Just like that, the MLB trade season is under way. After days of speculation about a possible move, the Miami Marlins struck a deal on Monday to begin their season of selling when they agreed to send shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria to the Tampa Bay Rays in return for prospects. Miami, who will offload Hechavarria's salary, received outfield prospect Braxton Lee and right-handed pitching prospect Ethan Clark. The Miami Herald's Clark Spencer first broke news of the agreement.
For Tampa Bay, the acquisition of Hechavarria provides an immediate upgrade for its defense in the middle infield. Hechavarria is widely-regarded as one of the best defenders at shortstop in baseball and his numbers have shown it over the past two and a half seasons. Even while 2017 has limited him to only 20 games, he still held a positive impact as a fielder.
Hechavarria will slide in immediately at shortstop and provide the Marlins with a significant upgrade. But the big impact from this moves impacts the middle infield as a unit, because it allows Tim Beckham to slide over to second base where his bat fits well and in a year where he improved defensively, he will provide an upgrade at the position for Tampa Bay. Brad Miller, the team's regular second baseman before he landed on the disabled list, rated as one of the worst infielders defensively in the American League.
It's good news for the likes of Chris Archer and Alex Cobb. Both starters have ground ball rates over 42 percent this season and allow line drives on over 20 percent of balls off the bat. So adding someone of Hechavarria's caliber should not only improve how many plays are made and baseballs are gotten to than before, but could also give those starters even more confidence about the players behind them and their ability to make plays.
But it is worth noting that Hechavarria is far below average at the plate. His .255/.291/.337 slash line, .274 wOBA and 70 wRC+ are certainly great indicators of that, but his numbers were even worse last season. Across 547 plate appearances in 2016, the 28-year-old posted a .236/.283/.311 line, .256 wOBA and 56 wRC+. So while Tampa Bay will receive a major upgrade defensively, Hechavarria's career has largely been guaranteed outs in a majority of his trips to the plate.
While they will take on the entirety of the 28-year-old's contract, which pays him $4.4 million this season with another year of team control in 2018, the team's move to take on the entire salary also reduced the cost of the prospects they'd have to send back.
For a Miami farm system that is greatly depleted, even adding depth to it is significant enough to them that the return was made worthwhile. Neither of Clark or Lee appeared on Tampa Bay's top-30 prospects by MLB.com, but they do offer some intrigue. Clark is a 22-year-old pitcher who Tampa Bay drafted in the 15th round of the 2015 MLB Amateur Draft. While Lee was a 12th round selection in the 2014 MLB Amateur Draft. This season in Double-A, the 23-year-old outfielder owns a .318/.387/.391 slash line with a 129 wOBA and 12 stolen bases.
This should just be the start of the Marlins fire sale as the calendar turns toward July. Closer A.J. Ramos< outfielders Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich, along with other key contributors, could all be moved by July 31 as Miami looks to rebuild its depleted farm system.