Omaha officially punts as they trade Justin Jackson

[niles08]

Omaha made a last second move the day of the trade deadline, shipping Justin Jackson to division foe Louisville in exchange for a young, yet promising infield prospect.

Leading up to the deadline the jury was out on whether or not Omaha would actually move Justin Jackson, despite Jackson being a pending free agent at the end of the season. Had Jackson been held onto, the team would have likely been granted a compensation pick for losing him to free agency however there was also question on whether or not the team may just attempt to resign him based on rumors of only demanding 3 years for a total of $31 million dollars. Quite a bit of money, but not a ton for a guy who leaves town batting .282/.336/.573 on the season with 30 home runs and an OPS+ of 120.

Well, the club decided to move on and in exchange for Jackson’s services for the remaining 60 games of the season, acquired 20 year old infield prospect Jose Montano. Montano is a guy who isn’t going to hit for a ton of power nor is he going to take the walks that Omaha desperately was searching for someone to do. What he will do, is play some healthy defense across the diamond. He has some growing to do still from the shortstop position but has handled 2nd, 3rd, and short this year in AAA while batting .272/.323/.441 before the trade. Not great, but not horrible.

Montano is just 20 years old, and his professional service time clock has yet to be started meaning he is likely going to be with the club for much of, if not all of, the 2040’s. He doesn’t project to be an all-star starter, but he does project to at the very least be a useful commodity to have on the roster. If given the chance to start, a positive 2 WAR is more than feasible, and at this point in time, any positive WAR is more than Jackson was likely to give after this coming season when he was to become a free agent.