Skip to main content

Cardinals acquire pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore in trade with Rays

On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals agreed to a sizable trade. The Rays acquired outfielders Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena as well as a draft pick in exchange for left-handed prospect Matthew Liberatore, and low-level catching prospect Edgardo Rodriguez, and a draft pick, the teams announced.
Martinez, , is the only veteran involved in the deal. He s an offense-only player who has appeared destined for the American League due to his well-below-average defense at various positions. Even so, he s posted a OPS+ for his big-league career, and is under team control through the season. Martinez figures to split time between DH and first base for the Rays, serving as a right-handed caddy for Ji-Man Choi and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo. 
Arozarena, who turns in February, made his big-league debut last season. He should factor into the Rays outfield, perhaps in a platoon capacity with Austin Meadows. We named him as the riser in the Cardinals system earlier this winter when we evaluated their farm system:  
All Randy Arozarena has done is hit in the minors -- he hit ... with homers and steals on attempts between Double- and Triple-A this season -- to the extent that it earned him a big-league promotion and spot on the postseason roster. Arozarena has a well-rounded skill set and ranked in the th percentile in sprint speed during his cameo, suggesting he should latch on as at least a reserve outfielder as soon as the season.
Liberatore, , was the th pick in the draft. He didn t make the Rays top-five prospect list for us due to the depth of their system, but he has a good fastball-breaking ball combination and feel for throwing strikes and a changeup. He s a few years away from the majors, yet he could become a quality starter.
Liberatore entered draft season in contention to be the top prep arm off the board. He slipped on draft day, however, and the Rays took advantage by taking him in the middle of the first round, just ahead of the Cardinals spot, amusingly enough. St. Louis chose Nolan Gorman. Liberatore spent last season in A-ball, where he appeared times and tallied innings. He posted a . ERA and he recorded . strikeouts per walk. 
While this deal thins out some of the Cardinals immediate outfield depth, it s a hard one to pass on from a value perspective. The Cardinals essentially netted a top- prospect type for multiple pieces who were not going to start for them this season and perhaps not even next. 


The Cardinals likely aren t done on the outfield side of things, either. They could conceivably bring back free agent Marcell Ozuna, and have been willing to eat money to move Dexter Fowler s contract, per league sources.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LA Times shows pictures of Chicharito with LA Galaxy kit

It is now official that Javier Hernandez will continue his career in the MLS this season and he will be playing with LA Galaxy alongside his friend Jonathan Dos Santos. Dylan Hernandez, writer for the LA Times, published the first interview with Chicharito since he left Sevilla and he even took pictures with his new kit on. Chicharito with LA Galaxy kit LA Times During the first part of the interview the -year-old was a little romantic when expressing his thoughts about the MLS and what it means for him to be one of the most important players to turn out for LA Galaxy. Hernandez made it clear in this interview that coming to the Major League Soccer is not the beginning of the end of his career, stating that “it’s how people describe my style of soccer, I am always in the right place at the right time to score a goal.” Chicharito with LA Galaxy kit LA Times The Mexican international knows the importance of playing in the team with more titles in the MLS, the am...

Leonel messi

Gustavo HofmanNov 25, 2022facebooktwitterpinterestcommentThe technical committee of the Brazilian team will have two training sessions before playing against Suíça, in this second fair, to define the substitutes for Danilo and Neymar, who will be injured against Servia and will not play more in this group stage of the World Cup. There will be six athletes playing duas vagas, a source confirmed to ESPN. Or Brazil has 4-4-2 with a variation to 4-2-3-1 as the tactical pattern, and this will not be changed. Rodrygo plays the role of Neymar, after substituting the attacker for two Serbians, and is in dispute. At Real Madrid, since last season, Carlo Ancelotti has been using the Brazilian player in the three attacking roles of the team, which is not 4-3-3, substituting even Karim Benzema. And when the Italian coach changed to the scheme with two lines of four and two attackers, Rodrygo was chosen to act inside. Another option, less provable, is at the Everton Ribeiro scale with no armi...

A Graphic Design Revolution For Scientific Conference Posters

Last week, NPR’s "All Things Considered" covered an unusual topic: Scientific conference posters. For the first time in decades, scientists are rethinking the traditional design of the posters they make to share their research at meetings. This sudden spotlight on what was always a mundane part of scientific discourse has launched a conversation about the need for basic art and design skills for scientists. A classic poster session at the 2014 conference of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). NASA Ames Scientific conferences are a lot like any other professional conference: A series of talks in hotel event centers, a marketplace of company booths, networking events. But there’s another aspect to scientific conferences. With more researchers hoping to share their research than there are presentation slots in the conference program, many scientists instead summarize their work on a poster.