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Jake Bauers

Yankees Agree To Minor League Deals With Art Warren, Jake Bauers

By Steve Adams | December 14, 2022 at 12:56pm CDT

The Yankees have agreed to minor league contracts with right-hander Art Warren and first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers, as first indicated on the transactions log at MiLB.com. Warren’s contract is a two-year minor league deal that includes an invitation to Major League Spring Training in 2024, I’m told.

Warren, 30 in March, spent the past two seasons with the Reds and is expected to miss the 2023 season after undergoing surgery to repair the UCL in his pitching elbow back in September. Given that lengthy recovery period, the Reds non-tendered him earlier in the offseason. He’ll now latch on with a new club in hopes of rehabbing his arm and pitching his way into the Yankees’ bullpen plans in 2024, when he’s back at full strength.

While the 2022 season wasn’t a good one for Warren — 6.50 ERA, career-worst 13.3% walk rate and 1.50 HR/9 — it’s fair to wonder how much his elbow’s health (or lack thereof) contributed to those struggles. Warren’s average fastball sat at 95.3 mph with Cincinnati in 2021 but dipped to 93.6 mph in 2022, and his overall results in a healthy 2021 showing were outstanding. The 6’3″, 230-pound righty parlayed a big strikeout rate in Triple-A into a Major League look with the Reds and delivered a 1.29 ERA with an eye-popping 41.5% strikeout rate in 21 innings of work. Only four pitchers (min. 20 innings) managed to top Warren’s 19.2% swinging-strike rate in 2021: Liam Hendriks, Raisel Iglesias, Josh Hader and Jacob deGrom. Suffice it to say, when healthy, there’s plenty of intrigue surrounding Warren’s raw stuff.

Warren didn’t get a look in the Majors until his age-26 season with the Mariners, in part due to injuries, and he didn’t pitch in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season. The recent elbow issue will further cut into his opportunities, and he’ll be 31 by the time he has a legitimate chance to make the Yankees’ roster in 2024. If he makes the team at that point, he’ll be controllable for five years before he can become a free agent. For now, he won’t earn service time on the minor league deal but will be able to rehab at the Yankees’ facilities and with their training and medical staff.

As for Bauers, it’ll be his second stint with the Yankees, who signed him to a minor league deal last offseason as well and ultimately traded him to the Reds in exchange for cash over the summer. The 27-year-old former top prospect didn’t crack the big league roster with either club, hitting .226/.352/.406 with the Yankees’ Triple-A club and just .135/.276/.271 with the Reds’ top affiliate.

Bauers has appeared in parts of three Major League seasons, spending time with Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Seattle, but he’s managed a tepid .213/.307/.348 batting line in 1126 plate appearances. He’ll give the Yankees a left-handed depth option at first base and left field down in Scranton.

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New York Yankees Transactions Art Warren Jake Bauers

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Yankees Acquire Jake Bauers From Reds

By Anthony Franco | June 3, 2022 at 5:55pm CDT

The Yankees have acquired first baseman/corner outfielder Jake Bauers from the Reds in exchange for cash, according to team announcements. He’s not on the 40-man roster and has been assigned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Bauers has appeared in parts of three big league seasons, suiting up with the Rays, Indians and Mariners. The left-handed hitter was a highly-regarded prospect, seen by many as a potential plus hitter based on the strength of his minor league numbers. Bauers hit for high batting averages and drew plenty of walks on his way up the ladder, and he appeared among Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list each season from 2016-18.

The California native has never carried over that success during a lengthy run against MLB arms, though. While he’s continued to draw walks at a strong 11.5% clip in the big leagues, he’s also fanned in 26.4% of his trips to the plate. Bauers hit 11 home runs in 96 games with Tampa Bay as a rookie, but he’s not made much extra-base impact in the seasons since then.

Seattle outrighted Bauers off their 40-man roster at the end of last season, at which point he elected minor league free agency. The 26-year-old caught on with the Reds via minor league contract, and he’s appeared in 29 games with their top affiliate in Louisville. Bauers has gotten off to a dreadful start there, hitting .135/.276/.271 with a 28.4% strikeout rate for the Bats.

Despite that slow start, New York decided to add Bauers as non-roster depth at the upper levels. He’s continued to show quality plate discipline, at the very least, and he’s only a few years removed from being seen as one of the better young bats in the minors.

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Cincinnati Reds New York Yankees Transactions Jake Bauers

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Reds Sign Jake Bauers To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | December 20, 2021 at 12:07pm CDT

The Reds have signed first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers to a minor league contract, per a team announcement. The VC Sports Group client will be in Major League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee. Bauers was eligible to sign a minor league deal even during the lockout due to the fact that he was outrighted off the Mariners’ 40-man roster before the 2021-22 offseason officially began (and is thus technically a minor league free agent).

Still just 26 years of age, Bauers isn’t terribly far removed from ranking as one of the sport’s top 100 prospects, per both Baseball America and MLB.com, in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 offseasons. He’s been a part of two notable three-team trades, going from San Diego to Tampa Bay in the Wil Myers/Steven Souza/Trea Turner/Joe Ross blockbuster (also including the Nats) and also going from Tampa Bay to Cleveland in the Carlos Santana/Edwin Encarnacion/Yandy Diaz deal (which also included the Mariners).

Bauers has logged 1126 plate appearances in the big leagues over the past three seasons but hasn’t produced in Tampa Bay, Cleveland or in Seattle (where he landed following a third minor trade this past summer). He’s a career .213/.307/.348 hitter with 27 home runs, 15 stolen bases and a 26.4% strikeout rate. Bauers has drawn a free pass in 11.5% of his Major League plate appearances, which is well above the league-average, but strikeouts and a general lack of hard contact have suppressed his offensive contributions.

That said, on a minor league pact, there’s little harm in seeing if another change of scenery will bring about better results. Bauers is a career .266/.363/.417 hitter in Triple-A and had near-identical numbers at the Double-A level. He’s drawn average or better defensive marks both as a corner outfielder and a first baseman in the Majors. And, if he were to put it together and tap into that prospect potential, he’d be controllable via arbitration for three years beyond the 2022 season.

The Reds aren’t likely to have much of a need at first base, barring an injury to Joey Votto, but their outfield mix is a bit less certain. Jesse Winker is locked into left field, and Tyler Naquin played his way into at least a platoon role with a solid showing at the plate through 127 games last season. However, the team hasn’t received durability and/or consistent productivity from any of Nick Senzel, Shogo Akiyama or Aristides Aquino. Twenty-six-year-old speedster TJ Friedl might’ve earned himself some consideration with a .290/.361/.419 showing in 36 plate appearances down the stretch last season, too, but Cincinnati’s outfield setup is hardly written in stone. Add in the likely advent of a designated hitter in the National League, and Bauers could at least play his way into a bench role with a productive Spring Training effort.

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Cincinnati Reds Transactions Jake Bauers

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Mariners Outright Jake Bauers

By Steve Adams | October 27, 2021 at 2:36pm CDT

The Mariners announced Wednesday that first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma. He’ll be able to become a minor league free agent following the completion of the postseason, though Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports that the Mariners hope to re-sign him to a minor league contract (Twitter link).

Bauers, 26, is a former seventh-round pick of the Padres who eventually hit his way into top-100 prospect territory in 2017-18. San Diego flipped him to the Rays as one of several players in the three-team Trea Turner blockbuster that sent Turner to D.C. back in 2014.’

After a half season of games in Tampa Bay, Bauers went to Cleveland in another three-team deal — this time the one that sent Yandy Diaz to Tampa Bay, Carlos Santana to Cleveland and Edwin Encarnacion to Seattle. Bauers appeared in parts of two seasons with Cleveland across three calendar years before being traded to the Mariners exchange for a player to be named later (righty Damon Casetta-Stubbs) earlier this season.

The Mariners were the fourth organization of Bauers’ career and the third for which he’s played at the MLB level. He posted just a .220/.297/.275 slash with Seattle, however, continuing the struggles he’s displayed throughout his big league tenure. Through 1126 plate appearances spread across three Major League seasons, Bauers is a .213/.307/.348 hitter with 27 home runs and an impressive 11.5 percent walk rate — but also a sub-part 26.4 percent strikeout rate. He’s posted better numbers in the minors, with similar slash lines at virtually every stop and a career .275/.361/.414 output in parts of seven seasons.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Jake Bauers

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Indians Acquire Damon Casetta-Stubbs From Mariners To Complete Jake Bauers Trade

By Anthony Franco | July 9, 2021 at 7:31pm CDT

The Indians have acquired right-handed pitching prospect Damon Casetta-Stubbs from the Mariners, the two teams announced. The move completes the clubs’ June 10 deal that sent first baseman Jake Bauers to Seattle for a player to be named later.

Casetta-Stubbs was Seattle’s 11th-round draft pick in 2018 out of a Washington high school, signing for an overslot $325K bonus. He has spent the past three years in the low minors, topping out at High-A in 2019 but pitching in Low-A to this point in 2021. While he’s only managed a 6.42 ERA in 40 2/3 innings this year, the 21-year-old has struck out a lofty 31.2% of opposing hitters, far and away a career-best mark. Casetta-Stubbs has issued way too many walks (14.5%), but he’s also keeping the ball on the ground at stellar 56.2% clip.

The uptick in strikeouts doesn’t seem to be a coincidence. In mid-May, Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs wrote that Casetta-Stubbs had improved his velocity from sitting in the low-90s to working in the 93-95 MPH range consistently. Longenhagen slotted Casetta-Stubbs as the #25 prospect in the Mariners system, suggesting he’s likely to wind up as a solid reliever at his peak based on his combination of quality stuff and subpar control. He’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster or made available in the Rule 5 draft after the 2022 season.

Bauers, meanwhile, has continued to struggle in Seattle after a poor start to the year with Cleveland. The left-handed hitter has taken 91 plate appearances as a Mariner, hitting .241/.290/.299 with a single home run.

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Cleveland Guardians Seattle Mariners Transactions Damon Casetta-Stubbs Jake Bauers

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Indians Trade Jake Bauers To Mariners

By Steve Adams | June 10, 2021 at 9:00am CDT

The Indians announced this morning that they’ve traded first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers to the Mariners in exchange for a player to be named later. Cleveland designated Bauers for assignment over the weekend, clearing an avenue for Bobby Bradley to get an opportunity at first base. The Mariners designated infielder Jack Mayfield for assignment in order to open a roster spot for Bauers, according to a press release of their own.

Bauers, 25, has spent parts of three seasons at the MLB level but has yet to produce much in the big leagues. He was ranked as one of the game’s top 75 or so prospects prior to both the 2017 and 2018 seasons at Baseball America, FanGraphs and MLB.com, but the above-average raw power and hit tool that contributed to those rankings has yet to really manifest. He’s logged 924 plate appearances between the Indians and the Rays but managed only a tepid .211/.309/.365 slash. Bauers does walk at a hearty 12 percent clip and can be deployed at any of first base, left field or right field.

It probably feels to many like Bauers should be older than 25, given the fact that his MLB debut came at the age of 22. But he’s still a relatively youthful option for the Mariners to try to catch some lightning in a bottle. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on the Major League roster or else be once again designated for assignment. However, with the mounting injuries the Mariners are facing at first base and in the outfield, it’s not a surprise to see them bring in another option.

The Mariners are without center fielder Kyle Lewis indefinitely after the 2020 Rookie of the Year sustained another knee injury late last month. First baseman Evan White struggled again to begin the season and has now spent nearly a month on the IL with a strained hip flexor. Infield/outfield options Sam Haggerty (shoulder inflammation) and Dylan Moore (calf strain) are both on the shelf at the moment as well, with Haggerty in particular out of the picture after being shifted to the 60-day IL. Meanwhile, uber-prospect Jarred Kelenic fell into a nightmarish slump after cracking a couple of early homers to begin his MLB career. Seattle optioned him back to Triple-A Tacoma this week.

This is the third trade and fourth organization for Bauers, a 2013 seventh-round pick who has the distinction of having been involved in a pair of notable three-team swaps. He went from the Padres to the Rays in the 2014 Wil Myers/Trea Turner deal. After debuting in the Majors with the Rays in 2018, he was flipped to Cleveland in the trade in a trade that, coincidentally enough, also involved the Mariners. That deal sent Edwin Encarnacion and a Competitive Balance draft pick from Cleveland to Seattle, with the Indians netting Carlos Santana and trading Yandy Diaz and Cole Sulser to Tampa Bay.

As for the 30-year-old Mayfield, he’s now been designated for assignment by a trio of AL West teams in the past year. The Astros, who signed Mayfield as an undrafted free agent in 2013, placed him on waivers last November, and he’s since bounced to the Braves, then the Angels and then the Mariners.

Mayfield is the quintessential light-hitting utility infielder. He’s a more-than-capable defender at any of shortstop, second base or third base but has struggled considerably to handle big league pitching. He’s had 150 turns at the plate in the past three seasons combined but put together a dismal .168/.195/.259 output in that time. Mayfield does carry a much more impressive .269/.325/.475 batting line in parts of five Triple-A seasons, however, and he can be optioned both this year and next. The Mariners will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers.

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Cleveland Guardians Seattle Mariners Transactions Jack Mayfield Jake Bauers

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Indians Designate Jake Bauers, Promote Bobby Bradley, Select Blake Parker

By Mark Polishuk | June 5, 2021 at 10:55pm CDT

The Indians have designated first baseman Jake Bauers for assignment, the team announced.  Right-hander Eli Morgan has also been optioned to Triple-A, while first baseman Bobby Bradley has been called up to Cleveland’s roster and righty Blake Parker has had his contract selected.

Today’s news could mark the end of Bauers’ star-crossed tenure in Cleveland.  A top-100 prospect during his time in the Rays’ farm system, Bauers came to the Tribe as part of a major three-team swap involving the Rays and Mariners in December 2018.  The deal brought Carlos Santana back to Cleveland as veteran reinforcement for the Indians’ lineup, and Bauers was supposed to be a young building block, though he hasn’t delivered on that promise.

Over 160 games and 536 plate appearances with the Tribe, Bauers has hit only .218/.305/.352 with 14 home runs, delivering below replacement-level (-0.8 fWAR) production.  This playing time came during the 2019 and 2021 seasons, as Bauers was at Cleveland’s alternate training site in 2020 but never received a call-up to the big league club.  Bauers is out of options, so it’s possible another team might make a waiver claim on a player who is still only 25 and not that far removed from his prospect heyday.

With Bauers struggling so mightily, Tribe fans have spent pretty much all season wondering why Bradley wasn’t being given a shot on the MLB roster.  Bradley had a big Spring Training but has not hit overly well (aside from the power department) at Triple-A this season, with a .196/.266/.485 slash line and nine homers in 109 PA.

Bradley doesn’t bring much versatility as a first base-only player, but with the Indians in desperate need of some extra offense, the decision was finally made to part ways with Bauers and give Bradley another opportunity in the Show.  Bradley received some top-100 prospect attention himself prior to the 2016-17 seasons, and he has hit .251/.339/.503 with 156 homers in 2865 minor league plate appearances since being selected in the third round of the 2014 draft.  Bradley’s only MLB exposure came in 2019, when he posted a .600 OPS over 49 PA.

Parker signed a minor league deal with the Indians in the offseason, and with just one official appearance, Parker will make it seven different teams over parts of nine MLB seasons.  The right-hander (who turns 36 on June 19) most recently pitched for the Phillies in 2020, recording a 2.81 ERA and a huge 36.2% strikeout rate over 16 innings, albeit with an also-hefty 13% walk rate.  Parker has maintained a solid 27.7% strikeout rate over his career, though home runs have been a persistent issue for the veteran.

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Cleveland Guardians Transactions Blake Parker Bobby Bradley Eli Morgan Jake Bauers

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Indians Announce Roster Decisions

By Steve Adams | March 26, 2021 at 12:12pm CDT

The Indians have informed first baseman Jake Bauers, lefty Oliver Perez, infielder Yu Chang and outfielder Ben Gamel that they’ve made the Opening Day roster, the club announced to reporters (Twitter links via Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal). First base prospect Bobby Bradley, outfielder Bradley Zimmer, veteran righty Blake Parker and young lefty Kyle Nelson have all been told they will not head north with the club.

The slate of decisions means that Bauers, who is out of minor league options, will get one more opportunity to fend off Bradley. Bauers didn’t show particularly well this spring, slashing just .200/.429/.280 in 35 trips to the plate. Bradley’s .303/.314/.636 output trounced that, but we’re looking at small samples of data and it’s common this time of year for clubs to be averse to losing out-of-options players on waivers.

Bauers is still just 25 years old and is a former top prospect himself, although he didn’t play in the big leagues last year and carries a rather marginal .214/.314/.377 slash in 811 career plate appearances. Bradley, 24, got an opportunity in the big leagues last season but stumbled with a .178/.245/.356 line in 49 trips to the plate.

With the Indians optioning both Zimmer and Oscar Mercado to Triple-A this week, it appears that Gamel, who’d been in camp as a non-roster invitee, will be one of their primary options in center field. He could split time with Amed Rosario there, although Cleveland’s experiments with him in the outfield thus far in Spring Training have been somewhat adventurous. Gamel has more experience there and seems likely to see plenty of opportunity despite a tepid .212/.316/.364 showing in 38 spring plate appearances.

Chang’s case for a roster spot improved earlier in camp when veteran Mike Freeman was traded over to the Reds. The 25-year-old Chang hasn’t hit much in parts of two seasons with the Indians in 2019-20, but he’s also received just 97 plate appearances in the Majors. Perez, meanwhile, has spent the past three seasons in Cleveland’s bullpen and thrown quite well, so it comes as little surprise that they’ll bring him back for a fourth year. Parker came to camp with a decent chance to grab a spot but has been clobbered for a dozen runs in 6 1/3 innings. His track record in the big leagues is obviously quite a bit better than that disastrous showing, but it’s not hard to see why Cleveland went in another direction after that audition.

Though the team has announced its decisions, the moves themselves aren’t yet formal. Both Perez and Gamel were in camp on non-roster deals, as was veteran righty Bryan Shaw, who made the club earlier in the week. All three will need to be added to the 40-man roster between now and Opening Day, so the Indians clearly have some roster tweaking on the horizon.

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Cleveland Guardians Ben Gamel Blake Parker Bobby Bradley Bradley Zimmer Jake Bauers Kyle Nelson Oliver Perez Yu Chang

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Dominic Leone, Mike Freeman, Cam Hill Make Indians’ Opening Day Roster

By Steve Adams | July 22, 2020 at 6:48pm CDT

The Indians have informed several players, including three who aren’t currently on the 40-man roster, that they’ve made the Opening Day club, Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal tweets. Right-handers Dominic Leone, Cam Hill, James Karinchak and Phil Maton; infielders Mike Freeman, Yu Chang and Christian Arroyo; and outfielders Greg Allen and Bradley Zimmer have all made the roster to begin the year. Leone, Hill and Freeman will each need to be added to the 40-man roster.

The team has also informed a quartet of players that they won’t open the year on the 30-man roster. That includes first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers and righties Jefry Rodriguez, James Hoyt and Hunter Wood. That Wood won’t be on the Opening Day roster is of particular note, as he is out of minor league options and thus cannot be sent down to alternate camp without first being run through outright waivers.

It seems likely, then, that some form of 40-man move involving Wood will help to pave the way for the three non-roster players who’ve made the squad. Cleveland currently has 39 players on the 40-man roster, and Delino DeShields isn’t counting against the group either while on the Covid-19 injured list.

The 28-year-old Leone has the most big league experience of the bunch, having logged 243 1/3 innings of relief dating back to his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2014. Leone’s past two seasons with the Cardinals went poorly, as he worked to a combined 5.15 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 64 2/3 frames, but the righty was excellent for the Jays as recently as 2017, when he pitched 70 2/3 innings with a 2.56 ERA and better than 10 punchouts per nine frames. In all, Leone joins the Indians’ bullpen with a career 3.92 ERA, 9.4 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 1.15 HR/9 and a 43.6 percent grounder rate.

Freeman, who’ll turn 33 early next month, should be a familiar face for Cleveland fans after suiting up for 75 games there in 2019. Last year with the Indians, Freeman played second base, shortstop, third base, left field and even pitched two innings. Along the way, Freeman hit .272/.362/.390 with four homers and eight doubles — good for a 97 OPS+. That’s a solid showing from a part-time player, and although he had to work his way back on another minor league deal, Freeman clearly impressed the club enough to stick around as a depth piece.

Hill, meanwhile, has never pitched in the Majors, so this’ll mark the 26-year-old’s debut season. A 17th-round pick by the Indians back in 2014, Hill has just a 4.81 ERA in 43 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level but impressed the club with a strong effort this spring (five innings, one run) and summer. He ranked near the back of the organization’s top prospect list at FanGraphs this year, where Eric Longenhagen wrote that Hill has “nasty” stuff but sub-par control that causes some concern.

Wood, 26, has plenty of success with the Rays in his first season-plus at the MLB level before being traded to Cleveland alongside Arroyo last summer. He posted decent numbers with the Indians following the trade and carries a career 3.32 ERA and 4.04 FIP in 86 2/3 MLB frames, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see him on the outside looking in. It’s quite possible that another club with more questionable bullpen depth would have interest in swinging a deal for Wood, who has high-end spin and above-average velocity on his four-seamer. Barring that, he could generate interest on the waiver wire.

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Cleveland Guardians Transactions Bradley Zimmer Christian Arroyo Dominic Leone Greg Allen Hunter Wood Jake Bauers James Hoyt James Karinchak Jefry Rodriguez Mike Freeman Phil Maton Yu Chang

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Three Teams Played Musical Chairs With First Basemen…And Five Teams Came Away Winners

By TC Zencka | May 30, 2020 at 10:57am CDT

Last week, I looked at Cole Sulser’s prospects of making an impact in the Baltimore Orioles bullpen. Sulser found his way to Baltimore via Tampa Bay after being included in a three-way swap of more prominent players. Today, let’s take a look at those players. 

To review: in December of 2018, the Indians, Mariners, and Rays engaged in a three-way deal that shuffled around their first basemen. In this rare three-way challenge trade, each team came away with (at least one) major-league first baseman. The Rays got Yandy Diaz, the Mariners Edwin Encarnacion, while the Indians snagged a pair of first basemen in the deal: Jake Bauers and Carlos Santana. 

There were auxiliary pieces that fit less cleanly into our first basemen carousel. The Rays picked up Sulser from Cleveland, while Tampa also sent $5MM to the Mariners. Seattle paid that money forward, sending a total of $6MM to the Indians. Coming back to Seattle was the Indians’ Round B selection in the draft. The Mariners ended up selecting right-handed pitcher Isaiah Campbell out of Arkansas with the #76 pick in the draft. Those pieces aside, let’s check in on how each team is feeling about their end of this whirlwind deal one season after the fact.

Indians

This move – and much of their offseason last winter – was largely about shuffling money around – but not wholly so. The Indians took back Santana, who had only recently been sent to Seattle after playing one season in Philadelphia. Santana made $20.3MM in 2019, but his contract was offset by sending out Encarnacion, who was owed $21.7MM in 2019 with a $5MM buyout for 2020. The difference in their salaries, plus the money acquired from Seattle netted the Indians close to $7.5MM in 2019, though they took on more long-term money in Santana.

On the field, this deal basically amounts to two exchanges for the Indians: Santana over Encarnacion in terms of big-money players, and Bauers over Diaz for cost-controlled assets. As for the first exchange, the Indians have to count this as a win. After one so-so year with the Phillies, Santana returned to form in a big way with the Indians. All aspects of Santana’s game came together in 2019. He hit .281/.397/.515 on the year with 34 home runs and 110 RBIs. He turned in his typically strong BB-K numbers, posting identical walk and strikeout rates of 15.7% (slight improvements on his career norms in both departments). His isolated power (.234 ISO) was the second-highest mark of his career, while the .397 OBP was a new career-high for a full season. Santana’s season totaled 4.6rWAR/4.4 fWAR, good for 135 wRC+, and he’ll be back in their lineup for 2020.

Bauers, on the other hand, is a work in progress. He brings an added level of versatility, appearing in 31 games at first and 53 games in left, but he’ll need to improve at the plate to put that value to work. Bauers hit just .226/.312/.371 across 423 plate appearances in his first season with the Indians. His walk rate dropped to 10.6% and with a power mark of just .145 ISO. That’s not enough pop from a first baseman/left fielder. He finished with below-average marks of 78 wRC+ and -0.4 fWAR. Still, all hope is not lost for Bauers. A career-low .290 BABIP might point to some positive regression in the future, and he doesn’t even turn 25-years-old until October.

Mariners

The Mariners’ biggest get here was the draft pick. GM Jerry Dipoto continued his rebuild, and ultimately, the swap of sluggers was an avenue to add another draft pick. After taking on Santana a week prior, the Mariners shed long-term money by swapping in Encarnacion, whom they eventually flipped to the Yankees.

While with the Mariners, Encarnacion was about as good as expected, slashing .241/.356/.531 with 21 home runs in 65 games. With the rebuild in full swing, EE was never expected to spend a full season in Seattle. Given his start to the year, the Mariners’ return for the DH was a little underwhelming, but the market for teams in need of a designated hitter was limited. Still, Trader Jerry added right-hander Juan Then from the Yankees. Fangraphs ranks Then as the Mariners’ #13-ranked prospect after finishing the season in A-ball. Campbell, selected with the acquired draft choice, comes in at #16.

The Yankees and Mariners essentially split the remaining money owed Encarnacion at the time, so the M’s did see some financial benefit as well. It’s often difficult to track the wheeling and dealing done by Dipoto, but we can give it a go here. To do so, we have to go back to the deal that sent Santana from the Phillies to Seattle. Dipoto sent Jean Segura, Juan Nicasio, and James Pazos to Philly for Santana and J.P. Crawford. In sum, he started with Segura, Nicasio, and Pazos, and the Mariners ended up with Crawford, Then, and Campbell, along with some financial saving both in the short-and-long-term.

Rays

It was surprising to see the Rays move Jake Bauers at the time of this deal, but they’re no stranger to dealing from a young core. The Rays picked up Sulser and Diaz for Bauers in this trade, while also sending $5MM to the Mariners. Considering Sulser was eventually lost on waivers to the Orioles (though he did give them 7 scoreless innings in 2019), the move essentially amounts to the Rays paying $5MM to swap in Diaz for Bauers. At the time of the deal, Bauers was seen as an up-and-comer, while Diaz was a little-known 27-year-old utility player with little-to-no boom in his boomstick. As has often been the case of late with Rays’ trades, at a cursory glance, the Rays were trading away controllable youth for a role player.

But where the Rays are concerned, it’s often worth delving a little further. Diaz quickly became known for his above-average exit velocities. And while Diaz was a little older and without the prospect pedigree of Bauers, he came with similar team control, more versatility given his ability to line up at the hot corner, and his biceps have a cult following all their own.

Injuries unfortunately limited Diaz’s production in 2019, but when he was on the field, he was dynamite. While posting a line of .267/.340/.476 across 79 games, Diaz was coming into his own as a hitter with a 116 wRC+. Diaz’s minor league career to this point was a testament to his ability to get on base, limit strikeouts, and make hard contact, but a groundball-heavy approach limited his power.

But it was a different story in Tampa. Diaz produced a career-best .208 ISO to go with a 91.7 mph exit velocity that put him in the top 8% of the league, per Statcast. His hard-hit percentage continues to be well above average, and a small improvement in launch angle and a large jump in barrels led to Diaz smashing 14 home runs in 79 games after hitting just 1 in 88 big league games with the Indians.

Not only that, but Diaz returned from the injured list in time for the playoffs, leading off the wild card game with a solo shot off Sean Manaea. Diaz went deep his second time up as well, at which point the Rays had more than enough to get past the A’s. It was a monster performance from Diaz in the biggest game of the year up to that point. (Things didn’t go quite so well for Diaz in Houston, as he went 0 for 9 with four strikeouts in the ALDS.) The Rays have to feel pretty good about where they stand with Diaz moving forward, as he should continue to be a cheap source of offense for the next couple of seasons.

For that matter, all three teams have to feel pretty good about this deal, as they each accomplished their goal. If Bauers has a better showing in 2020 and the Mariners’ prospects come to fruition, there will ultimately be very little not to like about this three-way deal. Include the Orioles for nabbing Sulser and the Yankees for getting a half a season of Encarnacion, and it could be argued that five teams actually came away winners from this three-way swap of first baseman.

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Baltimore Orioles Cleveland Guardians MLBTR Originals New York Yankees Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Rays Carlos Santana Cole Sulser Edwin Encarnacion Isaiah Campbell Jake Bauers Jerry Dipoto Yandy Diaz

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