Former Cy Young and All Star Traded on the Same Day?

Mariners and Giants Trade

Today both the Mariners and the Rays made a trade with each other and with separate teams to help strengthen their roster. First a big one between the Mariners and the Giants. The Mariners traded former Cy Young award winner Robbie Ray to San Fran and received starter Anthony DeSclafani and former Mariners fan favorite Mitch Haniger. 

Just 3 seasons ago Robbie Ray won a controversial Cy Young for the Blue Jays and signed a 5 year $115 million deal to bolster the Mariners rotation. Since then Ray has had an average 2022 season and only pitched 3 innings last season before undergoing Tommy John and missing the rest of the season. Ray won’t be back this season until around the All Star break and with San Francisco having a mixture of good veteran and young arms it’s not guaranteed he’ll get a rotation spot. He has always struggled with the long ball but is an excellent strikeout pitcher with a deceiving fastball. He mainly throws a fastball and slider while sprinkling curveballs, changeups, and sinkers but once he got to the Mariners seemed to only focus on his sinker plus his two main pitches. Being in San Fran should help his homer issues and high flyball rate, likely keeping him as an above average pitcher. With still 3 years and $73 million remaining on his contract I don’t understand this move from the Giants side. This seems like a massive overpay to get both Haniger and DeSclafani off the books by bringing in a bounce back candidate that I don’t see bouncing back to his 2021 form.

Looking at Seattle’s return they bring in two major league players that increase this teams production. The Mariners are looking for the same thing in both Hangier and DeSclafani. The past two seasons DeSclafani has been dealing with injury after injury but back in 2021 he was a shockingly great pitcher with a 3.62 FIP. The problem is like Ray he doesn’t have a fit on the current roster. The Mariners already have a top one through five rotation in baseball with top prospects and Luis Castillo as the anchor. All offseason though rumors have been spreading about the Mariners trading one of their young pitchers for a major league hitter and with this deal it could be a sign that a deal isn’t too far away. In my opinion that would be a dumb move on Seattle's part as Kirby, Gilbert, Woo, and Miller all look like they have the potential to be studs as soon as next year. DeSclafani could be a solid swing man for them coming out of the bullpen and making starts when needed. With the current pitching market getting an average pitcher in that role would cost more than the $12 million the Mariners would be paying Disco next season. As most teams have figured out you can never have enough pitching depth. Haniger as well is looking to get back to his 2021 self. The past 2 seasons he’s also been dealing with a million injuries and is just trying to stay on the field. In his last full season he hit 39 homers and had a 120 wRC+. He has always been a terrible outfielder and would be better suited as a full time DH but with the Mariners recently signing Mitch Garver he’ll have to take up the starting right fielder spot. After an injury riddled 2022 the Giants took a shot on him signing him to a 3 year $43.5 million contract with a player option for the third year and along with injuries he really struggled only putting up a 73 wRC+. He continues to put up high barrel and hard hit rates that give me hope he can return to former. There’s no way Haniger doesn’t pick up his $15.5 million player option for 2025 so if Haniger continues to struggle the Mariners will have a hole in their lineup for 2 seasons. 

I think the Mariners came away victorious in this trade. I believe way more that DeSclafani can be an average pitcher and Haniger can jump back than Ray returning to anything near his top form. I understand the Giants are trying to compete but with the Dodgers and DBacks likely controlling the division for years to come San Francisco should likely look towards the future not the present. With the Mariners I hated their offseason so far. It seemed like they were trying to lower payroll as much as possible even though they just missed the playoffs with a young core last season and with that came trading left fielder Jarred Kelenic and letting right fielder Teoscar Hernadez walk in free agency. This and their second trade of the day increase the potential of this outfield way more than they had before today.

Mariners and Rays Trade

With both the Mariners and Rays looking at major holes to fill in their lineups for 2024 they looked to each other to help fill them. As I said with the departure of Jarred Kelenic in left field the Mariners needed to find somebody to step up and found it in Luke Raley. He was the typical guy who raked in the minors but couldn’t make it in the majors. In his first full season in 2023 Raley finally put it all together. He was your typical powerful lefty that strikes out way too much and doesn’t hit lefty pitchers. The guy had a 130 wRC+ with slightly below average defense at all outfield positions and first base. The difference between him and a free agent like Joc Pederson is Raley is still on his pre arb contract and controllable for 3 seasons meaning he’ll likely make less than $1 million next season which is crazy for a 29 year old. He’s a really solid bat for a position that didn’t have anybody worth mentioning before the trade.

In return the Rays got infielder Jose Caballero who the Mariners got in a trade with the DBacks. Caballero is the typical Rays player. He’s a gold glove fielder at second, third, and short but will likely fight with Taylor Walls for the starting spot at short. They’re taking over in light of the Franco situation which made the Rays think fast to try to find a replacement. Even though in 104 games he didn’t show much at the plate he still showed great plate discipline and has been elite in every stop in the minors. He’s also in the 90th percentile in sprint speed adding to the wacky Rays. He could definitely be a guy the Rays turn around offensively and has even shown pull power which is exactly what the Rays always look for. My only problem with their side of the trade is they already had this player in Taylor Walls even down to the fact that both hit significantly better against lefties. Walls had hip surgery and will likely not be ready for opening day so expect Caballero to be the starting shortstop. I think Caballero has more potential than Walls but neither should be playing over 20 year old top prospect Junior Caminero who has raked in the minors with a 140 wRC+ in AA and continues to in the winter league having the highest OPS by a player under 23 in the league. 

Again I think the Mariners come out on top and really impressed today with both trades. All of the baseball world knows you never want to trade with the Rays because 9/10 it’ll come back to haunt you. In this situation it might in the future but within the next 2 seasons Raley will 100% be better than Caballero and that’s what the Mariners need. In their next trade though the Rays really might’ve got a steal of a trade. 

Rays and Cardinals Trade

Another Rays trade that could go down as a heist by trading reliever Andrew Kittredge for young outfielder Richie Palacios. The Cardinals continue their offseason goal of adding pitching by bringing in former All Star Andrew Kittredge. Just looking at that it would seem this is a great pickup for a bad bullpen but Kittredge’s problem is staying healthy. In 2022 after only 20 innings he was forced to get Tommy John surgery. It took him a while to recover and he was only able to pitch 11.2 innings last season. Using his sinker and slider Kittredge gets an insane chase rate even before his surgery in 2022 his whiff rate dropped drastically causing his strikeout rate to also drop. This stayed a problem in his short innings in 2023. At the age of 34 and being in St Louis which hasn’t shown signs of development I don’t expect this issue to be fixed mostly on his sinker. He’ll likely become an average reliever in the backend of the Cardinals bullpen. 

To get Kittredge the Cardinals gave up Richie Palacios. After acquiring him for cash from Cleveland during last season the losing Cardinals gave him a shot in the outfield and second base. In only 102 plate appearances Palacios had a 120 wRC+ and hit 6 homers. Throughout his minor league career he has been known as a low strikeout and chase hitter who has a really high zone contact. In every stop he has had an above 10% walk rate except when he has come up from the minors though his walk rate seems to drop. He’s never been known as a player with pop but this offseason he’s added around 7 mph to his exit velocity and could tap into more next season. I think Palacios could become another Rays outfielder who comes out of nowhere and becomes a great player like Jose Siri has. He’ll likely start the season as a bench guy or in AAA depending on Harold Rameriez being on the team and prospect Jonny DeLuca.