Omaha makes a minor move, also brings in addition to rotation (36.11)

[niles08]

Omaha makes a minor move, also brings in a new BBA SP.

Omaha has been quiet all season on the trade front, but that all changed this week as Omaha made several moves to bolster their lineup prior to a month of September which is expected to be a toss-up between Yellow Springs Nine & Omaha winning the Heartland.

Today, they made two additional moves.

In the lesser of two deals, they shipped Roberto Sanchez to Brooklyn, getting a minor league bullpen piece in return.

Sanchez was out of minor league options and has struggled this season for Omaha and with the acquisition of Robles days ago, Sanchez simply had lost his spot on the roster. With nowhere else to go, the team had placed him on waivers and designated him for assignment to remove him from the 40 man roster. With fear of another team taking a chance on the young left hander, Omaha worked the trade lines and instead got a potential bullpen piece in the years to come who’s options hadn’t even began being exercised.

“It’s truly all about flexibility here.” Said GM Justin Niles. “We wish Roberto the best in Brooklyn and wish we had more flexibility that we simply did not have any longer.”

Coming to Omaha is lefty Drees Geestman (10/6/6 Talents). He’s a 22 year old lefty as well who has great stuff, but has some control issues early on as that still needs some work. He has pitched well in AA this year over 18 appearances and figures to crack the BBA level in the next year or two depending on what the Omaha bullpen shapes up to look like moving forward.

Now for the bigger of the two deals,

Omaha has had a strong rotation this year despite the loss of Stephen Clulow (9/7/7 Talents, 1 - 2, 8.31 ERA, 2.22 WHIP, 20 K) early on, however advanced metrics indicate that the rotation has been a bit lucky, especially at the back of the rotation. With that in mind, Omaha has demoted Poto Tornatore (9/7/4 Talents, 7 - 3, 4.06 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, 118 K) out of starting pitching duties and relegated to the bullpen.

“Poto has allowed quite a few guys on base, and has really done well at working out of jams. However, over the next few weeks, we really want to see Poto work on limiting those baserunners to begin with. He has served admirably in our rotation this year despite being added to it after Stephen went down and we know he is going to be a big contributor down the stretch for us.” Said GM Justin Niles.

Replacing Poto in the rotation will be newly acquired Jesus Tonche (10/6/8 Talents, 3 - 10, 5.57 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 81 K), who was acquired from San Antonio. Tonche has started 19 games this season for San Antonio and has struggled a bit last season pitched very well and has accumulated 155 wins over his 13 year career in the BBA.

Tonche has a team option for next season of $15,000,000 so it is very likely that Omaha will decline that option unless Tonche pitches lights out for the club.

To make room for Tonche, Omaha has announced that bullpen pitcher Horiuchi Sasaki (8/6/7 Talents, 1 - 0, 5.27 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 17 K) would be heading to AAA.

Heading to San Antonio in return for Tonche is rookie outfielder Pedro “Tornado” Hernandez. Hernandez projected to an average contributor at the plate and in the field and could see everyday playing time in the BBA if he develops as expected. The 20 year old was Omaha’s 5th round pick in the 2036 first year player draft.

[Lane]

hopefully 3000 has a few more good years in him.