Ranking the Prospects Traded During the 2023 Deadline
Ranked and briefly analyzed below are the prospects who have been traded during the loosely defined “2023 deadline season,” which for simplicity’s sake I consider all of July. Most of the deals these prospects were part of have been analyzed at length on this site. An index of those pieces can be found here, or by clicking the hyperlink in the “Trade” column below, which will take you to the relevant article. I’ve moved all of the 35+ FV and above players listed here to their new orgs over on The Board, so you can click through to see where they rank among their new teammates and read their full scouting reports. Our Farm System Rankings, which update live, also reflect these changes, so you can see where teams’ systems stack up following the draft and the deadline.
2023 Traded Prospects
| FV | Rank | Player | Position | Age | Team | From | Trade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 1 | Kyle Manzardo | 1B | 23.0 | CLE | TBR | Civale | Stable, comfortably plus hit tool should allow for everyday role despite lacking prototypical first base power. |
| 50 | 2 | Drew Gilbert | CF | 22.8 | NYM | HOU | Verlander | A well-rounded, do-everything everyday center field prospect, though probably not a star. |
| 50 | 3 | Luisangel Acuña | SS | 21.4 | NYM | TEX | Scherzer | Huge bat/hand speed made risky by an impatient approach. Has everyday middle infield talent. |
| 50 | 4 | Edgar Quero | C | 20.3 | CHW | LAA | Giolito/López | Switch-hitting, bat-first catcher whose youth generates optimism about his ability to develop on defense. |
| 50 | 5 | Tekoah Roby | SP | 21.9 | STL | TEX | Montgomery | Impact mid-rotation talent currently on the shelf with a shoulder injury. Monstrous curveball. |
| 50 | 6 | Korey Lee | C | 25.0 | CHW | HOU | Graveman | Glove-first catcher with 70 arm and enough pull pop to be a primary catcher despite 30-grade hit tool. |
| 45+ | 7 | Marco Vargas | 2B | 18.2 | NYM | MIA | Robertson | Exciting, hitterish teenage middle infielder with compact lefty stroke. Impact hit tool could drive everyday role. |
| 45+ | 8 | Nick Nastrini | SIRP | 23.5 | CHW | LAD | Lynn/Kelly | Erratic righty with plus velo and breaking stuff. On the SP/RP line but likely to make impact in either role. |
| 45 | 9 | Jake Eder | SP | 24.8 | CHW | MIA | Burger | Slides out of Top 100 due to velo dip post-TJ, but still has monster slider and set-up man floor. |
| 45 | 10 | Ryan Clifford | RF | 20.0 | NYM | HOU | Verlander | Stiff, power-hitting corner bat with strong side of a platoon projection. Lucas Duda type. |
| 45 | 11 | Kahlil Watson | SS | 20.3 | CLE | MIA | Bell | Mercurial switch-hitting middle infielder with more talent than production due to hit tool risk and immaturity. |
| 45 | 12 | Sem Robberse | SP | 21.8 | STL | TOR | Hicks | Strike-throwing youngster with good secondary stuff (change/curve/cutter) and no. 4/5 starter projection. |
| 40+ | 13 | Thomas Saggese | 3B | 21.3 | STL | TEX | Montgomery | Lacks typical pro athlete build and strength, but hands work great. Plus contact quality, 40 contact and defense. |
| 40+ | 14 | Kevin Made | SS | 20.9 | WSN | CHC | Candelario | Deep projection shortstop with room for strength and decent feel to hit. Considerable long-term upside. |
| 40+ | 15 | Bradley Blalock | SP | 22.6 | MIL | BOS | Urías | Vertical action righty. 2022 breakout pick here at FG, but TJ delayed it until ’23. Plus fastball/curve. |
| 40+ | 16 | Jake Madden | SP | 21.6 | COL | LAA | Grichuk/Cron | Athleticism and frame-projection righty who’s more raw dev material than polished stuff right now. |
| 40+ | 17 | Hao-Yu Lee | 2B | 20.5 | DET | PHI | Lorenzen | Stocky 2B/3B with strength-driven power. Below-average athlete, more likely role player than everyday piece. |
| 40+ | 18 | Estuar Suero | CF | 17.9 | PIT | SDP | Choi/Hill | Biggest risk/reward prospect moved at the deadline. 6-foot-5 switch-hitting center fielder with huge hit tool risk. |
| 40+ | 19 | DJ Herz | SIRP | 22.6 | WSN | CHC | Candelario | Funky lefty reliever prospect with great changeup and low-90s fastball. |
| 40+ | 20 | Jordan Leasure | SIRP | 25.0 | CHW | LAD | Lynn/Kelly | Velo leap has heater in the upper-90s, potential 7th/8th inning type. |
| 40 | 21 | César Prieto | 2B | 24.2 | STL | BAL | Flaherty | Might have a 7 hit tool, but plays down due to chase. 40-grade infield defender. Eric Sogard type. |
| 40 | 22 | Ryan Bliss | 2B | 23.6 | SEA | ARI | Sewald | Above-average pop for a 2B, but it tends to only show up against breaking balls. 2B-only defender, no versatility. |
| 40 | 23 | Justin Jarvis | MIRP | 23.5 | NYM | MIL | Canha | Vertical slot starter with deep repertoire. Arm strength and command a little south of average. |
| 40 | 24 | Ky Bush | SP | 23.7 | CHW | LAA | Giolito/López | Peak velo seems to be in the past, now looks like low-90s fifth starter/middle reliever. |
| 40 | 25 | Jackson Wolf | SIRP | 24.3 | PIT | SDP | Choi/Hill | Low-slot lefty with a good slider, command. Fiery on-mound competitor with fifth starter/middle relief fit. |
| 40 | 26 | Ronald Hernandez | C | 19.8 | NYM | MIA | Robertson | Advanced switch-hitting catcher with an above-average arm and exciting feel to hit. Will probably take a while. |
| 40 | 27 | Jhonny Severino | 3B | 18.7 | PIT | MIL | C. Santana | Young power-hitting SS/3B project with hit tool risk due to chase. Huge power for his age. |
| 40 | 28 | Adam Kloffenstein | SP | 22.9 | STL | TOR | Hicks | Sinker/slider backend starter with new, lower arm slot than he’s shown in the past. On 2024 debut pace. |
| 40 | 29 | Mason Albright | SP | 20.7 | COL | LAA | Grichuk/Cron | Plus lefty curveball all but ensures big league relief fit, finding a changeup will enable him to start. |
| 40 | 30 | Victor Vodnik | SIRP | 23.8 | COL | ATL | Johnson | Relief-only prospect with huge velo and plus changeup. |
| 40 | 31 | Henry Williams | SP | 21.9 | KCR | SDP | Barlow | 2022 draftee coming off TJ, projectable frame and athlete with vulnerable downhill heater, plus curveball. |
| 40 | 32 | Joe Boyle | SIRP | 24.0 | OAK | CIN | Moll | Upper-90s fastball as a starter, sliders and curveballs both plus, 20-grade control. |
| 40 | 33 | Sean Reynolds | SIRP | 25.3 | SDP | MIA | Weathers | Converted infielder with 96-97 mph fastball and plus slider. Big league-ready middle relief fit. |
| 40 | 34 | Dominic Canzone | RF | 26.0 | SEA | ARI | Sewald | Corner platoon OF with some issues vs. breaking balls. Plus power. Absurd ’23 exit velos at Reno as older hitter. |
| 35+ | 35 | Jeremy Rodriguez | SS | 17.2 | NYM | ARI | Pham | Well-rounded DSL shortstop with a shot to be a regular five years from now. |
| 35+ | 36 | Drew Rom | SP | 23.6 | STL | BAL | Flaherty | Spot starter with low-90s fastball, sweeper slider, above-average command, funky delivery. |
| 35+ | 37 | Marques Johnson | SIRP | 23.1 | SFG | BOS | Llovera | College starter who’s had three-tick bump as pro reliever. Vertical fastball/breaker combo with 30 control. |
| 35+ | 38 | Nick Robertson | SIRP | 25.0 | BOS | LAD | Hernández | Up/down reliever with mid-90s fastball and above-average changeup. |
| 35+ | 39 | Josh Roberson | SIRP | 27.2 | CHC | TBR | Rodríguez | Hard-throwing enigma with 20-grade control. Sitting 97, flashing plus slider, walking 6/9 IP since ’21. |
| 35+ | 40 | Sammy Hernandez | C | 19.2 | STL | TOR | Cabrera | Athletic catcher with plus bat speed, hit tool risk. Raw pitch recognition and defense. |
| 35 | 41 | Devin Mann | 2B | 26.5 | KCR | LAD | Yarbrough | Upper-level performer, infield versatility (best at corners) with shot to be bench stalwart. |
| 35 | 42 | Juan Carela | SP | 21.7 | CHW | NYY | Middleton | Low-90s sinker/cutter spot starter type. Could be long relief type with velo bump in shorter stints. |
| 35 | 43 | Easton Lucas | SIRP | 26.9 | OAK | BAL | Fujinami | Had four-tick bump this year, but it came at cost of control. Potential up/down reliever. |
| 35 | 44 | Tanner Gordon | SP | 25.8 | COL | ATL | Johnson | Plus command of 40-grade three-pitch mix. Spot starter. |
| 35 | 45 | Evan McKendry | SP | 25.5 | MIL | TBR | Jackson | Deceptive kitchen sink righty, upper-level depth. |
| 35 | 46 | Justin Hagenman | SP | 26.8 | BOS | LAD | Hernández | 91-94 mph with sink, good changeup. Spot starter. |
| 35 | 47 | Alec Barger | SIRP | 25.3 | COL | ATL | Hand | Up/down “look” reliever sitting 93-94 with average slider. |
| 35 | 48 | Jesus Rios | SP | 21.6 | KCR | SDP | Barlow | DSL starter sitting 93 with sink, upper-80s cutter and changeup. Potential backend starter far from the bigs. |
| 35 | 49 | Zack Showalter | SP | 19.5 | STL | BAL | Flaherty | Uphill fastball/slider prospect with relief risk. |
| 35 | 50 | Jeremiah Jackson | 3B | 23.4 | NYM | LAA | Leone | Rejoins old Angels brass. Huge power with 20-grade hit tool. |
| 35 | 51 | Derlin Figueroa | 1B | 19.8 | KCR | LAD | Yarbrough | Slow-twitch lefty stick with uphill swing and power. First base projection on defense. |
| 35 | 52 | Chad Patrick | SP | 24.9 | OAK | ARI | Peterson | Sitting 92, remarkably consistent slider/cutter command drives depth starter fit. |
| 35 | 53 | Logan Rinehart | SP | 25.8 | BAL | SEA | Bazardo | Recent bullpen convert with a good changeup/slider combo. |
| 35 | 54 | Matt Svanson | SIRP | 24.5 | STL | TOR | DeJong | Sinker/slider low-leverage relief prospect out of Lehigh. |
| 35 | 55 | Eddys Leonard | 2B | 22.7 | DET | LAD | Cash Considerations | Mid-minors on-paper performer. Has 50/55 hit tool but no true defensive home. |
Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.
Have been waiting for this. Thank you!
Damn. Tigers gave up Norm Cash for Eddys Leonard.
I think it is probably too soon to move Eder out of the Top 100. He’s just now back to pitching again after TJ, and maybe the arm strength isn’t quite back but we know that it sometimes takes a while to turn back into the player you used to be after TJ. Often as much as a year. He’s still striking out a lot of guys in AA. I think he’s probably a 50, but behind Roby. Dude got 18 whiffs in his last start.
I think it’s worthwhile to be more skeptical of Quero (whose power has evaporated) and way more skeptical of Korey Lee (who probably won’t hit at all). I still think they were good prospects to get for what those teams gave up, but I don’t think they are 50s. You could probably sell me as a 45+ for Quero and a 45 for Lee but my instinct would be to knock them down another notch from there.
I think there are good reasons to be skeptical of Bliss but a 40 seems rough. I like Kloffenstein and Rom; not as anything better than a 40+ (or maybe a 45 for Kloffenstein) but it’s super hard to find pitching now.
The angels had Quero skip Hi-A entirely to start at AA around his 20th birthday. It’s also the Southern League, which experimented with the pre-tacked ball for the first half of the year, to the extreme detriment of offense in general. It’s a heavy task for any young hitting prospect, let alone a switch-hitting C.
Thank you for this, a Lucas Duda type eh? I’m sure those that irrationally hated on Duda will love that one. He can’t possibly play a worse OF I’m pretty sure though.
I wrote this below, but I’d be ecstatic for a Lucas Duda type as the 2nd player in a trade for a 40-year-old (even a future Hall of Famer). Duda was a frustrating watch but a heck of a hitter.
Clifford also smoked a homer yesterday in his first AB for Brooklyn!
idk… i think Melton was the get for the Mets. Not that excited about this haul for a very inexpensive ace the Stros will have for 2.5 seasons.
Just from the descriptions:
1) Kyle Manzardo – Mark Grace or Dane Iorg
2) Drew Gilbert – Len Dykstra or Eric Byrnes
3) Luisangel Acuña – Julio Franco or Christian Guzman
4) Edgar Quero – Yasmani Grandal or Adam Melhuse
5) Tekoah Roby – Adam Wainwright or Steve Stone
If the Cardinals get an Adam Wainwright out of 1.5 seasons of Harrison Bader, they’ll laugh for the next 20 years
The odds are probably around 10,000 to 1. But your’e telling me there is a chance.
I was going to say Bert Blyleven but I thought that was pushing it
I’ll take the over on Saggese, Eder, Rom and Leonard and the under on Gilbert and Korey Lee.
Is Manzardo overrated? He’s struggling as a 23 yr old through 73 AAA games and has 40-45-ish grade power at 1B. I know folks love the hit tool, but if I’m picking out of just this list of traded prospects, there are at least 3 others I’d want on my team instead of him.
Believe he had a shoulder issue that he has missed time with this year, could be impacting his production.
His mom is also waiting for a heart transplant. At 23 yo, he’s dealing with that over his head. I’d think most would find that distracting.
As for his stat cast figures, he improved his power. Maxed at 112, and is hitting a 90.6 average with a 48% hard-hit rate. This is on 87% zone contact and 8.3 Swstr%. Doesn’t get fooled into swinging at breaking pitches and offspeed. Mind you this includes his slump from June on. Early his barrel% was above 11%.
This kid will walk a lot, as his Oswing was 23%, and he’s gonna pull a lot of fly balls (40%+) into homers and line drives, which is gonna play up in the bigs without those pesky shifts in the shallow right field.
I mentioned this before but he’s done fine vs righties (.906 OPS). The problem has been against lefties (.535 OPS).
Also, I don’t know when his shoulder problems occurred but through the end of of May (47 games, 197PAs), he was hitting .271/.366/.512. Since then, he’s hit .183/.302/.323.
Still, it does seem strange to have a 1B ranked 1st, particularly one with a shoulder issue.
Thank you for this! I would say Hicks looks like the biggest overpay, glancing at who is around him. I still feel Scherzer was a major overpay too, but I could be wrong and he has another gear left. Jordan Montgomery fetching a 50 FV as a rental seems fair in the context of this deadline, but is insane to tell someone from a year ago.
also makes red sox not trading paxton (given that they didnt buy either) even more insane
To be fair he has been a lot better since the last deadline.
Since Scherzer came with so much money, it’s hard to call it an overpay..
Nice work, good presentation. Substantively, stunning to see the Yankees do nothing but give up a prospect. But, better days are ahead.
Surprised you’re still down on Clifford. And as a Mets fan, the thought of a Lucas Duda comp made me throw up in my mouth just a little bit.
Lucas Duda has a handful of 120-130 wRC+ seasons. That’s an extremely good outcome
At a headline level, your comment is fair and correct. Duda put up a 116 wRC+ over almost 3600 PA, and was a 3-win player for two seasons (2014-2015) in which he put up wRC+ of 135 and 132. He also posted wRC+ of 120 and 136 in two partial seasons. Those three season-equivalents (two full, two half) represent virtually all of his career value. That’s a stat line that is a very good outcome, and something that any individual can be extremely proud of.
All that said, from where I sat as a Mets fan, baseball fan, and youth baseball coach, watching Lucas Duda play was a far more frustrating experience than the stat line suggests. There’s the obvious wide platoon splits and defensive stiffness of his archetype (and the Duda-in-the-OF experiment was REALLY painful). [BTW – aside – part of the magic of the 2015 World Series season was that Duda absolutely mashed lefties, atypically, and they continued to pitch to him as if he couldn’t… due to a ridiculous BABIP… despite a ton of K’s and virtually no walks against lefties…]
But there’s so much more than that.
First, I wish I had the free time to run models that account for statistical variability and volatility for a player, within a season and a career. Both in terms of hot and cold stretches, and in terms of quality of opponent and game situations where stats are accumulated. A player who posts a consistent 120-130 wRC+ across a season is far more valuable than a player who careens between months of 60 and 180.
Lucas Duda was one of the most performance-volatile players I’ve ever watched. He would run to hot and cold extremes, and his colds were PAINFUL to watch because of how much he was losing the game between his ears before he even stepped into the batter’s box. We used to joke when watching him that we could tell when he stepped on the field if we were getting “Good Duda” or “Bad Duda” based on his body language, and we were usually right.
So with Duda, it’s far more than comping someone to having a LF/1B profile and platoon splits. To me, putting that Duda comp on someone also carries with it [1] high performance volatility and [2] a lot of struggles with the mental aspects of the game.
I do think Duda wasn’t a great fit for New York, and deciding to play Ike Davis at 1B and put Duda in the outfield surely hurt his confidence.
I recall quite well the hot & cold sequences you’re mentioning, and that throw home when Hosmer was rounding third is still exceedingly painful.
But there’s a difference between a player being frustrating to watch and a player not being valuable. He’s in the top 15 Mets all time in wRC+. If that’s the 2nd player you’re getting in a trade for a 40-year-old, I’ll take it.
“ A player who posts a consistent 120-130 wRC+ across a season is far more valuable than a player who careens between months of 60 and 180.” Do we know this to be true?
Yeah, I can’t get on board with this, though it would make for a less frustrating player to watch.
If you could prove that all Duda’s homers came when the Mets were up four runs and he K’d four times every time they were shut out, then maybe?
We do have b-ref splits by opponent and by situation. I wish b-ref broke that down by QUALITY of opponent in each season but I think it’s just “against >.500 teams” and “against <.500 teams.”
For example, though, in his wonderful 2015 season:
Against sub-.500 teams: .897 OPS, 139 sOPS+
Against >.500 teams: .767 OPS, 118 sOPS+
But now I’m hunting for data that validates my opinion. And that’s bad.
Fair question, but I can’t imagine that it’s not. Because there are so many things that could possibly underly that performance delta.
We do know that many (most? all?) MLB front offices decompose minor league batting and pitching stats based on the literal competition and how major league-quality it is rated. That is to say, a batter who puts up a minor league 130 wRC+ against largely mediocre pitching or org depth is not the same as a minor leaguer who puts up a 130 wRC+ against future MLB starters. I’ve heard this discussed from numerous sources and numerous teams.
There’s also been looks at players who boosted their performance with September performance against expanded rosters. I haven’t studied Duda on this point.
But this isn’t exactly what I was speaking to. How would we determine whether a player who put up highly variable stats over a season is more, less, or equally valuable to a player who puts up a monotone stat line? How important is standard deviation/volatility and how wide the VOL bars are on a player’s performance.
Could we first agree that it absolutely matters at the trade deadline? If a player is highly volatile in performance spurts, then a team acquiring a short-term fix would surely prefer the steady profile to know what they’re getting, no?
I don’t know… I can’t think of many places where more volatile data is better than less volatile data. But I’m open to thinking about it!
I imagine it also depends on your team’s makeup. If you’re acquiring a guy to add to your outfield platoon group of outfielders three through five, I would suspect that you’d prefer the high ceiling and volatility because you can just not play the guy if he’s cold, or ride him if he’s hot. I’m thinking about the 2021 Braves here- they didn’t want a steady fifth outfielder, they wanted one who could go on a heater and help carry the team.
If you’re trading for a new starting shortstop down the stretch because your incumbent got injured/wasn’t good enough/etc and the new guy is going to be expected to play almost every game, you’re probably right that they’d prefer the more stable talent. But I’m not sure that’s most cases.
All of this is kind of like the injured star debate: is Byron Buxton more useful to the team if he puts up 6 wins in 50 games and is out for 100, or if he puts up 6 wins in 150 games? I’m not sure where I land on that, but I do think it is situation dependent with a general preference for 6 wins in 50 games, because if you get someone league average for the other 100, you end up with something like 7.5 wins
I’m just going to see I very much don’t see a 50 on Lee, in fact i wouldn’t 45 him. He seems the prototypical defensive catcher that can’t hit a lick, sure his defensive skills are strong but unless he’s a historically great defender I don’t see how he’s a every day player.
On other end I think Clifford deserves a 50, he’s a bit of a defensive tweener but all he’s done is rake
While I think/hope he’s more than Lucas Duda (ha!), the platoon splits on Clifford can’t be ignored. He has almost a 1.000 OPS against righties as a 19 year old in high A, and a .568 OPS in 50 PA against lefties (with a 33% K rate). If he busts out of the platoon mold, he’s a 50 or a 55.
What’s a big platoon split here? A lot of these guys don’t have their platoon splits go away, they just become so good at hitting overall that their platoon split is manageable. From 2021-2023, Kyle Schwarber has a 135 wRC+ against right-handed pitching and a 102 wRC+ against lefties. You could say he has a pretty large platoon split but he’s a good enough hitter overall that he can start against / stay in the game against lefty pitchers. This is probably the outcome you’re hoping for with Clifford. Not that the split goes away, but that he becomes good enough that it doesn’t matter.
Note that this really only applies to left-handed hitters. Right-handed hitters with platoon splits like that need to have more defensive value / utility because they don’t face enough lefties to make it worthwhile.
Even if he’s merely joc pederson, that’s a top 100 prospect type outcome
Catcher defense is still in the early stages of quantification. There have been catchers preferred by teammates or managers despite bad statistics. Mike Scioscia preferred Jeff Mathis to Mike Napoli. Statheads countered that unless Mathis was something like 40 runs better it was dumb. It turns out with Framing that Napoli was something like 20 runs better defensively. It may turn out that something else made him even better than that.
Greg Maddux insisted on pitching to Eddie Perez.
Who knew that Brian McCann and Russell Martin have HOF cases? Jose Molina had a long career. Yadier Molina will make the HOF almost all because of teammate and manager testimonials. Ray Schalk made it that way. Who knows about Salvador Perez.
Lee might be an all time great defender…or an easily above average one…or an overrated one, but a 50 doesn’t strike me as any sillier than 45 or 55 because I just don’t know what pitchers and managers think of him.
I know a lot of people got enamored with Genesis Cabrera quickly after his nice start in Toronto, but he looks like the same guy who got DFA’d for a reason, just a bit luckier. He isn’t throwing harder and is running an xFIP of 4.50. He isn’t someone who should face righties (5.73 xFIP this year, 4.88 xFIP career).
For a LOOGY who hasn’t been adept at getting lefties out until this season, getting an interesting young catcher should be applauded. Toronto has Cabrera next season, too, so they have plenty of time to make this swap look silly, but I don’t think Cabrera is all that interesting without the velocity he showed in ’21 (his only good season).
Edit: nevermind – found my answer!
Unnecessary hot takes:
– I’ve seen this called a Seller’s Market online but don’t see it? Acuna has star tools despite the GBs but also ZiPs sees him as a .300 OBP guy for some time. Lots of GBs from these hitters in general. Too many some might say including I. Saggerse, Vargas, and Clifford seem promising with the former two doing their best Isaac Paredes impressions
– That Korey Lee snippet is pretty close to what you’ll be writing about Ethan Hearn (Cubs) in a couple years
– I don’t want to call Herz underrated here but suspect he’ll do well. I’m impressed by how this guy is a likely MLer, healthy and making starts into AA at 22, after being drafted as a three sport HS thrower
– The Cardinals did pretty well for what they were doing. Kloffenstein’s still hanging in there, Rom was a guy I liked to fill out an Orioles trade (off 40 AAA lefty missing bats, has some versatility), mentioned Saggerse…
– Boyle’s arm strength is nuts, A’s did alright for Moll there. I like Nastrini too as a Future reliever, the Failed Starter bucket is my favorite for Future relievers as those innings are very valuable
Acuña the senior also hits quite a lot of grounders: he’s got a career-high 1.65 GB/FB this year, which is not particularly comforting to hurlers who have to face him. He’s also making way more contact both in-zone and out, which is why he’s cut his K% so much. When your *mean* exit velo is 95.2 MPH and you’re super fast, balls in play are basically always your friend.
Acuña the younger doesn’t have the size for that ridiculousness, but his big bro is a good demonstration that grounders aren’t bad *if* they’re an alternative to whiffing.
Grounders arent that bad if youre fast
Brett Baty hitting a lot of grounders is bad because he’s fucking slow and will never leg out an infield hit much less do it and then steal a base
An Acuna brother doing it is fine
See:
Greene, Riley.
I thought Watson was a lefty hitter, not switch.
Seems like Cherington did ok given who he was moving.