2:09 PM: Outfielder Byron Chorio He is the third player to head to Minnesota, Mesh tweets. American baseball is ranked 29th in the Miami system.
1:57 pm: Lower the possibility Jose Salas Also heading to Minnesota, reports Craig Mish from SportsGrid and the Miami Herald. He currently ranks fourth among Baseball America’s Miami prospects and second and fifth, respectively, in this past summer’s rankings from FanGraphs and MLB.com.
1:50 pm: The Twins and the Marlins agree to a trade serve player Louis Araz To Miami and right Pablo Lopez to minnesota, reports ESPN’s Jeff Bassin. Ken Rosenthal and Dan Hayes of The Athletic, who first said the deal was well underway, said it was not a one-to-one swap and would include two additional players. John Heyman from the New York Post Tweets That the Twins will get two prospects from Miami in addition to Lopez.
The core of the trade would, for immediate purposes, see the Twins trade three-year-old Arraez, the American League champion, for two-season Lopez, who would immediately be an upgrade to their rotation. The 26-year-old Lopez has become a major league starter over the past three seasons, hitting a 3.52 ERA, a strike rate of 25%, a walk rate of 7%, and a ground ball average of 47.4% in 340 innings pitched.
Lopez has dealt with some injury issues in his career, landing three times on the injured list due to a shoulder strain. The most recent of those three injuries came in the summer of 2021 and wiped out more than two months of Lopez’s season, but he was injury-free in 2022 when he pitched 180 innings over 32 matches. Last year’s performance netted Lopez a $5.45 million salary that’s still affordable. He will get an additional arbitration increase in the 2023-24 season before he reaches free agency after the 2024 campaign – barring the extension, of course.
Newly acquired Lopez will step into the Twins’ rotation that also includes Sonny GrayAnd Joe Ryan And Tyler Mahley. Although it was easy to ask if Lopez could pay Kent Maeda In a lottery role after missing the entire 2022 season following internal brace surgery on his right elbow in September 2021, The Athletic’s Dan Hayes Tweets That Maeda will remain a start.
The most likely man in the traditional five-man rotation is a 27-year-old Billy UberBut the towering right hit a sharp 3.82 ERA in 31 starts of his big league career — including a mark of 3.21 in 56 innings pitched last season. (Uber missed more than three months due to a severe groin strain.) Instead, the twins could look into deploying a six-man rotation that would help them manage Maeda’s workload and hopefully lead to better health among the rookie staff that she has so hampered. injury year throughout the 2022 season.
On the other side of the swap, the Marlins will get a left-handed batter to help balance out the right-handed lineup. Aries brings to Miami perhaps the most flawless at-bat skills in Major League Baseball, having fielded in just 8.3% of his plate appearances since debuting as a 22-year-old in 2019. He doesn’t particularly walk. High clip, but Aries’ mark of 8.7% is still higher than his offensive strike rate and last season’s league average of 8.2%.
Arraez, 26 in April, hits .316/.375/.420 with eight home runs in 2022 and he’s hitting for a lifetime of .314/.374/.410 in the Major Leagues. His communication skills are second to none and will likely always allow him to hit a high average, but the rest of his game is somewhat limited. Arraez lacks power, as evidenced by his career . 096 ISO (batting minus batting average), and below-average sprint speed, per Statcast.
While he debuted as a second baseman, defensive struggles left Aries as something of a nomad. He bounced between second base, first base, third base and left field, putting up lackluster defensive scores at each of those points other than first base. This may be his new position in Miami, given the presence Jazz Chisholm Jr. In second base and Jean Segura At third base. If that is indeed the case, the 2022 All-Star Jarrett Cooper He’ll likely slip into the DH role – if he doesn’t trade himself, given his status as a suspended free agent after the season – and thus slip Jorge Soler Back abroad.
Like Lopez, Arraez has some troubling injury issues on his resume. A torn anterior cruciate ligament during his prospective days set the 2017 season on fire, and he’s been on the injured list three times since Opening Day 2020 due to knee issues as well. Aries also had a 7-day Illinois concussion week in 2021 and missed nearly three weeks of that season with a shoulder strain.
Arraez is eligible for arbitration for the second time this off-season, and as a Super Two player, he still has two years of arbitration left after the current campaign. He and the twins were unable to reach an agreement before last week’s deadline to exchange arbitration numbers; The Twins made the $5 million mark, while the Aries camp responded with $6.1 million. Now that he’s with a new team, it’s possible Arraez could agree to a one-year deal somewhere in between those points, or perhaps even discuss a longer agreement. If not, his subsequent salary would take his salary north of $10 million by his final year of club control, in 2025.
The odds in the deal are long-distance plays for the Twins, making them somewhat odd by-products for a team that’s clearly in the running on the heels of an amazing deal to re-sign Carlos Correa. However, the recent trades of Mahley, Gray, and others have dented the Twins’ system in a big way, so backing in some young talent helps to cut through the line building both in the short and long term.
Salas is particularly recognized, as he originally signed for a $2.8 million bonus and is currently ranked fourth in Baseball America’s Miami system. He’s a shortstop at the moment, though the BA poll indicates a move to third base is a possibility, depending on how much his still-flabby frame grows. 250/.339/.384 against much older competition in 2022, Salas split the year between Class-A and Class-A Advanced despite only turning 19 this past April.
Salas hit nine home runs and managed to pass 33 bases in 109 games. Scout reports on Salas tout his work ethic, sense of connection, and at least midfield strength potential. He will instantly become one of the Twins’ top overall prospects, but won’t add any value to their 2023 club (aside from giving them more flexibility when it comes to negotiating additional deals).
Chorio is even younger, having just signed as an amateur outside Venezuela a year and five days ago. Despite playing the season at only 17, the slugging slugger has taken the Dominican Summer League by storm, posting a .344/.429/.410 clip with a homer, nine doubles, 19 steals, and nearly as many. Walking (25) as a starting shortstop (27) in 217 plate appearances.
Chourio won’t even turn 18 until May, so even very optimistic projections will keep him from being a legitimate big league prospect for three years, and quite possibly beyond that. Still, there’s a lot to like about him despite not being close to the Majors. In addition to his remarkable professional appearance, Ben Badler, American baseball player Chourio’s physical display, strong throwing arm, center field instincts and balanced swing when reviewing the Marlins’ international signing row last year.
More is coming.
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