Rays fans woke up to a pretty big shock this morning when reports came out about Blake Snell getting traded to the Padres. With three years left in his team friendly contract, I did not expect the Rays to start shopping him so early. That being said, the Rays are known for their crazy, explosive trades that usually end up in the Rays’ favor.
Who did the Rays get for Snell?
The Padres traded four players for Blake Snell in the deal- 2 pitchers and 2 catchers:
- Luis Patiño (RHP)
- Cole Wilcox (RHP)
- Francisco Mejia (C)
- Blake Hunt (C)
Luis Pati̱o РRHP
Right off the bat, I’d say Luis Patiño is the biggest piece of the Snell trade for the Rays. The Padres’ former #3 prospect, Patiño shows a lot of promise to become an impact starting pitcher over the next few years.
Patiño throws 3 pitches: fourseam, changeup and slider. He gets excellent horizontal movement on the slider, will generate a lot of swing and miss. His fastball gets great spin, and the velocity has improved over the past few years, hitting 99 mph during the 2019 minor league season.
He made his major league debut in 2020 and the numbers weren’t great. He walked 16.5% of batters over 11 games, but I would take the stats from 2020 with a grain of salt. The shortened season has less of a sample size, and we can’t make any definitive judgements based on only a handful of games in an irregular season. Baseball savant scouts project Patiño to be a number two starter for a major league club.
Cole Wilcox – RHP
Wilcox has a few years to go before we see him in the majors, but was a successful pitcher at the University of Georgia the past couple of years. In 23 innings pitched before the 2020 college season was shut down due to COVID-19, Wilcox walked only two batters, and struck out 36%.
While there is not a lot of publically available information on Wilcox yet, I found this quote on MLB.com and think it’s a good indication of Wilcox’s drive and competitive nature.
“He doesn’t want to lose in anything that he is doing, no matter what it is… . He obviously has the ability and the stuff that matches up with what most people are looking for, but the thing that he’s got is that competitive drive that not everybody has.”
-Heritage High School assistant baseball coach Thomas Gray. Quote courtesy of MLB.com’s Tori McElhaney
That’s a great quote! I don’t like losing either, and I’m sure Rays fans will appreciate all the effort he is going to put in to make the team successful. Looking forward to learning more about him (and hopefully going to see him play in person!) over the next couple years.
Francisco Mejia – Catcher
If the Rays need anything this offseason, it’s a catcher! And in the Snell trade, the Rays received two.
Francisco Mejia has experience in the majors over the past four seasons. In 2019, he hit 8 home runs in 79 games. There were high expectations for Mejia in San Diego, as he was a top prospect in Cleveland and one of the top catching prospects in baseball. The 2020 season did not look good for him, as he struggled offensively in 17 games before a season ending thumb injury.
Defensively, Mejia is solid. He had a .996 fielding percentage in 2019, but struggled throwing out runners. In terms of pitch framing, in 2019 Mejia converted 47% of non-swing pitches into called strikes. This is about average for a catcher. Before his injury, Mejia was going head to head with Austin Hedges for the starting catching role in San Diego.
Blake Hunt – Catcher
Last but certainly not least, Blake Hunt is the final piece of the trade, and an exciting one at that. Blake Hunt needs some more time to develop before he is ready to join the majors, but if he continues playing the way he has, he will be very exciting to watch. Hunt has been improving both defensively and offensively in the minors since being drafted in 2017. He was a top 20 prospect for San Diego.
In his first year of full season ball in single A, Hunt threw out 33% of baserunners. He has a pop time of less than 2 seconds (which is very impressive), and has a very strong arm.
Despite struggling during his first year in the minors at the plate, Hunt has progressively improved each year since. He’s increased his walk rate and kept a consistent slugging percentage while moving up in the minors.
If he continues trending in this direction, Hunt will be an exciting, young catcher to watch when he joins the major league club.
Concluding Thoughts…
The Rays acquired great talent in the Blake Snell trade. And while Rays fans will miss bumpday, they have some fresh, young talent to get excited about. Best of luck to Snell in San Diego!
What do you think of the Blake Snell trade? And some food for thought… is Kiermaier next?