Today’s Trivia: Last night’s trade is the first late April Braves-Cubs trade since 1966, when Atlanta traded OF Billy Cowan to Chicago for what 24 year old 3B who would never play for Atlanta?
Now, on to the transactions. Just a few quick ones…
4/20: Placed 3B Austin Riley on the Paternity List
Nothing significant here as far as roster management goes. Congratulations to Riley! I’m guessing he’ll rejoin the team Friday.
4/20: Recalled UT Travis Demeritte from AAA Gwinnett
It’s a small sample, but in 12 AAA games, Demeritte has been on base 19 times, is OPS-ing .995, and has a pair of steals, earning the 27 year old a temporary stint in the big leagues. He will probably be sent back down when Riley returns, but if he keeps hurting baseballs like this, he’ll be back. Even though I’m not expecting him back in the next week and a half, Demeritte won’t be subject to the 10-day minimum stay in the minors when and if Atlanta options him, as he replaced a player on the Paternity List.
4/20: Traded LHP Sean Newcomb to the Chicago Cubs for RHP Jesse Chavez and cash
Yesterday, when I wrote about Newcomb’s DFA, I said he needed to go to a team preferably not in contention, a team that could set Newcomb on a path back to success and one that can afford to give him time to work through the ups and downs along the way. The Cubs have a 6.7% chance of making the playoffs, per Fangraphs, so they seem to be a perfect landing spot.
There are several reasons the Cubs might be interested in Newcomb. One way they use him might simply to be to let him work on things in a long relief, mop-up type role, similar to the way Atlanta tried to use him. Another reason Newcomb might interest Chicago is his left-handedness. An afterthought among elite southpaws in Atlanta, Newcomb joins a Cubbie bullpen with only Daniel Norris throwing left-handed. Or, most interestingly, if the Cubs want Newk to return to starting, there aren’t many rotations who’ve fared worse in 2022, so finding a spot to re-establish himself won’t be terribly difficult. Chicago has yet to have a quality start, and they’re averaging just 4.3 innings per start. They have some options there, and they can be patient, because they aren’t likely to be chasing a pennant this year.
Coming to Atlanta is familiar face Jesse Chavez, now back for his third stint with the organization, just in time for a homestand to receive his World Series ring. The Braves opted for comfort with Chavez, and he’ll probably play a more ideal role than he did a year ago. Last year, Chavez served as a multi-inning option the Braves used in medium leverage situations. With Collin McHugh on the roster, Chavez can back into lower leverage situations. And, as we saw with Sean Newcomb on Monday, low leverage situations aren’t necessarily zero-leverage situations, and it’s easy to have a bit more confidence in Chavez in those kinds of appearances.
That is, as long as you don’t put too much stock into his 2022 appearances so far. He’s thrown just 5.2 innings, but they’ve been largely terrible:
In those 5.2 innings, Chavez has used his sinker quite sparingly, despite the pitch bringing him a lot of success last year, so it’ll be interesting to see if Atlanta tries to bring it back to prominence. It may be sapping the usefulness of his cutter. Last year, the cutter was a weapon against lefties, but he threw the sinker, which moves in an opposite direction, nearly as much. Now that the sinker is on the backburner, lefties are sitting on the cutter and destroying it. Granted, again, it’s just 5.2 innings, so there’s probably a lot of noise here, but I do hope Chavez evens out his pitch usage a bit.
Cash is also coming over on this trade. Newcomb was on a 1 year, $900,000 deal, while Chavez is at 1 year, $1,250,000. There’s some conflicting info out there as to Chavez’s salary, with some sources listing Chavez at $750,000, but I’m thinking that was a placeholder amount when the MiLB deal was announced with no details at the time. With Chicago sending money to Atlanta, I’m thinking the $1.25M total is accurate. I’m guessing Chicago will pay the pro-rated difference there, or maybe even a bit less, so I’m expecting something in the $150,000-$250,000 range to come to Atlanta. That would strike me as a pretty fair swap of pitchers who didn’t make a ton of sense for their old teams but make a lot of sense for their new digs. I like this for both sides, assuming the money isn’t anything surprising.
With Newcomb DFA’d, the 40-man roster stood at 39/40, so adding Chavez brings it back to a full 40. The 28 man active roster, however, will require a move before Friday’s game, assuming Chavez is ready to join the team. It’ll almost certainly be a pitcher, so I’d guess Touki Toussaint will be optioned, although optioning Dylan Lee or DFA-ing Jackson Stephens are probably on the table as well.
Odds and Ends
Trivia: On April 28, 1966, the Braves sent Billy Cowan to the Cubs for a 3B named… Bobby Cox. Atlanta would trade him to the Yankees in December 1967. Don’t know if you knew this, but Cox would return to Atlanta as a manager, where he would have a bit of success.
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