Less than 24 hours after acquiring Blake Snell, the Fathers held another highly successful negotiation to reinforce their initial rotation.
The Fathers bought Yu Darvish and Victor Caratini from the Cubs on Monday night in exchange for right-handed veteran Zach Davies and candidates Reggie Preciado, Ismael Mena, Yeison Santana and Owen Caissie. Kevin Acee and Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported the complete list of players involved in the trade.
Darvish, 34, finished second in the vote for the NL Cy Young Award in 2020, while Caratini gives the Fathers an experienced support behind Austin Nola in the catcher. With Snell and Darvish, the Fathers now have a pair of first-rate matches established that should allow them to fight in 2021, even with Mike Clevinger out of the year after Tommy John’s surgery and Dinelson Lamet’s health status uncertain after him have missed the postseason with an elbow injury and received an injection of platelet-rich plasma.
It is the last agreement in which the Fathers negotiated their vaunted depth of prospecting to reinforce the major league squad. Since the 2020 negotiation deadline, the Fathers have negotiated 18 prospects, as well as recent graduates Cal Quantrill, Josh Naylor, Francisco Mejia and Ty France, among other major leagues, in eight separate negotiations.
Preciado, Mena, Santana and Caissie were Fathers 15, 17, 18 and 20 prospects, respectively. Everyone is 20 years old or less and only Santana played professionally. The quartet reinforces a system of Cubs farms that came in 21st place in the ranking of mid-season organizational talents, but at the expense of the club’s ace.
CUBS ACQUIRE:
Zach Davies, RHP
Was: 27
Davis was solid over five seasons with the Brewers and flourished after a switch to the Padres in 2020, going 7-4, 2.73 in 12 matches. He finished fifth in the National League in the ERA and eighth with a WHIP of 1,067, posting the highest strikeout rate (8.2 K / 9) and the second lowest walking rate (2.5 BB / 9) in his career. Davies’ break came as a result of reducing his use of fastballs by about 10 percent and increasing his swap accordingly. His fastball has an average of 88 mph, but he is able to succeed in locating it and keeping hitters out of balance with his move, which developed into a dominant, swing-and-miss pitch. He also has a cutter and a curved ball, but he plays his ball fast and changes more than 80 percent of the time combined. The prevalence of Davis’s move made him dominant against left-handed scouts, but more susceptible to right-handers in 2020. Throughout his career, his platoon division is more balanced. Davis will join Kyle Hendricks as quick-change right-handers ahead of the Cubs’ rotation. He is in his final year of refereeing and will be a free agent after the 2021 season.
Reggie Preciado, SS
Was: 17
Preciado trained with his father, Victor, a former Yankee secondary league player, and emerged as Panama’s best bet in the 2019 international category. The Padres hired him for $ 1.3 million. He hasn’t played an official professional game yet, but he participated in the instructional league in 2020. Preciado has grown an inch since signing and is now six feet tall and a narrow, projectable frame. He’s not very nervous, but he has a knack for being punctual on the plate. A shift hitter, Preciado’s left-hand swing has a slightly elliptical path and his swing to the right is a more compact stroke. These are different swings, but he has shown the ability to drive the ball from both sides and has room to grow in strength as he fills in. He’s still learning to control the attack zone. Preciado is an average runner, but his advanced instincts and refined defensive skills allow him to deal with shortstop for now. The above average arm strength should improve as it gets stronger. Preciado has many advantages, but it is only 17 years old and depends a lot on the body filling. He will make his professional debut in 2021, probably in the Arizona League, at Rookie level.
Ismael Mena, OF
Was: 18
Mena was one of the most athletic players in the international class of 2019 and signed with the Padres for $ 2.2 million, the biggest bonus granted by the club that year. His professional debut was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, but he gained 7-10 pounds of adequate weight and stood out during the instructional league. Mena is a slim and elegant central defender with more speed in the field and at the bases. He is a hitter who throws the ball with a strong strike from the left side, although he has added strength and influence and has started to direct the ball in the air. Mena’s swing can be very sharp at times and he is prone to hitting, but this can improve with experience and maturity. Mena’s routes and instincts in the central camp are a work in progress. He has speed for the position, but needs experience to refine his game. He has a positive arm that can get even stronger when he fills it out. Mena shows tips from a first-rate center-back player, but like Preciado, he’s a teenager who hasn’t played professionally yet and has many years of development ahead of him. He is expected to open 2021 in the Arizona League, at Rookie level.
Yeison Santana, SS
Was: 20
Santana is the only prospect the Cubs have gained from playing professionally, and what he has shown so far has been promising. Hired for $ 300,000 from the Dominican Republic in 2017, Santana quickly added strength and emerged as one of the best players in the Arizona League at Rookie level on his debut in the United States in 2019, finishing fourth in batting average (0.346) and sixth in – base percentage (0.429). He continued to impress in the instructional league in 2020. Santana is an aggressive hitter who swings hard, but has eye-hand coordination and barrel awareness to make consistent contact. He aligns the ball on all fields, especially in the middle and on the opposite side, and shows a keen eye for the hitting area. He is an agile and nervous athlete, with explosive hands and can grow in power as he gets bigger. Santana plays with energy on the pitch and has a good game conscience. He occasionally plays very fast, but has a chance to stay on the shortstop with his solid reach and improving his arm strength. Santana was often asked about in commercial discussions before the Cubs acquired it. Assessors see him as at least a potential utility player, with a chance of being a starting midfield player, depending on how his power and defense develop.
Owen Caissie, OF
Was: 18
Caissie starred as the best hitter for Canada’s national junior team and was controversial in the spring when he hit a hitter’s home run at the Blue Jays spring training stadium. The Fathers recruited him 45th overall in June and hired him for just over $ 1.2 million to waive a Michigan engagement. Caissie was hit by an elbow throw at the local alternative camp and suffered a hairline fracture, but recovered in time for the instruction league. Caissie is a great left-handed hitter with more brute force and space to add even more strength. He posts some of the highest exit speeds and longest home run distances in every environment he plays. Caissie’s swing can be long and he tends to hit, but when he hits a quick ball on the board, he smashes it. He is a hard worker who spends all his free time in the batting cage working on his swing. Caissie is much more raw defensively. He has medium speed and an arm, but is not comfortable with high balls and is still learning the right job with his feet on the right field. The power of Caissie’s left hand makes it easier to dream of more than 30 home runs, but he needs to show that he can make enough contact to reach his power consistently and has a lot of work to do defensively. He has not yet played an official professional game and will likely make his debut in the Arizona League at the Rookie level in 2021.
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PRIEST ACQUIRE:
Yu Darvish, RHP
Age: 34
Darvish made just eight appearances for the Cubs in his first season after signing a six-year contract, $ 126 million due to an elbow injury and struggled in the first half of 2019 after he returned, but he recovered and posted an ERA 2.76 out of 13 starts after the star break and continued to stand out in a dominant 2020. Darvish’s fastball averaged 95.9 mph in 2020, its highest average speed since arriving in the USA from Japan in 2012, and its slider and cutter lead the way as the top swing-and-miss deals in its famous wide assortment of pitches. Darvish has completed at least six entries in 21 of his last 25 starts since the 2019 star break, giving the Fathers the necessary durability at the front end of their rotation. He has three years and $ 59 million left in his contract.
Victor Caratini, Ç
Age: 27
Caratini made his debut in the MLB in 2017 and progressively established himself as a reserve for Willson Contreras behind the plate, while also finding time on first base. The hitter was a modest offensive contributor with a career of 0.250 / .327 / .372, but he is an excellent coach and was Darvish’s personal catcher in 2020, taking all 12 games. He excels at pulling the balls into the strike zone and ranked among the top 10 catchers in the major league in most framing metrics, according to Baseball Savant. He eliminated 24% of his career tie attempts, just below the league average of 27% in his four championship seasons. Caratini is under the control of the team until 2023. He will mainly serve as Nola’s reserve and will continue to operate as Darvish’s personal collector.