Nick Yorke, Deyvison De Los Santos Headline 10 Trade Deadline Statcast Standouts
Image credit: (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox via Getty Images)
Every Monday morning we’ll highlight several players who stood out to us based on their underlying Statcast metrics. These are not full scouting reports, but can often serve as good early indicators of prospects who might be ready to break out or are demonstrating MLB-ready skills.
This series has been on hiatus for a few weeks as I diverted my free time to digging into recently drafted pitchers. I put a lot of energy into those six articles, and learned a lot doing it. This week we’re going to focus on 10 players who were recently traded, looking a little bit deeper than the surface stats, to give additional insight on the trade deadline.
Statcast Standouts Traded At The Deadline
Nick Yorke, 2B, Pirates & Quinn Priester, RHP, Red Sox
The Red Sox traded Yorke to the Pirates for Priester
This is Yorke’s third time making this series. He represents one of my favorite archetypes, the post-hype re-ascendant prospect. We tend to write off players who have a down year. It often takes a while for those players to reclaim their prospect pedigree, especially if they don’t put up gaudy surface-level stat lines. Yorke didn’t rank in the pre-deadline Top 100 Prospects, but there’s a negligible difference between the No. 100 and No. 150 prospect. Here’s why I’m a big believer in Yorke.
If you scan to the very far left, you’ll see the column for chase metrics. Negative numbers are good for chase. You want to chase pitches out of the zone less often. Overall, Yorke chases 5.2% fewer pitches than an MLB player will against MLB pitching. More importantly, he doesn’t chase non-fastballs, which demonstrates a good ability to recognize pitches. He also makes well above-average contact when he does chase, which will make him an incredibly tough out. He shows no signs of weakness against any pitch type. Some batters have a clear hole that can be exploited, Yorke appears to have very few, if any.
So is Yorke just a weak-hitting slap hitter that won’t be able to handle major league pitching? Far from it. His 91.7 mph average exit velocity through Saturday’s games is roughly 3 mph average better than the major league average, and his 90th percentile exit velocity, a more stable metric, is about 1.5 mph better than the major league average. That’s borderline plus raw power from a guy who’s going to make a ton of contact. Would I have traded Nick Yorke for Quinn Priester? It depends how much you value Priester. Let’s take a look at the pitch mix he showed in July, before he got traded:
Priester showed a legitimate five-pitch mix. It’s headlined by a sinker with a ton of vertical movement deviation (a proxy for seam-shifted wake effects), as well as plenty of armside run, which makes it a good weapon against righties. His changeup has similar seam-shifted wake properties that make it a weapon against lefties. The gyro slider has the markers you look for in the pitch, with low spin efficiency and good velocity, clearing the 86 mph benchmark. His curveball operates in the 80 mph range, and looks to fit rather well in the arsenal.
The big hole in Priester’s arsenal is the four-seam fastball. He sits in the middle in terms of spin efficiency, making it a poor pitch. I think the Red Sox see this as an area they can help him improve on, either by going all in on a cut fastball, or by making it a traditional high spin efficiency four-seamer. If they can fix the four-seam fastball, and get it to at least average quality wise, Priester could make the leap from a depth guy to at least a No. 3 starter on a good team. In his first start with the Red Sox, they prioritized the sinker over the fastball, though it’s too early to see changes in pitch shapes.
Given the incredible depth of arms the Pirates have now and in the pipeline, I can see why they’d trade away a guy like Priester. On the flip side, the Red Sox have significant sunk costs that will likely keep Trevor Story and Vaughn Grissom as their double play duo for the near future, making it easier for them to deal Yorke.
Deyvison De Los Santos, 1B, Marlins
Traded from the D-backs to the Marlins
Why would the D-backs trade a young player that has already hit 30 home runs this season? Let’s take a look:
A lot of purple on the left side of these charts shows a player doesn’t have good plate discipline and contact metrics. De Los Santos chases a lot, against basically every pitch type, and he does a poor job making contact against those pitches. That’s a recipe for a ton of strikeouts. When he does connect, he’s going to do a lot of damage, but major league pitchers just won’t throw him any strikes. We’ll see if he can refine his approach, or turn into a 30-homer, sub-.300 OBP guy, likely ticketed for first base.
Agustin Ramirez, C Marlins
Traded from the Yankees to the Marlins
Ramirez ranked as the best prospect traded at the trade deadline. However, he has struggled somewhat in his first stop at Triple-A compared to his monstrous run at Double-A. His exit velocity metrics are down compared to what he showed in the Florida State League last year, though still hover around MLB average. I was expecting to see scintillating Statcast data for Ramirez. However, his early run at Triple-A suggests that he’ll need an adjustment period. We’ll keep an eye on him and see if his underlying data start looking like his earlier numbers, or if he’ll be close to an average power, average contact hitter against better pitching. That’s still a good outcome, but will bring the defense into question more.
Will Klein, RHP, Athletics
Traded from the Royals to the Athletics
Klein’s four-seam fastball is his signature pitch. It only gets slightly above-average ride, but it plays up because of his velocity, which averages 97 mph and has touched 99.9 mph. Here’s roughly how the value of his fastball breaks down, according to SMOKE, a system I developed to estimate the components of fastball quality.
We see that Klein’s velo is always there for him, worth roughly 0.4 runs per 100 pitches, but his net vertical break can waver.
Hunter Bigge, RHP, Rays
Traded from the Cubs to the Rays
Bigge generated the bulk of his fastball value from his big-time velocity before the Rays got their hands on him. Let’s take a look at his data before the trade:
Note how the fastball’s ride is mostly clustered around the expected line, giving him about average value from fastball shape. Contrast that to his three games with Tampa Bay:
Let’s break down the changes, which are quite substantial:
- IVB on the four-seam fastball up around 1.5 inches. That’s a significant amount of ride. That increases the value of the pitch by roughly 0.25 runs per 100 pitches.
- Slider velocity increased by roughly 1 mph. This may be noise, but worth tracking.
- Sweeper gained four inches of sweep, which makes it a substantially better pitch.
In short, the Rays took a reliever that wasn’t being optimized very well, but had big time velo, and immediately improved his fastball shape, sweeper shape, and boosted his slider velocity. Rays doing Rays things.
Jake Bloss, RHP and Joey Loperfido, 1B/OF Blue Jays
Traded from the Astros to the Blue Jays
I like Bloss’ fastball shape. It gets plenty of ride compared to his arm slot. He shows an inconsistent sweeper, but the gyro slider has some promise. The changeup is inconsistent as well:
He has a huge 12-6 curveball that fits nicely into his arsenal, and it’s a decent whiff pitch for him. I think he needs more time to refine his pitches in Triple-A, but he looks like a No. 3 or No. 4 starter with at least four viable pitches, potentially five if the sweeper can get more sweep.
Loperfido is a very good hitter, limiting chase, and hitting the ball harder than the MLB average while he was in Triple-A. However, he has struggled in his first taste of the big leagues:
He’s chasing a lot more and struggling to make contact when he chases. However, he makes a good amount of contact in the zone, and he’s getting the ball in the air. Once he adjusts to major league breaking balls, he looks like he could be an average or better bat. Neither Bloss nor Loperfido project to be game-changing talents, but they should provide a lot of value over the next few years.
Connor Norby, 2B, Marlins
Traded from the Orioles to the Marlins
Let’s compare Norby in 2023 to Norby in 2024:
We see a slightly improved chase rate, but significant regression in contact and zone contact. It looks like he worked to improve his quality of contact, increasing his launch angles and exit velocities. He’s likely maxed out in terms of what he’s going to be. Perhaps he’ll find another gear now that he has a realistic pathway to playing time.
Niko Kavadas, 1B, Angels
Traded from the Red Sox to the Angels
Sometimes, a chart paints a really clear picture. Kavadas has pure gold for the chase metrics, rarely chasing pitches. It comes at the clear expense of his aggression, as he doesn’t swing at zoned pitches very often. The contact quality is fantastic, but his contact metrics are so poor, his ultra-passive approach might be what he needs to succeed. He just needs to punish enough in-zone pitches to keep pitchers honest. If he can, Kavadas may ascend as the New Greek God of Walks.
