| By Jason A. Churchill |  | By 01-14-2012 |
The trade consummated Friday night between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees brought the Emerald City Nine a 22-year-old power hitter in Jesus Montero and a 24-year-old starting pitcher in Hector Noesi. They sent Michael Pineda, 23 next week, and Jose Campos, 19, to the Bronx to complete the deal.Whether or not you like the trade from the Mariners' perspective -- and for the record, I think both teams win -- there is no question the transaction made an already-strong M's farm system even better.
Prior to the deal, I had done most of the work on the chapter of the 2012 Prospect Insider Handbook that discusses where the Mariners' system ranks in Major League Baseball. The latest draft, done Thursday morning, boasts the M's at No. 11. Now they undoubtedly rank in the Top 10.
Not only does Montero give the club their best power-hitting prospect in almost 20 years, but Noesi is a big-league ready pitcher with a little bit of upside who will rank In PI's Top 20.
Toss both into the mix with left-handers Danny Hultzen and James Paxton, right-hander Taijuan Walker, shortstops Nick Franklin and Brad Miller, catchers Jack Marder, John Hicks and Marcus Littlewood, third baseman Francisco Martinez and Cat the Bat, Vincent Catricala, among others, and the Mariners are very, very strong in a lot of areas.
After Montero, the system does lack a star offensive player, but they have everything else, and will continue to add to it in next June's draft, holding the No. 3 overall pick.
[Note: I'll have a draft preview in the next couple of weeks to cover all of those names]
Scratching the qualifications for prospect status and refocusing on young, developing talent -- including those prospects -- the Seattle Mariners boast a legitimate core to build a contending team. Those include: Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak, Montero, Felix Hernandez, the pitching prospects mentioned above, Franklin, some catching depth that may produce a starter and a slew of high-leverage arms for the bullpen such as Tom Wilhelmsen, Stephen Pryor, Chance Ruffin, Carson Smith and Carter Capps. Capps has a chance to start, too.
Montero will lose his prospect status early in the season, of course, and the two southpaws aren't far behind. The stable of short-season and Class-A prospects is strong, however, including right-hander Victor Sanchez from this past summer's class of international talent. The farm system in Seattle is strong, deep and appears to be set up to stay in the top 10-12 of the league for the next couple of seasons, if not longer.
trade-with-yankees-strengthens-m\'s-farm
Comments
The following 17 comment(s) for this article are shown below:
| 1. By: sexymarinersfan on 01-14-2012 22:27:28 I really like Buxton as I have said on here before. I don't really know too much about Zunino although I've been hearing his name quite a bit. If the M's decide that the BPA is a pitcher at #3 then I'm all for it. |
| 2. By: Boy9988 on 01-14-2012 22:37:33 If Zunino is our guy, I will be very excited. Can't wait to see what JAC has to say about the draft class. |
| 3. By: sexymarinersfan on 01-14-2012 23:03:27 Does anybody know by chance who Montero's agent is? I can't find it anywhere on the web. |
| 4. By: Shawnuel on 01-14-2012 23:18:11 Happy to see you mention Victor Sanchez. I have been curious about the development of some of our international arms. Specifically, Rigoberto Garcia, a big, 6'5, 200+ lb, 16 year old RH pitcher when he was signed in 2010. Any word how he is progressing? Engle made comparisons to Pineda when he was drafted, albeit, probably due to his size. |
| 5. By: Jason A. Churchill on 01-14-2012 23:36:35 Haven't asked about him specifically, Shawnuel, but he's never been brought up when I ask who is standing out that isn't being talked about. At that age, Garcia could still turn into Felix. He's going to grow, get stronger, develop pitches. No way to tell how well the pitches will develop and how consistent he can repeat his delivery. |
| 6. By: valencia on 01-14-2012 23:53:31 Apparently, park + schedule adjust OPS last year had Zunino as 4th best Div. 1 bat, behind 1st round picks CJ Cron, Kolten Wong, and Mikie Mahtook. Despite this, Cron, Wong, and Mahtook all went in the middle-late 1st round, and they have have more BBs than Ks, while Zunino has more Ks than BBs. He did hit HRs at the same rate as CJ Cron though. And he was a sophomore. Interestingly, Brad Miller was also on the list at 8th in wOBA. I don't really know what it means, other than Zunino was the best sophomore bat last year...and he's a Catcher. So yeah. Impressive. Appel's K/9 last year was 7.02 by the way. Gausman's was 8.63. And Marrero...has a worse OPS/wOBA than Hultzen. I don't understand the hype behind these guys, and wow, Hultzen should probably DH for us. His bat is impressive (.377 wOBA/.837 OPS). |
| 7. By: ripperlv on 01-15-2012 11:35:27 This is an exciting time to be a Mariner fan. Watching the farm system grow in front of our eyes. I think fans are starting have real faith in JZ. We have a long ways to go, but it's exciting all the same. |
| 8. By: Lailoken on 01-15-2012 11:48:43 Nick Williams sure looks impressive. Found this video the other day: Nick Williams Video A power-hitting left-handed hitting 3B with a big arm could be a nice value. Smoak, Montero, Ackley, Franklin, & Williams would sure make a nice starting IF. |
| 9. By: Adam B. on 01-15-2012 12:12:04 Nick "Billy" Williams is an outfielder. |
| 10. By: Jon O on 01-15-2012 13:29:43 #8 I think you mean high school player Trey Williams - who us a right handed hitting 3B from CA. |
| 11. By: maqman on 01-15-2012 13:49:53 sexymarinersfan Montero's agents are ACES according to MLBTR's Agency Database (click on tools at the top of their homepage). |
| 12. By: FWBrodie on 01-15-2012 14:48:11 Two moves that probably significantly cut into Olivo's playing time (Jaso, Montero). Love it. |
| 13. By: krob4mvp on 01-15-2012 16:23:26 Does anyone else get the feeling this trade is a precursor to something else significant in the next 7-14 days or so? I don't know why but Noesi reminds me of Helman as a piece to get to flip for something else. I have heard for awhile the Jays like him quite a bit. But, who knows? |
| 14. By: krob4mvp on 01-15-2012 16:24:31 Does anyone else get the feeling this trade is a precursor to something else significant in the next 7-14 days or so? I don't know why but Noesi reminds me of Helman as a piece to get to flip for something else. I have heard for awhile the Jays like him quite a bit. But, who knows? |
| 15. By: krob4mvp on 01-15-2012 16:26:38 Jason, Just a thought; could Noesi and Wells net us Travis Snider? I would love to see the Mill Creek Kid in our lineup. P.S. My bad on the previous double post |
| 16. By: rjfrik on 01-15-2012 16:49:31 I would not advocate trading Noesi unless we get our socks blown off with an offer. I think Noesi, if we don't sign another pitcher, will be our 2nd best pitcher once the season is finished, better starter then everyone except the King. I think this kid is going to surprise a lot of M's fans. JZ knew what he was doing when he asked for Noesi. |
| 17. By: Bugeater on 01-15-2012 17:14:43 I like this trade, reading other blogs/ analysis and listening to other friends...there seems to be a lot of people that think we could have done better. It boils down to me on whether or not our pitching staff maintain its results year over year and will we score more runs with montero than last year. I think we over value our players. Pineda was not going to get us Stanton (who is also a prospect) or Justin Upton. I trust Z in getting the best he could after uncovering as many rocks as possible. Staying pat wasn't an option and this Noesi kid will end up having comparable results as pineda without the flashy Ks per inning. At most we gave up a great prospect in Campos that has 3+ years to go for someone who can minimize the loss of pineda from the total staff immediately. |
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