Montreal Grab Star Catcher From Kansas City
stadiumreport.bbn June 13th, 2022
In a move that has fans in both cities buzzing, the
Montreal Expos and the
Kansas City Royals have agreed to a deal that will have 25-year old C
Kyle Barr(2.5*), 22-year old minor league 3B
Ramon Toledo(22, 2.5*, .299-4-11 .851OPS AAA & AA), and 18-year old minor league 1B
Jerry Soto(0.5/3* HS, 0.5/2.5* OSA, .156-3-7 .409OPS -0.7WAR R) heading to
Kansas City.
Kyle Barr, who is hitting .228 in limited time as a backup catcher, is expected to go on the major league roster right away, and so is young 3B
Ramon Toledo. The 22-year old was signed on a minor league contract earlier this year after getting released by
Memphis and generated trade value with his batting in AA and AAA.
Jerry Soto was the teams big international amateur free agent signing in 2021, signing for $4.2 million.
In exchange, the
Montreal Expos receive 26-year old C
Gabriel Cervantes(4*, .315-8-39 .897OPS 2.3WAR) and 23-year old LHRP
Pablo Mendoza(2.5/3* HS, 2.5/3.5* OSA, 1-0 7.36 11K 11IP 0.0WAR).
Cervantes is rated the 10th best catcher in NMLB with elite blocking ability and above average framing, as well as a bat that produced 2+ WAR in last season, and in this season already. He is expected to take over the main catching duties from
Kevin Craddock(.224-1-11 .593OPS 0.0WAR) right away.
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Ferguson and Morris for Murrietta in Blockbuster Trade
stadiumreport.bbn June 13th, 2022
The rumor has been out there for a while now and today it was made official. The
Montreal Expos have sent 27-year old LF
Karl Ferguson(2.5*, .219-10-40 .729OPS 0.3WAR) and 23-year old LHSP
Roland Morris(23, 3-4 5.07 54K -0.5WAR) to the
Atlanta Minutemen.
The 2019 EL Rookie of the Year,
Karl Ferguson, has basically stopped performing since 2020 as his last years combined for 0.5 WAR in 348 games, albeit with 55 home runs. The
Montreal Expos signed him to a 5y/$25.4M extension this winter, but it looks like this trust building exercise was not enough.
In exchange, the
Montreal Expos receive 25-year old RHSP
Marty Murrietta(3.5* HS, 3.5/4* OSA, 4-5 4.48 51K 64.1IP 0.4WAR). The right-hander and former #63 pick is coming off a big 11-6 3.50 181K 4.2WAR season with
Atlanta and many fans are shocked that he was given away at such a small price point.
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Transactions:
RHSP
Marty Murrietta and C
Gabriel Cervantes were placed on the active roster while LHRP
Pablo Mendoza was optioned to AAA. To fill out the final roster spot and the DH slot, 1B
Matt Talbert(25, 2.5/3*, .269-2-14 .782OPS 0.5WAR AAA) was recalled.
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Gabriel Cervantes’ availability was the best kept secret everybody knew about and avid readers will remember… we had a deal in place at the Winter Meetings but balked at sending
Matt Talbert over… now we got our guy. We offered him a 6y/$61M extension, buying out his arbitration years above value and his free agent years below value.
I almost choked on my tomato soup when
Marty Murrietta’s name came up in trade talks. The righty has good potential and was just having an off year, but somehow, he has become this year’s
Austin Roy. This improves our starting rotation to a point where some of our prospects become luxury articles (maybe), but the trade was too good to pass up. The downside on
Murrietta? He is fragile, but that also means… cheap? We dropped a 6y/$45M contract on his head, buying out arbitration and two years of free agency.
This move won’t bring playoffs to
Montreal but rises the floor on this team and shakes things up quite a bit. With
Ferguson out, I gave McCreery free reign of the lineup card, and he pencilled in
Matt Talbert as cleanup hitter... we will see about that.
One of those days where you go home from work and wonder if this was the right move.