The Yankees continued their fire-sale Monday afternoon, agreeing to send Carlos Beltran to the Rangers in exchange for right-handed pitchers Dillon Tate, Erik Swanson and Nick Green.
After moving Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller over the past week, a Beltran trade seemed to be the next logical step for the team. A free agent after this season, the 39-year-old Beltran had been New York’s best offensive player in 2016 with a .304/.344/.546 batting line and 22 homers in 387 plate appearances.
Tate is the clear headliner among the prospects heading to New York in the deal. The Rangers selected him fourth overall in the 2015 draft, though his stock has dipped since then in what has been a rough year for the 22-year-old. In 65 A-ball innings, Tate has posted a 5.12 ERA with 55 strikeouts and 27 walks. The Baseball Prospectus prospect team ranked him 59th on their Top 101 list prior to the season, and fourth in the Rangers’ farm system. Here’s what the 2016 Baseball Prospectus annual had to say about him before the season:
Texas was rewarded for a miserable, injury-ridden 2014 with the fourth-overall pick. After getting his jersey, Tate pitched only nine professional innings amid concerns about overwork, partially because of a minor trap muscle injury and partly because his senior year was his first as a starter. At UC Santa Barbara, Tate featured a mid-to-high-90s fastball with arm-side movement and a slider with two-plane break that he could both spot and bury. His other two pitches, a curveball and a changeup, are decidedly weaker, but even if they fail to surface he’s got the repertoire of a potentially dominant reliever. Tate will enter 2016 on a full offseason of rest, ready to really start his professional career.
Just a few weeks ago, David Lee scouted Tate for BP, and came away with the following conclusion after seeing him pulled in just the third inning:
Tate has the makings of a major-league starter between an athletic frame and delivery, and a deep-enough arsenal, but it’s not the high-end rotation profile the Rangers signed up for. It’s also not a guarantee, and the command woes could eventually push him to relief. Tate was a college arm, but he continues to be a raw product and will need quite a bit of time.
Even if Tate’s star has dimmed a bit since the draft, it’s a surprising return for a two-month rental of Beltran, and appears to be a fine buy-low for Brian Cashman, further bolstering a farm system that has made great leaps over the past week.
Lead photo: Brad Penner / USA Today Sports