Trade Review 2027 #8 - Spring Training Through April

[Ted]

Well, we keep trucking along. These are the trades from Spring though April.

Jacksonville/Las Vegas
Jacksonville receives:
P Domingo Hernandez
$4,000,000

Las Vegas receives:
SP Shawn Coleman (prospect)
RP Javier Bernal (prospect)

[list][*]Domingo Hernandez had been a pretty solid starting pitching option in Greenville for quite a few years, middle rotation type. However, his stuff has been pedestrian at best, and he never had room to lose much. Father time seems that it might have sapped his arm enough to push him over the edge. Still, he's on a one year deal, and could give you some rotational depth.[/list]



[list][*]Shawn Coleman is more of a project than a prospect. He's 21 and really struggling with location. His ball does move quite a bit, and he has an okay mix of pitches. In reality, his best bet is to figure a little location out then come of the pen where he can maximize his cutter and forkball, his best two pitches.
[*]Javier Bernal is anotheer guy with a long way to go. He's only 17, o he has some more time to figure out his flaws. The youngster sports a good fastball and slider, but he's tends to hang the slider at times, and doesn't have the best location.[/list]

Neither of the prospects Vegas got projects to make the big leagues at this point. Bernal, simply due to his age, has a better shot. However, both players have tools that could work, if they get some unexpected development. Hernandez seems to be more of a flyer for a back of the rotation at this point. His deal is low risk as well. All in all, this is a fair trade.

Grades
Jacksonville
Talent: C-
Organizational: B-
Las Vegas
Talent: D+
Organizational:B-


[hr]


Omaha/Atlantic City
Omaha receives:
C/OF Andres Cuevas

Atlantic City receives:
2B Boys Altena

[list][*]Cuevas is a rare player. He's actually a little bizarre. How a player with absolutely no speed has superior range in the outfield is beyond me. It would be like watching on of the Molina brothers or Prince Fielder go run down balls in the gap. He could conceivably play above average defense at all three OF positions, catcher, 1B, and possibly play a weak third. So he's interesting, but really only has the bat to play catcher, and probably a backup level one at that. Still, he's a neat little player.[/list]



[list][*]Boys Altena has been a big fat disappointment thus far in his career. He has no power to speak of, but should be an okay slap hitter with good speed who will take the occasional walk. However, he's barely been able to keep his OPS above .600 thus far. He's got the tools to hope a change of scenery will help, but at 28, I wouldn't expect miracles. His glove should be better than it is too. He's a rental.[/list]

I wouldn't give up anything of value for Altena, and Atlantic City didn't. Omaha had no real need for him, and at least got something interesting. Altena's skill set make sense for taking a flyer on a player, and that's what ATC did.

Grades
Omaha
Talent: D+
Organizational: B-
Atlantic City
Talent: C-
Organizational: B-


[hr]


Jacksonville/Louisville
Jacksonville receives:
CF Oscar Lindsey
SP Liam Pringle


Louisville receives:
P Jorge Delgado (prospect)
P Cal Crowder (prospect)

[list][*]Oscar Lindsey is a subpar defensive CF. He just doesn't have the range anymore. He also doesn't really have the ability to hit anymore either, and as such, his salary is out of line for a player who brings nothing to the table, especially since you can't even make him an OF backup as he can't play the corners.
[*]Liam Pringle looks like he has the build to be a back of the rotation starter. He 's appropriately priced for that; however, he's had mixed results. Is he the 4 FIP guy from Omaha and Louisvlle in 2024 and 2025, or the the 5 FIP guy from last year. A worsening trend on a pitcher approaching 30 is never reassuring, but contract wise, Pringle isn't a big gamble.[/list]



[list][*]Jorge Delgado, depending on when in 2027 he lumped, was either a project type prospect with great strikeout potential and command issues, or he was almost not a prospect at all. He has lumped his stuff and control, and at 23, will likely never be anything of use.
[*]Cal Crowder, at 19, is a bit more of a prospect. His cutter curveball combo should work well, but he needs a bump to be anything. He's mre of a lottery ticket type.[/list]

Jacksonville, after it's flurry of trades to improve the offense on the roster, found itself with a hole in CF and need for starting pitching. I'm not sure picking up Pringle and Lindsey was really the best way to go about addressing that. Seems a little overly optimistic. However, they didn't give up much for the gamble. For Louisville, neither of these players was providing anything of use to the organization, and picking up a couple lottery tickets while dumping salary is almost always a good deal for a rebuilding club. This deal is even better for them, and slightly worse for Jacksonville, if Delgado hadn't lumped yet.

Grades
Jacksonville
Talent: C-
Organizational: C+
Louisville
Talent: D+
Organizational: B


[hr]


Valencia/Louisville
Valencia receives:
$500,000

Louisville receives:
DH Drew Zod

[list][*]The genius trades money yet again.[/list]



[list][*]I'm not going to talk in depth about Drew Zod. We all know exactly who and what he is. He is old now.[/list]

This is a pretty low risk move for Louisville. One could argue the money could be better spent than on Zod, but he brings some name recognition and a little popularity for the fans. Every once in a while, he goes on a tear and recaptures the majic. Good job for Valencia dumping the salary.

Grades
Valencia
Talent: N/A
Organizational: B-
Louisville
Talent: D+
Organizational: C+


[hr]


Vancouver/Omaha
Vancouver receives:
Antonio Correa
Felipe Soto

Omaha receives:
P Dale Putley (prospect)
P Maxence Mace(prospect)
P Cris Rios (prospect)
P Ash Malone (prospect)


[list][*]Antonio Correa is a 27 year old lefty with a makeup that looks like a solid mid rotation starter. His pitch selection should allow him to handle both righties and lefties. He seems to be a bit borderline in the homer prevention category, but that shouldn't matter as much in Vancouver. He's a bit of a late arrival to the bigs, and only has one season (last year) with Omaha under his belt, so he's more of a projection than a known quantity. However, that should have him at minimum salary and arb levels though his prime, which is quite nice.
[*]Outside of a a mindbogglingly bad 2027 in limited innings, Felipe Soto has been a pretty decent reliever. In 2026 he was a bit more of a middle relief type, but he has the pitches and command to be setup material, and has pitched at that level in the past. He's a free agent at season's end.[/list]



[list][*]Dale Putley needs some work. He is a 19 year old lefty with an electric fastball, and not much else. His slider is the best bet for improvement, but needs some work to be a big league pitch. He also has a forgettable curve. At this point he looks more like an eventual LOOGY than anything.
[*]Max Mace has a pretty sweet name. He also looks like a decent 3-4 type starter. he has a great fatsball and knuckle curve that he can used to get batters from both sides of the plate. He also looks to do a fairly good job keeping batters fro getting the fat part off of the ball, and locates well. This 21 year old righty IS a bit undeveloped, but looks promising.
[*]Cris Rios is another pretty decent loking starter prospect. This 18 year old lefty has a terrific fastball, and a very good cutter and forkball. He's struggled a bit with command, and currently that seems like it will only be an average tool for him, but his ptiches are electric. His upside is better than Mace's, but he also has more potential flaws (mainly his control). If he develops as is, he looks like another 3-4 type.
[*]Ash Malone is a 19 year old lefty knuckleballer, who also has a decent change and splitter. Scouts rate him as not quite as good as the previous two starters, but he projects solid control and decent movement. Then there's the knuckleball factor. Some of these guys just overachieve.[/list]

This is a decent enough deal. It would be nice if Correa had a better track record, but he's dirt cheap and that helps balance things out. Vancouver recently made a bunch of younger pitching additions, so some of these guys are a bit expendable. Also, the I'll trade you two mid rotation prospects for a mid rotation starter and two more marginal guys for a solid reliever is about right. I'm a prospect guy (which frankly is probably dub given their flame out rate) so I want to call this a slight overpay, but it probably isn't Omaha continues it's teardown and got some good parts for the future. At least two of these guys will pitch useful innings for them down the road.

Grades
Vancouver
Talent: B
Organizational: B
Omaha
Talent: B-
Organizational: A-


[hr]


California/Havana
California receives:
C Caspar Burton

Havana receives:
C Anibal Perez

[list][*]Caspar Burton is a AAA/AAAA catcher.[/list]



[list][*]Anibal Perez is a lefty backup catcher type with good skills behind the plate.[/list]

Adam asked about Perez as a backup. I wanted to give Caraballo a shot, and he was out of a job. I wasn't going to get anything else for him, so I took a guy to replace Caraballo in AAA. Plus I felt magnanimous for a day.

Grades
California
Talent: D
Organizational: C-
Havana
Talent: D+
Organizational: B-


[hr]


Vancouver/Huntsville
Vancouver receives:
P Fred Poe (prospect)
P Jose Castro (prospect)

Huntsville receives:
P Kenny Gomez (prospect)

[list][*]Fred Poe is 20 and has a bad split against lefties. He looked like more of a weak middle reliever at the time of the trade at best, maybe a ROOGY (I'm assuming his motion dropped to 6 from 7 after the deal). It's not that his stuff is terrible, and he projects good control, it's that he looks like lefties will tee of on him.
[*]Joe Castro is 22 years old, lefty with a cutter and slider. He looks to have lost some control potential since thee trade, but even then looked like a middle relief type at best. He's also a bit old for his developmental curve.[/list]



[list][*]Kenny Gomez is also old for a prospect, but has a much better upside than the two guys he was traded for. He has superior control, more/better pitches, and is close to fully developed. His ceiling is probably strong middle relief.[/list]

None of these prospects re great. All of them are a bit behind where they should be. I understand this is a 2 for 1 type deal for Vancouver, but I'd rather have Gomez. Of course, Brett seems to have bad luck since the trade with lumps, so it
s hard to see them as the players they wore. I'd give the slight edge to Huntsville either way.

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


[hr]


Two more should finish out 2027. Mostly minor offseason moves left. Then about 2.5 more editions should get me caught up in 2028. Whew.

[udlb58]

Yeah, Hernandez and Pringle were simply fliers hoping one of them would strike gold for one season. At the time, I was still holding out hope that we could turn it around and sneak into playoff contention and the rotation was terrible. Hernandez ended up doing okay, if you don't pay attention to the FIP, while Pringle was a disaster.

With Lindsey, he was actually 7/7/2/4/9 at the time of the trade and Kidd was down for a month with an injury. I was hoping he could fill the void until Kidd came back, and then take a few starts from Kidd vs LHP to try and keep from wearing out the Capn.

Was hoping to catch lightning in a bottle with one of the 3 on cheap'ish' deals but wound up just getting burned.