Royals Trade Carlos Santana To Mariners, upgrade Vinnie Pasquantino

Sailors got their first baseman / hitter designated Carlos Santana And money from the royal family in exchange for the right-handed White Mills And the William FlemingAccording to the team’s announcement. The trade paves the way for the royal family to take a late look at potential customers Vinnie Pasquantino, whose contract was officially selected from Triple-A Omaha, according to the team. right hand Ronald Bolanos He was assigned the task in order to unlock a place on Kansas City’s 40-man roster.

Monday’s trade closed the book on the generally disappointing tenure of Kansas City for Santana, who signed a two-year, $17.5 million contract before the 2021 season but has yet to transform into the form that has made him a valuable contributor for years to Cleveland. The 36-year-old has scored 871 board appearances with the Royals and scored just 0.215/.326/.341 batting streak — about 12% worse than the league average after park and league weight, as measured by wRC+.

Santana has been able to turn things around in recent weeks, and he has shown enough this month for the royals to take a low-cost look now that they have suddenly found themselves in need of a first baseman. Ty France, the most consistent hitter in Seattle this season, recently landed on the hit list and numbers to be out a little longer than the 10-day minimum, given a diagnosis of a Class II flexor strain. Santana shouldn’t be expected to completely replace the superb French .316/.390/.476 hitting streak, but he has managed to produce .298/.405/.468 by himself over the course of 27 games and 111 games.

In all likelihood, members of the royal family pay the vast majority of what’s left on Santana’s contract. He still owes his $10.5 million salary balance for the year (about $5.8 million), and that number will increase based on the appearance of the board. Santana, who has already appeared in 212 games this season, will earn an additional $75,000 for every No. 25 plate appearance from 300 to 525.

This is not the first time the Mariners have taken possession of Santana, although whenever he enters the field in a Mariners jersey, it will be his first actual game for the team. Seattle has already acquired Santana along GB Crawford In the transaction you sent Jean SeguraAnd the Juan Nicasio And the James Bazos To the Phillies again in December 2018. However, not two weeks later, Santana was traded to Cleveland in a three-team swap. Edwin Encarnacion to Seattle. Encarnacion spent half a season hitting as a designated Marine hitter before turning on the Yankees for the right thing. then Juan.

This time around, a right-handed pair will go to Kansas City in exchange for the last three months of controlling Santana. Of the right-wingers involved, only Mills has had much experience in the league so far. The 27-year-old has delivered a total of 21 1/3 frames over the past two seasons, but struggled in 7.59 ERAs with worse-than-average strike and walk rates (17.3% and 10.2%, respectively).

Mills, the 93rd overall pick in 2017, has more interesting but also inconsistent numbers in the top minors. He cheered 44.7% of his opponents through 28 2/3 rounds of Triple-A balls last year, for example, but that rate has halved so far in 2022 over the course of 19 2/3 rounds. There is no change of pace between his campaigns in ’21 and ’22, although Mills threw more fastballs at the expense of some passer use during this year’s small sample of 8 2/3 big league rounds. The 6’4 Dexter has never been ranked as one of the Mariners’ top prospects, but Baseball America has listed him among the top 25 Seattle growers dating back to the time he was enlisted.

Meanwhile, Fleming is a 23-year-old right-hand man who was selected by the Mariners in the eleventh round just a year ago. It hasn’t been generally considered among the Mariners’ top prospects – although Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs put him 28th earlier this year – and has posted a fairly low profile in Class-A Modesto despite being a former college arm greater than average. discount at this level. So far, Fleming has thrown 67 2/3 rounds on 14 starts and has scored a 4.92 ERA with a 20.7% strike rate versus an 8.4% walk rate.

More is coming.