Trade Review 2026 #5 - The Floodgates Open

[Ted]

It seems like all it took was a couple teams to break the ice, and the flurry of trades began. In the four days since Sandcastle moved to Havana shortly followed by California bolstering the roster, we've had a whopping THIRTEEN additional trades. They've come in all shapes and sizes. All stars, prospects, minor leaguers and cash have moved as teams have muscled up, sold out, tweaked minor spots, and dumped salaries.

Carolina/Vancouver
Carolina receives:
SP Juan Lopez

Vancouver receives:
SP Julio Negrete (prospect)
RP Jose Garcia (prospect)
LF Jacky Blok

[list][*] Lopez is a curious pitcher. By all rights, the control specialist should be a solid middle of the rotation pitcher. He strikes out batters at a reasonable rate (7.6/9), doesn't walk too many (2.0/9), has posted FIP's and ERA's under 3 most of the years he's played. He is however a bit short on the stamina side, having topped the 200 inning mark only once. He also gives up a few more homeruns than you would like (1.2/9). He just doesn't get wins (66-72 career record). In his defense, he's been on some bad teams and had little run support during his career. He was also signed to a pretty hefty contract by Vancouver this past offseason, and that may be his biggest flaw.[/list]



[list][*] Jose Garcia is a 21 year old righty reliever with a bad VSL split and low motion. He looks like he's pretty much what he is at this point. He could pitch some meaningful innings at some point, but really looks like more of a AAAA guy.
[*] Julio Negrete is a 20 year old righty who really needs to develop his change to have a chance. He's adequately if not excitingly developed at 20, and if he gains a tad more arm strength, could be a decent option. As a low motion righty, he's always a question mark. With four pitches, he may best be served by a conversion to the pen at some point.
[*] Jacky Block is about as average as it gets. His lefthandedness and ability to draw the free pass makes him an acceptable offensive option. He's an average fielder. A lot of teams could do worse than play this 28 year old in one of the corner OF spots. I'm not sure I'd want to pay 6.1 million for a 2 WAR level performance, however. [/list]

This is clearly a move by Carolina to compensate for the loss of Angel Ramirez. Lopez has talent, and the Kraken clearly hope some run support from their very good offense will help jump start his career. As the guy who owned Lopez the longest, I'll admit I'm not big on the guy. Wins may be an overvalued pitching stat, but watching him put up a losing record year after year soured me on the guy. Vncouver picks up a big league OF and a couple okay prospects for signing and flipping a mid rotation starter. Not too bad for them. Carolina doesn't give up much for Lopez, but may regret his contract down the line.

Grades
Carolina
Talent: B-
Organizational: B-
Vancouver
Talent: C+
Organizational: B+

The Buffalo Sabres hold the title of being the only team to have killed an animal (a bat) during an NHL game in 1974.
[hr]


Havana/Brooklyn
Havana receives:
P Mark Totten

Brooklyn receives:
P Alex Parsons (prospect)
RF Martin Felix

[list][*] Mark Totten looks like a decent swing-man type pitcher. He seems to have proven he can provide adequate middle relief innings. He really hasn't been given a shot as a starter, and may be an option as a 5th guy there too. He's cheap and arb eligible, which are always pluses.[/list]



[list][*] Martin Felix started the year quite nicely, but seems to have fallen off a bit. His ratings haven't decliend, so there's hope his bat picks up. His biggest problem is that as his wheels are shot, he can't play RF anymore. Brooklyn looks to be using him as a DH, which is probably the best role for him at this point. His contract is a bit hefty, but he's a popular player who will put butts in the seats in Brooklyn during a rebuild process.
[*] Alex Parsons is pretty close to being a non prospect at this point. As a lefty junkballer, he never got that little bit of arm strength he needed to become a viable big league option. His 4 stamina keeps him from being a RP conversion option, which is a shame given he has six pitches rated 5 or better and a potentially nasty change. He'll probably end up as an organizational depth guy, but he's a decent arm to squirrel away and who knows what happens in 2-3 years.[/list]

Havana, in retooling it's offense needed to dump some salary and Felix's inability to play defense cost him his spot. They did a decent job recouping a little value doe a non slugging DH with a big salary that they had to move. Brooklyn, quietly makes a superb move. Felix is still a nice player, but the key here is to look at this from a revenue standpoint. The retooling Robins could be looking at some lean years and really pissed off some fans by selling Whitten and Glendenning. Totten is of little value to them right now. Getting popular player like Felix is just the move you need to make to keep your income from bottoming out.

Grades
Havana
Talent: C
Organizational: B-
Brooklyn
Talent: C+
Organizational: A

Former NHL player, Duncan MacPherson went missing while on a trip to Germany. His body was found after 14 years frozen in a shallow crevasse at the Stubai Glacier ski resort. It is believed that after a fatal accident, his supervisor concealed his body there to avoid bad publicity.
[hr]



Atlantic City/Louisville
Atlantic City receives:
3B Boone Carlyle
SP Liam Pringle

Louisville recevies:
SP Gabriel Campos
3B Clarence Brown
OF Gonzalo Reyes
1B Albert Gaona (prospect)
CF Kozue Naito (prospect)

[list][*] Boone Carlyle, at 32, is still a tremendous player. He's hardly declined at all, and has a makeup that makes you think he might hold on for awhile. There simply aren't too many middle of the lineup third base options out there. His 12+ mil salary seems like a lot, but when you consider position scarcity, it's very appropriate. There is a big concern about Boone, and that is that his range has really suffered with age, and if he loses any more, he might not be rated at third anymore. He still has a marvelous arm and glove, but given ATC's logjam at first/DH with Bido and Sanchez, Boone declining in range could be disastrous.
[*] Liam Pringle is an acceptable back of the rotation starter. He might more valuable with an RP conversion at some point.[/list]



[list][*] Gabriel Campos has regressed to back of the rotation material at this point in his career, and he's losing arm strength at a rate that might leave him out of a job next season. The 35 year old longtime California ace will be a free agent at season's end.
[*] Clarence Brown similarly is well past his prime. It has been several years since he was able to contribute in any meaningful fashion. He is also an upcoming free agent.
[*] On paper, Gonzalo Reyes looks like he could contribute a bit in a platoon role, but his contact woes have really hurt him. He seems to be aging fast. He also can't play in the field, and would be a very poor platoon DH.
[*] Albert Ganoa looks like a really nice prospect. The 18 year old 1B has improved his power upside, and with any more bumps would turn into a blue chip. His right handedness and slow feet turn him into more of a second tier guy at this point, but he's close. He's a little behind from a development track standpoint.
[*] Lefty OF prospect Kozue Naito needs a bump. He really doesn't have the range to be a CF prospect, or the hitting tools to be a corner OF prospect. That being said, he's a tremendous organizational prospect at this point, and if he can improve his contact ability, would turn himself into a legit big league option.[/list]

Were I Atlantic city, I'd be really happy with this trade. They made a lateral pitching move, dumped some overpriced talent, and dramatically improved their surprisingly weak offense. There is some risk with Boone at his age, but they didn't give up much to take it on. Just because Atlantic City is happy, that doesn't mean the genius can't be too. They needed to move Carlyle before he aged. Period. Their return isn't too shabby. All the big league guys are essentially salary dumps who will be off the books. They got some popularity return as well. The prospects might be a tad worse that you could have gotten for a player of Boone's caliber, but both are really close to being much better than they currently are. Also, many teams have switched to sell mode, and Stu does a good job getting ahead in what is shaping up to be a buyers market.

Grades
Atlantic City
Talent: A-
Organizational: A-
Louisville
Talent: B-
Organizational: B+

Mark Messier has taken the Stanley Cup to a strip joint twice.
[hr]


Calgary/Louisville
Calgary receives:
RP German Garcia

Louisville receives:
3B Larry Petty

[list][*] 25 year old German Garcia looks like a righty specialist. He's put up decent numbers a few times in limited action, but his FB/CB combo gives him a bad lefty split that will probably get exposed if he's ever used as a workhorse middle reliever type. Still, he's cheap and young. [/list]



[list][*] Larry Petty has legit big league power and a solid glove, but that's about it. He's slow and doesn't walk or hit for average, more of a AAAA type.[/list]

I assume the genius makes this trade to replace Carlyle and allow him to bench that ungrateful bastard, Clarence Brown, or he just a problem and needs help. Either way, it's not the best move. Garcia has some actual talent that you could use on a big league roster, Petty doesn't. On the other hand, Garcia's talent is marginal, so it really don't matter.

Grades
Calgary
Talent: D+
Organizational: C+
Louisville
Talent: D+
Organizational: C-

There are two dozen engraving errors on the Stanley Cup including misspelling Boston as “Bqstqn”, the Toronto Maple Leafs as “Maple Leaes,” and the New York Islanders as “Ilanders.” Only one of the errors is not a spelling error. When the Oilers won the cup in 83-84, owner Peter Pocklington had his dad’s name snuck onto the team roster. The NHL caught the error later and had Basil Pocklington’s name crossed out with X’s.
[hr]



Havana/Greenville
Havana receives:
SS Ron Holmes
LF Stephen Ireland

Greenville receives:
LF Johnny Oh

[list][*] 37 year old Ron Holmes is not thee player he used to be, but he's still a nice depth player as a lefty IF bat that can field 2B,SS, and 3B fairly well.
[*] Stephen Ireland is a corner of backup. He thinks he should start, but he's never been able to overcome his righthandedness.[/list]



[list][*] Johnny Oh should be a decent starting LF option, but he hasn't really lived up to his potential yet. He is, however having a down year. He's also lumped a bit at a young age which is always a bit concerning.[/list]

Their recent outfield additions made giving up on Oh reasonable for Havana, and in return they added some nice depth in Holmes, and in terms of performance made a lateral move to Ireland. For Greenville this makes sense too, getting younger and giving up two older free agents to be.

Grades
Havana
Talent: C-
Organizational: B+
Greenville
Talent: C-
Organizational: B+

The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals was the only game where no winner was declared due to an influenza outbreak, which hospitalized most of players from Montreal Canadiens and their general manager.
[hr]


Vancouver/Indy
Vancouver receives:
DH/RF Matthew Stuart
DH Elliot Spencer
RP Gerbrand Esveld (prospect)
RP Maxence Mace (prospect)

Indy receives:
LF Jacky Block

[list][*] Matthew Stuart has gotten old. He really can't play in the OF anymore, which pretty much makes his value as a depth outfielder nil. He's simply not a good enough hitter to stick as a DH either.
[*] Elliot Spencer, on the other hand, as a lefty with acceptable contact and good power, still could DH for a weak hitting team. however, he's really not playing well. He's definitely not worth 5 mil at this point in his career and his option for 2027 should probably be declined.
[*] 23 year old Gerbrand Esveld simply doesn't have the movement or velocity to make it in the bigs, and at 23, he's running out of time to get it. He's fairly underdeveloped for 23 as well and looks like a AAA at best guy to me.
[*] 19 year old Maxence Mace, on the other hand, has a better pitch combination and development track. He needs to keep gaining velocity and should get a bit more. He'll also need to work on his movement to be a real option, but does have some upside if he gets some bumpage.[/list]



[list][*] We talked about Blok earlier in this article and won't again.[/list]

On paper this looks like a lateral move for Indy as Blok doesn't appear a much better DH option than Spencer. however, with Spencer being so bad they had to try something, and this didn't cost them much. Good move for Vancouver to move Blok's salary after recently acquiring him. They didn't get much prospect return but it would be hard to get much more.

Grades
Vancouver
Talent: C
Organizational: B+
Indy
Talent: C+
Organizational: B

After the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1962, they accidentally threw the Cup into a celebratory bonfire and had to pay a hefty amount to repair the ensuing damages.

bonus Stanley Cup fact: In 1905, players from Ottawa Silver Seven, while drunk, kicked the Stanley Cup into the frozen Rideau Canal and had to retrieve it the next morning.
[hr]

[ae37jr]

Great analysis as always. You are correct that Felix was in large part to recoupe some fan interest. I also feel like he's been underperforming some and we had a hole to fill at DH. I wanted to get a prospect back in the deal but Havana is really lacking in that department. It was either Parsons or Manuel 'Gimmick' Arteaga that I was going to ask for. And usually you can find a right handed hitting DH with his potential on waiver wire, free agency, under a rock, in the fridge next to the beer, maybe even between the couch cushions. I was hoping for something better but settled on Parsons. I assume his lack of changeup development is due to pitching just 200 innings in 6 seasons. So I'm going to let him pitch and see what happens. Hopefully since he's just 22, it's not too late.

[Ted]

for completed

[felipe]

Thanks Ted, I love this feature as always

The main reason to dump Garcia was that I was gonna have about 19 pitchers without options next season, so I had to start dumping some relievers for 'something'

As someone else has pointed out, there's no shortage of decent pitching now

Of course, I've not gotten anything better now than what I would have gotten for Garcia next year, (nothing)...so maybe NOT a genius move

But it does, fix Clarence Browns wagon

[udlb58]

The signing of Holmes couldn't have gone any better. Got a few months of solid production and then flipped him for a potentially useful 26 year old. Plenty of questions about Oh, but I don't think there was anything better I could get. Ireland was just me shedding his salary

Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk

[Cliche]

Hoping Carlyle will work out. Ganoa might make me regret it down the road, but we needed to make a big addition for the next 2-3 seasons with Mingo/Sanchez/Bido/Moulin at the top of their games.

[aaronweiner]

Lopez will start getting complicated in about three years. Until then I'm okay. He has pitched like total crap since coming over, but I'm hopeful that's temporary.