We received Serrano and Ziya Turkes. We hoped that Turkes would be our solution at designated hitter. He was not. After recording a .301/.326/.504 (139 OPS+) line with Vancouver in 138 plate appearance, he managed a meager .248/.308/.373 (87 OPS+) for us in 334 plate appearances.
Serrano has been great when he has been available. We lost him two weeks after acquiring him in 2061, but he started 105 games for us in 2062 as he made the transition from second base to shortstop. He hit .279/.304/.482 (114 OPS+) and earned 3.3 WAR. This season, of course, has been a dumpster fire, as he only started 20 games for us before going down for the third time in the last sim. He should be available to us if we make the playoffs. I have not written him off.
Vancouver received 1B/DH Juan Hernandez, LF Phillip Higgins, RHP Chris Parker, LHP Abdul-Halim bin Bansur, and $2,000,000. Of these, they traded Hernandez to Cape Fear and Higgins to Twin Cities.
I had very high expectations for Juan Hernandez at the time of the trade. I thought he had an upside similar to Raul Gallegos. He was the BBA #23 prospect with big-time power and solid contact skills. He was the headliner of the deal for Vancouver. He is only 22 and may yet amount to something, but he is now rated 45/45 and hit .238/.291/.377 (80 OPS+) with -1.3 WAR this season for Cape Fear.
Phillip Higgins was a former first round draft pick of ours that never panned out. He had no future with us at the time of the trade. He is now rated 40/40 at age 23 and at best, projects as a fourth outfielder on a second division team. He has yet to make his BBA debut.
Chris Parker is a control artist and swing man who can be a back of the rotation piece or provide long relief. This season with Vancouver he is 3-2 in nine starts with a 3.91 ERA (94 ERA+) and a 1.17 WHIP.
The most promising of the lot today is Abdul-Halim bin Mansur, age 25. He's a crafty lefty with 9 stamina and elite movement on his four pedestrian pitches. He projects as a solid fourth or fifth starter. Last season he made seven starts, going 5-2 with a 4.60 ERA (77 ERA+), but he is not a finished product.
| Player | WAR |
|---|---|
| Reynaldo Serrano | 3.6 |
| Ziya Turkes | -0.1 |
| ----- | |
| MTL TOTAL | 3.5 |
| - | |
| Juan Hernandez | -1.0 |
| Chris Parker | 0.6 |
| Abdul-Halim bin Bansur | 0.0 |
| Phillip Higgins | N/A |
| ----- | |
| VAN* TOTAL | -0.4 |
*This total is misleading. This is the correct WAR for these players, but not the correct WAR for Vancouver, who traded away Hernandez and Higgins. I leave the computation of the actual VAN WAR as an exercise for the reader.
