Marlins trade for two Yankees, add four others
For his first trade with his new team, MiamiMarlins CEO Derek Jeter turned to his old team.
TheMarlins made a minor deal Monday with the NewYork Yankees, acquiring first baseman Garrett Cooper and left-hander Caleb Smith, plus added four of their own minor leaguers to their 40-man roster prior to the league’s 8 p.m. deadline.
The newly rostered outfielder Braxton Lee, righthander Merandy Gonzalez, right-hander Pablo Lopez and right-hander JamesNeedy areprotected from the looming Rule 5 draft. Had they not been added to the 40-manMonday, they would have been at risk of being picked by other teams Dec. 14 at the end of the Winter Meetings.
The Marlins’ 40-man roster is full.
In exchange for Cooper and Smith, the Marlins sent low-level minor league pitcher Michael King and international bonus pool money to New York. The bonus money was worth $250,000, according to a source.
Cooper and Smith offer the Marlins what the organization severely lacked in 2017: controllable depth.
Both should, at minimum, compete for major league jobs during spring training.
Cooper, 26, got into 13 major league games for the Yankees last year, posting a .326/.333/.488 slash line. He spent most of 2017with the Brewers’ Triple-A team, hitting .366 with a .428 OBP and a .652 slugging percentage in about a half-season worth’s of games.
Smith, 26, joins a group of pitchers who will battle for rotation jobs come February. He was unremarkable in his first major league action— 7.71ERA in nine games (two starts) — but had a good year with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, with a 2.39 ERA and 1.05WHIPin 19 games.
The Marlins’ other four 40-man additionswere acquired during the 2017 season. Lee was a part of the Adeiny Hechavarria trade with the Tampa Bay Rays, Gonzalez the AJ Ramos trade with the New York Mets, and Lopez theDavid Phelps tradewith the Seattle Mariners. Needy was signed out of an independent league in June.
Lee, 24, has impressed since joining theMarlins in June. He won the Southern League batting title with a .309 average, then went to the Arizona Fall League and batted .347 in 20 games.
Gonzalez, 22, is theMarlins’No. 6 prospect according toMLBPipeline. In his first full minor league season, Gonzalez had a 2.21 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 22 games (20 starts) combined in Low A and High A.
In six starts for High-A Jupiter, Lopez, 21, had a 2.58 ERA and1.08WHIP.
Needy, 26, worked mostly as a starter in the Arizona Fall League in recentweeks.