The Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, and Kansas City Royals have completed a three-team trade Thursday evening that sent lefty pitcher Scott Alexander from the Royals to the Dodgers, while the White Sox will send Jake Peter to LA.
Scott Alexander Headed to the Dodgers in Three Team Trade
Right-hander Trevor Oaks and infielder Erick Mejia will be headed to Kansas City. For the White Sox, they will acquire right-handed veteran reliever Joakim Soria and Luis Avilan. Soria will be coming over from Kansas City while Avilan will be coming from the Dodgers. According to Kansas City Star reporter Rustin Dodd, the Royals will send over $1 million to the White Sox to cover Soria’s buyout. Kansas City will get rid of Soria’s $9 million of the remaining $10 million contract. Ken Rosenthal of The Atlantic reports that Chicago will also receive $2 million from the Dodgers.
Scott Alexander
LA will be adding Alexander to their bullpen in order to give themselves some relief after they lost Grant Dayton to injury and Tony Watson to free agency. With Tony Cingrani still in the pen, the Dodgers wanted to add another lefty to their staff.
The bay area native isn’t expected to reach his arbitration years until 2020 because he’s only recorded a little over a year of service in the big leagues. He’s recorded a 2.48 ERA in 69 innings of work in the show in 2017.
Alexander has a 73.8% groundball rate with an above average 12.8% swinging strike percentage. He favored his power sinker-as he only utilized his breaking pitches 10% of the time. Alexander commanded both sides of the plate, especially dominating right-handed hitters, keeping them to a .240/.317/.314 slash line.
Jake Peter
25-year-old prospect Peter will also join the Dodgers next season. Peter spent this year in the two highest levels of the LA’s farm system over the past two years, where he thrived in Triple-A specifically and slashed a .292/.351/.506.
Joakim Soria
Meanwhile, the Royals will be clearing cap space. Kansas City will move Soria’s $9 million contract in 2018 and cover his $1 million buyout on a 2019 option. They will part ways with a quality arm, and in return acquire prospects.
Trevor Oaks
Oaks is the highest rated asset in this deal; so much so that he could compete for a spot in spring training. He threw a 3.64 ERA in 80 frames in Triple-A, holding a 7.7 K/9 over a 1.9 BB/9 and a 50.8% groundball rate, and his sinker has produced more groundballs than that. K.C will add Oaks to the 40 man roster; LA added him on to their 40-man roster to protect Oaks from the Rule 5 draft.
Erick Mejia
The 23-year-old switch hitting Erick Mejia had a productive year at Double-A. He slashed .289/.357/.413 in 403 appearances at the Double-A level in 2017. He launched seven home runs and 25 stolen bases in the year while seeing time at short, second, and third. Mejia originally signed with the Seattle Mariners organization out of the Dominican Republic and was sent to LA in 2016 in a trade that sent Joe Wieland to Seattle.
Last Word
The White Sox are focused mainly on securing some veteran relief pitching at a reasonable price. Avilan is expected to earn $2.3 million in his second to last season of arbitration, but most of the cost will be covered by the Dodgers. The Chi Sox are looking to add some veteran arms to their depleted bullpen as well as gain some potential trade pieces in the future. Soria finished the year with a fantastic 3.70 ERA, and the Sox could potentially look to Soria as their closer for 2018. Avilan, a 28-year-old southpaw, threw a 2.93 ERA in his 46 innings of work and carried a 10.2 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, and a 53.8% groundball percentage.
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