By SSTN ADMIN
December 28, 2022
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All of the following from MLBTR:
"The Braves announced they’ve acquired reliever Lucas Luetge from the Yankees. Minor leaguers Caleb Durbin and Indigo Diaz are headed back in return. "
"As for the Yankees, they’ll bring in some minor league talent. Indigo Diaz was a 27th-round pick in the 2019 draft. He entered the 2022 campaign as the #21 prospect in the Atlanta system, according to Baseball America. The 24-year-old spent the whole season at Double-A Mississippi, posting a 3.08 ERA through 49 2/3 innings of relief. The 6’5″ righty struck out nearly 30% of opposing hitters but walked batters at a huge 14.6% clip. Diaz went unselected in this offseason’s Rule 5 draft and adds some non-roster bullpen depth to the upper minors in New York."
"Durbin went in the 14th round in the 2021 draft. He split this past season between two A-ball levels, hitting .241/.352/.372 across 450 plate appearances with matching 10.9% strikeout and walk rates. A right-handed hitter, Durbin split his time between second, third base and shortstop. He turns 23 in February and won’t be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until after the 2024 campaign."
Because Luetge projected to make the Active 26-man Roster and because he was out of options, it came down to DFAing either him, Clay Holmes or Domingo German - the only bullpen members on the 26-man roster who are out of options like Leutge was. Cashman likely tried to move Trivino, couldn't find a willing taker (due him being paid way more than his production says he's worth) and thus, Luetge was the obvious choice to be DFA'd - a victim of a roster crunch.
Not getting this trade.
Leutge had very little trade value (+0.8 MTV) so the return wasn't horrible all things considered. His Hart-HIt% was bottom 1% of the League, but most of his other metrics were well above average. Given that he's an effective lefty, it's a bit interesting that he was a the reliever chosen to DFA to make room for Tommy Kahnle.
Leutge was out of options, so this decision must be viewed through the lense of the projected "active-roster" not the "40-man roster." This time of year of course, there is no "active-roster" as teams don't have to set that until Opening-Day. Presetly, there are 24 pitchers on the "active-roster." If we weed out the obvious starting-five of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon,…
will this spell the end of the prof's mucous jokes?
will we be forced to become less snotty?