The Pirates just announced this afternoon that they’ve acquired Joakim Soria from the Tigers in exchange for minor leaguer JaCoby Jones. A few people started connecting the teams together about an hour ago, but Jon Heyman reported that the deal was done first, and Rob Biertempfel was the first one to have Jones’s name.
This isn’t exactly a trade I would’ve expected the Pirates to make a few hours ago. Soria’s a pretty well known closer with some ugly peripherals (7.9 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 1.8 HR/9(!)) and he’s a rental to boot, while Jones is an intriguing young player with some upside. Since the Pirates have the eighth and ninth innings pretty well nailed down with Watson and Melancon, the biggest thing they needed to acquire was some solid bullpen depth for the early innings/someone to pitch in a tie or one-run game without serving up a home run to break the game open. I’m glad they’re trying to find that, mind you, I’m just a little surprised it’s coming in the package of Soria.
With Soria’s ugly peripherals out of the way, there are a few interesting and encouraging things to look at in Soria’s 2015. That home run rate is propped up by a high HR/FB rate (19%), which means that his xFIP (3.71) is better than his horrifying FIP (4.81). The home run rate is also swollen a bit by an awful run in June when he gave up five homers in six appearances; other than those six games, he’s only allowed three homers in his other 35 2/3 innings, which is much more palatable. He’s throwing harder this year than he has since the early days of his career, when he was an excellent closer for the Royals. He’s getting ground balls at a 43% clip this year, but he’s been at 48-50% in the past. He’s also on a decent run of late since that aforementioned awful stretch in June. Since then, he’s got 16 strikeouts and seven walks in 13 1/3 innings, along with just one homer and a 2.70 ERA. That walk rate is high, but everything else is more in line with the sort of reliever you’d want to see the Pirates acquiring right now. If we’re willing to give the Pirates the benefit of the doubt on a guy like Joe Blanton (and I am), then it also seems fair to say that there must be something in the way that Soria’s pitching this year that’s caught the Pirates eye, because I can’t imagine that the Pirates would be interested in a closer on ERA and save totals alone, especially with his peripherals.
If we focus on Jones for a second, he was just promoted to Altoona this week, though his stat line in Bradenton (.253/.313/.396) wasn’t overwhelming. He’s an interesting prospect; he moved all around the infield and outfield at LSU, the Pirates announced him as an outfielder when they picked him, and have mostly been playing him at shortstop. He sort of broke out last year, with 23 homers and .503 SLG at West Virginia, but it was also pretty noticeable that the Pirates didn’t promote him at all from the Sally League, especially since he was a 22-year old drafted out of college. It’s possible that he’s simply being squeezed out; his greatest value would be as a shortstop that can hit (according to Pirates Prospects, his defense at short is viewed as shaky), and the Pirates drafted two offensively strong college shortstops early in this year’s draft. If he’s just a long-term utility player with some offensive upside, he’s pretty expendable. There’s some risk in giving up a prospect like him for a rental, but I suspect that JaCoby Jones is the type of prospect that looks best to the fans of the team that he’s currently on.
The reality is that the Pirates have needed to do something since Arquimedes Caminero started coming apart a month ago (prediction: phantom disabled list stint coming up for Caminero that conveniently lasts until September 1st), but Mark Melancon and Tony Watson are good enough that they didn’t need to do anything drastic (Papelbon would’ve been drastic). I guess Soria fits that mold nicely, though I will admit that I’m a little concerned by his general peripherals and that ugly stretch in June. I guess I’d say that this isn’t exactly a risk-free move, but it’s one that’s likely to make the Pirates bullpen at least a little and potentially a lot better.
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