Rays Trade Pham to Padres for Renfroe and a top prospect

[Eye Black]

From CBS Sports...

 

The Tampa Bay Rays and San Diego Padres have agreed on a trade, per multiple reports. The deal would send outfielder Tommy Pham to San Diego while outfielder Hunter Renfroe and shortstop prospect Xavier Edwards to the Rays, as first reported by both Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN. Passan later reported the deal has been finalized. Both reports indicate a prospect would head to the Padres from the Rays to complete the deal.

 

Pham, 31, would give the Padres an above-average everyday outfielder who is a very good all-around athlete. He hit .273/.369/.450 with 33 doubles, 21 homers, 68 RBI, 77 runs and 25 steals last season for the Rays. He's played mostly left field, but has also handled center at times through his career.

 

If he is dealt to the Padres, Pham would slot in left field everyday and would be a nice fit in the two-hole between Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado in the lineup.

 

The Rays would likely be dealing Pham because he's set for a big payday in his second year of arbitration -- MLB Trade Rumors projects $8.6 million -- and is eligible for free agency after 2021. That's just how they do things.

 

On the flip side, Renfroe is only projected to make $3.4 million and he's under team control through 2023. Renfroe, 27, hit .216/.289/.489 with 33 homers and 64 RBI last season. He would likely slot in the five-hole in the Rays' lineup for next season at this point.

 

As for Edwards, he's the No. 5 prospect in the Padres system, per MLB.com. He was a supplemental first-round pick in 2018, 38th overall, out of high school. Edwards, 20, hit .322/.375/.396 with 34 stolen bases between Class A (77 games) and Class A-Advanced (46 games) last season. He's been playing both second base and shortstop.

 

Short term the deal is a win for the Padres and they do need to start winning. Edwards is the long-term wild card here. There's certainly a way to view this deal as a possible mutually beneficial one down the road.

 

 

Edit: Another prospect is involved, but this one is going back to the Padres (per Dennis Lin)...

 

The Rays minor-leaguer in the agreed-upon Tommy Pham trade is middle infielder Jake Cronenworth, sources tell The Athletic. Cronenworth, 25, hit .334/.429/.520 last season at Triple A. He also pitched a little. Interesting two-way prospect.

[liveforoctober]

Xavier Edwards would be a fun prospect to have and watch grow. Super young for his level and he is hitting. If he ever hits for power he could be a fun one.

[Ueckerforpresident]

I think Edwards could move through the minors pretty quick, seems like he has potential to be an elite lead off hitter. Overall trade looks good for both teams I think. It's silly to see how good the Padres farm system still is.

[stoutdude04]

I think Edwards could move through the minors pretty quick, seems like he has potential to be an elite lead off hitter. Overall trade looks good for both teams I think. It's silly to see how good the Padres farm system still is.

 

Yea, but I feel like they have been terrible for the past 10 years.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

I think Edwards could move through the minors pretty quick, seems like he has potential to be an elite lead off hitter. Overall trade looks good for both teams I think. It's silly to see how good the Padres farm system still is.

 

Yea, but I feel like they have been terrible for the past 10 years.

 

They have.

 

But ... ooooooo, prospex!

[Eye Black]

The Baseball Trade Values website has the trade breakdown as listed below. The additional years of control likely makes Renfroe more valuable in their system, but for a team like the Padres in win now mode I can certainly understand why they would value Pham more highly.

 

Padres Receive

 

[pre]Pham 14.9

Cronenworth 5.5

 

Total Value 20.4[/pre]

 

 

Rays Receive

 

[pre]Renfroe 19.0

Edwards 14.5

 

Total Value 33.5[/pre]

[Warning Track Power]

Xavier Edwards would be a fun prospect to have and watch grow. Super young for his level and he is hitting. If he ever hits for power he could be a fun one.

He apparently isn’t that good. Well, according to Blake Snell at least.

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2019/12/06/blake-snell-tommy-pham-trade-twitch-stream

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

The Baseball Trade Values website has the trade breakdown as listed below. The additional years of control likely makes Renfroe more valuable in their system, but for a team like the Padres in win now mode I can certainly understand why they would value Pham more highly.

 

Padres Receive

 

[pre]Pham 14.9

Cronenworth 5.5

 

Total Value 20.4[/pre]

 

 

Rays Receive

 

[pre]Renfroe 19.0

Edwards 14.5

 

Total Value 33.5[/pre]

 

There has been scuttle for awhile now that they were looking to move on from Renfroe. I get it. He's a pretty limited player who has likely already maximized his ceiling. I think Edwards is the big "get" here. That guy could be a top-of-the-order stud for a long time.

 

Pham is a solid corner bat and great locker room guy. With so many young players, it makes sense that the Padres are trying to get some calming influence-type vets to put around them. Davies is that type of calming guy too, and will be a great fit for that staff and that park. Cronenworth is an interesting piece as well. The only guy in this deal I'm not a fan of is Renfroe.

[Eye Black]

Not to be lost in this trade is noted FanGraphs enthusiasts Tommy Pham is united with former FanGraphs managing editor Dave Cameron.

[monty57]

Cronenworth, 25, hit .334/.429/.520 last season at Triple A.

 

Was this guy playing on the moon? Those aren't the usual numbers for a "player to be named later." That sounds like someone who could play in the majors.

[MadThinker88]

I noticed on MLBTR the Rays are landing a 3rd player (not yet named)..

 

FRIDAY, 2:00am: It appears the Rays will also land another prospect in the deal, per Juan Toribio of MLB.com.

 

I find it interesting the Padres are clearing out is depth behind Tatis Jr (1st Urias, now Edwards) & the Rays are adding SS depth to the system when they already have Willie Adames & #1 prospect in baseball Wander Franco...

[Eye Black]

I find it interesting the Padres are clearing out is depth behind Tatis Jr (1st Urias, now Edwards) & the Rays are adding SS depth to the system when they already have Willie Adames & #1 prospect in baseball Wander Franco...

Good point, the Rays have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to high end shortstop talent. In a couple of years they may use Adames as a trade chip when he’s arbitration eligible and Franco is MLB ready.

[bill hAll Star]

The Rays prefer to have a competitive team every year (if they weren't in the AL East, they'd probably have several more division titles) that also lines their owners' pockets with low payroll. They're always good at restocking their farm and having great depth.

 

The Padres had been rebuilding for years in an earnest effort to build a winning window. Well, it's here and I'm thinking that ownership is telling them to push more chips in the middle instead of waiting around for these prospects to maybe or maybe not pan out while the Dodgers are winning the division by 12 games. Sadly, they probably just will shave the division margin for the Dodgers by a few games, but they're trying. Maybe they'll have 3-4 great seasons by their standards or maybe they will look around the league in 5 years and realize they traded one Wild Card entry for a bunch of very good players that they gave away.

[bill hAll Star]

Cronenworth, 25, hit .334/.429/.520 last season at Triple A.

 

Was this guy playing on the moon? Those aren't the usual numbers for a "player to be named later." That sounds like someone who could play in the majors.

 

25 is pretty old for this league and as we all know by now, the PCL is a hitting haven and the juiced ball made it a joke last season.

 

Some of these guys have just mastered crushing the bad, journeyman pitchers in a great hitting environment.

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/leader.cgi?request=1&type=bat&year=2019&group=Minors&sort_by=batting_avg

 

Look at all the 25+ year olds that you've never heard of hitting .310+ with tons of power in the PCL/AAA.

[homer]

Cronenworth, 25, hit .334/.429/.520 last season at Triple A.

 

Was this guy playing on the moon? Those aren't the usual numbers for a "player to be named later." That sounds like someone who could play in the majors.

 

 

Those are Freitas-like numbers!

 

Actually dude played at Durham AAA. Weird stats jump last year given he was basically a .700 OPS guy before that.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Blake Snell not happy with this trade....

 

"We gave up Pham for Renfro and a damn slapdick prospect?"

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28237328/rays-blake-snell-strongly-reacts-tommy-pham-trade-twitch

[pacopete4]

Quick Stearns, trade for Snell!

[LouisEly]

Cronenworth, 25, hit .334/.429/.520 last season at Triple A.

 

Was this guy playing on the moon? Those aren't the usual numbers for a "player to be named later." That sounds like someone who could play in the majors.

 

25 is pretty old for this league and as we all know by now, the PCL is a hitting haven and the juiced ball made it a joke last season.

Durham is in the International League, not the PCL, and Cronenworth was almost two years younger than league average last year.

 

If you're looking for outliers, the one that stands out is that his BABIP (which is much more relevant for pitchers than hitters) was almost .090 higher than his career average. So, he likely did get a little lucky with where his hit balls landed.