While the Giants and their fans were still mourning the loss of Aaron Judge, the Rule 5 draft came along and decimated their farm system. Well, not quite, but the Giants as expected lost Nick Avila RHP in the major league phase but lost an additional 8 players in the milb phase. Eight! The Giants did not make any picks in either phase but traded for the Reds pick, Blake Sabol C/OF who was in the Pirates organization for cash considerations. Here are the profiles of Avila and Sabol:
Nick Avila RHP DOB: 7/25/1997. 6'4", 195 lbs.
2022 A+: 2-1, 0.95, 28.1 IP, 2.54 BB/9, 9.85 K/9, 13 Saves.
2022 AA: 2-1, 1.33, 27 IP, 2.00 BB/9, 9.00 K/9, 3 Saves.
Avila has some impressive innings in major league camp spring training 2022 and was lights out as a Closer at two levels during the season. Widely speculated as a potential Rule 5 Draft target, it's a bit mystifying why FZ did not protect him by adding him to the 40 man roster. He would have 3 options and a great shot at joining the Giants bullpen sometime in 2023. At least the Giants can get him back for $ if the Pirates can't keep him on their 26 man roster for a full season.
Blake Sabol C/OF DOB: 1/7/1998. B-L, T-R. 6'4", 225 lbs.
2022 AA: .281/.347/.486, 14 HR, 9 SB, 9.2 BB%, 26.0 K%, 412 PA.
2022 AAA: .296/.426/.543, 5 HR, SB, 16.8 BB%, 21.8 K%, 101 PA.
Fangraphs scouting report of his catcher defensive skills are not great but he has enough speed to play corner OF and he bats lefthanded. It's a bit tough to vizualize him sticking on the 26-man roster and if not, he would have to be offered back to the Pirates for $. While there are some things to like in his profile, I personally wish the Giants had just added Avila along with his 3 options.
Here is a list of the players lost in the minor league phase. Unlike Avila, the Giants have no chance of getting them back as there is no level they have to stick out a season at as in the MLB phase.
Armani Smith OF
Frankie Tostado 1B
Ronaldo Flores C
Brooks Crawford RHP
Wei-Chieh Huang RHP
Taylor Rashi RHP
Yoniel Ramirez RHP
Willian Suarez RHP
Smith and Tostado were particular fan faves of the blog. Realistically none of these are likely to ever have significant MLB careers. They should be easily replaced by Rookie league graduates and minor league free agents.
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Masataka Yoshida OF was a free agent I had an eye on after he became available in the last few days via the Japanese posting system. 29 yo lefty bat. .335/.447/.561, 21 HR, 508 PA. Here's what caught my eye: 80 walks, 41 K's! No such luck. Snapped up by the Red Sox for the biggest contract for an NPB position player in history, 5 yr/$90 M.
As if that was not enough, the BoSox also signed Kenley Jansen RHP for 2 yr/$32 M. You may recall the Giants were rumored to be kicking the tires on Kenley before they turned their full attention to the futile pursuit of Aaron Judge OF.
Rule 5 Draft Adds Injury to Insult
ReplyDeleteDoesn't this show how GOOD the system is?
All of the players who were lost were on the AA roster. There are a bunch of prospects moving up from A+ and the Giants are well known to prefer stocking AAA with 40-man roster players with options and Churners so there was no place for most of those players to play. I don't think Peppermint Pete or FZ are losing sleep over losing them.
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