Rays Trade Joey Wendle To Marlins For Kameron Misner

Image credit: Joey Wendle (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

With hours to go before the deadline to tender players’ contracts in advance of the 2022 season, the Rays swung a deal with the Marlins to open a 40-man spot and make room for their glut of young, talented infielders.

The trade sends Joey Wendle to the Marlins in exchange for outfielder Kameron Misner, whose power and athleticism make him a very intriguing ball of clay to mold. Wendle gives the Marlins a versatile player with power, speed and defensive ability who can pair up the middle with emergent shortstop Jazz Chisholm.

The move also gives the Rays options to deploy their next wave of young talent, including defensive wizard Taylor Walls and spark plug Vidal Brujan.

MARLINS ACQUIRE

Joey Wendle, 2B/OF
Age: 31

Wendle has been a versatile piece of the Rays’ lineup since 2018, when he was acquired from the A’s for catcher Jonah Heim. Since then, he’s seen time at second base, third base, left field and shortstop. He’s usually provided a fair amount of bat-to-ball skills as well, though his strikeouts rose considerably (as did his power) this past season.

RAYS ACQUIRE

Kameron Misner, OF
Age: 23

Misner was taken by the Marlins in the first round of the 2019 draft and fits the mold of a classic three-true-outcomes player. Of his 658 official plate appearances as a pro, 42.4% have ended in either a walk, a home run or a strikeout. Misner is gifted with an ideal slugger’s body and prodigious power from the left side. The Marlins had been working to adjust his swing in order to keep the barrel in the zone much longer to add some hittability to that mix. They also wanted to correct an issue which saw Misner too often get stuck on the back side of his swing and spin off the ball rather than powering through contact. Misner is an athletic defender with the ability to play center field, though he dabbled in right and left field at both of his stops in 2021. He earns above-average grades for both his arm strength and speed on the bases as well, and has proven to be an extremely efficient basestealer.