Sailors got their first baseman / hitter designated Carlos Santana And money from the royal family in exchange for the right-handed White Mills And the William FlemingAccording to the team’s announcement. The trade paves the way for the royal family to take a late look at potential customers Vinnie Pasquantino, whose contract was officially selected from Triple-A Omaha, according to the team. right hand Ronald Bolanos He was assigned the task in order to unlock a place on Kansas City’s 40-man roster.
Monday’s trade closed the book on the generally disappointing tenure of Kansas City for Santana, who signed a two-year, $17.5 million contract before the 2021 season but has yet to transform into the form that has made him a valuable contributor for years to Cleveland. The 36-year-old has scored 871 board appearances with the Royals and scored just 0.215/.326/.341 batting streak — about 12% worse than the league average after park and league weight, as measured by wRC+.
Santana has been able to turn things around in recent weeks, and he has shown enough this month for the royals to take a low-cost look now that they have suddenly found themselves in need of a first baseman. Ty France, the most consistent hitter in Seattle this season, recently landed on the hit list and numbers to be out a little longer than the 10-day minimum, given a diagnosis of a Class II flexor strain. Santana shouldn’t be expected to completely replace the superb French .316/.390/.476 hitting streak, but he has managed to produce .298/.405/.468 by himself over the course of 27 games and 111 games.
In all likelihood, members of the royal family pay the vast majority of what’s left on Santana’s contract. He still owes his $10.5 million salary balance for the year (about $5.8 million), and that number will increase based on the appearance of the board. Santana, who has already appeared in 212 games this season, will earn an additional $75,000 for every No. 25 plate appearance from 300 to 525.
This is not the first time the Mariners have taken possession of Santana, although whenever he enters the field in a Mariners jersey, it will be his first actual game for the team. Seattle has already acquired Santana along GB Crawford In the transaction you sent Jean SeguraAnd the Juan Nicasio And the James Bazos To the Phillies again in December 2018. However, not two weeks later, Santana was traded to Cleveland in a three-team swap. Edwin Encarnacion to Seattle. Encarnacion spent half a season hitting as a designated Marine hitter before turning on the Yankees for the right thing. then Juan.
This time around, a right-handed pair will go to Kansas City in exchange for the last three months of controlling Santana. Of the right-wingers involved, only Mills has had much experience in the league so far. The 27-year-old has delivered a total of 21 1/3 frames over the past two seasons, but struggled in 7.59 ERAs with worse-than-average strike and walk rates (17.3% and 10.2%, respectively).
Mills, the 93rd overall pick in 2017, has more interesting but also inconsistent numbers in the top minors. The right-sided cheered 44.7% of their opponents during 28 2/3 rounds of Triple-A ball last year, for example, but that rate has halved so far in 2022 over the course of 19 2/3 rounds. There is no change of pace between his campaigns in ’21 and ’22, although Mills threw more fastballs at the expense of some passer use during this year’s small sample of 8 2/3 big league rounds. The 6’4 Dexter has never been ranked as one of the Mariners’ top prospects, but Baseball America has listed him among the top 25 Seattle growers dating back to the time he was enlisted.
Meanwhile, Fleming is a 23-year-old right-hand man who was selected by the Mariners in the eleventh round just a year ago. It hasn’t been generally considered among the Mariners’ top prospects – although Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs put him 28th earlier this year – and has posted a fairly low profile in Class-A Modesto despite being a former college arm greater than average. discount at this level. So far, Fleming has thrown 67 2/3 rounds on 14 starts and has scored a 4.92 ERA with a 20.7% strike rate versus an 8.4% walk rate.
For the royal family, weapons obtained for Santana are secondary when it comes to this trade. The biggest goal of the trade-off was to finally unlock playing time for 6’4, 245-pound Pasquantino, who has worked his way up to the status of top potential prospects by dominating every minor league stop, including Triple-A this season. So far, Pasquantino has run 296 runs on the Storm Chasers board and scored a whopping .280/.372/.576 hitting streak with 18 home runs, 16 doubles, and more walks (37) than hits (36).
Due to his size and lack of speed, Pasquantino is restricted to only a basic profile (or a particular hitter), but there are all indications so far that his racket will play in the Majors. Scouting reports for Baseball America and FanGraphs indicate that he improved enough with the gauntlet to be average or slightly better, and Pasquantino never posted an OBP below .371 or a slowdown of less than 0.560 at any minor league level. Given the rarity of attacking strikes in his game, he has managed to maintain an average of 0.23 throughout the minor league period thus far.
Even without significant defensive value to back up his value, Pasquantino ranks 57th in the game in Baseball America. He achieved 95th on FanGraphs and 98th on MLB.com, with all three scout reports praising his extra (or better) hitting tool and his above-average power.
The organizational hope is that between Pasquantino and his fellow Basque Nick Prato -Also First Base Only, Top 100 Potential Customers – Their first base and DH slots will be covered for years to come. Pasquantino’s promotion to the Premier League has been so delayed that he must avoid Super Two mode, and will be controllable for at least six full seasons beyond the current one.
As for 25-year-old Polanos, he’s seen action with Kansas City in each of the past three seasons, but has posted an overall walker count. Once the prominent Padres signed for Cuba, he was traded to the royal family along with Franchi Cordero in the 2020 trade that sent Tim Hill to San Diego. It has since met in a 28 1/3 round 4.76 ball with a lackluster 24 to 17 K/BB ratio.
Bolanos has a respectable 4.42 ERA in the 18 1/3 round this year, but his 93.6 mph fastball average is down about 2 mph from his peak and that ERA comes despite the number of walks to hits. Add to that he’s slalom to 5.49 ERA in 19 2/3 frames in 3D this season, and it’s been enough for the Royals to decide they’re ready to move on. Of course, a DFA does not necessarily mean the end of his time in the organization. Kansas City will have a week to trade the Bolanos if there is an interest, but the Royals could also try to pass it via outright concessions sometime next week. If not claimed, he will remain with the organization but no longer hold a place on the 40-man list.
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