ll surely get most of his playing time in Chicago at third base.  The Cubs haven’t gotten much from the position all season, even though top prospect Matt Shaw has been on fire since the All-Star break.  Shaw could continue to get at-bats as long as he continues to hit, with Castro spelling him on occasion and moving into more of a regular role if Shaw comes back to earth.

Since coming to Minnesota as a free agent in the 2022-23 offseason, Castro has hit .250/.335/.398 over 1388 plate appearances and played at every position on the field except catcher and first base.  Beyond just being a plug-and-play fill-in for the Twins’ many injuries over the years, Castro forced his way into more of a regular role with his solid hitting from both sides of the plate, and a 34-steal season in 2023.  That havoc on the basepaths may have been a one-year outlier (he is 23-of-35 in steal attempts over the last two seasons), but Castro is nevertheless a solid all-around contributor.

Castro is also inexpensive, as the Cubs will owe him roughly $2MM for the remainder of the 2025 season before the utilityman enters free agency this winter.  Between his salary, rental status, and ability to fit into pretty much any roster, Castro drew a lot of buzz as the deadline approached, with such teams as the Astros, Yankees, and Mariners listed as known suitors.

This interest allowed the Twins to land two pitching prospects for a rental player.  MLB Pipeline ranks Gallagher as the eighth-best prospect in the Chicago farm system, while Armstrong just barely cracked Baseball America’s preseason Cubs ranking in the 30th spot on the list.  This duo will join the haul of young talent Minnesota received as part of their enormous deadline-day selloff.

Gallagher was a sixth-round pick in the 2024 draft, and he has already reached Double-A Knoxville in his first pro season.  Gallagher has a 3.43 ERA, 28.2% strikeout rate, and 5.9% walk rate over 84 combined innings at the high-A and Double-A levels, with 11 1/3 of those frames coming in Knoxville.  His top two pitches are a changeup and a fastball, with the latter pitch standing out for its “quality induced vertical break and command” (according to Pipeline’s scouting report) moreso than velocity in the 90-93 mph range.

Armstrong was a 13th-round pick for Chicago in 2023, and he has a 4.62 ERA, 19.3% strikeout rate, and 8.3% walk rate in 89 2/3 innings in Knoxville this season.  BA’s scouting report says Armstrong has “a kitchen sink’s worth of pitches” but perhaps not a true signature pitch among his six offerings, as his slider gets the highest grade with a relatively modest 50.  Armstrong has posted some good grounder rates across his minor league career, but it would seem he might have trouble continually fooling batters without premium stuff.

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