With the contract tender deadline for arbitration-eligible players approaching, two AL Central teams made trades, with both sending pitchers in their half of the deals. Below is a look at both trades:
Atlanta acquires LHP Aaron Bummer from the White Sox for RHP Michael Soroka, INF Nick Lopez, INF Braden Shewmake, LHP Jared Shuster and RHP Riley Gowens
We have our first significant trade of the offseason as the White Sox hopefully start selling out pretty much everyone by trading lefty Aaron Bummer to Atlanta for the Five Guys.
Atlanta gets Bummer, a solid left-handed hitter who had his worst year as a big league player in 2023 because his walk speed (that’s on him) and BABIP (which looks like bad luck) spiked. He’s always made limited hard contact and has proven he can get right-handed hitters out, so he’s a capable player who can play the entire inning and could probably handle demanding duties when the walks return. With Tyler Matzek still coming back from Tommy John surgery at the end of 2022, Bummer gives Atlanta a second left-handed hitter behind AJ Minter to start the season and plenty of flexibility if Matzek returns to the majors.
GO DEEPER
Braves add RP Bummer from White Sox for Soroka, 4 more
The White Sox went for quantity, which makes some sense given the state of their system, but the quantity/quality ratio here also gives you an idea of how bad the system looks – the White Sox had the 40-man roster spot for all five of these guys, some of whom were undrafted/should not be selected for Atlanta and probably many other teams as well.
Shortstop Nicky Lopez is the most famous guy in the deal, and White Sox GM Chris Getz knows Lopez from their time together in Kansas City. Lopez is basically a CR2032 battery who can play shortstop or second base plus defense; He puts the ball in play a ton but lacks power, with a career .319 slugging percentage that might even exaggerate the value and just six home runs in 1,901 plate appearances. There’s some irony in the White Sox signing a better-rounded Nick Madrigal when they didn’t have anyone worth playing in their middle infield anyway, and Lopez gives them at least some defensive value.
Injuries have derailed Michael Soroka’s promising career. (Jeff Hanisch / USA Today)
Michael Soroka missed 2021 and most of 2022 due to two torn Achilles tendons, while his 2023 season ended on the injured list due to shoulder inflammation, which also landed him on the injured list in 2018 and 2019. The good news for the White Sox is that when he pitched in 2023, his speed was back and he was quite effective in Triple A despite a change in his pitching usage. Before 2021, he was a sinker/slider guy, but this year he relied more on the four-seamer than the sinker, lowering his groundball rate to about 44 percent last year from 51 percent in 2019, his only full season , in which he worked in the majors. He has a year to free agency, so the White Sox may just be hoping they get three or four healthy months from him, perhaps getting better results by moving the sinker back to the top of his pitching hierarchy, so they can trade him in July.
Lefty Jared Shuster was Atlanta’s 2020 first-round pick out of Wake Forest’s baseball factory, a command-and-control lefty with solid secondaries, and had success all the way up to Double A in 2022. He struggled in Triple A and in the majors last year, both with command and with hitters getting too much from his frayed four-seater, which is 90-92 mph and flat with a little run. His slider is a 55 (on the 20-80 scouting scale), and the changeup has been that good in the past, although he missed it more often in the majors than in the minors and still gave up more hard contact on the field some bats. He also walked way too many right-handed batters at both levels, which I think was a result of him trying to avoid hard contact with the four-seater. There’s still potential in the backend here, but it’s still a ways away from that.
Braden Shewmake was Atlanta’s second first-round pick in 2019, an infielder who might stick at shortstop but looked like he had enough hits for any infield spot; Unfortunately, he hasn’t hit at all since the pandemic, with a .237/.299/.407 line as a Triple-A reliever in 2023, a line that featured mediocre contact quality. He’s making contact (19.3 percent strikeout rate in Triple A) and it looks like he could probably handle shortstop in the majors, so I can see the appeal in that, especially if the White Sox think so they can make him make harder contact. However, he’s about to turn 26, so the chances are good.
Right-hander Riley Gowens was a 23-year-old redshirt junior at Illinois who Atlanta drafted in the ninth round last July. He’s a strike thrower with a bunch of 45s in his arsenal who uses a clean delivery but doesn’t have a ton of arm speed. He’s probably an org pitcher unless something changes with his stuff.
Colorado acquires RHP Cal Quantrill from Cleveland for C Kody Huff
Cal Quantrill will pitch at Coors Field next season after a loss in 2023. (David Richard/USA Today)
The Rockies acquired right-hander Cal Quantrill, who had been designated for assignment by Cleveland to catch prospect Kody Huff. A leader with low strikeout rates, Quantrill seems like a poor fit for Colorado, where balls in play are worth more and the Rockies’ defense is currently about average. I understand the need to win innings, but I’m worried that Quantrill will either become very home run prone or simply give up too many hits to give the Rockies the bulk they want. However, he would have been a great fit for someone like the Padres.
Huff was the Rockies’ 2022 seventh-round pick alongside Stanford, a guy with a high baseball IQ (and son of Diamondbacks scout Tim Huff) who socializes a lot, something Cleveland perhaps values more than any other team without much power. Huff hit .262/.357/.374 last year as a 22-year-old in Low-A Fresno, a good park for power. I think he can be a backup in the majors – Drew Butera had a 12-year career with similar skills.
(Top photo by Aaron Bummer: Gerry Angus / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)