Three Underrated Trade Acquisitions (So Far)
Under the radar players that have been traded this offseason according to Will Hailey
Luis Urias:
Poor Seattle fans. In a perfect world, the Mariner’s ownership would see the solid young team that has delivered 90, 90, and 88 wins the last three seasons and commit to spending money this offseason to build a World Series winner. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world, we live in a capitalist hellscape where the Mariners have been shedding salary all offseason and project to have an opening day payroll nearly identical to that of the last two seasons. While the cost saving route is disappointing, moving a replaceable reliever in Isaiah Campbell for Luis Urias is exactly the kind of cost-effective buy-low move a team looking to keep their balance sheet low while still competing should make.
Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images
You can throw away Urias’ 2023 where he spent the first two months of the season on the shelf with a hamstring injury and never truly found his way back. In his 2021 and 2022 seasons, however, Urias produced a combined 4.4 fWAR and showed plenty of the promise that made him a top prospect as a teenager. The versatile Urias can slot into 2B or 3B (and SS in a pinch) for the Mariners that do not have an established starter in either spot at the moment. While you would hope for more consistent power from a guy that hits as many fly balls as Urias, his barrel rates have been above average, and he has shown power to all fields despite a propensity for pulling the ball. When healthy, Urias should have a high floor as someone that walks a lot and does not strike out much, and he’ll still be just 26 at the beginning of the 2024 campaign meaning there may be even more in the tank for a breakout.
Edward Olivares:
Yinz may have missed it, but the Pirates have been adding this offseason. Admittedly, adding Martin Perez and Marco Gonzales will likely not excite anyone except opposing hitters, but Cutch returns after a solid homecoming last season, and Rowdy Tellez just missed the cut for last week’s Top Underrated Free Agent Signings. More important than the low-cost additions has been NOT selling valuable core pieces (so far at least) in the likes of Mitch Keller or David Bednar. It appears that the Pirates, who won 76 games in 2023, are seeing the lack of improvement this offseason from the Brewers and Cubs and are leaving their options open to compete in the NL Central. Acquiring Edward Olivares is a perfect low-cost move to bolster a sneaky solid Pittsburgh offense.
Photo: Charlie Reidel/AP
Olivares was quietly productive offensively each of the last two seasons in Kansas City with a 109 OPS+ in 559 plate appearances and came on strong in the second half of last season with a .299/.355/.528 slash line after the all-star break. The home run numbers leave something to be desired, but he maintains above average barrel rates, sweet spot %, hard hit rates, and the raw power is there as he is consistently around the top third in baseball in max exit velocity. Olivares’ contact all-fields approach was just right in Kauffman, the 3rd worst park for dingers, and should translate perfectly to PNC, which ranks even worse. Olivares is slightly better against lefties, and Roster Resource currently slates him as the short-side platoon right-fielder, but given McCutchen’s age at DH and Joshua Palacios’ lack of production in his career so far, Olivares could easily find himself in a full-time role. Player comps are far from perfect, but Olivares’ offensive profile is eerily similar to Lourdes Gurriel Jr who just cost $42 million this offseason, while Olivares cost just one Deivis Nadal (WHO?!).
Kyle Wright:
Add the Royals to the list of bad teams looking to be more competitive in 2024. Additions of veterans Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Hunter Renfroe (at the expense of the aforementioned Olivares), and a slew of seasoned bullpen arms show an admirable attempt to not totally suck this year after just 56 wins in 2023. Kyle Wright will likely not suit up for Kansas City this season as he recovers from shoulder surgery to repair a torn right capsule, but the Royals are betting on a healthy Wright to help push them towards contention in 2025 and 2026. The buy-low move only cost KC former first-rounder Jackson Kowar, who has consistently shown good velocity, but we’ve also seen Drake release three albums in the time it has been since Kowar has been a good pitcher at any level.
Photo: Tom Kirkland/Getty Images
Wright, a former first-rounder himself, struggled at the major-league level until finally figuring it out in 2022, throwing 180.1 innings of 3.19 ERA ball. His 21 wins would have won him the Cy Young if we were still using Rick Porcello rules, but Wright would have to settle for 10th in Cy voting. He committed to his elite 127 Stuff+ curveball and threw it 34% of the time while throwing more sinkers than ever before. The combination of a wipeout curveball and diving sinker led to an above-average K% while maintaining a nearly league-leading 55% groundball rate. Wright may have found even more success had he thrown his four-seamer less. Opposing hitters had the “Screaming Line Drive” power up against the fastball and hit .356 while slugging a whopping .584. Injuries limited Wright to 31 awful innings in 2023, but his pitch mix focused heavily on the curve and sinker, leaving optimism for him to be even better than before if he can bounce back healthy in 2025 for the Royals.
-WH
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Will Hailey, demonstrating perspicacity at every opportunity. Well done.